Robert Smirke

Sir Robert Smirke, architect, was born on 1 October 1780 in London.

In his early years Smirke built up the largest architectural practice in London which worked largely, although not exclusively, in the Greek revival style.

His first important country house commission was Lowther Castle, Westmoreland (1806–11), in the castellated style employed successfully by James Wyatt and others, for the leading Tory William Lowther, first Earl of Lonsdale, at a cost of £64,000.

Smirke became one of the most successful architects of the late-17th and early-18th centuries, producing designs for public and private works.