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Cockerell, Charles Robert, RA

1788 – 1863

Cockerell was born in London the second son of an architect, whose office he entered when he was sixteen. In 1809 when he transferred to the office of Robert Smirke who sent Cockerell abroad on the Grand Tour where he met another young architect, John Foster of Liverpool. In the spring of 1811 along with two German archaeologists they made the discovery of the Aegina Marbles, and shortly afterwards they discovered the Phigaleian Marbles at Bassae which were purchased by the British Government in 1813. In 1811-12 Cockerell and Foster joined a group who were embarking on a tour of Hellenistic sites in Asia Minor and from there to the southern shores of Asia Minor. In Malta they parted company and Cockerell proceeded to Sicily where he surveyed the Temple of Jupiter at Agrigento. He visited Albania and then toured the Peloponnese and the Archipelago before going on to Italy in 1814 where he spent time in Rome and Florence and north Italy before returning home in 1817 to open his practice. In 1819 he had succeeded his father as Surveyor of St Paul’s Cathedral. By 1822 he had gained sufficient reputation to be chosen as the architect for the National Monument in Edinburgh. In 1833 he succeeded Soane as architect to the Bank of England and was also surveyor of the estates of Seckford and Northampton in Clerkenwell. He was elected ARA in 1829, RA in 1836 and Professor of Architecture at the RA in 1840, a post which he held until 1857. Cockerell's diaries covering the period 1821-30 are held in the RIBA Archive in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Cockerell exhibited at the 1829 Royal Academy Annual Exhibition in London (cat.1051) "National Monument of Scotland on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, &c."



An image from the RSA collection.