George Dance the Younger: Architect of Georgian London

George Dance the Younger left a substantial mark on Georgian London: he rebuilt Newgate Prison, designed the Guildhall’s surviving façade and worked across the city as architect and surveyor to the Corporation of London. Yet much of his architecture has since disappeared. What remains, and the record of his wider work, reveal a career that ranged from public buildings and urban improvements to churches, houses and portraiture.

A London architect trained in Rome

Dance was born on 1 April 1741 at his family home in Chiswell Street, London. His father, George Dance the Elder, was an architect, and the younger George was the fifth and youngest son in a family of architects, artists and dramatists. He attended St Paul’s School before travelling to Italy to study architecture and draughtsmanship. He spent six years abroad, from 1759 to 1765, studying in Rome and drawing ancient buildings, including the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Arch of Constantine and St Peter’s dome. He also studied at the Accademia di San Luca and encountered work that would inform his later architectural interests.

His abilities received early recognition in Italy. In 1763, he won a gold medal in a competition organised by the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma for a design for a public gallery. Back in London, his first major building commission was All Hallows-on-the-Wall. He won the design competition in 1765; the church was built between 1765 and 1767. The project established him as an architect in his own right after he returned to his father’s office.

In 1768, following his father’s death, Dance succeeded him as Architect and Surveyor to the Corporation of London. He was 27. The appointment placed him at the centre of the capital’s civic building programme, with responsibilities extending well beyond any single landmark.

Newgate and the Guildhall

Dance’s early major public commissions included the rebuilding of Newgate Prison and work at the Guildhall. Newgate was built between 1769 and 1777, then damaged during the Gordon riots of 1780 and restored between 1780 and 1783. It was demolished in 1902–04. The earlier account of a design completed in 1782 therefore confuses the restoration period with the original rebuilding. Although Newgate is among the works most associated with Dance, claims that its design introduced specific humane features or became an influential model for prisons are not established by the available record and should not be repeated as fact.

At the Guildhall, Dance’s work accumulated over several decades. He undertook repairs and alterations from 1772, designed new council chambers and worked on other parts of the complex. His best-known surviving contribution is the new façade, built between 1785 and 1788. The Guildhall Art Gallery and crypts were not additions made by Dance in that period: the record identifies his work on the Guildhall’s buildings, rooms and façade, and lists the gallery separately neither as his project nor as a completed 1788 addition.

His responsibilities also touched the Mansion House, where he altered the entrance and interior, including the Egyptian Hall. In 1782 he covered the courtyard with a roof and lowered the hall’s roof. Elsewhere in the City, he worked on markets, streets and civic infrastructure. His projects included alterations to Billingsgate Fish Market, a new market house and embankment, improvements to Leadenhall Market, and the laying out of Commercial Road. Not all of these works survived; many buildings and developments associated with him were later demolished or rebuilt.

Buildings beyond the City

Dance’s practice was not confined to civic commissions. His London work included the rebuilding of St Bartholomew the Less in 1793 and the design of the Royal College of Surgeons building, begun in 1806. The latter was later altered by Sir Charles Barry; Dance’s portico survives. He also designed the Theatre Royal in Bath, built by John Palmer in 1804–05, of which the main façade to Beaufort Square survived after a fire in 1863.

His work outside central London included Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, his own house, and the remodelling of Cranbury Park in Hampshire. He designed Coleorton Hall in Leicestershire, one of his few buildings in the Gothic style, and the Greek Doric portico at Stratton Park in Hampshire. The house itself was demolished and replaced in the 1960s, but the portico remained. These surviving fragments make clear how incomplete any picture based on standing buildings must be: several of Dance’s projects are known chiefly through records of work that has since been lost.

Dance’s career also touched the next generation of architects. He supported Robert Smirke, who joined John Soane’s office as a pupil on Dance’s recommendation. Dance continued to champion Smirke after a disagreement between the two men. His own architectural work moved through different phases of neoclassicism, including later designs influenced by Greek Revival forms.

The Royal Academy and a second artistic career

Dance was a founder member of the Royal Academy, established in 1768, alongside his brother Nathaniel. He became professor of architecture in 1798, succeeding Thomas Sandby. The appointment did not develop into a substantial teaching career: Dance failed to deliver a lecture and was dismissed in 1805, when his former pupil John Soane took over the post. This is a more qualified story than the idea that Dance used a long professorship to pass on a defined architectural doctrine.

From 1798, Dance devoted more of his time to art. He made finished pencil profile portraits of friends in London’s artistic circles. William Daniell engraved 72 of these portraits, which were published over ten years from 1804; many are now held by the National Portrait Gallery. Dance retired from architectural practice in 1815.

He married Mary Gurnell in 1772. They had three sons, Thomas, George and Charles Webb. Mary died in 1791. Dance died in London on 14 January 1825, aged 83, and was buried in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. A blue plaque marks the address in Gower Street where he died.

Why George Dance the Younger deserves a place in British Legacy

George Dance the Younger deserves a place in British Legacy for the practical reach of his work in London’s civic life. As Architect and Surveyor to the Corporation of London, he did more than design a handful of celebrated buildings: over a long career he worked on the Guildhall, Newgate, the Mansion House, markets, streets and public infrastructure. His surviving Guildhall façade and his work at Newgate connect architecture to the institutions and everyday organisation of the capital. His commissions also show how an architect’s influence can persist even when much of the physical fabric has been demolished or rebuilt.

His importance extends beyond London’s civic centre. Churches, houses, the Theatre Royal in Bath and projects across the country demonstrate the breadth of his practice, while the portico at the Royal College of Surgeons and the remains at Stratton Park offer tangible traces of buildings that have otherwise changed or vanished. Dance also helped shape architectural culture through his ties to the Royal Academy and his support for Robert Smirke, although his short, unfulfilled professorship should not be overstated. His portrait work adds another dimension to a career that moved between architecture and art. Taken together, these achievements make Dance a useful figure through whom to understand British neoclassical architecture, the growth of Georgian London and the mixed fate of historic buildings: some endure, some survive only in part, and others are known through the record of what was built.

Sources

George Dance the Younger — revision 1369475060 · George Dance the Younger

Adapted in part from George Dance the Younger by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.