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John Wood the Younger
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The Royal Crescent in Bath, England, designed by John Wood the Younger, features a sweeping arc of Georgian terraced houses facing a large open lawn. Curved row of Georgian homes with tall columns and arched windows at the Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset, England, with black iron fencing in front. The Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset, England, shows a sweeping curved row of Georgian townhouses facing a large green lawn and iron fence. The Royal Crescent in Bath, England, features a sweeping row of Georgian townhouses facing a large green lawn, with parked cars lining the curved cobblestone street. Aerial view of The Circus in Bath, England, showing a circular street lined with Georgian townhouses and a large tree-filled green space at the center, with traffic moving around it.
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Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.
Artists, Painters, & Architects
Hagia Sophia. Istanbul, Turkey. Constantinople. Church of the Holy Wisdom. Church of the Divine Wisdom. Mosque.
Architecture: The Built World
Quick Facts
Born:
Feb. 25, 1728, Bath, Somerset, Eng.
Died:
June 18, 1782, Batheaston, Somerset (aged 54)
Movement / Style:
Palladianism
Notable Family Members:
father John Wood the Elder
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John Wood the Younger

British architect
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History

John Wood the Younger (born Feb. 25, 1728, Bath, Somerset, Eng.—died June 18, 1782, Batheaston, Somerset) was a British architect whose work at Bath represents the culmination of the Palladian tradition initiated there by his father, John Wood the Elder. Bath is one of the most celebrated achievements in comprehensive town design.

The Royal Crescent, Bath, Eng., designed by John Wood the Elder and built by his son John Wood the Younger, 1767–75.
The Royal Crescent, Bath, Eng., designed by John Wood the Elder and built by his son John Wood the Younger, 1767–75.

The younger Wood apparently served as assistant to his father, being entrusted with completion of the elder Wood’s design for the Exchange, Liverpool (1748–55). Upon his father’s death in 1754, Wood became Bath’s principal architect. He completed the work on the Circus, after his father’s design, and planned the Royal Crescent (1767–75), the latter being an enormous ellipse of 30 attached townhouses facing a broad park. The unified facade of the imposing structure conveys a palatial effect; it was the first such design in English town architecture and was widely imitated. A well-known individual structure by Wood at Bath is the Assembly Rooms (1769–71), with great two-story interiors containing screens of columns.

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