Colen CAMPBELL
b. Boghole, Scotland. 1676;
d. London, 1729.

Colen Campbell - Successful founder of English Palladianism. Campbell’s origins are obscure and nothing is known of his education, although he claimed to have studied architecture both in England and abroad. He has traditionally been seen as a great architectural pioneer; his Wanstead House was a hugely successful precedent for a succession of Whig country houses in the Palladian style. However, the Earl of Shaftesbury’s earlier call for a new national style is one indication that the English Palladian reaction against the continental Baroque - which was associated with absolutism - was already in motion. Campbell grasped the needs of the English Whig aristocracy and had an instinct for the simple boxlike composition. He consolidated this success through his book Vitruvius Britannicus. The Palladian style lent itself to “literary transmission”, through outline engravings, and this in turn reinforced the trend to geometrical outlines and simple classical details. Vitruvius Britannicus, in fact, featured the older native Baroque tradition of Wren and Vanbrugh alongside Palladianism. Campbell’s own designs for Mereworth, which is based on Palladio’s famous Villa Rotonda, incorporates elements of the Baroque and diverges from the more dog¬matic plainness of the other great Palladian, Lord Burlington.

List of major buildings / works:
Shawlield Mansions, Glasgow, 1711-12.
Wanstead House, Essex, c.1714-20.
Rolls House, Chancery Lane, London, 1717-24.
Ebberston Lodge, Scarborough, Yorks., 1718.
Gateway to Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, 1718-19.
31- 33 Old Burlington Street, London, 1718-23.
Stourhead, Wilts., c.1720-24.
Mereworth Castle, Kent, c.1722-5.

Bibliography:
Colen Campbell. Vitruvius Brawn:tens or The British Architect, 1716-25. H. E. Stutchbury, The Architecture of Colen Campbell, Manchester, 1967.
P Breman and D. Addis, Guide to Vitruims Britannicus, New York, 1972.
R. Wittkower, Palladio and I:nctlish Palladianism, London, 1974.