Windsor Restored: the Work of Sir Jeffry Wyatville 1824-40

The rehabilitation of Windsor Castle came as a late but spectacular architectural gesture on the part of George IV, to whom the remodelling and adornment of his various residences was a lifelong source of interest. For although their number, excluding some hunting lodges, could be counted on the fingers of one hand, the mutable nature of his taste led to constant changes; and from the day that Carlton House was made over to him in 1783, there was hardly any period during which he was not “in mortar and laying of earth.” At the time of his accession he had already sampled the delights of neo-classic, gothic, French empire, Chinese, Indian and rustic architecture; and in doing so had tried—in more senses than one—a succession of brilliant architects.