Stowe House - The House - The Architectural History

The Architectural History

The house is the result of four main periods of development these are:

• 1677-1683 under Sir Richard Temple, this involved the building of the central block. The architect was William Cleare who worked for Sir Christopher Wren as his chief joiner. The house was of brick four floors high including the basement and attics and thirteen bays in length.
• 1720s–1733 under Viscount Cobham, including the addition of the Ionic North tetrastyle Portico by Vanbrugh and the rebuilding of the north, east and west fronts. After Vanbrugh's death in 1726 work continued under William Kent it was probably he who designed the now demolished two-tier south portico that consisted of four Tuscan columns with four Ionic or Composite columns above.
• 1740s–1760 under Viscount Cobham, the expansion of both the western and eastern state apartments.
• 1770–1779 under Earl Temple having first obtained a design from Jacques-François Blondel for the new south front of the house, which did not meet with the Earl's approval, in 1771 Robert Adam produced a new design for the south front; this design was adapted and made more uniform by Thomas Pitt assisted by Giovanni Battista Borra and was finished in 1779. The interiors of the new state apartments were not completed until 1788, much of the interior work being by an Italian, Vincenzo Valdrè (1742–1814). At the same time, the final remodelling of the North Front was taking place; this involved the erection in 1770–1772 of the two twin quadrant colonnades of Ionic columns that flank the facade, these may be to Robert Adam's design. The northern ends of the colonnades are linked to screen-walls containing gateways by William Kent which were moved from the forecourt to this position and heightened in 1775 by Vincenzo Valdrè, the east gateway leads to the stable court the west to the kitchen court. At right angles to these walls stand the arches designed by Giacomo Leoni c. 1740; these were formal entrances to the gardens, they now lead to various buildings put up by the school.

The exterior of the house has not been significantly changed since 1779 although, in the first decade of the 19th century, the Egyptian Hall was added beneath the North Portico as a secondary entrance.