John Wood the ElderArticle Free Pass John Wood the Elder, byname
Wood of Bath (baptized Aug. 26, 1704, Bath, Somerset, Eng.—died
May 23, 1754, Bath), English architect and town planner who
established the physical character of the resort city of Bath.
Wood the Elder transformed Bath by adapting the town layout to a
sort of Roman plan, emphasizing the processional aspect of
social life during the period. Though some of his individual
buildings were noteworthy exercises in Palladianism (a kind of
16th-century Italian Renaissance classicism), he was most highly
regarded for his planning of streets and groups of houses as
visual units. After helping to build the Cavendish-Harley
housing estate in London, Wood designed his first important
“townscapes” in Bath, the North and South Parades (1728). These
were followed by Queen Square (1735), Prior Park (1735–48), the
Royal Mineral Water Hospital (1738), the Circus (completed in
1764, after his death, by his son John Wood the Younger), and
the Royal Crescent (1767–75;