Charles James Richardson

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Charles James Richardson (1806–1871) was an English architect, artist and writer. He studied under Sir John Soane from 1824 to 1830 and then worked as Soane’s assistant until 1837, remaining until Soane’s death. Soane’s will planned for Richardson to become assistant curator and librarian of the Soane Museum, but he was not offered the post for financial reasons.

Richardson later tried to start an architectural academy but was not successful. He became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1838 and stayed a member until 1868. From 1845 to 1852 he was master of the architectural class at the School of Design, Somerset House.

In 1852 he designed the mansion for Leicester Stanhope, 5th Earl of Harrington, at 13 Kensington Palace Gardens; in 1853 he worked at Belsize Park, Hampstead, and in 1856 he built a block of mansions in Queen’s Gate, Hyde Park, for W. Jackson.

Richardson died in 1871. He left to the Soane Museum a sketchbook of views and details of his house at Ealing and a collection of the drawings he used in his architectural lectures.