George Devey

[
Ascott House, Wing designed by George Devey. The garden front, begun 1874, but later extended. The house was designed to appear as though it had evolved over centuries]

George Devey (1820–1886) was a British architect, born in London, the second son of Frederick and Ann Devey. Devey was educated in London, after leaving school he initially studied art, with an ambition to become a professional artist. He later trained as an architect.

During his professional career Devey had a London office in Great Marlborough Street, where he specialised in domestic architecture, lodges, cottages and country mansions. He had worked extensively for the Duke of Sutherland at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire where he designed lodges and cottages in the vernacular style of the Sussex Weald. He often used tiles and timbers on external walls, in a way evocative or earlier periods, but always in a slightly differing way to the original. This style he adapted and personalised until it had his own distinctive stamp. Devey's style was later developed by other architects such as R. N. Shaw and Charles Voysey, who both studied under him. Both Shaw and Voysey were to be founder members of the Arts and Crafts movement a generation later.

Despite having been in practice since the 1850s, business was slow until he was discovered by the Rothschild family. This family would provide Devey with numerous commissions and ensure a steady stream of work.

Devey first appears in Rothschild account books as the architect for a new school at Hulcott, and the rebuilding of the parsonage there. In 1863 he came to attention of Sir Anthony de Rothschild when he designed Buckland School for the vicar Edward Bonus on a site donated by the Rothschilds. He succeeded Joseph Paxton's son-in-law George H. Stokes as Baron Mayer de Rothschild's architect for the estate village at Mentmore; he designed the stables and riding school there between 1869 and 1870. After the Baron's death in 1877, Devey continued in the employ of his daughter Hannah de Rothschild building cottages at Wingrave and Mentmore. His finest works on the Mentmore Estate are: Rosebery Arms at Cheddington, The School House at Cheddington, and The Thatched Lodge to Mentmore Towers. Standing at the end of a long avenue approach to Mentmore Towers, the Thatched Lodge has the dubious honour of having been featured on countless chocolate boxes and jig-saw puzzles.

[
Mentmore designed to appear as one house, typical of thoses designed by George Devey for Hannah de Rothschild. The tall chimneys were to be a feature employed by Lutyens thirty years later Photographed circa 1968.] Devey was replaced by John Aspell, the Mentmore Clerk of Works who had worked under Devey. Aspell continued building at Mentmore, but in a prettified version of Devey's style.

Devey was largely responsible for Ascott House the neo-Tudor extravaganza developed from a small half timbered farmhouse. He began work there in 1874 for Leopold de Rothschild. This house, conceived as a small hunting box, expanded, the intention was to make the house seem as though it had grown and developed over centuries. Devey designed numerous half timbered extensions. He was still working on the house at his death in 1886, when his partner James Williams took over the project. Ascott House is probably Devey's greatest monument, although further half timbered extensions were still being added to this house as late as the 1930s.

Devey was also responsible for the large cottages, on the Green, near the entrance of Ascott House, (now the Ascott Estate Office); these are very similar to those he designed at St. Albans's Court, Kent in the late 1880s.

Another Rothschild house he worked on was Aston Clinton, where he worked with George Stokes. The Italianate house with its huge porte-cochere is now demolished, a casualty of the huge country house demolitions of the 1950s. However, the Lodge and stables by Devey still stand, as does his West Lodge at Aston Clinton.

Although the records were destroyed in World War II, Devey is also believed to have worked on the 'improvements' at Tring Park between 1874 and 1878. However, as this involved turning a house designed by Sir Christopher Wren into a "dix-huitieme" French chateau complete with mansard roof. Devey later built a house very similar to the transformed Tring in Lennox Gardens, London, for a Mrs. Hunloke.

George Devey was a man capable of working on more than one project at a time. In 1876, Miss Alice de Rothschild commissioned him to build her a house at Eythrope in the Vale of Aylesbury. After the plans were drawn up, his patroness decided water at night was bad for her health Since the house was in a bend of the River Thame, rather than abandon the site, she decided Devey must design a house without bedrooms, and she would decamp every evening to her brother's home, Waddesdon Manor. The result was the Eythrope Water Pavilion, one of the smaller of the Rothschild houses of Buckinghamshire, its design is an unostentatious complement to the great faux-chateau four miles away of Waddesdon Manor. Today (with a bedroom wing added in the 1920s) it is the only Rothschild mansion still in private hands in the Vale of Aylesbury. The Rothschilds also commissioned him to undertake work at their newly acquired property The King's Head in Aylesbury itself. His work mainly consisted of creating what was considered a typical Tudor experience in the 14th Century coaching inn, but actually followed Victorian conventions of the time. Much of his work here was not corrected until after the property was gifted to the National Trust, when a more authentic Tudor appearance was restored, though elements of his design can still be seen.

George Devey was also interested in garden design and played an important role in not only the houses he designed, but also in garden buildings and folleys. At Ascott this included the thatched half timbered summer house, or skating hut overlooking the circular lily pool. He has also been credited with the design of the neo-Grecian temple terminating the avenue of mirror herbacious borders, but this is in a very different style to that he normally employed.

Of Devey's personal life little is known. He never married; on the 1881 Census he is recorded living with an elderly aunt, cousin and elder brother at 12 Pelham Crescent, Hastings — a far world from the wondrous places he created for his patrons. He died there in November 1886. While never a household name, in the world of architecture he does have considerable standing. There is no doubt that his style was the forerunner of the arts and crafts school of design. It could be said he died before his time, but the world of rich patrons allowed the development of his visions, and architecture benefited as a result.

References

*Country Life Magazine. Vol CLXXIII No. 7. February 16, 1989, pp 80 - 83.
*Country Life Magazine. Vol CLXXIII No. 8. February 23, 1989, pp 110 - 115.
*National Trust (1963). "The Ascott collection". The National Trust.