George Devey

George Devey (1820–1886) was a British architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was born and educated in London.

After leaving school he studied art, under John Sell Cotman and James Duffield Harding with an ambition to become a professional artist, but later trained as an architect.

During his professional career Devey had a London office in Great Marlborough Street, where he specialised in country houses and estate cottages and lodges.

His first important work, in 1850, was on a group of cottages at the entrance gate of Penshurst Place in Kent, where he modified and added to existing buildings, to create a picturesque composition, with the intention of creating an illusion of genuine antiquity. He worked extensively for the Duke of Sutherland at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire where he designed lodges and cottages in the vernacular style of the Sussex Weald. He often used tiles and timbers on external walls, in a way evocative or earlier periods, but always in a slightly differing way to the original. This style he adapted and personalised until it had his own distinctive stamp. Devey's style was later developed by other architects such as R. N. Shaw and Charles Voysey, both of whom studied under him, and were to become be founder members of the Arts and Crafts movement a generation later.

He often tried to create an artificial impression of a building's age, and of its development over time, by combining the styles and materials of different eras. For instance at St Alban's Court at Nonington in Kent he built a brick upper level over a ragstone ground floor, the irregular join giving that gives the impression the stone part was from an earlier, ruined, structure.

Despite having been in practice since the 1850s, business was slow until he was discovered by the Rothschild family. This international dynasty of bankers would provide Devey with numerous commissions and ensure a steady stream of work.

Devey first appears in Rothschild account books as the architect for a new school at Hulcott, and the rebuilding of the parsonage there. In 1863 he came to attention of Sir Anthony de Rothschild when he designed Buckland School for the vicar Edward Bonus on a site donated by the Rothschilds. He succeeded Joseph Paxton's son-in-law George H. Stokes as Baron Mayer de Rothschild's architect for the estate village at Mentmore, designing the stables and riding school there between 1869 and 1870. After the Baron's death in 1877, Devey continued in the employ of his daughter Hannah de Rothschild building cottages at Wingrave and Mentmore. His most notable works on the Mentmore Estate are: Rosebery Arms at Cheddington, the School House at Cheddington, and the Thatched Lodge, which stands at the end of a long avenue approach to Mentmore Towers.

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