Vanbrugh’s Alterations and Additions to Stowe House at Stowe House

Architect Francis Terry presents new research into Sir John Vanbrugh’s architectural contribution to Stowe House, reconsidering the scale and ambition of his designs and their later alteration. This talk is one of a lecture series held monthly, exploring shared themes from the individual perspectives of our speakers and reflecting the continuing debate that makes Stowe so compelling.

This lecture will explain the ideas and influences on a series of recently completed drawings by architect Francis Terry, that investigate and reconstruct Sir John Vanbrugh’s contribution to the architecture of Stowe House.

Vanbrugh’s involvement has long been obscured by limited surviving documentation and by extensive later alterations to the building. Working from a drawing of Stowe by Vanbrugh’s frequent collaborator, Charles Bridgeman, the early plans by William Cleere, and the Rigaud views of 1739, the lecture will explore how Vanbrugh sought to alter and adapt the existing late seventeenth-century house. The lecture will also re-examine Vanbrugh’s likely intentions for the North and South fronts, including towers, porticos, and colonnades that were later simplified or altered—possibly by James Gibbs following Vanbrugh’s death. Particular attention will be given to the ‘houses of office’ on the east and west ends, the only part clearly identified as Vanbrugh’s work. This study offers new insights into how much Vanbrugh’s bold Baroque vision was modified or erased within a few decades, as architectural taste shifted toward a more restrained Georgian classicism.