
George Latham (baptised 25 September 1793 – 8 August 1871) was an English
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 surveyor, who practised from an office in
Nantwich
Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
. He designed two country houses,
Arley Hall
Arley Hall is a English country house, country house in the village of Arley, Cheshire, Arley, Cheshire, England, about south of Lymm and north of Northwich. It is home to the owner, Viscount Ashbrook, and his family. The house is a Grade&n ...
and
Willington Hall
Willington Hall is a former country house in the parish of Willington, Cheshire, England. It was extended in 1878, but reduced in size in the 1950s, and has since been in use as a hotel.
History
The house was built in 1829 by Major William T ...
, as well as churches,
Northwich Union Workhouse, and various buildings in Nantwich.
Personal life
George Latham was baptised on 25 September 1793. His father John worked making saddles.
Latham married Mary Gee, the daughter of the Wesleyan Methodist minister of Nantwich, the Reverend Thomas Gee, on 7 July 1829.
They had five children
including at least three sons; the second,
Baldwin Latham (1836–1917) became a civil engineer and meteorologist; the youngest, Edwin Davenport Latham, also became a civil engineer. In 1850, Latham was living on Hospital Street in Nantwich. He died on 8 August 1871.
Works

His works include the
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 ...
s,
Arley Hall
Arley Hall is a English country house, country house in the village of Arley, Cheshire, Arley, Cheshire, England, about south of Lymm and north of Northwich. It is home to the owner, Viscount Ashbrook, and his family. The house is a Grade&n ...
and
Willington Hall
Willington Hall is a former country house in the parish of Willington, Cheshire, England. It was extended in 1878, but reduced in size in the 1950s, and has since been in use as a hotel.
History
The house was built in 1829 by Major William T ...
, parish churches in
Wistaston
Wistaston is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, North West England. It is sited approximately west of Crewe town centre and east of Nantwich. It has a population of 8, ...
and
Tilstone Fearnall
Tilstone Fearnall is a village and former civil parishes in England, civil parish, now in the parishes of Tiverton and Tilstone Fearnall, in the Cheshire West and Chester district and ceremonial county of Cheshire in England. In 2001 the parish ...
,
Northwich Union Workhouse, and various buildings in Nantwich including the
Congregational Chapel
Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently an ...
,
Savings Bank
A savings bank is a financial institution that is not run on a profit-maximizing basis, and whose original or primary purpose is collecting deposits on savings accounts that are invested on a low-risk basis and receive interest. Savings banks ha ...
, market hall and town hall (now demolished).
Hartwell ''et al.'' in the ''
Buildings of England
The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...
'' series consider Arley Hall to be his finest work. He designed buildings in a variety of architectural styles, including
Neoclassical,
Jacobean, and
Georgian.
Unsuccessful projects
Latham was approached by
John Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache
John Jervis Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache (; 5 December 1805 – 9 December 1890) was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, landowner and peer who owned large estates in Cheshire. He was raised to the peerage of the ...
, with the prospect of becoming the architect for
Peckforton Castle
Peckforton Castle is a Victorian country house built in the style of a medieval castle. It stands in woodland at the north end of Peckforton Hills northwest of the village of Peckforton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Her ...
, but was not appointed to the position and received £2,000 in compensation. The architect ultimately appointed was
Anthony Salvin
Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on Middle Ages, medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations, such as those of the ...
.
Latham was also commissioned by
Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe, to carry out alterations to
Crewe Hall
Crewe Hall is a Jacobean mansion located near Crewe Green, east of Crewe, in Cheshire, England. Described by Nikolaus Pevsner as one of the two finest Jacobean houses in Cheshire,Pevsner & Hubbard, p. 22 it is listed at grade I. Built in 1615 ...
in 1836, but was replaced by
Edward Blore
Edward Blore (13 September 1787 – 4 September 1879) was a 19th-century English landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary.
Early career
Blore was born in Derby, the son of the antiquarian writer Thomas Blore.
Blore's backg ...
.
See also
*
List of works by George Latham
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latham, George
19th-century English architects
People from Nantwich
1871 deaths
Date of birth unknown
Architects from Cheshire