John Carr

John Carr (1723 – 22 February 1807) was an English architect. He is best known for Buxton Crescent in Derbyshire and Harewood House in West Yorkshire. Much of his work was in the Palladian style. In his day he was considered to be the leading architect in the north of England. Dr. Ivan Hall published in 2023 a study of John Carr after a lifetime's work (John Carr of York: Collected Essays).

Life

He was born in 1723 in Horbury near Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest of nine children and the son of a master mason, under whom he trained. He started an independent career in 1748 and continued until shortly before his death. John Carr was Lord Mayor of York in 1770 and again in 1785. Towards the end of his life Carr purchased an estate at Askham Richard, near York, to which he retired. On 22 February 1807 he died at Askham Hall. He was buried in St Peter and St Leonard's Church, Horbury, which he had designed and paid for.

Career

Carr decided to remain in Yorkshire rather than move to London because he calculated that there was ample patronage and the wealth to sustain it. His largest work, only partially finished, was the Hospital de Santo António in Porto, Portugal. In order to maximise his income, he kept his staff to the minimum. His earliest assistant was architect William Lindley, who from 1774 developed an independent practice. He was followed by the elder Peter Atkinson and possibly his son Peter the younger. Carr's nephew William Carr also assisted him in his latter years. These architectural assistants had in turn 'boys' to help them. Carr rarely delegated matters that others would regard as too trivial, and in consequence he had to travel immense distances, mostly on horseback; however, the frequency of such visits brought him into regular contact with his many clients to mutual advantage.