The reputation of Nicholas Hawksmoor as an architect has suffered long neglect.
Owen Hopkins (right), the curator of architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, sought to persuade a packed audience in the Arts Festival’s Lamb House Marquee last week that his subject was far from being a second-rate architect, and deserved much better than the dubious compliment of being called ‘Christopher Wren’s builder’.
Hawksmoor’s style was monumental, almost grotesquely so, but he produced some notable London landmarks, not only churches with enormous towers, but also somewhat surprisingly the twin west towers added to the medieval Westminster Abbey, completed in 1745.
His work fell quickly out of favour as the Palladian school came into fashion, and only recently has he again become recognised for his significant architectural contribution to the streetscape and skyline of London .The talk was sponsored by the Rye Conservation Society.
Photo: Kenneth Bird