Quinlan Terry

Quinlan Terry CBE
Quinlan Terry in 2018
Born	John Quinlan Terry (1937-07-24)24 July 1937 Hampstead, London,England
Occupation	Architect
Practice	Dedham, Essex, England
Projects	10 Downing Street, London, England. (1980’s interior refurbishment)

The 1992 Maitland Robinson Library atDowning College,Cambridge,designed by Terry

John Quinlan TerryCBE(born 24 July 1937) is a British architect. He was educated atBryanston Schooland theArchitectural Association School of Architecture.He was a pupil of architectRaymond Erith,with whom he formed the partnershipErith & Terry.

Quinlan Terry is a well-known representative ofNew Classical architectureand the favourite architect ofKing Charles III.He has a keen interest in how traditional architecture contributes to the debate on sustainability and has lectured frequently on the subject.

Quinlan Terry continues to practise full time with partners Roger Barrell and Eric Cartwright under the name Quinlan Terry Architects LLP.

Work

Brentwood Cathedral

Richmond Riverside,London, 1984–87

In the United Kingdom

Terry works principally in classicalPalladianarchitectural styles. The firm, Quinlan Terry Architects LLP, continues the architectural style of the practice started by Raymond Erith in 1928, and specialises in high quality traditional building, mostly in classical idioms. The practice is based in Dedham, Essex, and employs a staff of twelve. A book about the firm's work, written by David Watkin, entitledRadical Classicism: The Architecture of Quinlan Terry(New York: Rizzoli International Publications), was published in 2006.

The first work by Raymond Erith in which Quinlan Terry had a major role was the new house, Kings Waldenbury, Hertfordshire, completed for the Pilkington family in 1971, when new building in a classical manner was deeply unfashionable with the architectural establishment (though it was more popular with the general public). During the three-year construction period of the house, Terry kept a diary, published later, in which he bemoaned the modern world and stoically defended his conservative, reformed, evangelical faith.

His design for the 1992Maitland Robinson LibraryatDowning College,Cambridge,won theBuilding of the Year Awardin 1994. One of his best known works isBrentwood Cathedralin Essex. This is a radical extension of a 19th-centuryRoman CatholicGothic revivalchurch is in theEnglish Baroquemanner owing much toJames GibbsandThomas Archerand makes little or no attempt to be in keeping with the older building. Terry's new work has aporticobased on the south portico ofSt Paul's Cathedraldesigned by SirChristopher Wren.Unusually, all five classical orders of architecture were used and Terry has said in lectures that he views classical architecture as an expression of the divine order.

During the 1980s he was appointed byMargaret Thatcher,then Prime Minister, to renovate the interiors of10 Downing Street,restored 40 years previously by Raymond Erith, Terry's teacher, after war damage. Terry's work there is more assertive than Erith's. InGloucestershire,he designed Waverton House, where he used the style made popular byMatthew Brettinghamin the late 18th century, featuring a central staircase lit from above, surrounded by rooms on both floors.

In 1989, he designeda series of three new villasfor theCrown EstateCommissioners in Outer Circle in London'sRegent's Park.Building in the park was controversial but said to be in the spirit ofthe Prince Regent's original though unrealised intentions for the park, which was to contain numerous villas forRegencycourtiers surrounding a new royal palace. Terry's three new villas have near-identical plans, based onPalladio'sVilla Saraceno,but the external elevations vary, showing respectivelyGothic,Italian Mannerist and muscularNeo-classicalfeatures in the manner ofWilliam Chambers.Six villas were eventually built between 1989 and 2002.

In the mid-1990s, Terry designed the restoration ofSt Helen's Bishopsgate,controversially turning the orientation of the medieval church through 90 degrees, moving or removing some fittings, and reworking its previousTractarianAnglicanlayout into aGeorgianstripped-back meeting house plan informed by the precepts ofReformationtheology, in tune with its current firmly evangelical congregation.

Also in the 1990s, he designed a castle forDavid and Frederick Barclayon their private island ofBrecqhouin the Channel Islands.

Terry designed the external envelope of New Margaret Thatcher Infirmary at theRoyal Hospital Chelsea,with Steffian Bradley Architectsas the lead consultant and planners for the building; a new Georgian Theatre for Downing College Cambridge; new offices, retail and residential development at 264–267Tottenham Court Road,London; offices and retail at 22Baker Street,London; and Queen Mother Square,Poundbury;and mixed use developmentRichmond Riverside.

In the United States

His works in the US include the Abercrombie Residence,a classical mansion based onMarble Hill House,Twickenham,London. Complete with apiano nobileapproached by an external staircase, it has a pediment supported byCorinthiancolumns. The house is constructed ofKasota limestone,withIndianalimestone dressings.

Appraisal

Terry's architecture was championed byDavid Watkin,who wrote the monographRadical Classicism: The Architecture of Quinlan Terry(2006), and byRoger Scrutonwho called it "one long breath of fresh air" in hisSpectatorarticle "Hail Quinlan Terry: our greatest living architect".

Quinlan Terry is the single most distinguished and prolific architect at work in the Classical tradition in either Britain or the United States. He has attempted more completely than any other architect in Britain to pull the rug from beneath the false certainties of Modernism.
– David Watkin (2006).Radical Classicism: The Architecture of Quinlan Terry

Conversely, Terry has been the subject of considerable criticism. A 2015 article in theRoyal Institute of British Architects(RIBA)Journalquoted the late architectural historianGavin Stamp,author of thePiloticolumn in the magazinePrivate Eye,in which Stamp derided Terry's work as "stiff, pedantic and uninspiring, classical details stuck on to dull boxes".The cultural criticJonathan Meades,in a 2020 article inThe Critic,repeated Stamp's strictures and dismissed Scruton's praise, "[a man] who had no eye", as "embarrassingly silly";whileStephen Bayleyis among those who have attacked the close relationship between Terry and the Prince of Wales. In a column inThe Guardianin 2009, Bayley mocked the Prince's circle of architectural advisers as "a coterie of fogeyish misfits, dreamers, forelock-tugging courtiers, DIY specialists, greasy pole-climbers [and] short-sighted antiquarians", reserving particular scorn for Terry, "a specialist in architectural pastiche [whose] modesty and art are in inverse proportion".

Honours

In 2003 Terry won the Best Modern Classical House 2003, awarded by the BritishGeorgian GroupforFerne HouseinWiltshire.In 2005 Terry won the 3rd AnnualDriehaus Prize,the most prestigious award for outstanding classical and traditional architects. He holds the Philippe Rothier European Prize for the Reconstruction of the City of Archives d'Architecture Moderne (1982).

He was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire(CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to classical architecture.

See also

• New Classical architecture
• Brentwood Cathedral
• Downing College, Cambridge
• A Classical Adventure: The Architectural History of Downing College, Cambridge
• St Helen's Bishopsgate
• Hotham House– Richmond Riverside
• Francis Terry– His son, also an architect

Further reading

• Rawle, Tim(author), Rawle, Tim; Sinclair, Louis (photographers),Adamson, John(editor).A Classical Adventure: The Architectural History of Downing College, Cambridge,Cambridge, The Oxbridge Portfolio, 2015, 200 pp.ISBN978-0-9572867-4-0OCLC931005141
• Watkin, David.The Practice of Classical Architecture: The Architecture of Quinlan and Francis Terry, 2005–2015.New York: Rizzoli, 2015,ISBN978-0-8478-4490-6.
• Watkin, David.Radical Classicism: The Architecture of Quinlan Terry.New York: Rizzoli, 2006,ISBN978-0-8478-2806-7

External links

• Quinlan Terry Architects LLP