The Most Famous

ARCHITECTS from United Kingdom

This page contains a list of the greatest British Architects. The pantheon dataset contains 518 Architects, 47 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 2nd most number of Architects.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary British Architects of all time. This list of famous British Architects is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of British Architects.

1. Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (b. 1935)

With an HPI of 71.32, Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank is the most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 62 different languages on wikipedia.

Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect and designer. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. His architectural practice Foster + Partners, first founded in 1967 as Foster Associates, is the largest in the United Kingdom, and maintains offices internationally. He is the president of the Norman Foster Foundation, created to 'promote interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers and urbanists to anticipate the future'. The foundation, which opened in June 2017, is based in Madrid and operates globally. Foster was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1999.

2. Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723)

With an HPI of 65.75, Christopher Wren is the 2nd most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 74 different languages.

Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; 30 October 1632 [O.S. 20 October] – 8 March 1723 [O.S. 25 February]) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including what is regarded as his masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710. The principal creative responsibility for a number of the churches is now more commonly attributed to others in his office, especially Nicholas Hawksmoor. Other notable buildings by Wren include the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and the south front of Hampton Court Palace. Educated in Latin and Aristotelian physics at the University of Oxford, Wren was a founder of the Royal Society and served as its president from 1680 to 1682. His scientific work was highly regarded by Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal.

3. James Stirling (1926 - 1992)

With an HPI of 59.25, James Stirling is the 3rd most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Sir James Frazer Stirling (22 April 1926 – 25 June 1992) was a British architect. Stirling worked in partnership with James Gowan from 1956 to 1963, then with Michael Wilford from 1971 until 1992.

4. Inigo Jones (1573 - 1652)

With an HPI of 59.18, Inigo Jones is the 4th most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 52 different languages.

Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable architect in England, Jones was the first person to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain. He left his mark on London by his design of single buildings, such as the Queen's House which is the first building in England designed in a pure classical style, and the Banqueting House, Whitehall, as well as the layout for Covent Garden square which became a model for future developments in the West End. He made major contributions to stage design by his work as a theatrical designer for several dozen masques, most by royal command and many in collaboration with Ben Jonson.

5. Ebenezer Howard (1850 - 1928)

With an HPI of 57.91, Ebenezer Howard is the 5th most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Sir Ebenezer Howard (29 January 1850 – 1 May 1928) was an English urban planner and founder of the garden city movement, known for his publication To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898), the description of a utopian city in which people live harmoniously together with nature. The publication resulted in the founding of the garden city movement, and the building of the first garden city, Letchworth Garden City, commenced in 1903. The second true Garden City was Welwyn Garden City (1920) and the movement influenced the development of several model suburbs in other countries, such as Forest Hills Gardens designed by F. L. Olmsted Jr. in 1909, Radburn, New Jersey (1923), Pinelands, Cape Town, and the four Suburban Resettlement Program towns of the 1930s, Greenbelt, Maryland, Greenhills, Ohio, Greenbrook, New Jersey, and Greendale, Wisconsin. Howard aimed to reduce the alienation of humans and society from nature, and hence advocated garden cities and Georgism. Howard is believed by many to be one of the great guides to the town planning movement, with many of his garden city principles being used in modern town planning.

6. Robert Adam (1728 - 1792)

With an HPI of 57.78, Robert Adam is the 6th most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 44 different languages.

Robert Adam (3 July 1728 – 3 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his older brother John, Robert took on the family business, which included lucrative work for the Board of Ordnance, after William's death. In 1754, he left for Rome, spending nearly five years on the continent studying architecture under Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. On his return to Britain he established a practice in London, where he was joined by his younger brother James. Here he developed the "Adam Style", and his theory of "movement" in architecture, based on his studies of antiquity and became one of the most successful and fashionable architects in the country. Adam held the post of Architect of the King's Works from 1761 to 1769. Robert Adam was a leader of the first phase of the classical revival in England and Scotland from around 1760 until his death. He influenced the development of Western architecture, both in Europe and in North America. Adam designed interiors and fittings as well as houses. Much of his work consisted of remodelling existing houses, as well as contributions to Edinburgh's townscape and designing romantic pseudo-mediaeval country houses in Scotland. He served as the member of Parliament for Kinross-shire from 1768 to 1774.

7. David Chipperfield (b. 1953)

With an HPI of 57.64, David Chipperfield is the 7th most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Sir David Alan Chipperfield, , (born 18 December 1953) is a British architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985, which grew into a global architectural practice with offices in London, Berlin, Milan, and Shanghai. In 2023, he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered to be the most prestigious award in architecture. His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach, Germany; the Des Moines Public Library, Iowa (2002–2006); the Neues Museum, Berlin (1997–2009); The Hepworth Wakefield gallery in Wakefield, West Yorkshire (2003–2011), the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri (2005–2013); and the Museo Jumex in Mexico City (2009–2013).

8. Michael Ventris (1922 - 1956)

With an HPI of 57.51, Michael Ventris is the 8th most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Michael George Francis Ventris, (; 12 July 1922 – 6 September 1956) was an English architect, classicist and philologist who deciphered Linear B, the ancient Mycenaean Greek script. A student of languages, Ventris had pursued decipherment as a personal vocation since his adolescence. After creating a new field of study, Ventris died in a car crash a few weeks before the publication of Documents in Mycenaean Greek, written with John Chadwick.

9. Joseph Paxton (1803 - 1865)

With an HPI of 57.12, Joseph Paxton is the 9th most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 – 8 June 1865) was an English gardener, architect, engineer and Member of Parliament, best known for designing the Crystal Palace and for cultivating the Cavendish banana, the most consumed banana in the Western world.

10. John Nash (1752 - 1835)

With an HPI of 56.63, John Nash is the 10th most famous British Architect. His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

John Nash (18 January 1752 – 13 May 1835) was one of the foremost British architects of the Georgian and Regency eras, during which he was responsible for the design, in the neoclassical and picturesque styles, of many important areas of London. His designs were financed by the Prince Regent and by the era's most successful property developer, James Burton. Nash also collaborated extensively with Burton's son, Decimus Burton. Nash's best-known solo designs are the Royal Pavilion, Brighton; Marble Arch; and Buckingham Palace. His best-known collaboration with James Burton is Regent Street and his best-known collaborations with Decimus Burton are Regent's Park and its terraces and Carlton House Terrace. The majority of his buildings, including those that the Burtons did not contribute to, were built by James Burton's company.

People

Pantheon has 50 people classified as British architects born between 1573 and 1964. Of these 50, 7 (14.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living British architects include Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, David Chipperfield, and Glenn Murcutt. The most famous deceased British architects include Christopher Wren, James Stirling, and Inigo Jones. As of April 2024, 3 new British architects have been added to Pantheon including Aston Webb, Richard Norman Shaw, and Lesley Lokko.