John Carr (architect)

John Carr

Portrait of John Carr by William Beechey, 1791
Born 1723
Horbury, West Riding of Yorkshire
Died February 22, 1807 (aged 83-84)
Askham Richard
Nationality English
Work
Buildings Harewood House, Buxton Crescent

John Carr (1723 – 1807) was a prolific English architect. He was born in Horbury, near Wakefield, England, the eldest of nine children and the son of a master mason, under whom he trained.[1] He started an independent career in 1748 and continued until shortly before his death. John Carr was Lord Mayor of York in 1770 and 1785.[2] In the later stages of his life, Carr purchased an estate at Askham Richard, near York, to which he retired. On February 22, 1807 he died at Askham Hall. He was buried at Horbury church which he built and paid for near his place of birth.[1]

Contents

Career

Carr decided to remain in Yorkshire rather than move to London because he calculated that there was ample patronage and the wealth to sustain it. No job was too small. His largest work, only partially finished, was the Hospital de Santo António in Oporto, Portugal.

Carr’s own favourite work was the Crescent at Buxton in Derbyshire, an early example of multifunctional architecture. As well as hotels and lodging houses, it contained Assembly Rooms, shops, a post office and a public promenade all under one roof. On a smaller scale, the same is true of his Newark Town Hall.

Other public buildings included hospitals (e.g. Lincoln and York), racecourse grandstands (e.g. York, Doncaster and Nottingham), and prisons at Wakefield and Northallerton. He designed new churches as well as repairing old ones. His single span roof construction allowed him to build without the traditional subdivision into nave and aisles.

He served as bridgemaster for both the North and West ridings of Yorkshire, leaving a legacy of countless bridges the majority of which still stand today.[3]

His commissions for country houses included model villages and farms, stable blocks, a variety of gate lodges and gateways, garden temples and other ornamental buildings.

He took particular care with their planning and construction in order to maximise value for money for both the immediate patron and for the buildings future long term maintenance. He used traditional materials and methods of construction where these had proved sound, but adopted new methods and materials where these could be shown to have an advantage. He liked well proportioned rooms which were satisfactory living spaces with or without decorative enrichment. In his view the latter could be provided later if money permitted. As a result most of his buildings were completed and because of the soundness of construction most survive.

Among the buildings accessible in whole or part to the public today are Buxton Crescent, Newark Town Hall, virtually all his bridges, Harewood House, Tabley House and Burton Constable Hall.

Influences

During his long career there were several major changes in architectural style. His early work is a mixture of the Palladian and the Rococo. He then sought a purer Antique Roman style with occasional French influences before adapting the currently fashionable style associated with Robert Adam. At the end of his life he returned to the bolder Palladian style of his youth but with detail that looked forward to 19th century usage.

Carr's work was influenced by the books of Sebastiano Serlio and Andrea Palladio. He subscribed to many architectural pattern books, including those of his friend George Richardson, and also contemporary publications by Robert Morris and William Chambers.[1]

List of works

Public buildings

(dem = demolished) in chronological order, county given if not Yorkshire

Churches

Bridges

North and East Ridings of Yorkshire

West Riding

Private bridges

Domestic architecture

(The following are in Yorkshire, unless otherwise stated)

References

  1. ^ a b c Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ John Carr (1723-1807), Wakefield Council, http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/CultureAndLeisure/HistoricWakefield/People/JohnCarr/default.htm, retrieved 2010-07-16 
  3. ^ The Industrial Architecture of Yorkshire by Jane Hatcher, p69, ISBN 0-85033-527-2

Books

{{cite book | last = Wragg | first = Brian | title = The life and works of John Carr of York | editor = [[Giles Worsley | publisher = Oblong | location = York England | year = 2000 | isbn = 0953657418 }}

External links