Colen Campbell (15 June 1676 – 13 September 1729) was a pioneering Scottish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and architectural writer who played an important part in the development of the

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...

. For most of his career, he resided in Italy and England. As well as his architectural designs, he is known for ''Vitruvius Britannicus'', three volumes of high-quality engravings showing the great houses of the time.

Early life

A descendant of the Campbells of Cawdor Castle, he is believed to be the Colinus Campbell who graduated from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in July 1695.page 7, Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: Colen Campbell, John Harris 1973, Gregg International Publishers Ltd He initially trained as a lawyer, being admitted to the

Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates () is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a const ...

on 29 July 1702. He travelled in Italy between 1695 and 1702, and is believed to be the Colinus Campbell who signed the visitor's book at the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

in 1697. He is believed to have trained in and studied architecture under James Smith, a belief strengthened by Campbell owning several drawings of buildings designed by Smith.

''Vitruvius Britannicus''

His major published work, ''Vitruvius Britannicus, or the British Architect...'' appeared in three volumes between 1715 and 1725. This was the first architectural work to originate in England since John Shute's

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

''First Groundes.'' In the

empirical Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how t ...

vein, it was not a

treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...

but basically a catalogue of design, containing

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

s of English buildings by

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...

and Sir

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

, as well as Campbell himself and other prominent architects of the era. In the introduction that he appended and in the brief descriptions, Campbell belaboured the "excesses" of

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

style and declared British independence from foreigners while he dedicated the volume to Hanoverian George I. The third volume (1725) has several grand layouts of gardens and parks, with straight allées, for courts and patterned

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, plats, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the ...

s and radiating rides through wooded

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

s, in a Baroque manner that was rapidly becoming old-fashioned. Buildings were shown in plan, section and elevation, and some in a bird's-eye perspective. The drawings and designs contained in the book were under way before Campbell was drawn into the speculative scheme. The success of the volumes was instrumental in popularising neo-

Palladian architecture Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

in Great Britain and America during the 18th century. For example, Plate 16 of ''Vitruvius Britannicus'', a rendering of

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

in London, was an inspiration for American architect Peter Harrison when he designed the Brick Market in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1761. Campbell was influenced as a young man by James Smith (c. 1645–1731), the pre-eminent Scots architect of his day, and an early neo-Palladian whom Campbell called "the most experienced architect" of Scotland (''Vitruvius Britannicus'', ii). The somewhat promotional volume, with its excellently rendered engravings, came at a propitious moment at the beginning of a boom in

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

and

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

building among the Whig

oligarchy Oligarchy (; ) is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. Members of this group, called oligarchs, generally hold usually hard, but sometimes soft power through nobility, fame, wealth, or education; or t ...

. Campbell was quickly taken up by Lord Burlington, who replaced

James Gibbs James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was a Scottish architect. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transition between English Ba ...

with Campbell at

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private English Baroque and then Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earl of Burlington, Earls of Burlington. It was significantly expanded in the mid-19th cent ...

in London and set out to place himself at the centre of English neo-Palladian architecture. In 1718, Campbell was appointed deputy to the amateur gentleman who had replaced

Wren Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...

as Surveyor General of the Royal Board of Works, an appointment that Burlington is certain to have pressed, but a short-lived one. When Benson, the new Surveyor was turned out of office, Campbell went with him.

Later volumes

There are later volumes also published under the name ‘Vitruvius Brittanicus’, but they are not connected to Colen Campbell's work. In 1739 a volume was issued by Badeslade and Rocque, described as ‘Volume 4’. However, this had little in common with Campbell, comprising mainly topographical perspective views of houses (54 plates). Between 1765 and 1771, Woolfe and Gandon published their ‘Volumes 4 & 5’ (79 and 75 plates). They discounted Badeslade's volume, believing their work to be a more correct continuation of Campbell, hence their numbering. The plates are indeed mostly plans and elevations of buildings largely in the Palladian style, most dating from after 1750. The various Volumes are fully described in Harris.

Campbell's main commissions

* Wanstead House,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, c. 1713/4–20 (''illustrated left''). In the first volume of ''Vitruvius Britannicus'', the most influential designs were two alternatives for a palatial Wanstead House, Essex, for the merchant-banker Sir Richard Child, of which the second design was already under way when the volume was published. (Campbell claimed that Wanstead House had Great Britain's first classical

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

, but this

accolade The accolade (also known as dubbing, adoubement, or knighting) () was the central act in the rite of passage Ceremony, ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. Etymology The term ''accolade'' entered English by 1591, when Thomas ...

probably belongs to The Vyne,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

.) *

, London, 1717. Remodelled the front and provided an entrance gateway for

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork (25 April 1694 – 4 December 1753) was a British architect and noble often called the "Apollo of the Arts" and the "Architect Earl". The son of the 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Ear ...

(Remodelled in 1868 and the gateway demolished.) * Stourhead,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, 1721–24, as a seat for the London-based banker

Henry Hoare Henry Hoare II (1705–1785), known as Henry the Magnificent, was an English banker and garden owner-designer. Family Henry's grandfather, Richard Hoare, was a goldsmith-banker and Lord Mayor of London. His father, Henry Hoare I, bought th ...

. Wings were added in the later 18th century, and Campbell's portico was not executed (though to his design) until 1841. The famous landscape garden round a lake, somewhat apart from the house, was developed after Campbell's death, by

Henry Flitcroft Henry Flitcroft (30 August 1697 – 25 February 1769) was a major English architect in the second generation of Palladianism. He came from a humble background; his father was a labourer in the gardens at Hampton Court. Flitcroft began his career a ...

* Pembroke House,

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

, London, for Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, 1723, a London house in a prominent location for the heir of Jones'

Wilton House Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution ...

. It was rebuilt in 1757 and demolished in 1913. Lord Herbert (as he then was) was inspired by it to design the similar Marble Hill at

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

for

Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk (born Henrietta Hobart; 168926 July 1767) was a British courtier. She is known as the Mistress (lover), mistress of King George II of Great Britain. She was the sister of John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckingha ...

, the mistress of the future George II. (Marble Hill was a 5-bay palladian villa with central pediment, raised on a high basement, with clumped screens of trees and formal turfed terraces descending to the Thames, ''illustrated right'', that manifest the earliest stages of the

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal ...

.) * Houghton Hall,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, begun 1722, for Sir

Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (; 26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prim ...

, the Whig prime minister. Here Campbell was replaced by Gibbs, who capped the end pavilions with octagonal domes, and by

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, b ...

, who designed the interiors. * Mereworth Castle,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, 1722–25. Campbell's most overtly palladian design, based on Villa La Rotonda, capped with a dome with no drum, through which 24 chimney flues pass to the lantern. * Waverley Abbey House,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, c. 1723–25, for John Aislabie (largely altered). Blue Plaque to Colen Campbell

Vitruvius Britannicus title page volume I

* Nos 76 and 78 Brook Street, London W1, 1725–26. No. 76, which survives, was Campbell's own house, the designs for its interiors published in his ''Five Orders of architecture,'' (1729). It carries a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

commemorating him. * Compton Place,

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

, Sussex, 1726 onwards, south front and extensive internal rebuilding for Sir Spencer Compton * Plumptre House, Nottingham, 1724–30. Remodelled for John Plumptre MP.

List of architectural works

Source: *Shawfield Mansion,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

(1712) demolished 1792 * Wanstead House, Essex (1714–15) demolished 1822 *Hedworth House,

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555. The town's history is ancient; ...

(1726) *Hotham House, Beverley (1716–17) demolished c.1766 *

, London, south front, and west wing (1717) subsequently extended and several occasions *Burlington (Ten Acre Close) Estate, London, layout (1717–18) *Burlington House, Great Gate and Street Wall (1718) *Rolls House, Chancery Lane, London (1718), demolished 1895–96 * Ebberston Hall, Ebberston, Yorkshire, including cascade (1718) *34 Great Burlington Street, London (1718–19) *33 Great Burlington Street, London (1719–20) *32 Great Burlington Street, London (c.1720); this was Campbell's own house *31 Great Burlington Street, London (1719–24) rebuilt *Burlington Girls' Charity School, Boyle Street, London (1719–21) * Wimbledon Manor House, Surrey, for Sir Theodore Janssen (1720); completion uncertain * Newby Park, (now Baldersby Park), near Topcliffe, Yorkshire (1720–21) * Houghton Hall, Norfolk; one of several architects to work on the building (1721–22) * Stourhead, Wiltshire, the portico part of Campbell's design was only added in 1840 (1721–24); interiors destroyed by fire 1902 * Mereworth Castle, Kent (1722–23) *Pembroke Lodge,

, London; executed Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke's design (c.1724), demolished 1756 *Plumptre House,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

(1724) *Hall Barn, Buckinghamshire, garden buildings: Great Room (only partially survives), Temple of Venus, Obelisk & Doric Pavilion (1724) * Waverley Abbey House, Surrey (c.1725), extended 1770, damaged by fire and rebuilt 1833 * Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, London; additions to Queen Mary block and Queen Anne block (1726–29) * Compton Place, Eastbourne, remodelled house (1726–29) *76 Brook Street, London, internal alterations (c.1726); became Campbell's new home *Hackney House, Hackney, London (c.1727), demolished before 1842 * Althorp, Northamptonshire, new stables, loggia gate (c.1729–33) * Studley Royal Park, Yorkshire, the stables (c.1729) built after his death by Roger Morris

Gallery of architectural work

File:Stourhead 1.gif, Design for Stourhead in Wiltshire, ''Vitruvius Britannicus'' vol. 3, 1725 File:Houghton Hall 01.jpg, Houghton Hall in Norfolk;

added the domes to Campbell's design File:Mereworth Castle Vitruvius Britannicus1.jpg, Mereworth Castle in Kent, ''Vitruvius Britannicus'' vol 2, 1720 File:Mereworth Castle Vitruvius Britannicus.jpg, Cross-section, Mereworth Castle, ''Vitruvius Britannicus'' vol 2, 1720 File:Burlington-house-gate.jpg, Gate,

, London, ''Vitruvius Britannicus'' vol 2, 1720 (demolished) File:Wanstead House as built.jpg, Wanstead House in Essex (demolished) File:Vitruvius Britannicus, The Elevation of General Wade his house in great Burlington Street.jpg, alt=The Elevation of General Wade, his house in great Burlington Street, Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 3, 1723, ''The Elevation of General Wade, his house in great Burlington Street'', London, ''Vitruvius Britannicus'', vol. 3, 1723. Engraving by Henry Hulsbergh

References

Howard Colvin Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–18 ...

, ''A Biographical dictionary of British Architects,'' 3rd edition *Robert Tavernor, ''Palladio and Palladianism'' 1991 {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Colen 1676 births 1729 deaths Anglo-Scots 18th-century Scottish architects 18th-century Scottish male artists 18th-century Scottish writers 18th-century Scottish male writers Scottish architecture writers Campbell, Colin Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Members of the Faculty of Advocates Scottish expatriates in Italy People from Moray