Architects’ Albums and Architectural Practices in England, c. 1660-1720

Howard Colvin claimed that Sir Christopher Wren’s personality as an architect emerges from his architecture. However, evidence of how he conducted the affairs of his Office is limited. This thesis attempts to show how Wren conducted his Office as told through four manuscript albums. These sources recover the everyday practices of the architects trained under Wren’s supervision and counsel during his Surveyorship of the Royal Works, an office he presided over from 1669 to 1718. The albums were made and used by his architects working as officers employed in Wren’s Office of Works, chiefly the offices at Whitehall, in Scotland Yard, and St Paul’s in the City of London. I employ a material culture methodology to analyse the albums, which recover learning, drawing, designing, and administrating processes, revealing new architectural histories and professional practices enacted in the period. Each chapter examines one primary album source and relates it to various production sites, the physical spaces of Wren's Office of Works and major building sites across England. Along the way, new facets of Wren's architects and the building projects he oversaw during his fifty-year tenure are brought to light. The sequence of the chapters follows the trajectory of Wren's most highly trained architects––Nicholas Hawksmoor and William Dickinson. It is concerned with how they worked in England’s most professional architectural setting and how Wren 'bred up' domestic architects through the course of his Office.