Colen Campbell

A descendant of the Campbells of Cawdor Castle, he is believed to be the Colinus Campbell who graduated from the University of Edinburgh in July 1695.^[1] He initially trained as a lawyer, being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates on 29 July 1702.

He travelled in Italy between 1695 and 1702, and is believed to be the Colinus Campbell who signed the visitor's book at the University of Padua in 1697. He is believed to have trained in and studied architecture under James Smith,^{[1][citation needed]}

He invested in the Royal African Company, a major slave-trading business, selling a share with a book value of £1,000 (equivalent to £178,700 in 2025) in May 1720.^[2]

• Wanstead House, Essex, c. 1713/4–20 (illustrated left). In the first volume of Vitruvius Britannicus, the most influential designs were two alternatives for a palatial Wanstead House, Essex, for the merchant-banker Sir Richard Child, of which the second design was already under way when the volume was published. (Campbell claimed that Wanstead House had Great Britain's first classical portico, but this accolade probably belongs to The Vyne, Hampshire.)
• Burlington House, London, 1717. Remodelled the front and provided an entrance gateway for Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (Remodelled in 1868 and the gateway demolished.)
• Stourhead, Wiltshire, 1721–24, as a seat for the London-based banker Henry Hoare. Wings were added in the later 18th century, and Campbell's portico was not executed (though to his design) until 1841. The famous landscape garden round a lake, somewhat apart from the house, was developed after Campbell's death, by Henry Flitcroft.
• Pembroke House, Whitehall, London, for Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, 1723, a London house in a prominent location for the heir of Jones' Wilton House. It was rebuilt in 1757 and demolished in 1913. Lord Herbert (as he then was) was inspired by it to design the similar Marble Hill House at Twickenham for Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, the mistress of the future George II. (Marble Hill was a 5-bay palladian villa with central pediment, raised on a high basement, with clumped screens of trees and formal turfed terraces descending to the Thames, illustrated right, that manifest the earliest stages of the English landscape garden.)
• Houghton Hall, Norfolk, begun 1722, for Sir Robert Walpole, the Whig prime minister. Here Campbell was replaced by Gibbs, who capped the end pavilions with octagonal domes, and by William Kent, who designed the interiors.
• Mereworth Castle, Kent, 1722–25. Campbell's most overtly palladian design, based on Villa La Rotonda, capped with a dome with no drum, through which 24 chimney flues pass to the lantern.
• Waverley Abbey House, Surrey, c. 1723–25, for John Aislabie (largely altered).
• Nos 76 and 78 Brook Street, London W1, 1725–26. No. 76, which survives, was Campbell's own house, the designs for its interiors published in his Five Orders of architecture, (1729). It carries a blue plaque commemorating him.
• Compton Place, Eastbourne, Sussex, 1726 onwards, south front and extensive internal rebuilding for Sir Spencer Compton
• Plumptre House, Nottingham, 1724–30. Remodelled for John Plumptre MP.

• 
  Wanstead House, as built, illustrated in Nathaniel Spencer, The Complete English traveller, London 1771
• 
  Marble Hill House, Twickenham
• 
  Blue plaque on 76 Brook Street, London W1

Campbell's architectural works include:^[7]

• Shawfield Mansion, Glasgow (1712) demolished 1792
• Wanstead House, Essex (1714–15) demolished 1822
• Hedworth House, Chester-le-Street (1726)
• Hotham House, Beverley (1716–17) demolished c.1766
• Burlington House, London, south front, and west wing (1717) subsequently extended and several occasions
• Burlington (Ten Acre Close) Estate, London, layout (1717–18)
• Burlington House, Great Gate and Street Wall (1718)
• Rolls House, Chancery Lane, London (1718), demolished 1895–96
• Ebberston Hall, Ebberston, Yorkshire, including cascade (1718)
• 34 Great Burlington Street, London (1718–19)
• 33 Great Burlington Street, London (1719–20)
• 32 Great Burlington Street, London (c.1720); this was Campbell's own house
• 31 Great Burlington Street, London (1719–24) rebuilt
• Burlington Girls' Charity School, Boyle Street, London (1719–21)
• Wimbledon Manor House, Surrey, for Sir Theodore Janssen (1720); completion uncertain
• Newby Park, (now Baldersby Park), near Topcliffe, Yorkshire (1720–21)
• Houghton Hall, Norfolk; one of several architects to work on the building (1721–22)
• Stourhead, Wiltshire; the portico part of Campbell's design was only added in 1840 (1721–24); interiors destroyed by fire 1902
• Mereworth Castle, Kent (1722–23)
• Pembroke Lodge, Whitehall, London; executed Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke's design (c.1724), demolished 1756
• Plumptre House, Nottingham, (1724)
• Hall Barn, Buckinghamshire, garden buildings: Great Room (only partially survives), Temple of Venus, Obelisk & Doric Pavilion (1724)
• Waverley Abbey House, Surrey (c.1725), extended 1770, damaged by fire and rebuilt 1833
• Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, London; additions to Queen Mary block and Queen Anne block (1726–29)
• Compton Place, Eastbourne, remodelled house (1726–29)
• 76 Brook Street, London, internal alterations (c.1726); became Campbell's new home
• Hackney House, Hackney, London (c.1727), demolished before 1842
• Althorp, Northamptonshire, new stables, loggia gate (c.1729–33)
• Studley Royal Park, Yorkshire, the stables (c.1729) built after his death by Roger Morris

• 
  Design for Stourhead in Wiltshire, Vitruvius Britannicus vol. 3, 1725
• 
  Houghton Hall in Norfolk; James Gibbs added the domes to Campbell's design
• 
  Mereworth Castle in Kent, Vitruvius Britannicus vol 2, 1720
• 
  Cross-section, Mereworth Castle, Vitruvius Britannicus vol 2, 1720
• 
  Gate, Burlington House, London, Vitruvius Britannicus vol 2, 1720 (demolished)
• 
  Wanstead House in Essex (demolished)
• 
  The Elevation of General Wade, his house in great Burlington Street, London, Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 3, 1723. Engraving by Henry Hulsbergh