William Halfpenny (active 1723–1755) was an English architect and builder in the first half of the 18th century, and prolific author of builder's pattern books. In some of his publications he described himself as "architect and carpenter", and his books concentrate on the practical information a builder would need, as well as addressing "gentleman draughtsmen" designing their own houses. They were a popular alternative to the very expensive architectural treatises by British authors such as
Colen Campbell and
James Gibbs
James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transi ...
, or foreigners such as
Serlio
Sebastiano Serlio (6 September 1475 – c. 1554) was an Italian Mannerist architect, who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau. Serlio helped canonize the classical orders of architecture in his influential treat ...
or
Palladio (Halfpenny published a short work "correcting" some of the latter's mistakes).
[Reiff, Daniel D., ''Houses from Books: Treatises, Pattern Books, and Catalogs in American Architecture, 1738-1950: A History and Guide'', 2010, Penn State Press, , 9780271044194]
google books
/ref> He also wrote under the name of Michael Hoare.
Little is known for certain of his life, but he seems to have been based in Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
, then in Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, and nearby London, perhaps also spending a period based in Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
. He also worked in Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. Few buildings can certainly be ascribed to him, and no major ones; then and now his main importance lies in his books, which were often reprinted, and copied by other authors. They reached British North America
British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English overseas possessions, English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland (island), Newfound ...
and were also influential there. He wrote and probably built in collaboration with his son John Halfpenny in the later years of his career. Several of his later books are on architecture in the "Gothick" and "Chinese taste", as are several of the buildings attributed to him.
Life and architectural work
Little is known of his life. In 1723, he was paid for a design for Holy Trinity Church, Leeds
Holy Trinity Church lies on Boar Lane in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church in the ''Parish of Leeds St George'' in the Diocese of Leeds. It was built in 1722–7, though its steeple dates f ...
which was never executed, and his book ''Practical Architecture'' (1724) was dedicated to Yorkshire landowner and Member of Parliament Sir Thomas Frankland. ''The Art of Sound Building'' (1725) was dedicated to the Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
ary official Sir Andrew Fountaine
Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676 in Salle, Norfolk – 4 September 1753 in Narford Hall, Narford), son and heir of Andrew Fountaine M.P. of Salle, Norfolk and Sarah Chicheley, one of the daughters of Sir Thomas Chicheley, was an English antiquarian, ...
, and in 1726 he submitted a design for a bridge across the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
at Fulham
Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...
. Batty Langley
Batty Langley (''baptised'' 14 September 1696 – 3 March 1751) was an English garden designer, and prolific writer who produced a number of engraved designs for " Gothick" structures, summerhouses and garden seats in the years before the mid-18t ...
mentions him in his book ''Ancient Masonry'' (1736) as "Mr William Halfpenny, alias Hoare, lately of Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
in Surrey, carpenter."
Halfpenny worked for a time in Ireland, in 1732 designing a horse barracks in Hillsborough, County Down
Royal Hillsborough (Irish: ''Cromghlinn'', meaning 'Crooked Glen' Patrick McKay, ''A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names'', p. 81. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, 1999.), more commonly known simply as ...
, for Lord Hillsborough
Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, (30 May 1718 – 7 October 1793), known as The 2nd Viscount Hillsborough from 1742 to 1751 and as The 1st Earl of Hillsborough from 1751 to 1789, was a British politician of the Georgian era.
Best known ...
, and in 1737 Garrahunden House, later demolished, near Bagenalstown
Bagenalstown ( ), officially named Muine Bheag (), is a small town on the River Barrow in County Carlow, Ireland.
History and name
The town grew within the townland of Moneybeg, from Irish ''Muine Bheag'' or ''Muinebheag'' (meaning "small t ...
, County Carlow
County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...
, for Sir Richard Butler. In 1739 he made designs for buildings in Waterford
"Waterford remains the untaken city"
, mapsize = 220px
, pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe
, pushpin_relief = 1
, coordinates ...
and Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
.
Most of Halfpenny's buildings, including several that may have been designed by him or his contemporaries, are or were located in and around Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, where he was probably based from about 1730 (his ''Perspective Made Easy'', published in 1731, contains various views of the city). The Cooper
Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to:
* Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels
Arts and entertainment
* Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads
* Cooper (video game character), in ...
s' Hall, King Street, built from his designs in 1743–4, is the most notable and the only surviving building in the area which can positively be identified as his work. The coopers relinquished it in 1785, and it was later used as assembly rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th century Britain, 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done ...
, warehouses and a Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
chapel. Since 1972, the ground floor has formed the main entrance to the Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a f ...
theatre, and the upper floors house various theatre facilities.
Only one other work which can be positively identified as Halfpenny's and of which traces survive is a "Chinese" bridge built for Lord Deerhurst (later the sixth Earl of Coventry) at Croome Park
Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown fo ...
, Worcestershire in 1747–48. Archaeology students at the University of Worcester
, motto_lang = la
, mottoeng = ''Aspire to Inspire''
, established = 1946 – Worcester Emergency Teacher Training College 1948 – Worcester Teacher Training College 1976 – Worcester College of Higher Education 1997 – ...
uncovered the substantial stone foundations of the bridge in summer 2009, and the National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
built a replica
A 1:1 replica is an exact copy of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without claiming to be identical. Al ...
of the bridge, using Halfpenny's drawing, as part of a plan to recreate Capability Brown's original landscape.
He died in debt in 1755.
Buildings tentatively attributed to Halfpenny on stylistic grounds
*King House, Boyle, County Roscommon
Boyle (; ) is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gar ...
, (1720–1730)
*The Ivy, Bath Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire (built for John Norris M.P. (died 1752) in 1728)
*Frampton Court, Frampton-on-Severn
Frampton on Severn is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. The population is 1,432.
Geography
The village is approximately south of Gloucester, at . It lies on the east bank of the River Severn, and on the west bank of the ...
, Gloucestershire (1731–33)
*Redland Chapel
Redland Parish Church is a Georgian church, built in 1742, in the Redland suburb of Bristol, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
History
It which was built, probably by John Strahan and completed by William Halfpenny, with plasterwork ...
in the Bristol suburbs has been attributed to Halfpenny, but it is more likely to have been designed by John Strahan
John Strahan was an architect working in Bristol and Bath, England in the early 18th century. He died around 1740.
List of works
* Shakespeare Public House, Bristol (1725)
* Combe Hay Manor Combe Hay 1728 to 1730
* Frampton Court, Frampton-on-Se ...
, the architect of Redland Court (now Redland High School for Girls
Redland High School for Girls was a selective and independent, non-denominational girls' school in the suburb of Redland, Bristol, England. The school merged with The Red Maids' School in May 2016, with the new merged school named Redmaids' H ...
), who died before the chapel had been completed. Halfpenny was recruited in 1742 to oversee the remaining work.
*No.3, Clifton Hill, Clifton
Clifton may refer to:
People
*Clifton (surname)
*Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
* Clifton, Queensland, a town
**Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
*Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
*Clifton, Nova Scotia ...
, Bristol, previously known as Clifton Court and now a nursing-home called Chesterfield (1742), a Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
*Stouts Hill
Stouts Hill is an 18th-Century Gothic revival country house situated in the Cotswolds, just outside the village of Uley.
Although there are records of one Adam le Stut settled here in the 13th century, the present house, built for the Gy ...
, near Uley
Uley is a village and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Elcombe and Shadwell and Bencombe, all to the south of the village of Uley, and the hamlet of Crawley to the north. The village i ...
, Gloucestershire (1743)
*Black Castle Public House
Black Castle Public House is a Grade I-listed building and public house on Junction Road in the Brislington suburb of the English city of Bristol. It is also known as Arno's Castle.
History
It was built in 1745—55 as a folly in the form of ...
, Brislington
Brislington is an area in the south east of the city of Bristol, England. It is on the edge of Bristol and from Bath. Brislington Brook runs through the area in the woodlands of Nightingale Valley and St Anne's Wood. Brislington formerly hou ...
, Bristol (1745–55)
*Church of St Margaret, Babington
The Church of St Margaret is a Grade I listed building, adjacent to Babington House in Babington, Somerset, England. The church is owned and operated by the St Margaret's, Babington, Charitable Trust, which is completely independent of the mana ...
, Somerset (c1748)
*an orangery or Gothick garden house, The Green, Frampton-on-Severn (c1750)
* Upton House near Tetbury
Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...
, Gloucestershire (1752)
Publications
His books deal almost entirely with domestic architecture, and especially with country houses in the neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
and Chinoiserie
(, ; loanword from French '' chinoiserie'', from '' chinois'', "Chinese"; ) is the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions, especially in the decorative arts, garden design, architecture, lite ...
fashions which were so greatly in vogue in the middle of the 18th century. His most important publications from the point of view of their effect upon taste, all of them published in London and many reprinted during Halfpenny's lifetime, were:
* ''Practical Architecture, or a sure guide to the true working according to the rules of that science'' (''ca'' 1724)
* (As 'Michael Hoare') ''The Builder's Pocket Companion'' (1728, 1731 etc.)
* ''The Art of Sound Building, demonstrated in Geometrical Problems'' (1732, 2nd ed. 1736, etc.)
* ''A New And Complete System of Architecture Delineated''; (1749, 1759 etc.)
* (with John Halfpenny) ''New Designs for Chinese Temples'', in four parts (1750–52)
* ''Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste'' (1750). This book is believed to have introduced the word "gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands.
Etymology
The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries is "Mid 18th c ...
" to the English language.
* ''Rural Architecture in the Gothick Taste'' (1752). This is essentially an expansion of ''Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste''
* ''Chinese and Gothic Architecture Properly Ornamented'' (1752)
* (with John Halfpenny) ''The Country Builder's Pocket Companion and Builder's assistant for Rural Decoraytive Architecture'' (1753, 1756)
Several books were produced in collaboration with his son John Halfpenny. ''New Designs for Chinese Temples'' was a volume of some significance in the history of furniture, since, having been published some years before the books of Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779) was a cabinet-maker in London, designing furniture in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs in a trade catalogue titled ''The Gentleman and Ca ...
and Sir William Chambers
__NOTOC__
Sir William Chambers (23 February 1723 – 10 March 1796) was a Swedish-Scottish architect, based in London. Among his best-known works are Somerset House, and the pagoda at Kew. Chambers was a founder member of the Royal Academy.
Bio ...
, it disproved the statement so often made that those designers introduced the Chinese taste into Britain. Halfpenny stated distinctly that "the Chinese manner" had been "already introduced here with success."
Halfpenny's books were often the source for design details in 18th-century American houses as well, including Mount Clare in Baltimore County, Maryland, and the Chase–Lloyd House
The Chase–Lloyd House is a historic house at 22 Maryland Avenue in Annapolis, Maryland. Built in 1769–1774, it is one of the first brick three-story Georgian mansions to be built in the Thirteen Colonies, and is one of the finest examples of ...
in Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...
.[ The Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc.]
"Palladio and Patternbooks in Colonial America."
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halfpenny, William
18th-century English architects
Year of birth unknown
1755 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
British architecture writers
Architects from Surrey