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Important Figures in the Word of Architecture, Art, and Design

- James Wright (1746 - 1813)

English architect and rival to Robert Adam

Worked in the Gothic Revival style

Worked in Italy between 1762  and 1768, studying with Visentini in Venice

Designed:

Pantheon, Oxford Street – external aspect unexceptional, internally had galleried aisles and apsidal ends to assembly rooms

Altered Frogmore and Windsor Castle

Designed Oriel College, Oxford in 1780s

Attracted many famous patrons including Catherine II of Russia

Surveyor of Westminster Abbey

Although he was very successful he had no style of his own

Perhaps the most famous – or infamous – of his buildings was Fonthill Abbey, built for William Beckford.  Beckford was a Gothic enthusiast and sought to take the design to an extreme, even to the style of living (Nelson visited once and was horrified at the ‘medieval’ style of living imposed – sparse accommodation, poor food etc).  Consequentially he demanded that the central tower, already extremely tall, should be constantly altered.  The cost of building was astronomical and Beckford was forced to sell.

Not long after he moved out the central tower collapsed.  Very little remains of the original building.

Founder of the Architects Club in 1791