John Wood
1704-1754
| John Wood the Elder was an architect whose vision of building the Rome of the North gave Bath its architectural gems. As a 22-year-old working in the City in 1726/27, he was commissioned by the Duke of Chandos to rebuild an area of St Johns Court Hospital. |
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This was to give Wood his first real
opportunity to realize his vision and, for the first time, the City saw its local
stone used to create a unified street scene. Designing a number of houses to
look like one, he devised the style of vaulting and basements upon which the
pavements and roads were placed.
These gave access to the three-storey town house, topped by the Mansard roof. The exterior of this terraced accommodation was designed in the classical Greek Roman style. Wood studied Palladio, a 16th Century Italian architect, and created the buildings of Bath with symmetry, balance and proportion.
There are three main creations that exemplify Wood’s
vision: Queen’s Square (1729), the Circus (1764) and the Royal Crescent
(1775). Wood the Elder laid the foundation stones of the King’s Circus, but
died in 1754. It was his son, John Wood the Younger, who completed his
father’s project. The Circus incorporates three classical styles of
architecture: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The carved frieze of 158 metops
represent the arts and the sciences, while the 138 masks and 108 acorns crown
the roof line to commemorate the legend of Bath.