Description:Charles Barry is described by M. H. Port as ‘Britain’s leading architect’ of the first half of the nineteenth century.
From an early age Barry exhibited an enthusiasm and aptitude for drawing. Aged only fifteen Barry worked with a practice of surveyors in Lambeth, gaining a professional knowledge of architecture before travelling to Europe in 1817 on an architectural tour which lasted over three years.
Barry returned to England inspired by Italian architecture and eager to establish a practice of his own. Throughout the 1820s he competed for public commissions in London and Birmingham before being appointed as the architect of the Traveller’s Club in Pall Mall (1829). M. H. Port suggests that his Florentine design of the Club ‘hit London at the moment when connoisseurs were looking to Italian as the way forward’, establishing Barry’s reputation as a leading architect. Barry’s most famous commission came when he was appointed as the architect for the new Houses of Parliament, an enormous project to replace the old Houses which had been destroyed by fire in 1834.
The Leveson-Gower family were amongst the earliest patrons of Charles Barry. During the 1830s Barry had worked on York House and in 1834 he was appointed to mastermind the rebuilding of Trentham Hall. The image above shows his design for the West elevation of the Hall, taken from a presentation volume of drawings made in 1834. This volume and many other drawings by Barry survive in the Sutherland Papers, reflecting the Italianate influences of his design for the new Hall. Throughout the 1840s Barry also worked for the family at Dunrobin Castle and rebuilt Cliveden in Buckinghamshire in the early 1850s. In addition to his work for George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), second Duke of Sutherland, Barry was also involved with the Duke’s younger brother Lord Francis Egerton who inherited Bridgewater House from Francis Egerton the third Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803).
The Sutherland Papers contain accounts, plans, reports and drawings relating to Charles Barry’s work at Trentham Hall, Lilleshall House and Stafford House during the 1830s and 1840s. These documents reflect Barry’s artistic skills and demonstrate the working practice of ‘Britain’s leading architect’ in the early nineteenth century.
Biographical information about Sir Charles Barry from M. H. Port, ‘Barry, Sir Charles (1795–1860)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1550]
The Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Art Collections Fund in securing this portfolio of plans for Staffordshire and the Nation.