C O N T E X T 1 2 8 : M A R C H 2 0 1 3 47 Architecturally speaking Lord Berwick and John Nash at Attingham Sarah Kay writes: Thomas, second Lord Berwick (1770–1832), and his architect John Nash (1752–1835) were two Regency men with big ideas. One had money and both had ambition. Together they created one of the most spectacular rooms in Shropshire, carried out extravagant decorative schemes, made innovative use of new building materials, and landed Attingham with a number of problems from which it has never really recovered, perhaps until now. They were certainly flashy, but were they fundamentally flawed? Although there was quite an age difference between patron and architect (2nd Lord Berwick was in his 30s while Nash was in his 50s), there were many similarities between the two men’s grand aims and aspirations, their sense of the theatrical, and their personal failings. Why did 2nd Lord Berwick choose Nash? What did client and architect have in common? What did they achieve at Attingham? What did their contemporaries think of them and what, with hindsight, are our views of their respective legacies at Attingham? We do not necessarily have all the answers, but these are fascinating questions to consider. Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick, was 18 when he inherited Attingham in 1789. He set off on the ubiquitous Grand Tour in 1792, returning with an embarrassment of riches and not enough space in his already vast mansion to accommodate them, let alone show them off to advantage. He wanted to not only remodel but aggrandise Attingham, and embellish it with collections and decorative schemes befitting a young Regency Lord, anxious to demonstrate that he was aware of fashionable taste and had the wealth to indulge it. Freely admitting to ‘not having resolution to abstain from Building and Picture buying’, he commissioned John Nash to create an enormous picture gallery and a new grand staircase. These were impressive, glitzy affairs and at the cutting edge of structural technology in their use of cast iron. He did not stop there. He spent lavishly on books and had his own library catalogue produced in 1809. He used Gillows to fit out a first-floor suite of rooms for his young wife in 1812 and to design curtains for the principal rooms on the piano nobile. He installed hundreds of feet of gilt and ebonised fillets and an illusionistic decorative scheme on paper, a luxury, taxed commodity. Meanwhile, Repton was providing ideas for improving the parkland. Everything about lord Berwick, from his Grand Tour portrait by Angelica Kauffmann to his continued extravagances once home, suggests he aspired to a place amongst the elite of Regency collectors. Nash, too, was tremendously ambitious. From unlikely beginnings he was to become immensely successful and rich as the Prince Regent’s favoured architect, working on Buckingham Palace, Brighton Pavilion and Regent Street. Not being a ‘learned’ architect, he strove to overcome early obstacles and prejudices by being innovative and experimental, and being clever at social networking, keen for a quick route to celebrity. Some regarded him as a genius, some as a charlatan1, a slapdash make-believe2. His pioneering use of structural iron resulted in some spectacular failures which damaged his reputation, yet he won renown as a promulgator of the Picturesque style. We do not know exactly why 2nd Lord Berwick chose Nash as architect of his flashy new picture gallery in A portrait of Thomas, 2nd Lord Berwick, by Angelica Kauffmann in the Attingham collection (Photo: Derrick EWitty) The Nash Staircase (Photo: Robert Thrift)
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