John Phillips was a prominent English master carpenter, builder, and architect who was active in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

He inherited the considerable practice of his uncle, Thomas Phillips (c. 1689–1736), who was active as a speculative builder on the Harley estate

Harley Street

Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...

, held the contract for carpentry and joiner's work at James Gibbs

James Gibbs

James Gibbs was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Scotland, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England...

' St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Its patron is Saint Martin of Tours.-Roman era:Excavations at the site in 2006 led to the discovery of a grave dated about 410...

 and St Peter's

Marybone Chapel

The Marybone Chapel or Marylebone Chapel also known until 1832 as the Oxford Chapel after its founder Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and now known as St Peter's Vere Street, was a former Anglican church off Oxford Street, London. It was designed by James Gibbs in 1722...

, Vere Street

Vere Street, Westminster

Vere Street is a street off Oxford Street, in central London, England. It is a continuation of Welbeck Street. It is named after a family name of the area's owners at the time of its construction, the Earls of Oxford. It is best known for the Marybone Chapel, also known as the Marylebone Chapel...

, and built the wooden bridge across the Thames between Fulham

Fulham

Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...

 and Putney

Putney

Putney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

 (1729–30).
In partnership with George Shakespear, John Phillips developed Charles Street, Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

 (1750) and other blocks of land in London's West End

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

. Phillips was the "undertaker" for the whole north-west corner of the Grosvenor estate. Phillips built a grand house for Lord Bateman

Somerset House, Park Lane

Somerset House, Park Lane , was an 18th century town house on the east side of Park Lane, where it meets Oxford Street, in the Mayfair area of London, England...

 (1759–60) at the north end of Park Lane

Park Lane

Park Lane may refer to:*Park Lane , an investment bank in Los Angeles, California*Park Lane , a road in London, UK*Park Lane , a shopping mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia*Park Lane , a rugby stadium in Greater Manchester, UK...

, and next to it Camelford House (1773–74) for Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford

Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford

Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford was a British politician and connoisseur of art.-Early life:He was the son of Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc , a brother of William Pitt the Elder, and was born and baptised at Boconnoc in Cornwall on 3 March 1737. His mother was Christian, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas...

. A subcontractor for carving documented in 1773 was John Linnell

John Linnell (cabinet maker)

John Linnell , was an 18th-century cabinet-maker and designer.-Biography:Linnell was in charge of one of London's largest cabinet-makers firms of the 18th century with many important and prominent patrons. The Linnell firm was created in 1730 by William Linnell , and was inherited by his son John...

, a prominent cabinetmaker.

In Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, Phillips constructed James Gibbs's wooden dome for the Radcliffe Camera

Radcliffe Camera

The Radcliffe Camera is a building in Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in the English Palladian style and built in 1737–1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library.-History:...

 and provided refined joinery in the building (1742–50). Phillips and Shakespear were also responsible for the interior joinery of Christ Church Library

Christ Church Library

Christ Church Library is a Georgian building which forms the south side of Peckwater Quadrangle in Christ Church, Oxford, England. It houses the college's modern lending library and early printed books on two floors....

 (1752–62, illustration, right).

For James West, Phillips and Shakespear extended Alscot Park, Warwickshire, (1750–52), with a north wing and a rebuilt south wing (1762–66) in a Gothick manner

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 that Howard Colvin

Howard Colvin

Sir Howard Montagu Colvin, CVO, CBE , was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field.-Life and works:...

 finds akin to designs by Batty Langley

Batty Langley

Batty Langley was an English garden designer, and prolific writer who produced a number of engraved designs for "Gothick" structures, summerhouses and garden seats in the years before the mid-18th century.The eccentric landscape designer, who gave some of his numerous children names like Hiram,...

. For
Elizabeth, Countess of Portsmouth, Phillips and Shakespear demolished the east wings and parts of the north and south wings of Audley End.

In 1771–72, Phillips constructed the wooden bridge at Battersea

Battersea

Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

, under the direction of the architect 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...

. It was demolished in 1881.

During his career he held the post of Carpenter to His Majesty's Board of Works.

From his uncle, Phillips inherited the house in Brook Street that he occupied throughout his career; it survives as 39, Lower Brook Street, remodelled by a later occupant, Sir Jeffry Wyatville. In his retirement, he occupied and built Culham House, Culham, Oxfordshire

Culham

Culham is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire.-Manor:The toponym comes from the Old English Cula's hamm, referring to the village's position in a bend of the Thames...

, where his brother's descendants (John Phillips having died childless) joined the landed gentry

Landed gentry

Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....

, continuing to live there until 1935.

A sarcophagus

Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

 in Phillips's memory is in the parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 of East Hagbourne

East Hagbourne

East Hagbourne is a village and civil parish about south of Didcot and south of Oxford. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Manor:...

.