Clarendon House in London

Sir Roger Pratt (1620â€"1684) was an English gentleman architect of the 17th century. Following the Great Fire of London, Pratt was one of the three commissioners appointed by King Charles II to oversee the rebuilding of the city. The other commissioners were Hugh May and Christopher Wren.

Little of Pratt's work remains intact. Horseheath Hall, Cambridgeshire, was rebuilt in 1663â€"65 by Sir Roger Pratt for William Alington, Baron Alington of Wymondley (d. February 1685). Nikolaus Pevsner states that Vitruvius Britannicus is wrong in assigning the house to Webb. It was a Classical eleven-bay house with a three-bay pediment, quoins, hipped roof, balustrade and belvedere on the roof. Kingston Lacy in Dorset was extensively altered by Sir Charles Barry, and Ryston Hall, near Downham Market in Norfolk was remodelled by Sir John Soane. Coleshill House in Oxfordshire was destroyed by fire in 1952.

Few records remain of Clarendon House in the City of Westminster, which was demolished in 1683, only 19 years after it was built in 1664 for Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.

External links

• National Trust | Buscot & Coleshill Estate | Early modern history National Trust
• City of Westminster - Clarendon Estate Middlesex Victoria County History
• The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction, available at Project Gutenberg.

Further reading

• Gunther, R.T. (Reprint 1972). The Architecture of Sir Roger Pratt. ISBN 0-405-08862-0
• Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England - Cambridgeshire, London, 2nd edition 1970, p.410-411.