Architects, assisted his father; designed on his own account the monument to John Philpot Curran [q. v.] in Glasnevin cemetery; and extensive alterations to Leinster House, Kildare Street, to adapt it for the museum of Irish industry, with lecture and other rooms, which were completed under the superintendence of his father. He died in 1841. Collins Edgar Papworth (1824–1862), after holding an appointment in the colonial engineers' office at Melbourne, practised there as architect and surveyor. A third son, Charles William, succeeded to his father's practice.
[Private information; Dictionary of Architecture, Arch. Publ. Soc. vi. 39; Builder, 1855, xiii. 150, giving a view and description of Rush Park. Wright's Ireland Illustrated, 1829, gives views of one of the two chapels and of the bridge.]
PAPWORTH, JOHN, afterwards John Buonarotti (1775–1847), architect and designer, born 24 Jan. 1775, was second son of John Papworth (1750–1799). He was originally intended for the study of surgery, but his evident predilection for architecture and the advice of Sir William Chambers led to his being placed as a pupil with John Plaw [q. v.], architect; he had already acquired considerable knowledge of drawing ornament and perspective in his father's office, and had studied the human figure and modelling under John Deare the sculptor. On 4 Nov. 1789 he was apprenticed for three years to Thomas Wapshott, builder, who carried out works for John Plaw, Thomas Hardwick, and Michael Novosielski, and he assisted the latter in his office. He also devoted a year to the study of internal decoration in the shops of Sheringham the upholsterer of Great Marlborough Street, then employed at Carlton House; and at the early age of eighteen and a half commenced life as clerk of works or resident architect in carrying out his own designs at Ray Lodge, Woodford, Essex, for Sir James Wright.
Papworth was a thorough master of drawing perspective and classic ornament; many of his architectural designs were exhibited at the Royal Academy yearly from 1794 to 1799. In 1798 he also exhibited a bust, modelled by himself, of his elder brother Thomas [see under Papworth, Edgar George]. In December of the same year he became a student of the academy, and was a contributor to nineteen of the academy's exhibitions between 1794 and 1841.
His professional practice embraced not only the ordinary work of an architect, but also that of a designer of decorations, furniture, and accessories.
Among his architectural works may be mentioned a mansion at Laleham for the Earl of Lucan, 1803–6; Haresfoot, Essex, for Thomas Dorrien, 1817–19; Leigham Court, Streatham, for John G. Fuller, 1820–1822. For James Morrison [q. v.], with whom he became closely connected, he designed works at Fonthill, Wiltshire, 1829–42; at No. 57 Harley Street, 1831–3; at Basildoun Park, Berkshire, 1839–44, and elsewhere. In 1837–9 he restored Orleans House, Twickenham, for Alexander Murray, esq., of Broughton. At Cheltenham, between 1824 and 1832, he designed and carried out numerous works, including St. James's Church, the Rotunda, and new pump-room at Montpellier Spa, and he laid out the Montpellier estate.
For the premises of Rudolf Ackermann, the art publisher, to whose ‘Repository of Arts and Essays’ from 1809 to 1823 he was a frequent contributor of prose and verse and of drawings, he designed a hall or reception-room, intended as a lounge for customers; and in 1826 the extensive building, No. 96 Strand, at the corner of Beaufort Buildings, now occupied by Rimmel the perfumer. But his most important architectural work in London was St. Bride's Avenue, Fleet Street (between 1823 and 1830). A clear view and a good access were thus secured for the magnificent steeple of St. Bride's Church, previously screened from Fleet Street by a row of houses.
Between 1817 and 1820 Papworth was engaged on three designs for a palace for Wilhelm I, king of Würtemberg (1816–1864), proposed to be erected at Cannstatt; drawings of the entrance front and south front of one of these designs were exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1823, and of the west front and east front in 1827. On 25 Nov. 1820 he received the diploma of architect to the king.
In 1815 he produced a fine design for a ‘Tropheum’ to commemorate the victory of Waterloo; the composition combined durability with grace. His artistic friends were reminded by its boldness of Michael Angelo, and he thereupon added ‘Buonarroti’ to his name. The drawing was, however, rejected by the Royal Academy (Papworth, Life and Works, 8vo, London, 1879, p. 28). A monument which he designed in 1815 in memory of Colonel Gordon was erected on the field of Waterloo, and was the first of its type, the ‘severed column.’
His attainments as a landscape-gardener obtained him employment at Claremont for Prince Leopold and the Princess Charlotte of Wales; at Alton Towers, for the Earl of Shrewsbury; at Holly Lodge, Highgate;
