Hugh May

He worked in the era which fell between the first introduction of Palladianism into England by Inigo Jones, and the full flowering of English Baroque under John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Here, May was exposed to recent developments in Dutch Classical architecture, and the simple but refined brick-built houses designed by Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post.

[2] Besides Lely, May's circle included Samuel Pepys, who called May a "very ingenious man",[2] Roger North and John Evelyn, whom May assisted in translating Roland Fréart's Parallel of Architecture.

At Cassiobury, Hertfordshire (1674, demolished 1922), May added wings to the home of the Earl of Essex, and redesigned some of the interiors, giving the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons his first major commission.

The others were Roger Pratt and Christopher Wren, and along with three representatives of the City of London, Robert Hooke, Edward Jerman and Peter Mills, they were charged with surveying the damage, and promoting methods of rebuilding.

[2] In November 1673, he was further appointed Comptroller of the Works at Windsor Castle, where, from 1675, he remodelled the upper ward, adding to the apartments of Queen Catherine of Braganza, and built St George's Hall and the Royal Chapel.