John Clayton, (1820–1861) was an English architect and writer.

Life

John Clayton was born in

Eardisley Eardisley () is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire about south of the centre of Kington. Eardisley is in the Wye valley in the northwest of the county, close to the border with Wales. The village is part of the " Black and white vil ...

, Herefordshire, the son of John Clayton, a land steward, by his wife Susan née Harris.Cust; Peach 2004, n.p. He worked for a time in

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

, where he had a large architectural practice. The market-gateway entrance with a clock-tower in that town was erected from his design, besides numerous other public buildings and private residences.Cust 1887, p. 15. He came to London in 1838 at the age of eighteen, entered the Royal Academy Schools, and settled in Elizabeth Street,

Eaton Square Eaton Square is a rectangular, residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest Squares in London, square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main ...

. In 1839 he sent to the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

a ''Design for a Villa in the Isle of Wight''. On 13 June 1842 he was elected an associate of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

, and was advanced to the dignity of fellow of the same body on 2 November 1857. He exhibited architectural designs in the Royal Academy in 1844–7, 1853, and 1856, and in 1845 obtained the premium of the Royal Academy in architecture for the most finished drawing in detail of the church of St. Stephen, Walbrook.Cust 1887, p. 16. Clayton died in 1861, and at the opening meeting at the Royal Institute in November of that year allusion was made to the merits of his works and his architectural abilities.

Works

Clayton is best known for his architectural publications: ''A Collection of the Ancient Timber Edifices of England'', 1846, a most valuable record of those structures, most of which have now disappeared, and ''The Dimensions, Plans, Elevations, and Sections of the Parochial Churches of Sir Christopher Wren, erected in the cities of London and Westminster'', 1848. In addition to these he published the following sessional papers, contributed by him to the Royal Institute of British Architects: ''Norman Refectory at Hereford'', 1847; ''Abbey Dore Church and Monastery near Hereford'', 1851; ''Towers and Spires of the City Churches, the works of Sir Christopher Wren'', 1852; ''Bridges and Viaducts of the Present Day'', 1856.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Cust, L. H.; Peach, Annette (2004)
"John Clayton (1820–1861)"
In ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, John 1861 deaths 19th-century English male writers 19th-century English architects 1820 births Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects