George Devey
George Devey (1820, London – 1886, Hastings, Sussex)[1][2] was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family.
After leaving school he studied art, under John Sell Cotman and James Duffield Harding[3] with an ambition to become a professional artist, but later trained as an architect.
During his professional career Devey had a London office in Great Marlborough Street, where he specialised in country houses and estate cottages and lodges.
[3] He 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.
Devey's style was later developed by other architects such as Richard Norman Shaw and Charles Voysey, both of whom studied under him, and were to become be founder members of the Arts and Crafts movement a generation later.
He succeeded Joseph Paxton's son-in-law George H. Stokes as Baron Mayer de Rothschild's architect for the estate village at Mentmore, designing 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.
Although the records were destroyed in World War II, he is also believed to have worked on the "improvements" at Tring Park between 1874 and 1878, which involved turning a house designed by Sir Christopher Wren into a dix-huitieme French chateau complete with mansard roof.
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.
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.
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 herbaceous borders, but the style is to very different that he normally employed.
