John Carr (1723–1807) was a prolific English architect, best known for Buxton Crescent in Derbyshire and Harewood House in West Yorkshire.

[1] He was born in 1723 in Horbury, near Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest of nine children and the son of a master mason, under whom he trained.

Carr rarely delegated matters that others would regard as too trivial, and in consequence he had to travel immense distances, mostly on horseback;[5] however, the frequency of such visits brought him into regular contact with his many clients to mutual advantage.

As well as hotels and lodging houses, it contained Assembly Rooms, shops, a post office and a public promenade all under one roof.

[9] He served as bridgemaster for both the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, leaving a legacy of many bridges, the majority of which still stand today.

[10] The more than sixty bridges built or altered by Carr still serve the backbone of North Yorkshire's road-transport network.

His commissions for country houses included model villages and farms, stable blocks, a variety of gate lodges and gateways, garden temples and other ornamental buildings.

He subscribed to many architectural pattern books, including those of his friend George Richardson, and also contemporary publications by Robert Morris and William Chambers.