{{Short description|English architect (1697–1769)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}} {{Infobox architect |name= Henry Flitcroft |birth_date= {{birth date|1697|8|30||df=yes}} |birth_place= probably Hampton Court, England |death_date= {{death date and age|1769|2|25|1697|08|30|df=yes}} |death_place= Hampstead, England |significant_buildings= Wentworth Woodhouse<br />Woburn Abbey<br />St. Giles-in-the-fields }} [[File:Whitehall Palace MET DP805674.jpg|thumb|right|Flitcroft's drawing for Whitehall Palace<ref>{{cite web |title=Whitehall Palace |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/363828 |access-date=23 August 2025 |website=metmuseum.org}}</ref>]]'''Henry Flitcroft''' (30 August 1697 – 25 February 1769) was a major English architect in the second generation of Palladianism. He came from a humble background; his father was a labourer in the gardens at Hampton Court. Flitcroft began his career as a joiner. While working as a carpenter at Burlington House, he fell from a scaffold and broke his leg. During his recovery, the young Lord Burlington noticed his talent with a pencil. By 1720, Flitcroft was Burlington's draughtsman and general architectural assistant, surveying at Westminster School for Burlington's dormitory and superintending on site at Tottenham House. Working within Burlington's inner circle, which championed the new Palladian architecture, provided Flitcroft with valuable education.
Flitcroft redrew the plates for publication in ''The Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones'', published by William Kent in 1727 under Burlington's patronage and supervision. In May 1726, Burlington secured his protégé an appointment at the Office of Works, where he advanced from Master Carpenter and Master Mason to Comptroller of the King's Works, a prestigious position. He also received royal commissions for private projects for junior members of the British royal family, notably Prince William, Duke of Cumberland to whom he had been his "architectural tutor".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hedley |first1=G. |title=Henry Flitcroft |url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/a-portrait-of-the-architect-henry-flitcroft-16971769 |publisher=ART UK - A Public Catalogue Foundation |access-date=3 May 2021 |date=2023 |quote=The royal Duke of Cumberland had led the English troops but, in contrast to his reputation as 'Butcher' Cumberland, he was a patron of architecture, especially at Windsor. As a child, his architectural tutor was Henry Flitcroft and the duke later employed him to build a range of elements in the Windsor landscape, from the gothic Belvedere to a Chinese yacht.}}</ref> His work for the Duke at Windsor Great Park included collaborating with Thomas Sandby who worked as Flitcroft's assistant when designing Virginia Water Lake's 'Great Bridge'.<ref>{{NHLE|desc=The Royal Estate, Windsor: Virginia Water Lake and the Triangular Belvedere|num=1001177|access-date=7 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jane Roberts |date=1997 |title=Royal Landscape: The Gardens and Parks of Windsor |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=298, 362, 436 |isbn=978-0-300-07079-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Finch |first1=J. |title=Capability Brown - Royal Gardener |date=2020 |publisher=White Rose University Press |page=154 |url=https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Capability_Brown_Royal_Gardener/h18nEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=thomas+sandby+henry+flitcroft&pg=PA154&printsec=frontcover |access-date=3 May 2023}}</ref><ref name="artuk_1721179">{{cite web |title=Artists Thomas Sandby 1721–1798 |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artists/sandby-thomas-17211798 |publisher=ART UK - a Public Catalogue Foundation |access-date=3 May 2023 |quote=The Great Lodge at Windsor, later known as Cumberland Lodge, was subsequently adapted and altered for the Duke and his retinue by the architect Henry Flitcroft (1697-1769), and there is circumstantial evidence that Sandby may have worked as one of his assistants.}}</ref>
Flitcroft adapted and altered The Great Lodge at Windsor (later known as Cumberland Lodge) for its chief resident, the Duke of Cumberland. In 2022, a conference room at Cumberland Lodge is named 'Flitcroft' after him.<ref>{{cite web |title=Flitcroft |url=https://www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk/flitcroft/ |publisher=Cumberland Lodge |access-date=3 May 2023 |date=2022 |quote=Our large conference room, Flitcroft, is situated in the Mews conference building at Cumberland Lodge.}}</ref><ref name="artuk_1721179"/>
Flitcroft's designs such as a "low rustic bridge with rockwork at Virginia Water" are held in the Royal Collection Trust and reveal that Sandby often created drawings of Flitcroft's designs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Description A pen and watercolour design for a low rustic bridge with rockwork at Virginia Water. |url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/914663 |publisher=The Royal Collection Trust |access-date=3 May 2022 |date=2021 |quote=This drawing belongs to a group of designs by Sandby in the Royal Collection relating to various works carried out in Windsor Great Park. In 1750, the Duke of Cumberland created the artificial lake of Virginia Water. The architect for this project was Henry Flitcroft, although Sandby was involved in the Duke's never-completed plans to reinstall the Holbein Gate, which he had purchased after its removal from Whitehall, to a new location on the Long Walk in 1759.}}</ref> Flitcroft was constantly occupied with private commissions. Like most professional architects (and unlike virtuoso earls), he also engaged in speculative construction in newly developing London streets, supplied stone, and contracted to erect the buildings he designed.
Flitcroft designed Potternewton Hall, near Leeds c.1730. His panelling and a mantelpiece from one of the hall's rooms were installed in Sutton Park after 1935.<ref>{{cite book |title=Yorkshire Illustrated |date=1950 |publisher=Yorkshire Illustrated Publications |page=19 |url=https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Yorkshire_Illustrated/g4vbasemDgkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=potternewton+hall+henry+flitcroft&dq=potternewton+hall+henry+flitcroft&printsec=frontcover |access-date=3 May 2023 |quote=...Sutton Park...The panelling in the Dining Hall was formally at Potternewton Hall, one of the Yorkshire houses designed by Henry Flitcroft, better known as the chief architect of Wentworth Woodhouse...}}</ref>
== Royal Patronage == From 1746 to 1756, he served as Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral and was Comptroller of the King's Works from 1758 to 1769.<ref>{{cite book |title= The Story of Follies - Architectures of Eccentricity |date=2022 |publisher=Reaktion Books |page=123 |url=https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Story_of_Follies/vvyhEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=henry+flitcroft+comptroller+of+the+King%27s+works&pg=PA123&printsec=frontcover |access-date=3 May 2022}}</ref> thumb|Monument at St Mary's church, Teddington In 1724, Flitcroft married Sarah Minns at St Benet's, Paul's Wharf. His son Henry was born in Hampton (1742). Flitcroft is buried at St Mary with St Alban, Teddington, alongside his son Henry (died 1826) and wife Jane (died 1778).<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Henry Flitcroft|url=http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.php?aid=64&ctid=1&cid=13|website=The Twickenham Museum}}</ref> The inscription on his tomb records that "Here lies the body of HENRY FLITCROFT of Whitehall in the county of Middlesex who had the honour of serving three first Princes of the House of Brunswick in the Board of Works of which he was successively Appointed Clerk, Master Mason & Controller in the last of which Office he continued till his death which happened on the 25th of February 1769." A memorial to Henry Flitcroft is located on the west wall inside the church.
Flitcroft Street, near St Giles in the Fields, London, was named after Henry Flitcroft.
==Major commissions== *Lilford Hall, Northamptonshire: 1740s. He designed the interiors at Lilford. *Bower House, Essex: 1729. *St Giles in the Fields, London: 1731–1734. *Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire: 1724 onwards. At Ditchley, he designed interiors, collaborating harmoniously with William Kent. *Wentworth Woodhouse, W. Riding, Yorkshire: 1735 onwards. He rebuilt and enlarged the west front and added wings. *St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles, Dorset: 1740–1744. Interiors. *Stowe House, Buckinghamshire: {{circa|1742}}. The State gallery (attributed). *Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire: 1742–1745. *Stourhead, Wiltshire: 1744–1765. Garden temples. *Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire: 1748–1761. *Milton Hall, Northamptonshire: 1750–1751.
Flitcroft built extensively in the West End of London.
<gallery> File:Wimpole Hall 02.jpg|Wimpole Hall, as remodelled by Flitcroft File:Stourhead Pantheon 02 mod timm.jpg|The Pantheon, Stourhead File:Stourhead Pantheon 03.jpg|Facade The Pantheon, Stourhead File:Stourhead, Pantheon, interior.jpg|Interior, The Pantheon, Stourhead File:Temple at Stourhead.jpg|The temple of Apollo, Stourhead File:St Giles in the Fields 01 crop.jpg|North front, St. Giles-in-the-fields File:St giles down the aisle.jpg|Looking East, St. Giles-in-the-fields File:St-Giles-in-the-fields interieur.jpg|Altar, St. Giles-in-the-fields File:Woburn_Abbey.jpg|West front, Woburn Abbey File:Wentworth Woodhouse 02.jpg|West front, Wentworth Woodhouse, the wings were altered later by John Carr File:The Bower House, Havering-atte-Bower, Essex (geograph 4008009).jpg|Bower House, Essex File:Table MET DP112858.jpg|table designed c.1740-1745 </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== * H. M. Colvin, ''The History of the King's Works'', London: H.M.S.O. (1963–1982) ** {{ISBN|0-11-670571-X}} ** {{ISBN|0-11-670568-X}} (v.3,pt 1) ** {{ISBN|0-11-670832-8}} (v.4,pt 2) ** {{ISBN|0-11-670571-X}} (v.5) ** {{ISBN|0-11-670286-9}} (v.6) ** {{ISBN|0-11-671116-7}} (Plans 5–7) * {{cite book |last1=Colvin |first1=Howard Montagu |title=A biographical dictionary of British architects, 1600 - 1840 |date=1978 |publisher=Murray |location=London |isbn=9780719533280 |edition=New}} * {{cite book |last1=Heward |first1=John |last2=Taylor |first2=Robert |title=The country houses of Northamptonshire |date=1996 |publisher=Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England |location=Swindon |isbn=1-873592-21-3}} * {{cite book |last1=Hedley |first1=Gill |last2=Smith |first2=Charles Saumarez |title=The ingenious Mr Flitcroft: Palladian architect 1697-1769 |date=2023 |publisher=Lund Humphries |location=London |isbn=9781848226500 |url=https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/the-ingenious-mr-flitcroft-palladian-architect}}
{{s-start}} {{s-court}} {{s-bef | before = Thomas Ripley}} {{s-ttl | title = Comptroller of the King's Works | years = 1758–1769}} {{s-aft | after = William Chambers}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flitcroft, Henry}} Category:1697 births Category:1769 deaths Category:18th-century English architects Category:Chatham House people Category:Architectural drafters Category:Burials at St Mary with St Alban, Teddington