John Anthony Simpson (b 1954) has established himself as an architectural practitioner of what has become known as New Classicism, drawing on a rich and infinitely adaptable architectural language that was deliberately discarded by Modernists in favour of a poverty-stricken pidgin (in linguistic terms, the equivalent of monosyllabic grunts), the appalling failures of which are obvious to all those not blinded by their beliefs in a destructive cult. He has also championed intelligent use of materials used in buildings for purposes of durability, function and beauty. Recognising that architecture is a public art, and that every building contributes to the street, the square, the townscape, his work brings delight and loveliness to a world where too much of the urban fabric has been badly damaged by puritanical followers of Modernism.

Among his best buildings are The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace (with splendid architectural sculpture by Alexander Stoddart (b 1959) integrated with, rather than stuck on, the architecture); the New Quadrangle at Eton College (2010–15), including the exquisite Jafar Gallery (in which Ancient Greek themes are dominant); the Soanesque Ashfold House, Sussex (1985–91), designed for his parents; and the Fellows’ Dining Room and Lord Colyton Room (1993–8), Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (which include some marvellous Neo-Classical furniture, also Simpson’s designs). Recently (2014), Simpson won the competition to design the new Walsh Family Hall, School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana (the only School that teaches students the practice, as opposed to only the history, of traditional and Classical architecture), which promises to be another fine exemplar of his work.

From 1987 to 1992 Simpson prepared designs for Paternoster Square, City of London, to replace the dismally grim work (1956) of William Graham Holford (1907–75), who airily and arrogantly declared he wanted ‘no harmony of scale, character, or placing, just a total contrast’, and deliberately obliterated all traces of earlier street-patterns. Although Simpson’s work was never realised, it has been influential in that it shows a humane and beautiful alternative to the kind of Dystopian dreariness that was de rigueur when Holford’s inflated reputation — which did not long survive him — unaccountably dazzled his contemporaries (Nikolaus Pevsner (1902–83), in The Buildings of England (Reference Pevsner1973) called Holford’s work near St Paul’s Cathedral an ‘outstandingly well conceived precinct’, which it patently was not, and it barely lasted twenty years).

Other important works were Simpson’s designs for Poundbury, Dorset, including the Market Hall (2000); substantial interventions at Kensington Palace (including the delightfully delicate cast-iron loggia forming the new garden-entrance to the building); buildings at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, including remarkable allusions to the Tomb of Marceius Vergileus Eurysaces, pistor et redemptor (master-baker and contractor), Porta Maggiore, Rome (c 30 bc), that continue an eclectic tradition established by Basil Champneys (1842–1935), Reginald Theodore Blomfield (1856–1942), Giles Gilbert Scott (1880–1960) and Raymond Charles Erith (1904–73), a tradition, moreover, that was ‘almost like a freak of nature’ to Pevsner when Wolfson Quad was built (1957–61) to Erith’s designs (Pevsner Reference Pevsner1974); and the remodelling (from 2014) of the interior of the Royal College of Music, Kensington, London (1889–94), by Arthur William Blomfield (1829–99).

Admirable are his Pavilion in the Walled Garden at Sheringham, Norfolk, designed in 2012 for Paul Doyle (for whom he also designed a Gothic library at Bintree Manor, Norfolk); works at Vincent Square, Westminster (including a fine herm by Stoddart); and the distinguished refurbishment of the Carhart Mansion and new block, East 95th Street, New York (early 2000s). For Watkin, the author of this beautifully produced book, embellished with superb photographs and other illustrations, Simpson designed a library at St Margaret’s Place, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, in which the spirit of the great Soane presides.

As a miniaturist too, Simpson’s work is outstandingly sensitive. Apart from his furniture, architectural details such as railings and balustrades are handled as deftly as they once were by a Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) or a Leo von Klenze (1784–1864). In his later designs, he has had occasion to work in Gothic: the Perpendicular chapel in the crypt at Crosby Hall, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, is a case in point. HRH The Prince of Wales, in his sensitive foreword, states correctly that Simpson has been one of the leading figures in bringing about a modern renaissance of the grammar of Classical architecture, and Simpson himself sets out his philosophy in his short essay, ‘Building to Last’.

I salute this wonderful record of the creations of a distinguished designer.