Colwick Hall, Nottingham

Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: 5 May 2003

John Carr worked here c1776, for John Musters, but the rather pinched proportions betray the fact that the house is earlier - probably late C17th. Carr added the fine attached Ionic portico, hipped roof, parapet, wings and in fact probably all the other stone dressings. Grade II* listed. It is now a hotel - conversion may have been underway when this photo was taken. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the C18th architectural hierarchy, Carr (1723-1807) was somewhat more accomplished than most of the breed of skilled, provincial builder-architects of the Georgian era. Whilst not sitting at the top table of the London elite, he was the only provincial member of the London Architects' Club, and "was known and respected in the most sophisticated architectural circles" (Howard Colvin's Biographical Dictionary of British Architects). Based in York (hence his moniker 'Carr of York'), he was "for more than half a century the principal architect practising in Yorkshire and the north of England" (Colvin). His successful and lucrative practice was based very much on country houses for the gentry, the exteriors of which were generally plain but immaculately proportioned and the interiors of which largely followed the fashions set by Robert Adam. He also designed public buildings, churches, and bridges, the latter in his capacity as Surveyor of Bridges for the West Riding (1760-73), and later, as the equivalent (but better-paid) for the North Riding. Carr was also actively engaged in civic life, serving as a city chamberlain, sheriff, alderman, Lord Mayor, and magistrate. All this was achieved in the absence of any professional training - like his father, grandfather and great grandfather before him he trained as a stonemason. On his death, the practice was inherited by his assistant, Peter Atkinson, whose son in turn inherited, and remarkably the practice continues to this day, currently in the guise of Brierley Groom, making it, according to Wikipedia, "the longest running practice in the United Kingdom and probably the world." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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