John Thorpe facts for kids

John Thorpe (who sometimes spelled his name Thorp) was an important English architect who lived from about 1565 to 1655. He was active as a designer and surveyor between 1570 and 1618.

About John Thorpe's Life and Work

We don't know a lot about John Thorpe's life. Most of what we think he designed comes from a special book of drawings. This book is kept at the Sir John Soane's Museum. A writer named Horace Walpole first talked about this book in 1780. However, it's not always clear which drawings were truly Thorpe's own ideas.

Buildings Attributed to John Thorpe

Thorpe worked on many important English houses during his time. Some buildings, like Longleat, were once thought to be his work. But we now know this isn't true because they were built before he was even born!

When he was just five years old in 1570, John Thorpe helped lay the first stone for Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire. His father was the main builder for that project. Thorpe probably designed several other famous houses. These include Charlton House in London and the original Longford Castle in Wiltshire. He also likely designed Condover Hall and the first Holland House in Kensington. People also say he worked on Rushton Hall and Audley End with another architect named Bernard Janssens.

Thorpe's Big Idea: The Corridor

John Thorpe made a huge, but often unnoticed, contribution to how houses are built. In 1597, he designed a house in Chelsea, London, with a simple idea: the corridor. This new design allowed people to get to each room independently. Before Thorpe, houses often had rooms that led directly into one another. This was called an enfilade arrangement. You had to walk through one room to get to the next.

The corridor idea meant more privacy and easier movement. It became very popular in England. However, in other parts of Europe, the old enfilade style stayed common for a long time. Some historians think Thorpe got his idea from the covered walkways in old monasteries. These walkways, called cloisters, often had rooms off to one side.

Later Career

Thorpe later joined the Office of Works as a clerk. This office was in charge of royal buildings. After that, he worked on his own as a land surveyor. This meant he measured and mapped out land. In 1605, a nobleman called the Earl of Dorset asked Thorpe to survey land. He also asked him to draw plans for rebuilding Ampthill. This was for Anne of Denmark, who was the Queen, and her son, Prince Henry.

From 1611, Thorpe worked as an assistant to Robert Tresswell. Tresswell was the Surveyor-General of Woods for the southern part of England. Thorpe retired in the 1630s. He lived to be very old, passing away around 1655.

Buildings Designed by John Thorpe

Here are some of the buildings John Thorpe is known for designing or working on:

• Ampthill Park House, Bedfordshire
• The Jacobean Royal extension at Apethorpe Palace, Northamptonshire
• Aston Hall, Aston
• Audley End, Essex
• Bramshill House, Hampshire (it's thought he designed this one)
• Thornton College, Lincolnshire (for Sir Vincent Skinner, around 1607-1610)
• Charlton House, London
• Holland House, Kensington
• Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire
• Longford Castle, Wiltshire
• Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire
• Somerhill House, Kent

Gallery

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  Charlton House, Greenwich

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  Holland House, Kensington, it was bombed in the London Blitz and only a wing survives

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  Longford Castle, Wiltshire

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  Audley End, Essex, this is the surviving fragment, there used to be a great courtyard in front of this range of buildings

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  Somerhill House, Kent, designed by Thorpe in 1611