“…interesting and completely delightful musings on Architecture…”
– House and Garden
Seeing great works of art in a world of global tourism has become increasingly difficult. In 1991 I was living in Rome, staying at the British School and I would frequently spend the morning at Villa Borghese sketching sculpture.
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On a recent trip to Istanbul, I visited the monumental Hagia Sophia. Built in just five years (532 – 537 AD) it represents the last great flowering of Roman Architecture. The emperor Justinian famously said on its completion “Solomon, I have surpassed thee”, which perhaps he had.
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This question comes up whenever the two are discussed and is central to understanding the creative process behind the design of all their collaborations, including Castle Howard, Blenheim and all their other major commissions.
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Quinlan Terry won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Traditional Architecture Group in December 2025.
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This video is an interview between Francis and his father Quinlan Terry CBE, discussing the many unforgettable moments in his highly successful sixty-year career.
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In this video Francis Terry discusses with his son Joey what ways architects can address these pressing issues, and how traditional construction methods and materials can contribute to the debate.
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A is for Architecture Podcast, neoclassical architect Francis Terry, founder of Francis Terry and Associates, discusses his upbringing, education, drawing, work, practice and the imposed politics of it all.
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When George Saumarez Smith and I were contemplating where to go for a sketching trip, various cities were suggested but I wanted to go somewhere that I had not been to...
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A good pair of brogues will last decades. Trainers will not. Nylon, as used in sports clothing, seems to be the 'go-to' fabric nowadays, unless you are a reactionary architect who peddles nostalgia - like me.
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An essay about Francis Terry's numerous sketching holidays in Italy and other European cities with this father the classical architect Quinlan Terry CBE.
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Architects are always presumed to be good at maths and physics. This suggests that people feel the primary role of an architect is to make a building stand up, which is curious because architect in the UK are not licenced to carry out this task. Perhaps architects are to blame...
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Drawing was, and still is, my passion and therefore I am saddened by the wholesale abandonment of drawing from art education in recent times. I’m not arguing against modern art, I just feel that as an accountant should be able to add and subtract, an artist should be able to draw fluently whatever style of art he or she later decides to employ. With Picasso, for example, whatever you think of him, his exceptional drawings which he did as a child give the rest of his work an authority it would not otherwise have.
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The highest praise one can give an artist is to say he or she draws like Raphael. It comes in the same package as writing like Shakespeare or ‘bending it like Beckham’. As I can’t write poetry and don’t play football the latter two challenges are not open to me, but drawing like Raphael... how hard can it be?
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Over the years I have noticed that clients seem to favour French classicism over Italian. Because of this, I have been sent on several trips to Paris to study and measure buildings – it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it!
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Sketchbooks have always been a critical part of an architect’s work. Francis has a collection of sketchbooks going back forty years to his childhood holidays in Italy sketching architecture with his father, Quinlan Terry. Over the decades he has used sketchbooks as a source of inspiration for his architecture and other artistic ventures ranging from paintings to book illustrations and stage set designs.
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Architects must seem a strange breed, they work long hours, take on huge liability, having emerged from seven years of expensive training only to be paid less than a bricklayer. It is a life full of stress, so why do so many people want to do it?
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Taste is a curious thing and I have often wondered how it works. Things considered tasteful can stop being tasteful, seemingly for no apparent reason, but there must be more to it than that.
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This latest offering is a comic I wrote many years ago. Not much to do with architecture but as it’s nearly Christmas I thought I’d post something lighthearted and I am sure we all need cheering up as it’s been a tough year for everyone. The plot follows my alter ego crossed with Tintin who falls into Italy’s dark criminal underbelly after finding his uncle murdered in a suburb of Milan...
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Many award-winning houses and those seen on ‘Grand Designs’ often look like space ships or abstract sculpture, which I am sure are worthy in their own way, but they do not look like houses. Is this a problem?
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School reunions can be stressful, 'dress informal' says the invitation, but how informal? At least they didn’t demand 'smart casual' – whatever that is. After much indecision, I headed west to Stowe, my old school.
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The Haywain by John Constable, perhaps the most famous English painting, depicts Flatford in Suffolk which I know well as it is only a few miles from where I live and I often take my little West Highland Terrier out for walks in that direction.
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When I walked up to the front of Versailles I was struck by how unimpressive it was despite all the money spent on it. When I returned home and aided by the extra time which the coronavirus lockdown has generated, I set myself the task of redesigning Versailles.
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When I was growing up I was unsure about whether I wanted to be an architect or an artist. Over a summer holiday, in my late teens, I painted my younger sister’s bedroom with scenes from Alice in Wonderland.
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Arriving too early to catch a train from Manningtree station, a friend and I used up the time looking at the Mistley towers, only a short distance away.
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Until recently my knowledge of Manchester architecture was limited to the inside gatefold of ‘The Queen is Dead’ LP. This shows the Smith’s standing outside the Salford Lads Club, where a terracotta Scamozzi Ionic capital can be seen cheekily peaking our over Morissey’s shoulder. I imagined the rest of the city continued in this vein, which indeed it does but with a scale, grandeur and flamboyance I could have only dreamed of.
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In these days, when travel restrictions are foisted upon us, I have found myself reminiscing about adventures of days gone by. Years ago, in my student days, I measured the Raimondi chapel, which is a side chapel dedicated to St Francis in San Pietro in Montori on the Janiculum hill in Rome. The chapel was designed by Bernini and filled with sculpture from his studio.
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Francis Terry explores whether factory-built homes can be both efficient & beautiful, arguing for classical design as the key to creating lasting appeal.
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Palladio-mania is just going too far. Last year I was invited to two Palladio parties on the same evening, one was at the RIBA and the other at the Italian Embassy. Wherever I look I see articles, symposiums, exhibitions, publications, parties and even a church service...
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One of my favourite houses is Townley Hall in in County Louth, Ireland. It is not open to the public but the institution that owns it are happy for enthusiasts to look round, which I did a many years ago.
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This year we chose Venice for our family holiday. We stayed on the Lido so that we could achieve the right balance between beach and culture and keep everybody happy. I have not been to Venice for several years...
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In celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Country Life ran a lighthearted competition to improve the front elevation of Buckingham Palace. If I could make alterations and in the festive spirit of the challenge, this is what I would do.
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Jefferson was a great architect because he had an instinct for elegant phasing, which is the essence of all good architecture. His design of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville is an exceptional work of architecture.
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Dalibor Vesely (1934-2015) is the subject of legend at Cambridge University. He was my diploma tutor at the Faculty of Architecture, where he taught during the 80s and 90s.
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This year, a client commissioned me to draw an ionic capital. Doing a drawing of this scale is something I rarely have time to do and it was fortunate to be given the opportunity.
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As a practicing classical architect, I have had a number of clients who have wanted their houses to look like the work of the English Palladians of the Georgian era rather than Palladio himself. From this I started to notice that the work of the English Palladians...
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As everyone knows, the 29th March this year is a big day in European politics, but, if like me, you feel bored by the process and anxious by the result; might I suggest celebrating 150th Lutyens’s birthday, which coincidentally is on the same day?
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A few weeks ago I was asked to show an ICAA tour around a house in Ireland. I caught a late flight to Ireland on a Sunday night. I then had to hire a car and drove for over an hour. Eventually, I arrived at Roundwood House.
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Berlin is a great place to visit for a few days. The city is a manageable scale full of fascinating museums, superb architecture and hundreds of lovely and varied restaurants.
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The V & A is, without a doubt, my favourite museum. I enjoy wandering around with no particular purpose, looking at whatever objects catch my eye. Sometimes I find new gems; other times I enjoy returning to familiar pieces...
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Over the past few years I have collaborated a number of times with Create Streets, an organization which aims to promote street based and human centred architecture. I had been introduced to the founder of Create Streets, Nicholas Boys Smith, via a mutual friend from Cambridge, and I first met him in Waterstone’s cafe in Piccadilly. He arrived brandishing various pamphlets filled with hard-nosed research backing up ideas of which I agreed
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Earlier this year, Country Life, Historic Houses and Neptune launched a competition to celebrate the best new kitchens in old spaces. Our recently completed kitchen fits this brief perfectly and we are thrilled to be shortlisted down to the last three.
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In the early 1990s, Washington DC was not just the capital, but also the murder capital, of the United States. Despite this, I found it a surprisingly enjoyable place to live, when I spent the year out before my diploma there, working for the eminent classical architect Allan Greenberg...
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I needed to get a puncture on my daughter’s bike repaired and so I went to the Bike Doctor in East Bergholt. He said I’ll have this done in ten minutes. But what could I do in East Bergholt for ten minutes? I thought I would go and visit the church.
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Last February I went on a tour organised by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art and saw the tremendous work done in Forth Worth, a city in North Central Texas. Over a long period, sound urban principles have had an astonishing effect on the town...
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St Andrew’s, Felixstowe is an uncharacteristic early work by Erith designed between 1929 and 1930. He worked in collaboration with Hilda Mason, who, as the older architect was probably the dominant force in the project.
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We recently bought a puppy and discovered that he much prefers classical music to pop. It seems that dogs are born with discernible musical tastes which effects their moods and this seems to be consistent throughout the species.
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The definition of Pastiche is 'an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.' I imitate historic buildings, rather than inventing new styles, and with this in mind, it may seem fair game to direct the word at my work...
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Architects for millennia have sought to find rules to determine the proportions of every aspect of a building. A window, for example, can look too narrow and thin or conversely it can look squat and fat.
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On occasions I meet architects who think that they are, or more often should be, 'in charge' of every aspect of their buildings. These people are either very naive or deluded. They harp back to a golden age when architects were taken seriously like doctors or lawyers...
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How much should I, as an architect, push my opinions? Should I simply take instructions from clients and blindly obey, or should I insist on buildings being a particular way?
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alladio's villas in the Veneto are made from render which is a cheaper alternative to stone, but it looks similar from a distance ... I think even if the Villa Rotonda was made of cheese, it would still look splendid from afar.
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Francis Terry explores British architecture from the Victorian & Edwardian eras through to post-war modernism, tracing its ideals & transformations.
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The gull sees a site plan, but the human sees a setting for their life carried out on the ground. Seeing from both points of view is a daily challenge for any architect or master planner.
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