Hugh May - Houses

Houses

At the Restoration of Charles II, May was rewarded for his loyalty by being appointed Paymaster of the King's Works on 29 June 1660. His architectural commissions came from Court acquaintances, and his first completed work was Eltham Lodge, Kent (1663–1664), for Sir John Shaw, Bt. Built in brick, with a stone pediment and Ionic pilasters, the double-pile house reflected Dutch influence. Cornbury House, Oxfordshire (1663–1668), was built in a similar style, but with a Corinthian pediment, for Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. May's most prominent house was Berkeley House, on Piccadilly, London (1664–1666, demolished 1733), for Lord Berkeley. It was again in the same style, but with the addition of quadrant colonnades, a feature derived from Palladio, and which was again much imitated. At Cassiobury, Hertfordshire (1674, demolished 1922), May added wings to the home of the Earl of Essex, and redesigned some of the interiors, giving the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons his first major commission. It is possible that May was the architect of the first Burlington House, for Sir John Denham, and he certainly advised the Earl of Burlington after he purchased the house in 1667. He was also involved in construction or alterations at Chilton Lodge, Berkshire (1666, rebuilt), Holme Lacy, Herefordshire (1673–1674), and Moor Park, Hertfordshire (1679–1684, rebuilt).

May's houses drew on contemporary Dutch classicism, as exemplified by the Mauritshuis (1636–1641), and introduced an economical, yet classically refined, style of house into England. Simpler than the work of Jones, or Pratt, the style was widely imitated, for example at Melton Constable, Norfolk (1665), or Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire (1681–1686). May's and Pratt's developments of Inigo Jones' works influenced their contemporary Sir Christopher Wren, and spread to Scotland in the work of Sir William Bruce.