Robert Rippon Duke

Robert Rippon Duke (31 May 1817 – 16 August 1909) was an English architect and surveyor who designed various prominent Victorian buildings in Buxton, Derbyshire.

[3] He was a resident at The Square, alongside renowned Buxton water physicians Sir Charles Scudamore and Dr William Henry Robertson.

It is a glass and cast iron masterpiece of Victorian architecture, situated near the Buxton Opera House (which was designed by Frank Matcham and built in 1903).

Originally a vast octagonal stable block designed by Georgian architect John Carr of York for William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire to accompany his magnificent Crescent, it has undergone several major transformations.

Then, in 1878, the Buxton Bath Charity trustees under their doughty chairman Dr William Henry Robertson, persuaded the 7th Duke of Devonshire to give them the use of the whole building in exchange for providing new stables elsewhere in the town.

Robert Rippon Duke was commissioned to design a 300-bed hospital to rival Bath and Harrogate for charity medical provision.

He designed Fairfield Wesleyan Chapel in 1868, Trinity Episcopal Church on Hardwick Mount in 1872 and the Burlington Hotel (subsequently The Savoy) at the bottom of Hall Bank in 1874.