(b London, Sept 30, 1800; d London, Dec 14, 1881).
English architect. An extremely prolific classical architect and urban planner who continued the Picturesque tradition established by John Nash, he was trained by his father James Burton (1761–1837), the builder of Nash’s Regent’s Park terraces, and by George Maddox (1760–1843). Achieving early success through the joint patronage of his father and of Nash, he was responsible, under Nash, for the design of Clarence and Cornwall Terraces, Regent’s Park, London, at the age of 20. His other contributions to Regent’s Park were several elegant villas, including the Holme (1819) for his father, the Colosseum (1823–7; destr.) and buildings and gardens for the Zoological Society (1826–41) and the Royal Botanical Society (1840–59). The Colosseum, a Greek Doric version of the Pantheon in Rome with a dome slightly larger than that of St Paul’s Cathedral, was an ambitious construction for which Burton was much admired. The function of the building was to exhibit the popular panoramas and dioramas, the Picturesque precursors of modern ...