British architecture: the baroque in Britain

The 17th-century English nobility acquired a taste for continental baroque architecture

In 1660, the Stuart court that returned from the continent with Charles II brought more than restoration, merriment and a yearning for the old ways. It brought a taste for Dutch and French architecture. The English Renaissance, begun haltingly under Queen Elizabeth, reborn under Inigo Jones but repressed during the interregnum, now found its feet.

It was not easy. The mannerist classicism of the Jacobean...