Famous British Architects

Architect Sir Christopher Wren had built over 50 churches in London, the most popular of them being the St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was a major force behind the formation of the Royal Society and was also knighted for his achievements. He was also a member of the English Parliament.

Norman Foster is an English designer and architect best known for his association with the progression of high-tech architecture. Regarded as an important personality in British modernist architecture, Foster has been granted several prestigious honors like The Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award. He also serves as the president of the Norman Foster Foundation which aims at helping young architects.

Scientist Robert Hooke, also called England's Leonardo, initially gained recognition as an architect, conducting surveys following the Great Fire of London. He also taught geometry and was part of the Royal Society. He assisted Robert Boyle and eventually developed his own microscope, thus becoming the first to visualize micro-organisms.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, and artist. He was married to fellow artist Margaret Macdonald, and they both were influential on the European design movements Art Nouveau and Secessionism. Mackintosh is considered one of the most important figures of Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style). In his later years, he worked largely as a watercolorist. 

Richard Rogers is an Italian-British architect best known for his functionalist and modernist designs in high-tech architecture. Rogers is recognized for his work on popular buildings like Lloyd's building in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and the building of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Thomas Jefferson Medal. 

Capability Brown was an English landscape architect and gardener. Regarded as the most popular figure in English landscape garden style history, Brown is also considered England's greatest gardener by many. Capability Brown is credited with designing more than 170 parks. His work had such an impact that the contributions of his predecessors William Kent and Charles Bridgeman are often overlooked.

Landscape architect Gertrude Jekyll was born into an affluent family and grew up in a refined environment, learning music and traveling. Initially interested in painting, she gave it up to focus on gardening when she developed eyesight problems. She built around 400 gardens and also collaborated with Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Augustus Pugin was an English designer, architect, artist, and critic. He is best remembered for his contribution to the Gothic Revival style of architecture. He is credited with designing the interior of the popular Palace of Westminster in London as well as the palace's iconic clock tower. Augustus Pugin also designed the Alton Castle in Staffordshire.

Inigo Jones was a British architect who played an important role in the early modern period. Regarded as England's first significant architect in the said period, Jones was the first person to make use of Vitruvian rules of symmetry and proportion in his buildings. He was also the first architect to introduce the architecture of the Italian Renaissance to Britain.

Tessa Kennedy is a British interior designer who works for prominent hotels, restaurants, multi-national corporations, clubs, celebrities, and royalty. She is credited with establishing her own company Tessa Kennedy Design, Ltd., which has received many design accolades. Tessa Kennedy made headlines in 1957 when she eloped with English portrait painter Bede Evelyn Dominick Elwes.

The founder of the London-based architecture firm Heatherwick Studio, Thomas Heatherwick is best known for his works such as the Seed Cathedral for the 2010 Shanghai Expo’s UK Pavilion and the 2012 Olympic Cauldron. A descendant of the owners of fashion brand Jaeger, he studied 3-D design and revolutionized architecture.

Landscape gardener Joseph Paxton initially worked for the duke of Devonshire, serving as a head gardener at the duke’s Chatsworth estate. However, his greatest contribution perhaps remains the Crystal Palace for the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. He also represented Coventry as a member of parliament.

English architect John Soane contributed immensely to the Neo-Classical style of architecture. Born to a bricklayer, Soane began training as an architect at 15. He soared to fame during his 45-year stint as an architect of the Bank of England and was also knighted for his achievements.

Robert Trent Jones had designed more than 250 golf courses across 40 countries. Born in England, he moved to the U.S. and later worked as a caddie. He began by designing the golf course at Cornell, his alma, and his name is now a trademark in the golf circuit.

Known for his planning of the city of New Delhi, the capital of India, English architect Edwin Lutyens had also built many English buildings, including war memorials and country houses. An area in Delhi has been named after him. Among his notable works was the Viceroy's House, which is now the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

David Adjaye is a Ghanaian-British architect known for designing several noteworthy buildings like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. In 2021, Adjaye became one of the youngest and the first African architect to be honored with the Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Herbert Baker was a British architect best remembered for shaping South African architecture during the 1890s and 1900s. He is also credited with designing some of the most notable government buildings in New Delhi. His work in Delhi, which includes the Parliament House and Viceroy's House, played a major role in establishing the city as the capital of British India.

George Gilbert Scott was a British architect best remembered for his contribution to the Gothic Revival style of architecture. Scott is credited with designing and altering over 800 buildings, including several churches and cathedrals. He served as the architect of several iconic edifices like The St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow.

Architect Sir Charles Barry was one of the significant figures of the Gothic Revival in England and is best known for his work on the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, or the Houses of Parliament. He also built King Edward’s School, the Athenaeum, and several gardens, among other major structures.

John Nash was a British architect of the Regency and Georgian eras, during which he designed several prominent areas of London using the picturesque and neoclassical styles. He is best remembered for designing popular edifices like Buckingham Palace, Marble Arch, and the Royal Pavilion. Nash also taught many future architects like John Adey Repton and James Pain.

Nicholas Hawksmoor was a major figure of the Baroque style of architecture in England. He collaborated with prominent architects of the time, such as Sir John Vanbrugh and Sir Christopher Wren, and also served as one of the chief architects of Westminster Abbey. His independent projects include six churches in London.

Apart from being a Baroque-style architect, John Vanbrugh was also a well-known dramatist of the Restoration era. His works include the iconic The Provoked Wife and The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger. His most-loved designs include Lord Carlisle’s Castle Howard in Yorkshire. A staunch Whig, he was also part of the Kit-Cat Club.

Ebenezer Howard was a British urban planner best remembered for his book Garden Cities of To-morrow. The book gave rise to the establishment of the garden city movement, which in turn influenced the development of several garden cities like Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City.

Giles Gilbert Scott was a British architect best remembered for his work on popular edifices like the New Bodleian Library, Liverpool Cathedral, Battersea Power Station, and Cambridge University Library. He is also credited with designing the archetypical red telephone box.

William Burges was a British architect and designer best remembered for building castles like Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch. Apart from designing castles, churches, and houses, William Burges also designed sculptures, metalwork, furniture, jewelry, and stained glass.

James Stirling was a British architect best remembered for his collaboration with fellow architects, James Gowan and Michael Wilford. Stirling is credited with overseeing prestigious projects like the University of Cambridge's History Faculty Library. Over the course of his illustrious career, James Stirling was honored with several prestigious awards, such as the Pritzker Prize and the Alvar Aalto Medal.

Apart from being a renowned architect, Michael Ventris was also a skilled cryptographer. He not only deciphered the Minoan Linear B script, but also linked it to the ancient Greek script. As an architect, he was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to design schools. He died in a car crash at 34.

David Chipperfield is a British architect best known for designing buildings like the River and Rowing Museum in Oxfordshire and the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri. He is also credited with establishing an architectural practice named David Chipperfield Architects, which has offices in London, Milan, Berlin, and Shanghai. Chipperfield has won many awards, including the Wolf Prize in Arts.

Architect Peter Cook is known as a co-founder of the avant-garde group of architects known as Archigram. One of his best-known ideas, as part of Archigram, was The Plug-In City, a concept that combined architectural principles with technology and society, though it was never physically built. He has been knighted, too.

Alison Smithson was one half of the renowned British architect duo Alison and Peter Smithson, the other half of which was her husband. They contributed immensely to the New Brutalism, or British Brutalism, style of architecture and also popularized themes such as streets in the sky.

British-American William Thornton was initially trained in medicine and that is when he began drawing and sketching as part of his medical notes. He later won a contest for the design of the Library Company of Philadelphia's new hall. He also designed the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Alfred Waterhouse was a British architect best remembered for his contribution to the Victorian Gothic Revival style of architecture. He is credited with designing iconic buildings like The Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall. Apart from earning the praises of the critics, Alfred Waterhouse was also one of the most financially successful Victorian architects of all time. 

William Kent was a British architect, painter, landscape architect, and furniture designer. After beginning his career as a court painter, Kent went on to establish himself as a prominent architect and introduced Palladian architecture to England. The gardens created by Kent at Chiswick House are one of the earliest models of the English garden. 

Denys Lasdun was a British architect best remembered for designing London's Royal National Theatre, which is one of the finest examples of Brutalist architecture in the United Kingdom. He is also credited with designing many schools and universities. In 1977, Denys Lasdun was honored with the prestigious Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).  

Born to an architect father, Cedric Price followed in his father’s footsteps and studied architecture at Cambridge. A fine teacher, too, he established the architecture schools’ network Polyark. One of his best-known early concepts was the Fun Palace, while the Potteries Thinkbelt was another of his innovative concepts.

Laurie Baker was an England-born Indian architect best remembered for his initiatives in energy-efficient, cost-effective designs and architecture that maximized ventilation and space while maintaining an uncluttered and striking aesthetic sensibility. Nicknamed the Gandhi of architecture, Baker promoted the use of local materials and the revival of regional building practices. He was honored with many awards like the Padma Shri.

James Gibbs, one of the most significant architects of his time, was trained in Rome and later merged the Italian and English styles of architecture. His best-known work includes the East Anglican St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London. While his works had elements of Baroque architecture, he was also influenced by Palladianism.

One of the greatest British architects of all time, Richard Norman Shaw contributed immensely to the English Domestic Revival movement and is best remembered for his country houses. The Bedford Park in London remains one of his best suburban planning projects. His works reflected Queen Anne Revival, Neo-Baroque, and Gothic Revival elements.