John Carr (1723 – 22 February 1807) was an English architect. He is best known for Buxton Crescent in Derbyshire and Harewood House in West Yorkshire. Much of his work was in the Palladian style. In his day he was considered to be the leading architect in the north of England. Dr. Ivan Hall published in 2023 a study of John Carr after a lifetime's work (John Carr of York: Collected Essays).
Contents
Life
He was born in 1723 in Horbury near Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, 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. John Carr was Lord Mayor of York in 1770 and again in 1785. Towards the end of his life Carr purchased an estate at Askham Richard, near York, to which he retired. On 22 February 1807 he died at Askham Hall. He was buried in St Peter and St Leonard's Church, Horbury, which he had designed and paid for.
Career
Carr decided to remain in Yorkshire rather than move to London because he calculated that there was ample patronage and the wealth to sustain it. His largest work, only partially finished, was the Hospital de Santo António in Porto, Portugal. In order to maximise his income, he kept his staff to the minimum. His earliest assistant was architect William Lindley, who from 1774 developed an independent practice. He was followed by the elder Peter Atkinson and possibly his son Peter the younger. Carr's nephew William Carr also assisted him in his latter years. These architectural assistants had in turn 'boys' to help them. Carr rarely delegated matters that others would regard as too trivial, and in consequence he had to travel immense distances, mostly on horseback; however, the frequency of such visits brought him into regular contact with his many clients to mutual advantage.
Carr's own favourite work was Buxton Crescent in Derbyshire, 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, such as Lincoln and York; racecourse grandstands, such as York, Doncaster and Nottingham (all now demolished); and prisons at Wakefield and Northallerton. He designed new churches as well as repairing old ones. The former were all privately financed, the latter were financed by the existing parishes. His single span roof construction allowed him to build the new churches without the traditional subdivision into nave and aisles.
He served as bridgemaster for both the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, leaving a legacy of many bridges, the majority of which still stand today. The more than sixty bridges built or altered by Carr still serve the backbone of North Yorkshire's road-transport network. Carr was Lord Mayor of York in 1770 and 1785.
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. Notable among them his works for the estates of Harewood House and Wentworth Woodhouse.
He took particular care with their planning and construction 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. His training as a stonemason naturally led him to build in that material; in particular, he enjoyed using 'great' stones as at Tabley House. 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.
Influences
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.
Carr's work was influenced by the books of Sebastiano Serlio and Andrea Palladio. He subscribed to many architectural pattern books, including those of his friend George Richardson, and also contemporary publications by Robert Morris and William Chambers.
List of works
Public buildings
(dem = demolished) in chronological order, county given if not Yorkshire
York The Pikeing Well-House New Walk 1752–1756
York Grandstand Knavesmire Racecourse 1755–1756, demolished
Beverley Assembly Rooms, 1761–1763 demolished
Wakefield, The House of Correction, 1766–1770 demolished
Leeds, The General Infirmary, 1768–1771 demolished
Porto, Portugal, The Hospital de Santo António 1769 – c. 1843
Newark Town Hall, Newark, Nottinghamshire, Town Hall, Assembly Rooms and Market Hall, 1773–1776
York, Assize Courts, now York Crown Court 1773–1777
York County Lunatic Asylum, 1774–1777
Lincoln County Hospital, Lincolnshire, 1776
Doncaster, Racecourse Grandstand, 1777–1781 demolished
Nottingham, racecourse grandstand, 1777 demolished
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Assembly Rooms, 1778 demolished
Kelso, Roxburghshire, design for Racecourse Grandstand, 1778 (built in 1822)
Buxton, Derbyshire, The Assembly Rooms in the Crescent 1779–1790
York, The Female Prison, 1780–1783
Churches
Ravenfield, 1756
Kirkleatham, Payment for design, 1759
Dewsbury Minster, Partly rebuilt 1765–1767
Bierley, 1766, attributed to Carr
Boynton, largely rebuilt 1768–1770
York Minster, survey and repairs 1770–1773 and 1794–1797; Joseph Halfpenny was clerk of works on this project
Sheffield Cathedral of St. Peter, alterations 1773–1775
Rokeby, completed church 1777–78
Denton, 1776; attributed to Carr
Holy Rood Church, Ossington, Nottinghamshire, 1782–83
St Peter and St Leonard's Church, Horbury, 1790–1794
Bridges
Listed bridges include:
Other bridges include:
Aysgarth (R.Ure), 1788
Birdforth (Birdforth Beck), 1798, demolished
Catterick, over River Swale, 1792
Crambeck Bridge, 1785
Croft, over River Tees, 1795
Danby Wiske, 1782
Downholme, over River Swale, 1773
East Row, Sandsend, near Whitby, 1777
Ellerbeck, near Osmotherley, 1790
Greta, near Rokeby, 1773
Grinton over R.Swale, 1797
Hawnby, over River Rye), 1800
Howsham Bridge, not executed
Kilvington, over Spital Beck, 1774, demolished
Kirkham Bridge, not executed
Low Bourn, over River Burn, near Masham, 1775
Morton on Swale, over River Swale, 1800–1803
South Otterington, over River Wiske, 1776
Reeth, over Arkle Beck, 1772–73
Riccall, near Helmsley, 1803
Richmond, over River Swale, 1789
Private bridges
Denton Park, c. 1770
Harewood Park, Yorkshire, c. 1771
Norton Place Park, Lincolnshire, c. 1776
Unexecuted bridge designs for Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire
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
Kirby Hall, Ouseburn, 1747 – c.1755, demolished
Huthwaite Hall, Thurgoland, 1748
Askham Hall, Askham Richard, c.1750, demolished
Thorp Arch Hall, 1750–1754
Gledhow Hall, Gledhow, Roundhay, Leeds c. 1764 for J. Dixon
Arncliffe Hall, Ingleby Arncliffe, c. 1750–1754
York, 47 Bootham, 1753
Campsmount, Campsall near Doncaster, 1752–1755, demolished
Leeds, town house for J. Dixon 1753
Durham House, Northallerton, c.1754
Heath Hall, near Wakefield, 1754–1780
Dower House, Heath.
York, Petergate, house for J. Mitchell, 1755, demolished
York, Fairfax House, 27 Castlegate, circa 1755–1762; Gilling Castle
Howsham Mill, near Malton, c. 1755
Plompton Hall, near Knaresborough, c. 1755–1762
York, Garforth House, No. 54 Micklegate, c. 1755–1757