John Carr (architect)

See John Carr (military lawyer) for the guantanamo military commissions prosecutor. See John Mark Karr for the suspected murderer and pedophile.

John Carr of York (1723 -1807) was a prolific English architect. He was born at Horbury, near Wakefield, England, the eldest of nine children and the son of a master mason, under whom he trained.. He started an independent career in 1748 and continued until shortly before his death.

Career

During his long career there were several major changes in architectural style. His early work is a mixture of the Palladian and the Rococo. He then sought a purer Antique Roman style with occasional French influences before adapting the currently fashionable style associated with Robert Adam. At the end of his life he returned to the bolder Palladian style of his youth but with detail that looked forward to 19th century usage.

He decided to remain in Yorkshire rather than move to London because he calculated that there was ample patronage and the wealth to sustain it. No job was too small. His largest work, only partially finished, was the St Antonio Hospital in Oporto, Portugal.

Carr’s own favourite work was the Crescent at Buxton Derbyshire, England. An early example of multifunctional architecture. As well as hotels and lodging houses, it contained Assembly Rooms, shops, a post office and a public promenade all under one roof. On a smaller scale, the same is true of his Newark Town Hall.

Other public buildings included hospitals (e.g. Lincoln and York), racecourse grandstands (e.g. York, Doncaster and Nottingham), and prisons at Wakefield and Northallerton. His work as a bridgemaster to the West and North Riding of Yorkshire as well as privately brought him almost eighty commissions, almost all of which still stand. He designed new churches as well as repairing old ones. His single span roof construction allowed him to build without the traditional subdivision into nave and aisles.

His commissions for country houses included model villages and farms, stable blocks, a variety of gate lodges and gateways, garden temples and other ornamental buildings.

He took particular care with their planning and construction in order to maximise value for money for both the immediate patron and for the buildings future long term maintenance. He used traditional materials and methods of construction where these had proved sound, but adopted new methods and materials where these could be shown to have an advantage. He liked well proportioned rooms which were satisfactory living spaces with or without decorative enrichment. In his view the latter could be provided later if money permitted. As a result most of his buildings were completed and because of the soundness of construction most survive.

Among the buildings accessible in whole or part to the public today are Buxton Crescent, Newark Town Hall, virtually all his bridges, Harewood House, Tabley House and Constable Burton Hall.

Influences

Carr's work was influenced by the books of Sebastiano Serlio and Andrea Palladio. He subscribed to many architechtural pattern books, including those of his friend George Richardson, and also contemporary publications by Robert Morris and William Chambers.

Retirement and death

In the later stages of his life, Carr purchased an estate at Askham Richard, near York, to which he retired. On February 22 1807 he died at his home there, Askham Hall, but was buried at Horbury church, near his place of birth.

List of works

Public buildings (dem = demolished)

• Beverley Assembly Rooms, 1761-3 dem
• York, Assize Courts, 1773-7
• Nottingham, Assembly Rooms, 1778 dem
• York County Lunatic Asylum, now Bootham Park Hospital 1774-7

Churches

• York Minster, survey and repairs 1770-3 and 1794-97;

Bridges

• Richmond (R.Swale), 1789;
• West Riding:
• Ferrybridge, (R.Aire), 1797-1804) ;

Domestic architecture

(The following are in Yorkshire , unless otherwise stated)

• The New Lodge, New Lodge, Barnsley (c.1760) - built as a dwelling for John Carr himself
• Askham Hall, Askham Richard, Yorks., c. 1750 dem; (Carr retired to, and died here)
• Heath Hall, near Wakefield, , 1754-80;
• York, Fairfax House, 27 Castlegate, circa 1755-62; Gilling Castle
• Plompton Hall, near Knaresborough, c. 1755-62;
• Newby Hall, remodelling , c. 1758-60;
• Harewood House , 1755-71; (except the decoration of the principal rooms)
• Harewood village and other estate buildings;
• Tabley House, Cheshire, c. 1760-7;
• Hornby Castle ,c. 1760-70 partly dem;
• Wentworth Woodhouse, c. 1760- 1804,completed the house, and numerous important estate buildings.
• Constable Burton Hall, c. 1762-8;
• Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire 1763, 1774-7;
• Aske Hall, c. 1765-9;
• Halifax, Somerset House and warehouse, c. 1766;
• Thoresby Hall, Nottinghamshire. 1767-71 dem;
• Bishop Auckland Castle, County Durham, alterations c.1767-72; attributed
• Raby Castle, County Durham, remodelled, 1768-88;
• London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, internal alterations , c. 1771-5dem;
• Castle Howard, alterations and stables, 1774-82;
• Sledmere, Castle Farm and designs for Sledmere House 1778;
• Bolling Hall, near Bradford, alterations 1779 -80;
• Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, internal redecoration, c. 1782-4; (and for the same patron, the repair of Hardwick Hall).
• Holker Hall, near Cartmel, Lancashire, minor works c. 1783, 1787;
• Belle Isle, Windermere,
• Farnley Hall, near Otley, major extension, 1786-90;
• Durham Castle, remodelled gateway 1791;
• Bretton Hall, alterations, 1790s;
• Coolattin Park (Malton House), Shillelagh, County Wicklow ,Ireland 1800-1808;
• Obelisk and monument: Knox’s Hill, Armagh, 1782-3;
• Bramham Park, after 1773; attributed:

Gallery

• 
  Newark Town Hall
• 
  St Antonio Hospital Oporto by John Carr
• 
  Yorkshire Bridge by John Carr