Hopper, Thomas

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

[br]

b. 1776 Rochester, Kent, England

d. 11 August 1856 London, England

[br]

English architect whose large practice produced Gothic Revival work.

[br]

Like so many of his contemporaries, Hopper made extensive use of cast iron, both structurally and decoratively. A notable example of this was his Conservatory, added to Carlton House in London in 1807–12 for the Prince of Wales: it was demolished in 1827–8. Constructed with cast iron and stained glass, the Conservatory took the form of slender, tall piers supporting an elaborate fan vault, the design of which was based upon that of the sixteenth-century Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey.

[br]

Further Reading

H.Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, 1600–1840, London: John Murray.

Henry Russell-Hitchcock, 1977, Architecture, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, London: Penguin.

DY