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Decimus Burton
Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman Revival, Greek Revival, Georgian neoclassical and Regency styles. He was a founding fellow and vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and from 1840 architect to the Royal Botanic Society, and an early member of the Athenaeum Club, London, whose clubhouse he designed and which the company of his father, James Burton, the pre-eminent Georgian London property developer, built.
Burton's works are Hyde Park, London (including the gate or screen of Hyde Park Corner, the Wellington Arch, and the Gates); Green Park and St James's Park; Regent's Park (including Cornwall Terrace, York Terrace, Clarence Terrace, Chester Terrace, and the villas of the Inner Circle which include his own mansion, The Holme, and the original Winfield House); the enclosure of the forecourt of Buckingham Palace from which he had Nash's Marble Arch moved; the clubhouse of the Athenaeum Club, London; Carlton House Terrace; Spring Gardens in St. James's; and the Palm House and the Temperate House at Kew Gardens. Burton designed the seaside towns of St Leonards-on-Sea, Fleetwood, and Folkestone, and also Royal Tunbridge Wells. His Calverley Estate (of which only a small proportion survives) was highly commended.
Burton was a member of London high society during the Georgian era and during the Regency era. He had close friendships with Princess Victoria (the future Queen Victoria); the Duchess of Kent; William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, John Wilson Croker, and Sir Humphry Davy. The Burtons' London mansion, The Holme of Regent's Park, which was built by James's company to a design by his son Decimus Burton, was described by 20th century architectural critic Ian Nairn as 'a definition of Western civilization in a single view'. Burton also contributed to the design of their Tonbridge, Kent mansion, Mabledon.
Decimus was the tenth child of James Burton, a pre-eminent London property developer (1761–1837), and Elizabeth Westley (12 December 1761 – 14 January 1837), of Loughton, Essex, the daughter of John and Mary Westley. His father was born James Haliburton, and shortened his surname to Burton in 1794, between the births of his fourth and fifth children. The paternal grandfather was William Haliburton (1731–1785), a London property developer of Scottish descent.
On his father's side, Decimus's great-great grandparents were Rev. James Haliburton (1681–1756) and Margaret Eliott, daughter of Sir William Eliott, 2nd Baronet, and aunt of George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield. Decimus was descended from John Haliburton (1573–1627), from whom Sir Walter Scott was descended on the maternal side. Burton was a cousin of the Canadian author and British Tory MP Thomas Chandler Haliburton and of the British civil servant Lord Haliburton, who was the first native Canadian to be raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Decimus's siblings included the Egyptologist James Burton, and the physician Henry Burton. He was the nephew of Constance Mary Fearon, who was the founder of the Francis Bacon Society.[citation needed]
Decimus was born at the 'very comfortable and well staffed' North House in the newly built Southampton Terrace, Bloomsbury, London. From 1805, Decimus was raised in his father's mansion, Mabledon House, in Kent. Subsequent to the birth of his twelfth child, Jessy, in 1804, Decimus's father James Burton had purchased a site on a hill about one mile to the south of Tonbridge in Kent, where he constructed, to the designs of the architect Joseph T. Parkinson, in 1805, the large country mansion which he named Mabledon House, which was described in 1810 by the local authority as 'an elegant imitation of an ancient castellated mansion'. The majority of the stone that James Burton required for Mabledon was quarried from the hill on which it was to be built, but Burton also purchased the stone that had been released by the recent demolition at a nearby mansion, Penshurst Place. Decimus Burton was coincidentally commissioned to expand Mabledon, his childhood home, on several occasions after it had been sold by his father.
Decimus first trained with his father and received drawing lessons from George Maddox. Decimus's father James was a talented architect, in addition to the foremost contemporaneous property developer. Williams says of James Burton, "[He] was no ordinary builder. He could have put up an imposing and beautifully proportioned building, correct in every constructional detail, from the roughest of sketches tossed patronizingly at him by a 'gentleman architect'", and "James Burton became adept at relieving the monotony of long residential terraces by allowing their central blocks to project slightly from the surfaces to each side, and by bringing forward, too, the houses at each end", and that "the ironwork in a classical style in James Burton's Bloomsbury terraces was, and often still is, particularly fine, though mass produced".
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Decimus Burton
Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman Revival, Greek Revival, Georgian neoclassical and Regency styles. He was a founding fellow and vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and from 1840 architect to the Royal Botanic Society, and an early member of the Athenaeum Club, London, whose clubhouse he designed and which the company of his father, James Burton, the pre-eminent Georgian London property developer, built.
Burton's works are Hyde Park, London (including the gate or screen of Hyde Park Corner, the Wellington Arch, and the Gates); Green Park and St James's Park; Regent's Park (including Cornwall Terrace, York Terrace, Clarence Terrace, Chester Terrace, and the villas of the Inner Circle which include his own mansion, The Holme, and the original Winfield House); the enclosure of the forecourt of Buckingham Palace from which he had Nash's Marble Arch moved; the clubhouse of the Athenaeum Club, London; Carlton House Terrace; Spring Gardens in St. James's; and the Palm House and the Temperate House at Kew Gardens. Burton designed the seaside towns of St Leonards-on-Sea, Fleetwood, and Folkestone, and also Royal Tunbridge Wells. His Calverley Estate (of which only a small proportion survives) was highly commended.
Burton was a member of London high society during the Georgian era and during the Regency era. He had close friendships with Princess Victoria (the future Queen Victoria); the Duchess of Kent; William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, John Wilson Croker, and Sir Humphry Davy. The Burtons' London mansion, The Holme of Regent's Park, which was built by James's company to a design by his son Decimus Burton, was described by 20th century architectural critic Ian Nairn as 'a definition of Western civilization in a single view'. Burton also contributed to the design of their Tonbridge, Kent mansion, Mabledon.
Decimus was the tenth child of James Burton, a pre-eminent London property developer (1761–1837), and Elizabeth Westley (12 December 1761 – 14 January 1837), of Loughton, Essex, the daughter of John and Mary Westley. His father was born James Haliburton, and shortened his surname to Burton in 1794, between the births of his fourth and fifth children. The paternal grandfather was William Haliburton (1731–1785), a London property developer of Scottish descent.
On his father's side, Decimus's great-great grandparents were Rev. James Haliburton (1681–1756) and Margaret Eliott, daughter of Sir William Eliott, 2nd Baronet, and aunt of George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield. Decimus was descended from John Haliburton (1573–1627), from whom Sir Walter Scott was descended on the maternal side. Burton was a cousin of the Canadian author and British Tory MP Thomas Chandler Haliburton and of the British civil servant Lord Haliburton, who was the first native Canadian to be raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Decimus's siblings included the Egyptologist James Burton, and the physician Henry Burton. He was the nephew of Constance Mary Fearon, who was the founder of the Francis Bacon Society.[citation needed]
Decimus was born at the 'very comfortable and well staffed' North House in the newly built Southampton Terrace, Bloomsbury, London. From 1805, Decimus was raised in his father's mansion, Mabledon House, in Kent. Subsequent to the birth of his twelfth child, Jessy, in 1804, Decimus's father James Burton had purchased a site on a hill about one mile to the south of Tonbridge in Kent, where he constructed, to the designs of the architect Joseph T. Parkinson, in 1805, the large country mansion which he named Mabledon House, which was described in 1810 by the local authority as 'an elegant imitation of an ancient castellated mansion'. The majority of the stone that James Burton required for Mabledon was quarried from the hill on which it was to be built, but Burton also purchased the stone that had been released by the recent demolition at a nearby mansion, Penshurst Place. Decimus Burton was coincidentally commissioned to expand Mabledon, his childhood home, on several occasions after it had been sold by his father.
Decimus first trained with his father and received drawing lessons from George Maddox. Decimus's father James was a talented architect, in addition to the foremost contemporaneous property developer. Williams says of James Burton, "[He] was no ordinary builder. He could have put up an imposing and beautifully proportioned building, correct in every constructional detail, from the roughest of sketches tossed patronizingly at him by a 'gentleman architect'", and "James Burton became adept at relieving the monotony of long residential terraces by allowing their central blocks to project slightly from the surfaces to each side, and by bringing forward, too, the houses at each end", and that "the ironwork in a classical style in James Burton's Bloomsbury terraces was, and often still is, particularly fine, though mass produced".