James Essex

James Essex (1722–1784) was an English builder and architect who worked in Cambridge, where he was born. He designed portions of many colleges of the University of Cambridge, and carried out major restorations of the cathedrals at Ely and Lincoln. He was an admirer of Gothic architecture, and assembled materials for a history of the style, though the book remained unpublished.

Essex was born in Cambridge in August 1722, the son of a builder of the same name who had fitted the sash windows and wainscot in the Senate House (1724-5), under James Gibbs, and had worked on the hall of Queens' College, Cambridge (1732-4). He had a grammar education at the school of King's College, Cambridge, and then studied under Sir James Burrough. When his father died in February 1749, Essex took over his business, and, in September 1749, built the Mathematical Bridge at Queens' College.

For the next 25 years he was occupied with work for Cambridge colleges. In 1751 he fitted up the "dome room" at the library for manuscripts; in 1754 he rebuilt the Magdalene Street Bridge; in 1757 he designed and built the Ramsden Building at St. Catharine's College in a design matching that of the late 17th century parts of the college; and in 1758 he repaired and altered Nevile's Court at Trinity College. In 1760 he designed and built the new west range at Queens' College, a white brick building described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "impeccable of its kind but somewhat dull". His plans to extend the new structure northwards, in place of the existing fifteenth century buildings, were never carried out. In 1764 he repaired and altered the hall at Emmanuel College; in 1766 he designed and built the stone bridge at Trinity College; in 1768 he completed the west end of the Senate House, left unfinished by Gibbs. In 1769 he ashlared the first court of Christ's College and completed the chapel at Clare College after the death of Burrough. In 1775, he rebuilt the former Great Hall of Trinity College as the new "Combination Room" with an ashlared Classical front towards the Great Court, and designed and built the west front of Emmanuel College. In 1776 he designed and set up the altarpiece at King's College, with the wainscot round the sacrarium, and altered the south side of the first court of St John's College; between 1778 and 1782 he made the bookcases for the library, and designed and built the chapel at Sidney Sussex College; and in 1784 he designed and built the old Cambridge Guildhall.

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