Henry Flitcroft

Henry Flitcroft (August 30, 1697 – February 25, 1769) was a major English architect in the second generation of Palladianism. He wcame from a simple background: his father was a labourer in the gardemns at Hampton Court and he began as a joiner by trade. Working as a carpenter at Burlington House, he fell from a scaffold and broke his leg. While he was recuperating, the young Lord Burlington noticed his talent with the pencil, and by 1720 Flitcroft was Burlington's draughtsman and general architectural assistant, surveying at Westminster School for Burlington's dormitory, and superintending at the site at Tottenham House. Working life in the inner circle that was driving the new Palladian architecture was an education for Flitcroft.

Flitcroft redrew for publication the drawings for The Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones, published by William Kent in 1727, under Burlington's patronage and supervision. In May 1726 Burlington got his protegé an appointment at the Royal Board of Works, where he worked his way up from Master Carpenter and Master Mason to Comptroller, a prestigious position at the top of the architectural field. No royal commissions came his way, however, except for some works privately for the Duke of Cumberland in Windsor Great Park, but his hands were constantly occupied with private commissions.

Flitcroft, like most professional architects (and unlike virtuoso earls) did some speculative construction in new-building London streets, supplied stone, and contracted to erect the buildings he was designing.

Major commissions

• St. Giles-in-the-Fields , London: 1731 – 34.

• Ditchley House , Oxfordshire: 1724 onwards. At Ditchley he designed interiors, working in harmonious partnership with William Kent.

• Wentworth Woodhouse, W. Riding, Yorkshire: 1735 onwards. He rebuilt and enlarged the west front and added wings.

• Wimbourne House , Wimbourne St Giles , Dorset: 1740 – 44. Interiors.

• Stowe House, Buckinghamshire: ca. 1742. The State gallery (attributed).

• Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire: 1742 – 45.

• Stourhead, Wiltshire: 1744 – 65. Garden temples

• Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire: 1748 – 61.

• Milton House , Northamptonshire: 1750 – 51.

Flitcroft built extensively in the West End of London.