John Thorpe or Thorp (c.1565–1655?; fl.1570–1618) was an English architect.
Life
Little is known of his life, and his work is dubiously inferred, rather than accurately known, from a folio of drawings in the
Sir John Soane's Museum, to which
Horace Walpole called attention, in 1780, in his ''Anecdotes of Painting''; but how far these were his own is uncertain.
He was engaged on a number of important English houses of his time, and several, such as
Longleat, have been attributed to him on grounds which cannot be sustained, because they were built before he was born. In 1570 when he was five years old, he laid the foundation stone of
Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire his father being the Master mason of the project. He was probably the designer of
Charlton House
Charlton House is a Jacobean building in Charlton, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich in south-east London. Originally it was a residence for a nobleman associated with the Stuart royal family. It later served as a wartime hospital, then ...
, in
Charlton, London; the original
Longford Castle, Wiltshire;
Condover Hall
Condover Hall is an elegant Grade I listed three-storey Elizabethan sandstone building, described as the grandest manor house in Shropshire, standing in a conservation area on the outskirts of Condover village, Shropshire, England, four miles so ...
and the original
Holland House,
Kensington; and he is said to have been engaged on
Rushton Hall
Rushton Hall in Rushton, Northamptonshire, England, was the ancestral home of the Tresham family from 1438, when William Tresham, a veteran of the Battle of Agincourt and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster bought the estate. In the 20th cen ...
, Northamptonshire, and
Audley End
Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England.
Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is sti ...
, Essex (with
Bernard Janssens).
Thorpe's major-but-little-trumpeted contribution to world architecture is the humble and now-ubiquitous
corridor
Corridor or The Corridor may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''The Corridor'' (1968 film), a 1968 Swedish drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (1995 film), a 1995 Lithuanian drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (2010 film), a 2010 Canadia ...
"for a house in Chelsea", London, England, in 1597, allowing "independent access to individual rooms". Previously, the fashion was the so-called ''enfilade'' arrangement of rooms in a dwelling in which each room led to the next via connecting internal doors. The enfilade remained popular in continental Europe long after the corridor was widely adopted in England. Flanders believes Thorpe's inspiration was the one-sided covered walkway common in monastic
cloisters. Given their similarities, this is a reasonable ''prima facie'' conjecture.
Thorpe joined the
Office of Works as a clerk, then practised independently as a land surveyor. In August 1605 the
Earl of Dorset
Earl of Dorset is a title that has been created at least four times in the Peerage of England. Some of its holders have at various times also held the rank of marquess and, from 1720, duke.
A possible first creation is not well documented. Abou ...
wrote to "Mr Thorpe" to survey and make "plots" for the rebuilding of
Ampthill
Ampthill () is a town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Luton, with a population estimate of 8,100 (Mid year estimate 2017 from the ONS). It is administered bAmpthill Town Council The ward of Ampthill which also ...
for
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...
and
Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to:
People
*Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father
*Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460)
*Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...
.
[''HMC Salisbury Hatfield'', vol. 17 (London, 1938), pp. 349–50.]
From 1611 he was assistant to
Robert Tresswell, Surveyor-General of Woods South of the Trent. He retired in the 1630s but seems to have lived to an advanced age, dying around 1655.
Architectural works
* the Jacobean Royal extension at
Apethorpe Palace, Northamptonshire
*
Aston Hall,
Aston
Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre.
History
Aston wa ...
*
Audley End
Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England.
Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is sti ...
, Essex
*
Bramshill House, Hampshire (attributed)
*Thornton College, Lincolnshire, for Sir Vincent Skinner c1607-1610
*
Charlton House
Charlton House is a Jacobean building in Charlton, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich in south-east London. Originally it was a residence for a nobleman associated with the Stuart royal family. It later served as a wartime hospital, then ...
, London
*Holland House, Kensington
*
Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire
*
Longford Castle, Wiltshire
*
Rushton Hall
Rushton Hall in Rushton, Northamptonshire, England, was the ancestral home of the Tresham family from 1438, when William Tresham, a veteran of the Battle of Agincourt and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster bought the estate. In the 20th cen ...
, Northamptonshire
*
Somerhill House, Kent
Gallery
File:Charlton House 01.jpg, Charlton House, Greenwich
File:Holland House from The Queen's London (1896).jpg, Holland House, Kensington, it was bombed in the London Blitz and only a wing survives
File:Longford Castle rear.jpg, Longford Castle, Wiltshire
File:Audley End House - geograph.org.uk - 70520.jpg, Audley End, Essex, this is the surviving fragment, there used to be a great courtyard in front of this range of buildings
File:Somerhill - geograph.org.uk - 191792.jpg, Somerhill House, Kent, designed by Thorpe in 1611
Notes
References
*
*
*
H. M. Colvin, ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840'' (1997)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, John
16th-century English architects
1650s deaths
Year of birth uncertain
17th-century English architects