The Ingenious Mr Flitcroft

Part of the York Georgian Society 2024/2025 Autumn Lecture Series.

Henry Flitcroft (1697-1769) a leading Georgian architect in his own day, and a distinguished Palladian, was later dismissed as a mere follower of Lord Burlington. However, recent research has revealed more houses and churches designed by Flitcroft and uncovered decades long relationships with clients that include the Duke of Montagu, the Hoares of Stourhead, and the Royal Family. He largely worked in London and the West Country, but he played a very significant role in the creation of the Palladian exterior and interiors of Wentworth Woodhouse, near Doncaster, and yet again, new research has uncovered 100 drawings of the house and garden buildings. Gill Hedley, author of a new biography of Flitcroft will reveal some of this new research and give an account of the private and public life of this unjustly ignored figure, including his battles with Burlington and the Church hierarchy at St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey.

About the speaker: Gill Hedley was a museum curator for many years before joining the British Council as an exhibitions' organiser then running the Contemporary Art Society, acquiring works of art for regional museums. Since 2006, she has been freelance and in the last five years has written three books: a biography of Arthur Jeffress, an art collector; a history of church building post Waterloo; and, in late 2023, the biography of Henry Flitcroft. She writes regularly for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and is a Trustee of The Art Monthly Foundation.

All York Georgian Society lectures take place on a Saturday afternoon in the Medical Society Rooms in Stonegate, starting at 2.30pm, followed by tea. They are free for members of the Society. They are also free for students at the university; we suggest that other non-members make a voluntary donation of £5 to attend any given lecture.