YGS Lecture: Charles Watson (1771-1836), York's forgotten architect

Join us on 10 April 2027 for our final lecture programme of the season, when we will be joined by Dr Christopher Webster who will discuss Charles Watson, York's forgotten architect.

Despite a number of eminent architectural historians, including Howard Colvin and Giles Worsley, assessing Watson as ‘the leading architect in Yorkshire’ in the first decades of the nineteenth century, even in his adoptive city of York, he is now almost forgotten. However, across Yorkshire, Co. Durham and Lincolnshire, he produced a succession of outstanding buildings which brought him contemporary published praise and unbridled commendation.

This YGS lecture is, in part, arranged to coincide with the speaker’s forthcoming book on Watson. After several years of detailed research, it is now possible to confirm Watson’s impressive status: as an asylum designer of national importance; as the first north of England architect to promote the Greek Revival; as the designer of numerous…