Roger Pratt (architect)
| Sir Roger Pratt | |
|---|---|
| Born | baptised 2 November 1620 Marsworth, Buckinghamshire |
| Died | 20 February 1684 Ryston, Norfolk |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Buildings |
Coleshill House Kingston Lacy |
Sir Roger Pratt (1620 – 20 February 1684) was an English gentleman-architect of the 17th century. He designed only five known buildings, but was highly influential, establishing a particularly English type of house, which was widely imitated. He drew on a range of European influences, and also on the work of Inigo Jones, England's first classical architect. Pratt also served on official commissions, and in 1668 was the first English architect to be knighted for his services.
Pratt was born to a landed Norfolk family, although he was baptised at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire, on 2 November 1620. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1637, and in 1639 was admitted to the Inner Temple, London. The following year he inherited his father's property in Ryston, Norfolk, but opted to leave the country to avoid the English Civil War, which broke out in 1642. Departing England in April 1643, he travelled in France, Italy, Flanders and Holland, studying architecture, and befriending the writer John Evelyn in Rome. Returning in 1649, after the execution of King Charles, Pratt returned to the Inner Temple, but continued the study of architecture.
In the 1650s Pratt became involved in the rebuilding of Coleshill House, Berkshire (c.1658–62; dem. 1952), the home of his cousin, Sir George Pratt. The house has been attributed to Inigo Jones, but although Jones is now primarily credited with the design, the execution was Pratt's.[4] The house is an example of the double-pile house, which was popular in seventeenth century England, and commended by Pratt since ‘it seems of all others to be the most useful … for that we have there much room in a little compass … and there may be a great spare of walling’ (Gunther, 24). Although a less effective example of the planning and the organization of circulation that Pratt was so interested in, the grand two-story staircase and the use of central corridors on each floor meant that suites of apartments could be separated and prevented private rooms having to act as passageways through the house. Most probably inspired by his travels, the house is a mix of Italian, French, Dutch and English architectural ideas and includes features such as the rooftop platform and cupola, dormered attics, half-sunk basement, astylar elevation, and symmetrically placed apartments. Palladian details are evident in the windows and cornices, and the "double-pile" plan is derived from Jones' Queen's House in Greenwich (1614–1617). The prominent chimneys and dormers, and the rusticated basement, are more French in inspiration, while the equal proportions of the storeys were an innovation, compared to the Palladian manner of emphasising a piano nobile, or principal floor.[4]
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