Giles Worsley


Giles Arthington Worsley was an English architectural historian, author, editor, journalist and critic, specialising in British country houses.

Early life and education

Worsley was born on 22 March 1961 in North Yorkshire, the second of three sons of Sir Marcus Worsley, 5th Baronet and his wife the Hon Bridget Assheton, a daughter of Ralph Assheton, 1st Baron Clitheroe. His family moved into Hovingham Hall when he was aged 12, after his father inherited the baronetcy and estate, which in 2006 was 3,000 acres. He was a nephew of Katharine, Duchess of Kent.
Worsley was educated at Eton, studied Modern History at New College, Oxford including architectural history from Howard Colvin, and then in 1983 studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art with his thesis on The Design and Development of the Stable and Riding House in Great Britain from the Thirteenth Century to 1914, which was later reworked into his 2004 book The British Stable.

Career

Worsley joined Country Life weekly magazine in 1985 as an architectural writer, working for Clive Aslet and Marcus Binney, becoming architectural editor in 1989. In 1994 he left Country Life to take over from Dan Cruickshank as editor of the recently created Perspectives on Architecture monthly magazine, funded by Prince Charles through his Institute of Architecture. In March 1998 Perspectives on Architecture ceased publication after 33 issues and he became the architecture correspondent of The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London, which he continued until his death in 2006. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1999. He became a senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research in 2002, which he also continued until his death in 2006.
In 1988 he won the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Essay Medal. In 1995 his book Classical Architecture in Britain: the Heroic Age won the Yorkshire Post Best Art Book Award.
Honorary Positions held:

Marriage and children

Worsley married Joanna Beaufort Pitman, a writer and The Times journalist, a great-granddaughter of George Lawson Johnston, 1st Baron Luke, by her grandmother the Hon Margaret Beaufort Lawson Johnston who married Sir Isaac James Pitman, at St George's, Hanover Square, London on 21 September 1996. One of the page boys attending the bride was Edward Windsor, Lord Downpatrick, grandson of the Duke of Kent.
They had three daughters:
  • Alice Beaufort Worsley
  • Emma Sylvia Worsley
  • Lucy Jennifer Worsley

Death

Worsley's mother died of cancer on 22 May 2004 and he was diagnosed with cancer in the Spring of 2005. He died in London on 17 January 2006 at the age of 44. His funeral took place in Hovingham, North Yorkshire on 26 January 2006. A service celebrating his life was held in London on 9 March 2006. A memorial plaque was placed at St Clement's Church, North Kensington, London.

Travel Fellowship

The annual Giles Worsley Travel Fellowship was announced in February 2007 by the RIBA and the British School at Rome. The Fellowship is awarded each year to an architect or architectural historian, who then spends three months at the British School at Rome, studying an architectural topic of their choice. Travel, accommodation and board and a monthly stipend is provided. Each Fellow is then required to deliver a public presentation on their return. The first applications were received in February 2008, with the recipient being announced in April.
Recipients and their topics:
  • 2008 – Rebecca Madgin, The contemporary value of industrial architecture – the Ostiense Quarter.
  • 2009 – Gwyn Lloyd Jones, Rome, a meeting ground of two architectural geniuses: Francesco Borromini and Frank Lloyd Wright.
  • 2010 – Léa-Catherine Szacka, Roma Interrotta: A comparative historical analysis of the 18th Century urban project on display .
  • 2011 – Rashid Ali, Architecture and urbanism of Mogadishu 1930–80.
  • 2012 – Thomas Brigden, The city of Rome's key vistas and their viewing places.
  • 2013 - Tom True, "Power and place: the Marchigian cardinals of Sixtus V".
  • 2014 - Ricardo Agarez, "The making of the Roman palzzina, 1930-60".
  • 2015 - Mark Kelly, "Ancient and modern concrete vaulting in Rome".
  • 2016 - Jana Schuster, "Living Heritage: The Adaptive Reuse of Ancient Buildings in Rome".

Books

  • Architectural Drawings of the Regency Period 1790–1837 catalogue of exhibition of RIBA Drawings Collection at its Heinz Gallery in London, Andre Deutsch,,.
  • The Georgian Group Journal, and various Georgian Group Symposiums, editor, 1991–94.
  • Classical Architecture in Britain: the Heroic Age Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press,,.
  • The Life and Works of John Carr of York by the late Brian Wragg, edited by Giles Worsley, Oblong Creative,,.
  • England's Lost Houses: From the Archives of Country Life Aurum Press,,.
  • The British Stable An Architectural and Social History, photography by William Curtis Rolf, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press,,.
  • Drawing from the Past: William Weddell and the Transformation of Newby Hall by Giles Worsley, Kerry Bristol, and William Connor, Jeremy Mills Publishing,,.
  • Inigo Jones and the European Classicist Tradition published posthumously, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press,,.

Articles

  • Gothic Architecture and Its Meanings, 1550–1830 edited by Michael Hall, based on a Georgian Group Symposium, with Giles Worsley explaining Vanbrugh's architecture in terms of the search for a national style, Spire Books,,.
  • Aske Hall, Yorkshire, the seat of the Marquess of Zetland, Parts I & II, Country Life, 1 March 1990 and 8 March 1990.
  • Silver Tassie, Wargrave, Berkshire - 'A Home Fit for Ratty' Country Life 18 June 1992