William Halfpenny

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Plate 55, "The Elevation of a Chinese Gazebo", from Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste, 1755, in which the word "gazebo" is first recorded in English
The Coopers' Hall, Bristol, one of the largest and most certain attributions to Halfpenny
The recreated Chinese Bridge at Croome Court, to Halfpenny's design
Black Castle, Bristol, perhaps by Halfpenny

William Halfpenny (active 1723–1755) was an English architect and builder in the first half of the 18th century, and prolific author of builder's pattern books. In some of his publications he described himself as "architect and carpenter", and his books concentrate on the practical information a builder would need, as well as addressing "gentleman draughtsmen" designing their own houses. They were a popular alternative to the very expensive architectural treatises by British authors such as

Palladio (Halfpenny published a short work "correcting" some of the latter's mistakes).[1] He also wrote under the name of Michael Hoare.[2]

Little is known for certain of his life, but he seems to have been based in

"Gothick" and "Chinese taste", as are several of the buildings attributed to him.[1]

Life and architectural work

Little is known of his life. In 1723, he was paid for a design for

Sir Andrew Fountaine, and in 1726 he submitted a design for a bridge across the River Thames at Fulham. Batty Langley mentions him in his book Ancient Masonry (1736) as "Mr William Halfpenny, alias Hoare, lately of Richmond in Surrey, carpenter."[2]

Halfpenny worked for a time in Ireland, in 1732 designing a horse barracks in

Hillsborough, County Down, for Lord Hillsborough, and in 1737 Garrahunden House, later demolished, near Bagenalstown, County Carlow, for Sir Richard Butler. In 1739 he made designs for buildings in Waterford and Cork.[2]

Most of Halfpenny's buildings, including several that may have been designed by him or his contemporaries, are or were located in and around Bristol, where he was probably based from about 1730 (his Perspective Made Easy, published in 1731, contains various views of the city).[2] The Coopers' Hall, King Street, built from his designs in 1743–4, is the most notable and the only surviving building in the area which can positively be identified as his work. The coopers relinquished it in 1785, and it was later used as assembly rooms, warehouses and a Baptist chapel. Since 1972, the ground floor has formed the main entrance to the Bristol Old Vic theatre, and the upper floors house various theatre facilities.[3]

Only one other work which can be positively identified as Halfpenny's and of which traces survive is a "Chinese" bridge built for Lord Deerhurst (later

National Trust built a replica of the bridge, using Halfpenny's drawing, as part of a plan to recreate Capability Brown's original landscape.[5][6]

He died in debt in 1755.[2]

Buildings tentatively attributed to Halfpenny on stylistic grounds

Publications

His books deal almost entirely with domestic architecture, and especially with country houses in the

neo-Gothic and Chinoiserie fashions which were so greatly in vogue in the middle of the 18th century. His most important publications from the point of view of their effect upon taste,[14] all of them published in London and many reprinted during Halfpenny's lifetime, were:[15]

Several books were produced in collaboration with his son John Halfpenny. New Designs for Chinese Temples was a volume of some significance in the history of furniture, since, having been published some years before the books of Thomas Chippendale and Sir William Chambers, it disproved the statement so often made that those designers introduced the Chinese taste into Britain. Halfpenny stated distinctly that "the Chinese manner" had been "already introduced here with success."[14]

Illustration from critique of Halfpenny's Perspectiva facilitata published in 1734 Acta Eruditorum

Halfpenny's books were often the source for design details in 18th-century American houses as well, including Mount Clare in Baltimore County, Maryland, and the Chase–Lloyd House in Annapolis, Maryland.[16]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0271044195, 9780271044194, google books
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-300-12508-5
    .
  3. ^ Manser, José (1 December 1972). "Theatrical renaissance in Bristol". Design (288). Archived from the original on 3 September 2014.
  4. ^ Worcestershire by Alan Brooks and Nikolaus Pevsner, 2007, p.246
  5. ^ "University of Worcester ISE update, summer 2009, p.6". Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  6. ^ nationaltrust.org.uk/croome/features/whats-new
  7. ISBN 0755719085
    .
  8. ^ "British Listed Buildings entry". Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  9. ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus (1958). North Somerset and Bristol. London: Penguin Books. p. 470.
  10. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1280512)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 July 2019. Listing and photograph
  11. ^ "British Listed Buildings entry". Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  12. ^ "British Listed Buildings entry". Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  13. ^ "British Listed Buildings entry". Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  14. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Halfpenny, William". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 836.
  15. ^ "(Center for Palladian Studies in America) "Palladio and architectural pattern books in colonial America"". Archived from the original on 23 December 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  16. ^ The Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., "Palladio and Patternbooks in Colonial America." Archived 23 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine
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