Stowe House
Thursday, 17th September 2026 from 6.00 to 7.30 pm
Stowe, Buckingham MK18 5EH
Architect Francis Terry presents new research into Sir John Vanbrugh’s architectural contribution to Stowe House.
Vanbrugh’s involvement has long been obscured by limited surviving documentation and by extensive later alterations to the building. Working from a drawing of Stowe by Vanbrugh’s frequent collaborator, Charles Bridgeman, the early plans by William Cleere, and the Rigaud views of 1739, the lecture will explore how Vanbrugh sought to alter and adapt the existing late seventeenth-century house.
This study offers new insights into how much Vanbrugh’s bold Baroque vision was modified or erased within a few decades, as architectural taste shifted toward a more restrained Georgian classicism.
Ticket price: £3.50