Charles Robert Cockerell

Charles Robert Cockerell was born in London on 27 April 1788, the third of eleven children of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, educated at Westminster School from 1802, where he received an education in Latin and the Classics. From the age of sixteen, he trained in the architectural practice of his father, who held the post of surveyor to East India House, and several London estates. helping in the rebuilding of Covent Garden Theatre (the forerunner of today's Royal Opera House). ==Grand Tour==

On 14 April 1810 he set off on the Grand Tour. Due to the Napoleonic Wars much of Europe was closed to the British, so he headed for Cádiz, Malta and Constantinople (Istanbul); from there he went to Troy, finally arriving in Athens, Greece by January 1811. In Constantinople he met John Foster (architect) who would accompany him on his tour. In April 1811 he was in Aegina where he helped survey and excavate the Temple of Aphaea (which he called the Temple of Jupiter), finding fallen fragmentary pediment sculptures (these are now in Germany), which he discovered were originally painted. On 18 August 1811 he set out with three companions from Zakynthos on a tour of Morea, aiming for the temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae in Arcadia. The magnificent Bassae Frieze that Cockerell discovered at the temple was eventually excavated and sold to the British Museum. It was there that he met Frederick North, who persuaded Cockerell and Foster to accompany him to Egypt, setting off in late 1811, they travelled via Crete, where North abandoned the idea, so Cockerell and Foster decided to visit the Seven churches of Asia and visit Hellenistic sites along the way, Returning to Athens, before going on in May 1814 to Zakynthos to attend the sale of the Bassae Frieze. Back in Athens he met an old school friend John Spencer Stanhope and his brother, between August and October he was struck down by the fever again, but was well enough to attend a celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of Salamis at Piraeus on 25 October. In a letter of 23 December 1814 he details his re-discovery of entasis, he enclosed a sketch for Robert Smirke of one of the Parthenon columns showing its outline. Thanks to the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, the Kingdom of Sicily and Rome were now open to the British, so on 15 January 1815 Cockerell left for Naples in the company of Jakob Linckh, they visited Pompeii and only reached Rome on 28 July. Writing to his father in August 1815 he said 'I should be out of my wits at the attention paid me here, I have an audience daily of savants, artists & amateurs who come and see my drawings; envoys and ambassadors beg to know when it will be convenient for me to show them some sketches; Prince Poniatowski and Prince Saxe-Gotha beg to be permitted to see them...'. Writing to his father on 28 December saying he had purchased copies of Domenico Fontana's and Martino Ferraboschi's . In 1816 Cockrell moved on to Florence. Cockerell was presented to Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany and was awarded the diploma of Academician of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. While in Florence in early 1816 Cockerell produced a design for Wellington Palace for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, it would have been in the style of Greek Revival architecture on a scale to rival Blenheim Palace, though in the end nothing came of the proposal. In June he suffered another bout of ill health. From Florence Cockerell continued his tour visiting Pisa for a month, returning to Florence, he set out on 13 September for Bologna, Ferrara, then travelling by boat along the Po to Venice where he stayed three weeks. From Venice, Cockerell visited Andrea Palladio's buildings along the Brenta (river) and at Vicenza, passing on to Mantua and the Palazzo del Te, Parma, Milan, Genoa and back to Rome from where he set off in March 1817 to return home via Paris. ==Return to England==

Cockerell returned to London on 17 June 1817, over seven years since his departure, originally the plan had been for a three-year Grand Tour. Cockerell set about preparing his drawings of Greek antiquities for exhibition at the Royal Academy. From 1832 to 1836 he rented as his office 34 Savile Row (which was at the bottom of the garden of 8 Old Burlington Street). In 1819 he was appointed Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral, where his works included the replacement, in 1821, of the ball and cross on the dome. and an academician on 10 February 1836, He won the first Royal Gold Medal for architecture in 1848 and became president of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1860. As an archaeologist, Cockerell is remembered for removing the reliefs from the temple of Apollo at Bassae, near Phigalia, which are now in the British Museum. Replicas of these reliefs were included in the frieze of the library of the Travellers Club. The Royal Academy of Arts composed a brief commemorative biography of Cockerell, including the following sentiment which speaks of his great work as a student of architecture: At the heart of Cockerell's emotional experience of the power of the antique to fire the imagination lay an extraordinary visual sensitivity to the mass and volume of the components of architecture, which for him were never mere abstract, weightless forms or quotations borrowed from the past, but acted together as a constantly renewable expression of man's innate need to create beauty on earth. ==Architectural career==

Cockerell had grave doubts about the wisdom of using Greek Revival architecture in nineteenth-century England, in his diary of 1821 he had this to say: Until the attention of the world was drawn to the study of Greece by the spirit of the last century by Barthélemy's Anacharsis & thence to the study of Greek architecture by the researches of Stuart & Revett architecture had for its guide this Country the Old Italian masters & their valuable commentaries & publications of the anc[ien]t arch[itectur]e of Rome and Italy. No great enormities could arise under such guidance, but since the rage for Greek has been amongst us all the rules which formerly protected us are now set aside & we are at sea without compas ...we stick a slice of an anc[ien]t Greek Temple to a Barn which is called breadth & simplicity, than which nothing can be more absurd, as the Greek Houses were certainly of wood & brick & plaister [Sic] painted & temporary things. I am sure that the grave & solemn arch[itectur]e of Temples were never adopted to Houses, but a much lighter style, as we may judge by the vases, the object being space & commodiousness. Cockerell's first building (1818–20) was in the style of Tudor architecture, the brick building at Harrow School, now known as the 'old schools' has twin crow-stepped gables. His next commission was the classical Hanover Chapel (1821–25) Regent Street, with its twin towers and projecting tetrastyle Ionic portico, later demolished (1896). ==Personal life==

On 23 March 1828 he proposed marriage to, and was accepted by, Anna Maria Rennie (daughter of John Rennie the Elder) while strolling in the grounds of Dalmeny House, Scotland, she was twenty-five, and he was nearly forty. The engagement ring was bought for £27 10s 0d in Edinburgh on 29 March and the wedding took place on 4 June 1828 in St James's Church, Piccadilly, the Bishop of London William Howley officiating. The couple set up home at 87 Eaton Square. In 1838 the family moved to Ivy House, North End, Hampstead. from this time on his architectural practice virtually ceased. The family moved to 13 Chester Terrace, where he died on 17 September 1863, aged 75. his marble tomb consists of his profile portrait, suspended from an Ionic column, surrounded by rich embellishment. ==Freemasonry==

Whilst in Edinburgh and working on the National Monument with fellow Freemason, William Henry Playfair, Cockerell was Initiated into Scottish Freemasonry in Lodge Holyrood House (St Luke's), No.44 on 18 May 1824. ==Published works==

Cockerell's published works include: • Travels in Southern Europe and the Levant, 1810–17 : the Journal of C.R. Cockerell, R.A., S.P. Cockerell Ed 1903 • Progetto di collocazione delle statue antiche esistenti nella Galleria di Frienza che rappresentano la Favola di Niobe, Firenza 1816 • ''Le Statue della Favola di Niobe dell' Imp.eR. Galleria di Firenza situate nella primitiva loro disposizione da C.R. Cockerell'', Firenza 1818 • On the Aegina Marbles, Journal of Science and the Arts, VI 327-31 • On the Labyrinth of Crete, in Travels in Various Countries, Robert Walpole Ed 2 vols, 1817 and 1820 vol. II Pages 402–9 • An Account of Hanover Chapel, in Regent Street, in The Public Buildings of London, J. Britton & A.C. Pugin 2 vols, 1825–28 vol. II pages 276–82 • The Temple of Jupiter Olympius at Agrigentum, supplement to Stuart & Revetts Antiquities of Athens, 1829 • The Pediment Sculptures of the Parthenon, as part VI of A Description of the Collection of Ancient Marbles in the British Museum, 1830 • ''Plan and Section of the New Bank of England Dividend, Pay and Warrant Offices and Accountant's Drawing Office'' 1835 • The Architectural Works of William of Wykeham, Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute at Winchester, 1845 • Ancient Sculptures in Lincoln Cathedral, in Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute, 1850 • Iconography of the West Front of Wells Cathedral, with an appendix on the Sculptures of other Mediaeval Churches in England, 1851 • Illustrations, Architectural and Pictorial of the Genius of M.A. Buonarroti with descriptions of the plates by C.R. Cockerell, Canina 1857 • Statement by Mr Cockerell on the Wellington Monument Competition, The Builder XV p. 427, 1857 • Address, Royal Institute of British Architects, Session, 1859–60, 111–13, 1859 • On the Painting of the Ancients, in the Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, XXII p42-44 & 88–91, 1859 • Presidential Address, Royal Institute of British Architects, Session, 1861–62, 1860 • The Temples of Jupiter Panhellenius at Aegina and of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, 1860 • Architectural Accessories of Monumental Sculpture, in the Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, XXIV p333-6, 1861 • A Descriptive Account of the Sculptures of the West Front of Wells Cathedral photographed for the Architectural Photographic Association, 1862 ==Architectural works==

1820s • 1818–20 – Old Schools, Harrow School, in Tudor Gothic, brick with stone dressings • 1819-36 – Oakly Park, Shropshire, remodelling work • 1820–26 – Loughcrew House, County Meath, Ireland. • 1821 – Tower and facade of St. Mary's church Banbury, in classical style, the body of the church is by his father • 1821 – Library and Chapel, Bowood House, Wiltshire • 1821 – Hanover Chapel, Regent Street, London (demolished) • 1822–27 – The Saint David's Building, University of Wales, Lampeter. • 1824–28 – Langton House, Dorset, (demolished) • 1824–29 – The National Monument, Edinburgh, with William Henry Playfair, unfinished. • 1827-28 - Newbridge Lodge, Wynnstay, North Wales • 1829 – Church of Holy Trinity, Hotwells, Bristol. 1830s • 1831 – Westminster, Life and British Fire Office, London, (demolished) • 1835 – The Bank of England, Courtney Street, Plymouth. • 1836–37 – Cambridge University Library, only the north wing of the quadrangular design was built. • 1837 – London and Westminster Bank, City of London, (demolished) • 1838 – The Chapel, Killerton, in a Neo-Norman style • 1838 – London & Westminster Bank, Lothbury, London (with William Tite). • 1839–45 – The Ashmolean Museum and Taylor Institution, Oxford University. 1840s • 1840 – Seckford Hospital, Woodbridge, Suffolk. • 1841 – Sun Fire Office, London (demolished) • 1844–47 – The Bank of England, Bristol. • 1845 – The Bank of England, King Street, Manchester. • 1845–48 – The Bank of England, Castle Street, Liverpool. • 1848 – Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, designed the interiors after the death of the architect George Basevi. • 1848 – Bank Chambers, Cook Street, Liverpool (demolished) 1850s • 1851–54 – St. George's Hall, Liverpool, designed the interiors after the death of the architect Harvey Lonsdale Elmes. • 1855-57 – Liverpool, London and Globe Building, Liverpool ==Gallery of architectural works==

File:Ashmolean_Museum_Entrance_March_2015.png|Entrance to the Ashmolean Museum File:The Taylor Institute - geograph.org.uk - 556755.jpg|Taylor Institute, with Ashmolean Museum behind File:St George's Hall Interior 21 Dec 2009 (16).jpg|Main Hall, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:St George's Hall, Liverpool (2).jpg|Main Hall, St. George's Hall, Liverpool showing Minton tile floor File:Internal door st. george's hall.JPG|Internal door, Main Hall, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:St George's Hall Interior 21 Dec 2009 (22).jpg|Organ platform, Main Hall, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:St George's Hall Interior 21 Dec 2009 (25).jpg|Detail of floor, Main Hall, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:St George's Hall Interior 21 Dec 2009 (24).jpg|Organ, Main Hall, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:St George's Hall Interior 21 Dec 2009 (19).jpg|Court room, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:St George's Hall Interior 21 Dec 2009 (7).jpg|Court room, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:Saint George's Hall Liverpool chandeliers.jpg|Chandelier, Main Hall, St. George's Hall, Liverpool File:Bank of England Liverpool.JPG|Bank of England, Liverpool File:Bank of England building, Manchester.jpg|Bank of England building, Manchester File:Holytrinityhotwells.JPG|Holy Trinity Hotwells, Bristol File:HarrowSchool-OldSchools-20051113.jpg|Old Schools, Harrow School File:Uwlsdb.jpg|The St David's Building at the University of Wales, Lampeter File:St Mary's Church. Banbury - geograph.org.uk - 33931.jpg|St. Mary's Banbury File:Edinburgh National Monument.jpg|Scottish National Monument, Edinburgh, with William Henry Playfair, unfinished File:Bowood House Library.jpg|Library, Bowood House File:Cambridge - Gonville and Caius College - 1048.jpg|Former Cambridge University Library File:2008-06-26 Killerton Chapel.jpg|The Chapel, Killerton File:1 Dale Street 2018.jpg|Liverpool, London and Globe Building ==References==