Timothy Mowl

Timothy MowlFSA (born 1951) is an architectural and landscape historian. He is Emeritus Professor of History of Architecture and Designed Landscapes at theUniversity of Bristol,and Honorary Professor at theRoyal Agricultural University, Cirencester.He is also Director of AHC Consultants. He was awarded the Hawksmoor Medal of theSociety of Architectural Historians of Great Britainin 1987, was elected aFellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Londonin 1993, and served as a member of Council of theGarden History Societybetween 2002 and 2007. He is currently President of theAvon Gardens Trust.

Career

Timothy Mowl was educated at the Oxford School before taking degrees at the University of Bristol and Birmingham University. He studied for his doctorate in architectural history underSir Howard ColvinatSt John's College, Oxford.Mowl's career has included work as an Inspector forEnglish Heritage,an architectural consultant for theBath Preservation Trust,a journalist on theBath Chronicleand as a freelance architectural and garden historian. He taught in the departments of History of Art and Archaeology at the University of Bristol before taking early retirement in 2011.

He has published over thirty books on architectural history, landscape and garden history, biography, planning and conservation. His latest book, written with Julian Orbach, is a study of architectural schemes for Bath that never materialised -Unbuilt Bath: The City as it Might Have Been,published by Stephen Morris, 2023. He is currently working on a book entitledAll around is Fairy-ground - Pleasure and the Regency Garden,which will be published by Reaktion Books in 2026.

Publications

• Trumpet at a Distant Gate: The Lodge as Prelude to the Country House(withBrian Earnshaw), London: Waterstones, 1985.
• John Wood:Architect of Obsession(with Brian Earnshaw), Millstream Books, 1988.
• Bristol:Last Age of the Merchant Princes,Millstream Books, 1991.
• To Build the Second City: Architects and Craftsmen of Georgian Bristol,Redcliffe Press, 1991.
• Elizabethan and Jacobean Style,Phaidon, 1993.
• Palladian Bridges:Prior Parkand the Whig Connection,Millstream Books, 1993.
• Architecture Without Kings: The Rise of Puritan Classicism underCromwell(with Brian Earnshaw),Manchester University Press,1995.
• CheltenhamBetrayed,Redcliffe Press, 1995.
• Horace Walpole:The Great Outsider,John Murray, 1996.
• William Beckford:Composing for Mozart,John Murray, 1998.
• The Sack ofBathand After(with Adam Fergusson), Michael Russell, 1989.
• An Insular Rococo: Architecture, Politics and Society in Ireland and England, 1710–1770,(with Brian Earnshaw), Reaktion, 1999.
• Stylistic Cold Wars:BetjemanversusPevsner,John Murray, 2000 (paperback edition 2011).
• Gentlemen and Players: Gardeners of the English Landscape,Sutton Publishing, 2000 (revised editionGentlemen Gardeners: The Men Who Recreated the English Landscape Garden,2004).
• Historic Gardens ofGloucestershire,Tempus Publishing, 2002 (Reprinted 2005).
• Historic Gardens ofDorset,Tempus Publishing, 2003 (Reprinted 2004).
• Historic Gardens ofWiltshire,Tempus Publishing, 2004.
• Historic Gardens ofCornwall,Tempus Publishing, 2005.
• Historic Gardens ofWorcestershire,Tempus Publishing, 2006.
• William Kent:Architect, Designer, Opportunist,Jonathan Cape, 2006 (paperback - Pimlico, 2007)
• Bristol: City on the Edge,Frances Lincoln, 2006.
• Historic Gardens ofOxfordshire,Tempus Publishing, 2007.
• Historic Gardens ofNorthamptonshire,Tempus Publishing, 2008.
• Historic Gardens ofCheshire,Redcliffe Press, 2008.
• Historic Gardens ofStaffordshire,Redcliffe Press, 2009.
• Historic Gardens ofSomerset,Redcliffe Press, 2010.
• Historic Gardens ofWarwickshire,Redcliffe Press, 2011.
• Historic Gardens ofHerefordshire,Redcliffe Press, 2012.
• Historic Gardens ofCambridgeshire& The Isle ofEly,Redcliffe Press, 2013.
• Historic Gardens ofHampshire,Stephen Morris, 2015.
• Bristol Explored: Twelve Architectural Walks,Stephen Morris, 2015.
• Architect of Obsession: John Wood and the Creation of Georgian Bath,Stephen Morris, 2022.
• Unbuilt Bath: The City as it Might Have Been(with Julian Orbach), Stephen Morris, 2023