Simon Basil (fl. 1590 — 1615) was a surveyor, perhaps an architect, who held the post of Surveyor of the King's Works, 1606-15.[1]
His first appearance, in 1590, was in drawing a plan of Ostend, a military objective at the time, for the previous Surveyor, Robert Adams. Similarly in 1597 he is mentioned in respect of a "modell" of Flushing.
His major patron was Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, in his London residence, Salisbury House in the Strand (1601) at the New Exchange (1608–09), where Basil's design was preferred to one drawn up by Inigo Jones, and at Cecil's main seat, Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (1607–12). It is unclear to what extent he was involved in design at Hatfield, where he served as clerk of the works.[2] Basil's drawing of the lodge for Sir Walter Raleigh that has been expended as Sherborne Castle, Dorset, shows by dashed lines that the unusual angle of the corner towers is centred in the opposite corner.[3]