Doncaster Mansion House History and development Presentation by Helen Hutchinson
• Helen thanked Bob Fitzharris for his kind introduction and invitation to speak at the James Paine Launch Event • Helen speaks as an architect not an historian; her work in the study and analysis of historic buildings or areas, is through understanding how they were built, how their plan, form and detail has evolved. In this Helen is supported by parallel research into documentary sources. That way, we build a holistic understanding, attempting to define the essence of a place. That way, when we intervene in an historic building, we can work with it and avoid the risk of damaging its essential characteristics. As Donald Insall says, ensuring that we make each building more itself. • And that is how Helen came to be involved with Doncaster Mansion House, through the production of a Conservation Plan in 2003. • So, what is a Mansion House and how does it differ from a town hall or assembly room? • The Georgian era saw considerable changes in local government and the creation of new buildings to house them. Until the 18 th century Parliament and government in London was housed in rambling ancient buildings in and around Whitehall and Westminster. In the same way many local Corporations like that at Doncaster operated out of churches, inns and houses.
Blandford Forum Town Hall, with meeting rooms above an arcaded ground floor Georgian Mansion Houses
• Blandford Forum • Early town halls were often modelled on prototypes such as guildhalls and markets. The typical form was a meeting room supported on a colonnade above an open sided covered market. • Although town halls were sometimes used for hosting entertainments, it was common practice to hire rooms in a local inn or private house for such events. The town hall was primarily for meetings of the members and did not generally provide accommodation for the mayor. • In some towns a mansion house was built as well or instead of a town hall, for the mayor to carry out his duties; to host formal dinners and entertainments and sometimes as his official residence. The model for such buildings was invariably that of a substantial town house, both in appearance and internal layout .
Floor Plans Elevation of York Mansion House Georgian Mansion Houses
• York Mansion House elevation and floor plans • In England it is York which boasts the first purpose built mansion house, dating from 1730- 32. The plan of York’s Mansion House is essentially that of a large town house with a state room on the first floor • York’s mansion house is attributed to William Etty, who is known to have subscribed to William Kent’s book, the Designs of Inigo Jones published in 1727. As you will see, there are strong similarities between the plan of the York Mansion House and that at Doncaster. • The plan at York is simple, with a central entrance leading to a main stair to the rear, a service stair to the side, large ballroom or banquet room upstairs at the front with drawing rooms behind.
City of London Mansion House Georgian Mansion Houses
• City of London Mansion House • The most outstanding Georgian mansion house is probably that in the City of London designed by George Dance the Elder in 1737 and completed in 1752. Here the plan form is derived from designs by Andrea Palladio for a large palazzo designed around an internal courtyard. • Its front elevation resembles contemporary country houses while the side elevations and the dramatic rooftop pavilions perhaps hark back to Inigo Jones’s Witon House built some 100 years previously.
Villa Rotunda, Vicenza Queen’s House, Greenwich Palladianism and Neo Classism
• Palladianism and Neo Classicism • You will have noticed that Helen has referred now to Andrea Palladio and to Inigo Jones a couple of times and it is time to look briefly at the architectural influences on James Paine. Palladio stood out among Italian architects of the mid-16 th century, for • rejecting the complex dynamic mannerism of his contemporaries such as Michelangelo. Instead he looked back to Vitruvius, the ancient Roman author whose work had been rediscover in the 1400s and which inspired early Renaisance architects. • Palladio’s publication “The Four Books of Architecture” had wide influence beyond Italy. You can see here one of his most famous buildings, the Villa Rotunda. It employs pure geometric forms, a restrained use of the classical orders and repose. It has a deceptive simplicity and repose. • Inigo Jones, was a solitary trail blazer for Palladio’s style in England in the years before the Civil War. Renaissance architecture had limited impact here before his time and had generally been a pick and mix approach. Jones was the architect of the Queens House in Greenwich and the Banqueting House in Whitehall. He harked back to Palladio’s work of the previous century.
Castle Howard, c1699-1709, John Vanbrough By Pwojdacz Palladianism and Neo Classism
• Energetic baroque - Castle Howard • After the Restoration of the Monarchy it was the Baroque style, then popular throughout mainland Europe, which prevailed for most buildings of significance in England. This style is exemplified in the work of Wren, Hawksmore and Vanbrough
Stourhead, Wiltshire by Colen Campbell illustrated in Vitruvius Britanicus Palladianism and Neo Classism
• Stourhead, Wiltshire by Colen Campbell illustrated in Vitruvius Britanicus • A sudden change in the tide of fashion occurred in 1715, coinciding with the start of the Georian era, when two books were published. One was a translation of Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture and the other was a book titled Vitruvius Britanicus by Colen Campbell. This new trend had the effect of turning the architectural clock back by 100 years, starting again where Inigo Jones had left off. • The next generation of architects made the Palladian Revival their own. Among its key proponents were Robert Taylor, John Carr of York, the two John Woods of Bath and of course, James Paine. • By the 1750s the impact of archaeology became a factor in architectural taste and Neo Classicism began to displace the Palladian style. • Controversy raged over the merits of Roman or Greek design, the Greek seen by opposing sides as either as pure or primitive, and the Roman as either sophisticated or decadent. Some architects chose simply to take inspiration from any source.
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire by Paine but re-worked by Adam. This elevation was inspired by a triumphal arch. Palladianism and Neo Classism
• Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. Originally by Paine but re-worked by Adam • Among these were Robert Adam, followed as the century progressed by James and Samuel Wyatt and Henry Holland. All these architects took elements of the Palladian tradition and adapted it to incorporate the new ideas emerging from study of Greek and Roman buildings outside of Italy. As fashions changed poor James Paine suffered the indignity of many of his houses being redecorated by Robert Adam. • Towards the close of the 18th century architects began to combine the elements of Classicism in yet new the new Regency style was emerging. This with its roots in Palladianism and Neo Classicism, but increasingly eclectic, inspired also by Gothic and Picturesque sensibilities and the rapidly changing social conditions of early 19th century Britain.
James Paine (1717 – 1789) Key Individuals
• So after setting the architectural context let’s look at the architect of this building, James Paine. Here is a portrait of James Paine • James Paine (1717 – 1789) was a prolific country house architect based in Yorkshire during the mid-18th century. • The son of a carpenter from Andover and probably trained at St Martin’s Academy and his first commission was as clerk of works at Nostell Priory, an early Palladian style country house not far from here near Wakefield. The work took seven years and established Paine in Yorkshire. • Between 1745 and 1770 Paine was involved in the design or alteration of over 30 country houses. During that time he took over the established practice of Daniel Garrett. Other well known houses that are associated with Paine include additional buildings at Chatsworth and the original designs for Keddleston. He is widely regarded as one of the great architects of the Palladian Revival. • He combined his Northern practice with London based appointments, including the post of Clerk of Works to the Queens House at Greenwich (that building crops up yet again!). He took a grand tour in Italy, and seems to have preferred the interpretations of classical architecture by Palladio and other Renaissance architects as his inspiration, rather than ancient Roman buildings.
South Parade, William Lindley’s Doncaster home Key Individuals
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