Hounds and dairy maids

All Georgian architects enjoyed designing estate buildings, because they gave scope for experimentation and novelty. John Martin Robinson explores the inventive– but easily overlooked–creations of James Wyatt

- John Martin Robinson

JAMES WYATT has a reputation for eclectic architectural gigantism, a purveyor of such enormous buildings as Fonthill Abbey, Ashridge, Kew Palace and Woolwich Barracks. There was, however, another side to his practice: the estate buildings that he designed for private clients throughout his career. These smallerscale works, unconstrained by the needs of occupation or domestic comfort, allowed him to experiment, have fun, and express his developing architectural ideas.

Both his earliest Gothic buildings, for example, as well as one of his most accomplished neo-Classical designs, were dairies at, respectively, Goodwood in West Sussex and Dodington Park in Gloucestershire.

Wyatt was catapulted to fame by the opening in January 1772 of his astonishing re-creation of the Roman Pantheon on Oxford Street in the capital. After his return from six years of study in Italy, the London Pantheon made him the most fashionable English architect, elbowing aside even Robert Adam (who retired to Scotland). Wyatt immediately faced a stampede of enthusiasts wishing to commission an example of his work. Many of these jobs in the early 1770s—before Wyatt was jaded with success or overwhelmed with work —were small, self-contained and perfectly formed creations. Some comprise a single room, as in the case of Lady Mary Coke’s drawing room at Aubrey House, Kensington, or the Duchess of Devonshire’s dressing room at Devonshire House, Piccadilly. Others are estate buildings. The best possess a freshness and originality that is preferable to larger, later works, where Wyatt delegated too much to assistants or lost personal interest.