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Office of Works

Department of building and maintenance of the English royal household

Summary

Department of building and maintenance of the English royal household

The Office of Works was an organisation responsible for structures and exterior spaces, first established as part of the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences.

In 1832 it became the Works Department within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings. It was reconstituted as a government department in 1851, which in 1940 became part of the Ministry of Works.

Organisation and key positions

Surveyor, Comptroller and Architect

The organisation of the office varied; senior posts included Surveyor of the King's Works (1560–1782) and Comptroller of the King's Works (1423–1782). In 1782 these offices were merged into Surveyor-General and Comptroller.

Comptroller of the King's Works	Surveyor of the King's Works	Surveyor-General and Comptroller

After the death of the Surveyor-General and Comptroller James Wyatt in 1813, a non-professional Surveyor-General was appointed: Major-General Sir Benjamin Stephenson. He was assisted by three "Attached Architects": Sir John Soane, John Nash and Sir Robert Smirke. This arrangement ended in 1832 with the formation of the Works Department, when architect Henry Hake Seward was appointed Surveyor of Works and Buildings.

Other positions included Surveyor of the King's Private Roads, various roles with responsibility for gardens, and later, Deputy Surveyor.

Surveyor of the King's Private Roads	Surveyor of Royal Gardens	Deputy Surveyor	Superintendent of all the King's Gardens	Surveyor of Gardens and Waters

Administrative positions

Paymaster of the Works	Secretary to the Board of Works

The office also had posts of Secretary, Master Mason and Master Carpenter.

References

Sources

H. M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 (1997)

H. M. Colvin, The History of the King's Works, London: H.M.S.O. (1963–1982)

(v.3,pt 1)
(v.4,pt 2)
(v.5)
(v.6)
(Plans 5-7)

References

(1996). "Sociolinguistics and Language History: Studies Based on the Corpus of Early English Correspondence". Rodopi.
(2006). "Lot 61 {{!}} Peter Idley, instructions to his son, in Middle English Verse with sections of Latin prose, manuscript on vellum".
[[Howard Colvin]], ''The History of the King's Works, 1485–1660'', 3 part 1 (HMSO, 1963), p. 61.
[[Howard Colvin]], ''The History of the King's Works, 1485–1660'', 3 part 1 (HMSO, 1963), p. 90.
Roberts, Jane. (1997). "Royal Landscape: The Gardens and Parks of Windsor". Yale University Press.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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