William Porden was a versatile English architect

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Born in Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

, he trained under James Wyatt

James Wyatt

James Wyatt RA , was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical style, who far outdid Adam in his work in the neo-Gothic style.-Early classical career:...

 and Samuel Pepys Cockerell

Samuel Pepys Cockerell

Samuel Pepys Cockerell was an English architect. He was the son of John Cockerell, of Bishop's Hull, Somerset, and the brother of Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, for whom he designed the house he is best known for, Sezincote House, Gloucestershire, where the uniquely Orientalizing features...

.

In 1784, the year of his marriage to Mary Plowman, Porden was appointed estate surveyor by the 1st Earl Grosvenor. This position involved assessing buildings on the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

 and determining the "fine" which an occupier had to pay when his lease fell in, and the revised ground rent

Ground rent

Ground rent, sometimes known as a rentcharge, is a regular payment required under a lease from the owner of leasehold property, payable to the freeholder. A ground rent is created when a freehold piece of land or a building is sold on a long lease...

. More than twenty years later Porden was appointed to reconstruct the Grosvenors' country seat, Eaton Hall

Eaton Hall (Cheshire)

Eaton Hall is the country house of the Duke of Westminster. It is set within a large estate south of the village of Eccleston, in Cheshire, England . The house is surrounded by formal gardens, parkland, farmland and woodland. The estate covers an area of about .The first substantial house was...

 in Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

. This project was carried out in a Gothic revival style.

From 1804–08 he designed the stables, riding house and tennis court at the Brighton Pavilion for the Prince of Wales

George IV of the United Kingdom

George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...

. The riding school was in the "Indo-Saracenic" style, inspired by pictures of Indian buildings. The main building was a notable technical accomplishment for the time, being circular and domed, with a diameter of 24 metres (78.7 ft) and a height of 19 metres (62.3 ft). It survives and is now a concert hall called "The Dome". Also in 1804, he designed Steine House

Steine House

Steine House is the former residence of Maria Fitzherbert, mistress and wife of the Prince Regent, in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Designed in 1804 by William Porden, who was responsible for many buildings on the Prince's Royal Pavilion estate, it was used...

 for Maria Fitzherbert, the Prince's wife.

Porden was also a garden architect and furniture designer and he was involved in the development of housing on the Phillimore Estate in Holland Park

Holland Park

Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Family

In 1785, William and Mary Porden had twin daughters, Mary Hannah (who died at the age of two years) and Sarah Henrietta. A son, William, born in 1793, also died at the age of two. The youngest child, the poet Eleanor

Eleanor Anne Porden

Eleanor Anne Porden was a British Romantic poet and the first wife of the explorer John Franklin.She was born in London, the younger surviving daughter of the architect William Porden and his wife Mary Plowman...

 (born in 1795), became the first wife of John Franklin

John Franklin

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...

, Arctic explorer and later Governor of Tasmania, but she died before reaching thirty.