Architecture
Despite these early successes, Mylne never won the acclaim of his contemporaries Robert Adam (1728–1792) and William Chambers (1723–1796). Although he became a successful architect, he played only a minor role in the development of neoclassical architecture, which was led by Adam and Chambers. Mylne followed the French style of neoclassicism, rather than the "Adam style", and his work was also influenced by the post-Palladian buildings of English architect Isaac Ware (1704–1766). Mylne's influence on British architecture was limited, although the Irish architect Thomas Cooley (1740–1784) was Mylne's clerk at Blackfriars, and later produced designs which show the influence of Mylne's competition-winning Rome design.
Mylne designed a number of town houses and country houses, and a few public buildings. The first new country house was Cally, in Galloway, south-west Scotland, for James Murray of Broughton. Mylne had met Murray in Rome, and drew a set of plans while still there, although the house was built to a modified design. His largest country house was Tusmore, Oxfordshire, built in a Palladian style between 1766–1769 for William Fermor. Of his small town houses, the most successful is The Wick, in Richmond. Designed in 1775 for Lady St Aubyn, the house has oval dining and drawing rooms. From 1794–1797 Mylne built a house for himself, The Grove, at Great Amwell.
St Cecilia's Hall in Edinburgh was one of Mylne's first public buildings, built 1761–1763 for the Musical Society of Edinburgh. The oval, domed hall survives as part of Edinburgh University. Mylne's design for the City of London Lying-in Hospital, built 1770–1773, comprised a high central cupola flanked by pedimented blocks. Another public building, Stationers' Hall in London, was among his last architectural works, being refronted by him in 1800.
In 1766, Mylne was appointed Surveyor to St Paul's Cathedral, completed by Sir Christopher Wren some 55 years earlier. Nominated by the Lord Mayor of London, his salary was £50 a year. In this capacity, Mylne was responsible for erecting a monument to Wren, whose only memorial at the time was in the basement. The existing Latin epitaph, Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice (reader, if you seek his monument, look around you), was re-used on a tablet mounted on the organ screen in 1810, although this was destroyed in the Blitz. He purchased over 200 of Wren's drawings, with his own money, and had them bound and presented to the Cathedral, thus recording the building's history for posterity. On the death of Lord Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805, Mylne was partly responsible for the state funeral, building Nelson's sarcophagus in the Cathedral basement, although the design of the monument fell to James Wyatt of the Office of Works. Mylne, together with the manufacturer Matthew Boulton, arranged for a secret deposit of commemorative medals, of Boulton's making, to be placed inside the sarcophagus prior to Nelson's interment.
In November 1775 he was also appointed clerk of works at Greenwich Hospital, another Wren building, under the surveyor James Stuart. At Greenwich he cleared unsightly workshops from the grounds, and laid out a series of walkways. He was later accused by the Lieutenant Governor, Captain Baillie, of misusing funds and occupying space required by the Hospital's pensioners. Mylne responded by accusing Baillie of corruption, and the ensuing enquiry vindicated Mylne and led to the dismissal of Baillie in 1778. A fire the following January destroyed the chapel, but Mylne and his superior, James Stuart, failed to work together to design and build a replacement. Mylne made frequent requests to Stuart for drawings, but Stuart, who was gaining a reputation for drunkenness and unreliability, accused Mylne again of corruption and insulting behaviour. A second investigation again found no evidence, but it was clear that Mylne and Stuart could not work together. Stuart was the established figure, so it was Mylne, as the junior partner, who was dismissed. Disgusted at the outcome, he had to be forced from his offices, and successfully sued for damages.
He served as surveyor to Canterbury Cathedral.
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