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George Devey (1820,London – 1886,Hastings,Sussex)[1][2] was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was born and educated in London.
After leaving school he studied art, underJohn Sell Cotman and James Duffield Harding[3] with an ambition to become a professional artist, but later trained as an architect.
During his professional career Devey had a London office inGreat Marlborough Street, where he specialised in country houses and estate cottages and lodges.
His first important work, in 1850, was on a group of cottages at the entrance gate ofPenshurst Place in Kent, where he modified and added to existing buildings, to create a picturesque composition, with the intention of creating an illusion of genuine antiquity.[3]He worked extensively for the Duke of Sutherland atCliveden in Buckinghamshire where he designed lodges and cottages in the vernacular style of theSussexWeald. He often used tiles and timbers on external walls, in a way evocative or earlier periods, but always in a slightly differing way to the original. This style he adapted and personalised until it had his own distinctive stamp. Devey's style was later developed by other architects such asRichard Norman Shaw andCharles Voysey, both of whom studied under him, and were to become be founder members of theArts and Crafts movement a generation later.
He often tried to create an artificial impression of a building's age, and of its development over time, by combining the styles and materials of different eras. For instance at St Alban's Court atNonington in Kent he built a brick upper level over aragstone ground floor, the irregular join giving that gives the impression the stone part was from an earlier, ruined, structure.[3]
Despite having been in practice since the 1850s, business was slow until he was discovered by theRothschild family. This international dynasty of bankers would provide Devey with numerous commissions and ensure a steady stream of work.
Devey first appears in Rothschild account books as the architect for a new school atHulcott, and the rebuilding of the parsonage there. In 1863 he came to attention of Sir Anthony de Rothschild when he designedBuckland School for the vicar Edward Bonus on a site donated by the Rothschilds. He succeededJoseph Paxton's son-in-lawGeorge H. Stokes asBaron Mayer de Rothschild's architect for the estate village atMentmore, designing the stables and riding school there between 1869 and 1870. After the Baron's death in 1877, Devey continued in the employ of his daughterHannah de Rothschild building cottages atWingrave and Mentmore. His most notable works on the Mentmore Estate are: Rosebery Arms atCheddington, the School House at Cheddington, and the Thatched Lodge, which stands at the end of a long avenue approach toMentmore Towers.
Devey was largely responsible forAscott House, a neo-Tudor extravaganza developed from a small half-timbered farmhouse. He began work there in 1874 forLeopold de Rothschild. This house, conceived as a small hunting box, expanded, the intention was to make the house seem as though it had grown and developed over centuries. Devey designed numerous half-timbered extensions. He was still working on the house at his death in 1886, when his partner James Williams took over the project. Ascott House is probably Devey's greatest monument, although further half-timbered extensions continued to be added to this house as late as the 1930s. Devey was also responsible for the large cottages on the Green, near the entrance of Ascott House, (now the Ascott Estate Office); these are very similar to those he designed at St. Albans's Court,Kent, in the late 1880s.
A further Rothschild house by Devey wasAston Clinton, where he worked with George Stokes. The Italianate house with its huge porte-cochere is now demolished, a casualty of thehuge country house demolitions of the 1950s. However, the Lodge and stables by Devey still stand, as does his West Lodge at Aston Clinton.
Although the records were destroyed inWorld War II, he is also believed to have worked on the "improvements" atTring Park between 1874 and 1878, which involved turning a house designed bySir Christopher Wren into adix-huitieme Frenchchateau complete withmansard roof. Devey later built a house very similar to the transformedTring in Lennox Gardens, London, for a Mrs. Hunloke.
Devey was capable of working on more than one project at a time. In 1876,Alice de Rothschild commissioned him to build her a house atEythrope in theVale of Aylesbury. After the plans were drawn up, his patroness decided water at night was bad for her health Since the house was in a bend of the River Thame, rather than abandon the site, she decided Devey must design a house without bedrooms, and she would decamp every evening to her brother's home,Waddesdon Manor. The result was the Eythrope WaterPavilion, one of the smaller of the Rothschild houses of Buckinghamshire, its design is an unostentatious complement to the great faux-chateau four miles away ofWaddesdon Manor. Today (with a bedroom wing added in the 1920s) it is the only Rothschild mansion still in private hands in theVale of Aylesbury. The Rothschilds also commissioned him to undertake work at their newly acquired propertyThe King's Head in Aylesbury itself. His work mainly consisted of creating what was considered a typical Tudor experience in the 14th century coaching inn, but actually followed Victorian conventions of the time. Much of his work here was not corrected until after the property was given to theNational Trust, when a more authentic Tudor appearance was restored, though elements of his design can still be seen. He designed[4] in Hampshire forGeorge Carnegie, 9th Earl of Northesk
Devey had an interest in garden design and played an important role in not only the houses he designed, but also in garden buildings andfollies. At Ascott this included the thatched half-timbered summer house, or skating hut overlooking the circularlily pool. He has also been credited with the design of the neo-Grecian temple terminating the avenue of mirrorherbaceous borders, but the style is to very different that he normally employed.
The Shropshire Archives hold an archive on the rebuilding ofAdderley Hall by Henry Reginald Corbet, who invited Devey "to inspect the old house of Adderley to make it habitable". Devey concluded that little could be done on account of its outlook and recommended it be pulled down and a new hall placed on an elevated position to the northwest. Devey's plans that were not to his clients' satisfaction and following discussions, led by Mrs Corbet, a new design was agreed.
In about 1875, Richard Henry Ainsworth employed Devey to extend and moderniseSmithills Hall, his home nearBolton.
Devey's father was a London solicitor whose family originated fromWorfield,Shropshire andPattingham,Staffordshire. His mother, Ann, was the daughter of Durs Egg, a London gunmaker born inSwitzerland and the artistAugustus Leopold Egg was a second cousin.
Little is known of Devey's personal life. As a young man, he had been in love with Flora Hoskins, the daughter of the vicar ofChiddingstone, nearPenshurst. He left her £5,000 in his will "on account of the engagement so cruelly broken off between us". In 1857, she married a clergy man, the Revd. H. W. Streatfield, of the Chiddingstone Castle family. He died in 1866 and Devey proposed to her again (according to W. H. Godfrey inR.I.B.A Journal, 3rd series, XII (1906), p. 505). Owing to "certain divergences he was preferred to as a friend". The divergences were probably religious. Devey later supported theTheistic Church of theRevd. Charles Vosey (father of the architectC. F. A. Voysey).[5]
He never married; on the1881 census he is recorded living with an elderly aunt, cousin and elder brother at 12 Pelham Crescent,Hastings. He died there in November 1886. While never a household name, in the world of architecture he does have considerable standing. There is no doubt that his style was the forerunner of thearts and crafts school of design.
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