Charles Heathcote Tatham
Encyclopedia
Charles Heathcote Tatham (8 February 1772, Westminster
, London - 18 April 1842, London), was an English
architect
of the early nineteenth century.
in County Durham
, by his wife Elizabeth Bloxham, the daughter of a well to do hosier in Cateaton Street. The father was first a "Spanish merchant", went bankrupt, became a horse breeder in Essex, went bankrupt again, and was then asked in 1779 by Captain (afterwards Lord) Rodney
, whom he had sheltered from his creditors “a great deal of his time” at Havering, if he would like to be his secretary in his command of the Leeward Islands
fleet. Ralph Tatham, at 47, rose to the challenge, accepted, and set out for Portsmouth. Unfortunately he fell ill on the way and died of cholera at the Castle & Falcon in Aldersgate Street.
Charles was educated at Louth grammar school in Lincolnshire
(Lincs), as was his elder brother Henry, later a gun-maker and sword-cutler by Charing Cross; his eldest brother Thomas became a cabinet maker and "upholsterer to the Prince Regent
", his brothers William and John respectively a naval officer and a London solicitor.
, architect and surveyor. Learning nothing there, as he thought, he ran away, and returned to his mother's lodgings, where he remained working hard for a year or more at the five orders of architecture
and French ornament and studying mathematics.
When he was nearly 19 Henry Holland
, the Prince of Wales
's architect in the alterations of Carlton House
and the Pavilion
, Brighton, received him into his house, and two years later offered him £60 a year for two years to enable him to pursue his studies at Rome. He was introduced to Holland through his relative John Linnell (1729–1796) who was in charge of one of London's leading cabinet-maker and upholsterer's firms and a rival to Thomas Chippendale. At Holland's office Tatham designed and drew at large all the ornamental decorations for Drury Lane Theatre
. The whole proscenium
was marked off from his drawings by Charles Catton the younger
, who painted the designs in fresco. The executed design for the boxes in the theater were by John Linnell and they survive at the V&A in the Print Room.
Together with Samuel Wyatt
he also designed Dropmore House
in Buckinghamshire
which was built in the 1790s for Lord Grenville
, later the Prime Minister
who pushed through the law abolishing the slave trade.
With Holland's help, and a loan of £100 from John Birch, surgeon-extraordinary to the king, he felt justified in May 1794 in starting for Italy. Until 1797 he spent his time industriously, chiefly in Rome
and Naples
in company with Signor Asprucci, architect to Prince Borghese
and Don Isidoro Velasquez, an exhibitioner from the academy of Madrid, both, like Tatham, students of classical architecture.
Tatham's chief friends during his stay in Italy were Canova, Madame Angelica Kauffmann
and her husband; Abbate Carlo Bonomi
, brother of Joseph Bonomi, RA ; Sir William
and Lady Hamilton at Naples; and lastly, Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle
, to whose long friendship and patronage he owed much of his success. He left Rome a month or so before Bonaparte
's first attack on the papal states in 1797; returning through Dresden, Berlin, and Prague, and making architectural drawingson the way. As the result of his studies he etched and published in 1799 Ancient Ornamental Architecture at Rome and in Italy. A second edition, containing more than a hundred plates, appeared in 1803, and a German translation was published at Weimar in 1805.
His old master, Holland, had also commissioned him to collect in Italy antique fragments relating to ornamental architecture. He got together a noble assemblage, which was brought to England two years later. Tatham published a description of them in 1806. As of about 1895, they, along with his own collection of architectural drawings made at the same time, were in the collection of Sir John Soane in Lincoln's Inn Fields
. Tatham first exhibited at the Royal Academy
in 1797, and continued to do so until 1836, contributing in all fifty-three designs.
On 15 August 1799 the treasury issued a general invitation to artists to send competitive designs for a national monument of a pillar or obelisk two hundred feet high upon a basement of thirty feet "in commemoration of the late glorious victories of the British navy." Tatham sent in three designs. Finding, after more than two years had passed, that no decision had been made, he published them as etchings, with descriptive text and a dedication to the Earl of Carlisle
, in 1802. The project ultimately took shape in the Nelson's Column
in Trafalgar Square
, William Railton
in 1843.
In 1802 Tatham designed the sculpture gallery at Castle Howard
, and did work at Naworth, Cumberland
, for the Earl of Carlisle; and in 1807 the picture gallery at Brocklesby, Lincolnshire, for Lord Yarborough. His etchings for the designs of these galleries, both in the severe classical style in vogue at the time, were published in 1811. Before 1816 he designed for the Duke of Bridgwater the portion of Cleveland House
, St. James's, which lay to the west of the gallery.This building was destroyed when Sir Charles Barry
designed the later Bridgwater House in 1847.
Tatham moved from 101 Park Street, Mayfair, first to York Place, and then to a house with a beautiful garden in Alpha Road, which he built for himself. He lived on intimate terms with Thomas Chevalier, surgeon to George III, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Samuel Bagster the publisher, and John Linnell
.
At the same time he was apt to be masterful and litigious in professional matters, and engaged in lawsuits most unwisely with more than one of his employers. Refusing work for builders and others, he lost his practice. In 1834 he fell into pecuniary difficulties and his house and collection of objects of interest were sold, and at the age of 62 it seemed that he would have to begin life anew. His friends, however, the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville
, the Duchess of Sutherland and others rallied round him, and in 1837 obtained for him the post of warden of Holy Trinity Hospital, Greenwich
, where he ended his days happily and usefully.
, sculptor and afterwards portrait-painter, exhibited forty-eight pictures in the Royal Academy between 1825 and 1854. He was the close friend of William Blake
and his wife. His second son, Arthur, was for more than forty years rector of Broadoak and Boconnoc in Cornwall, and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral
. His second daughter, Julia, in 1831, married George Richmond
the portrait-painter, the father of Sir William Blake Richmond
, KCB RA.
Tatham, who was member of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome, of the Institute of Bologna, and of the Architects' Society of London
, left behind him copious reminiscences which had not been published by 1895. Also around 1895, a portrait of Tatham by Thomas Kearsley was in possession of his grandson, the Rev. Canon Richmond, and recently purchased at Sotheby's by his twice great-great-great grandson William Rann Kennedy. Also a large crayon portrait by Benjamin Robert Haydon was in the print-room of the British Museum.
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, London - 18 April 1842, London), was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of the early nineteenth century.
Early life
He was born in Duke Street, Westminster, the youngest of five sons of Ralph Tatham who had come to London from StocktonStockton-on-Tees
Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...
in County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
, by his wife Elizabeth Bloxham, the daughter of a well to do hosier in Cateaton Street. The father was first a "Spanish merchant", went bankrupt, became a horse breeder in Essex, went bankrupt again, and was then asked in 1779 by Captain (afterwards Lord) Rodney
George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney
George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782...
, whom he had sheltered from his creditors “a great deal of his time” at Havering, if he would like to be his secretary in his command of the Leeward Islands
Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...
fleet. Ralph Tatham, at 47, rose to the challenge, accepted, and set out for Portsmouth. Unfortunately he fell ill on the way and died of cholera at the Castle & Falcon in Aldersgate Street.
Charles was educated at Louth grammar school in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
(Lincs), as was his elder brother Henry, later a gun-maker and sword-cutler by Charing Cross; his eldest brother Thomas became a cabinet maker and "upholsterer to the Prince Regent
Prince Regent
A prince regent is a prince who rules a monarchy as regent instead of a monarch, e.g., due to the Sovereign's incapacity or absence ....
", his brothers William and John respectively a naval officer and a London solicitor.
Career
Returning to London at the age of 16, he was engaged as a clerk by Samuel Pepys CockerellSamuel Pepys Cockerell
Samuel Pepys Cockerell was an English architect. He was the son of John Cockerell, of Bishop's Hull, Somerset, and the brother of Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, for whom he designed the house he is best known for, Sezincote House, Gloucestershire, where the uniquely Orientalizing features...
, architect and surveyor. Learning nothing there, as he thought, he ran away, and returned to his mother's lodgings, where he remained working hard for a year or more at the five orders of architecture
Classical order
A classical order is one of the ancient styles of classical architecture, each distinguished by its proportions and characteristic profiles and details, and most readily recognizable by the type of column employed. Three ancient orders of architecture—the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—originated in...
and French ornament and studying mathematics.
When he was nearly 19 Henry Holland
Henry Holland (architect)
Henry Holland was an architect to the English nobility. Born in Fulham, London, his father also Henry ran a building firm and he built several of Capability Brown's buildings, although Henry would have learnt a lot from his father about the practicalities of construction it was under Brown that he...
, the Prince of Wales
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
's architect in the alterations of Carlton House
Carlton House
Carlton House was a mansion in London, best known as the town residence of the Prince Regent for several decades from 1783. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St. James's Park in the St James's district of London...
and the Pavilion
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion is a former royal residence located in Brighton, England. It was built in three campaigns, beginning in 1787, as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, from 1811 Prince Regent. It is often referred to as the Brighton Pavilion...
, Brighton, received him into his house, and two years later offered him £60 a year for two years to enable him to pursue his studies at Rome. He was introduced to Holland through his relative John Linnell (1729–1796) who was in charge of one of London's leading cabinet-maker and upholsterer's firms and a rival to Thomas Chippendale. At Holland's office Tatham designed and drew at large all the ornamental decorations for Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
. The whole proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
was marked off from his drawings by Charles Catton the younger
Charles Catton the younger
Charles Catton the younger was an English topographical artist, illustrator and theatrical scene-painter.-Life and work:...
, who painted the designs in fresco. The executed design for the boxes in the theater were by John Linnell and they survive at the V&A in the Print Room.
Together with Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt was an English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th and 19th century English architects, his work was primarily in a neoclassical style.-Career:...
he also designed Dropmore House
Dropmore Park
Dropmore Park together with Dropmore House are located along Dropmore Road, north of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England, and is about in size. The park with its buildings have Grade I listed building status. It is one of the most important buildings in south Bucks.-Location:It is located in the...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
which was built in the 1790s for Lord Grenville
George Grenville
George Grenville was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville was born into an influential political family and first entered Parliament in 1741 as an MP for Buckingham...
, later the Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
who pushed through the law abolishing the slave trade.
With Holland's help, and a loan of £100 from John Birch, surgeon-extraordinary to the king, he felt justified in May 1794 in starting for Italy. Until 1797 he spent his time industriously, chiefly in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
in company with Signor Asprucci, architect to Prince Borghese
Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese
Don Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese, Prince of Sulmona and of Rossano, Duke and Prince of Guastalla was a member of the Borghese family, best known for being brother-in-law to Napoleon.- Biography :...
and Don Isidoro Velasquez, an exhibitioner from the academy of Madrid, both, like Tatham, students of classical architecture.
Tatham's chief friends during his stay in Italy were Canova, Madame Angelica Kauffmann
Angelica Kauffmann
Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffman was a Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical painter. Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.- Early years :She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland,...
and her husband; Abbate Carlo Bonomi
Carlo Bonomi
Carlo Bonomi is an Italian voice actor, who provided the voices for the claymated TV series Pingu on SF DRS. He voiced all the characters without a script, using a language of noises which were dubbed Pinguinese, a voicing which he also used for La Linea. He voiced many other characters for the...
, brother of Joseph Bonomi, RA ; Sir William
William Hamilton (diplomat)
Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800...
and Lady Hamilton at Naples; and lastly, Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle
Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle
Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, KG, KT, PC was a British diplomat and the son of Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle and his second wife Isabella Byron....
, to whose long friendship and patronage he owed much of his success. He left Rome a month or so before Bonaparte
Bonaparte
The House of Bonaparte is an imperial and royal European dynasty founded by Napoleon I of France in 1804, a French military leader who rose to notability out of the French Revolution and transformed the French Republic into the First French Empire within five years of his coup d'état...
's first attack on the papal states in 1797; returning through Dresden, Berlin, and Prague, and making architectural drawingson the way. As the result of his studies he etched and published in 1799 Ancient Ornamental Architecture at Rome and in Italy. A second edition, containing more than a hundred plates, appeared in 1803, and a German translation was published at Weimar in 1805.
His old master, Holland, had also commissioned him to collect in Italy antique fragments relating to ornamental architecture. He got together a noble assemblage, which was brought to England two years later. Tatham published a description of them in 1806. As of about 1895, they, along with his own collection of architectural drawings made at the same time, were in the collection of Sir John Soane in Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, UK. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes...
. Tatham first exhibited at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in 1797, and continued to do so until 1836, contributing in all fifty-three designs.
On 15 August 1799 the treasury issued a general invitation to artists to send competitive designs for a national monument of a pillar or obelisk two hundred feet high upon a basement of thirty feet "in commemoration of the late glorious victories of the British navy." Tatham sent in three designs. Finding, after more than two years had passed, that no decision had been made, he published them as etchings, with descriptive text and a dedication to the Earl of Carlisle
Earl of Carlisle
Earl of Carlisle is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1322 when the soldier Andrew Harclay, 1st Baron Harclay was made Earl of Carlisle. He had already been summoned to Parliament as Lord Harclay in 1321...
, in 1802. The project ultimately took shape in the Nelson's Column
Nelson's Column
Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in central London built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian...
in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
, William Railton
William Railton
William Railton was an English architect, best known as the designer of Nelson's Column. He was based in London with offices at 12 Regent Street for much of his career.He was a pupil of the London architect and surveyor William Inwood....
in 1843.
In 1802 Tatham designed the sculpture gallery at Castle Howard
Castle Howard
Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, north of York. One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh...
, and did work at Naworth, Cumberland
Cumberland
Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
, for the Earl of Carlisle; and in 1807 the picture gallery at Brocklesby, Lincolnshire, for Lord Yarborough. His etchings for the designs of these galleries, both in the severe classical style in vogue at the time, were published in 1811. Before 1816 he designed for the Duke of Bridgwater the portion of Cleveland House
Cleveland House
The Cleveland House, located in Versailles, Kentucky, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.Originally the Cleveland Orphan Home, it was an orphanage that opened in 1869, remaining in operation until the 1950s. The original house was made of brick in Classic revival-style...
, St. James's, which lay to the west of the gallery.This building was destroyed when Sir Charles Barry
Charles Barry
Sir Charles Barry FRS was an English architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.- Background and training :Born on 23 May 1795 in Bridge Street, Westminster...
designed the later Bridgwater House in 1847.
Tatham moved from 101 Park Street, Mayfair, first to York Place, and then to a house with a beautiful garden in Alpha Road, which he built for himself. He lived on intimate terms with Thomas Chevalier, surgeon to George III, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Samuel Bagster the publisher, and John Linnell
John Linnell (painter)
John Linnell was an English landscape painter. Linnell was a naturalist and a rival to John Constable. He had a taste for Northern European art of the Renaissance, particularly Albrecht Dürer. He also associated with William Blake, to whom he introduced Samuel Palmer and others of the...
.
At the same time he was apt to be masterful and litigious in professional matters, and engaged in lawsuits most unwisely with more than one of his employers. Refusing work for builders and others, he lost his practice. In 1834 he fell into pecuniary difficulties and his house and collection of objects of interest were sold, and at the age of 62 it seemed that he would have to begin life anew. His friends, however, the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville
Thomas Grenville
Thomas Grenville PC was a British politician and bibliophile.-Background and education:Grenville was the second son of Prime Minister George Grenville and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet...
, the Duchess of Sutherland and others rallied round him, and in 1837 obtained for him the post of warden of Holy Trinity Hospital, Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, where he ended his days happily and usefully.
Family
Tatham married, in 1801, Harriet Williams, the daughter of a famous button-maker in St. Martin's Lane. By her he had four sons and six daughters. His eldest son Frederick TathamFrederick Tatham
Frederick Tatham was a British artist who was a member of the Shoreham Ancients, a group of followers of William Blake.The son of Charles Heathcote Tatham, an architect, Tatham and his brother and sister were all associated with the Ancients...
, sculptor and afterwards portrait-painter, exhibited forty-eight pictures in the Royal Academy between 1825 and 1854. He was the close friend of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
and his wife. His second son, Arthur, was for more than forty years rector of Broadoak and Boconnoc in Cornwall, and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....
. His second daughter, Julia, in 1831, married George Richmond
George Richmond
For the 21st century educator see George H. RichmondGeorge Richmond was an English painter.George Richmond was the father of the painter William Blake Richmond as well as the grandfather of the naval historian, Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond.A keen follower of cricket, Richmond was noted in one...
the portrait-painter, the father of Sir William Blake Richmond
William Blake Richmond
Sir William Blake Richmond KCB , English painter and decorator, was born in London. His father, George Richmond, R.A...
, KCB RA.
Tatham, who was member of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome, of the Institute of Bologna, and of the Architects' Society of London
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
, left behind him copious reminiscences which had not been published by 1895. Also around 1895, a portrait of Tatham by Thomas Kearsley was in possession of his grandson, the Rev. Canon Richmond, and recently purchased at Sotheby's by his twice great-great-great grandson William Rann Kennedy. Also a large crayon portrait by Benjamin Robert Haydon was in the print-room of the British Museum.