Thomas Jeckyll (1827 Wymondham, Norfolk – 1881 Norwich) (baptised on 20 June 1827) [1] was an English architect who excelled in the creation of metalwork and furniture strongly influenced by Japanese design, and is best known for his planning in 1876 of the ‘Peacock Room’ at 49 Princes Gate, London.
Thomas Jeckyll was a son of George Jeckell, a Nonconformist clerk who had taken holy orders, was curate of the Abbey Church in Wymondham and was married to Maria Ann Balduck.
[4] Jeckyll started his career as a Gothic Revival architect in 1850 in Wymondham, planning rectories and schools, designing and restoring historic homes, such as Elsing Hall near Dereham,[5] Gothic Revival churches, such as at Sculthorpe, and constructing and improving farmhouses and agricultural buildings.
Shortly thereafter he settled in London, his friend Frederick Sandys introducing him to the so-called Chelsea aesthetes, du Maurier, Swinburne, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, William Eden Nesfield, Edward William Godwin and Whistler, causing a change of direction in his artistic vision.
Jeckyll produced an enormous number of designs for the front panels of Barnard's very popular range of slow combustion fireplaces.