Charles Hathcote Tatham, architect, was born in Westminster on 8th February 1772. He was educated at Louth Grammar School, Lincolnshire until 1788 when, aged 19, he began working for Henry Holland. The year preceeding his job had been spent copying William Chambers' Treatise (1759) and Jean le Patre's Oeuvres d'architecture (1652). For the next six years Tatham worked in Holland's office working on commissions such as the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
In 1794 Tatham became Holland's agent in Rome as he sent back designs, casts of antiquities as well as original pieces. During his time there Tatham mixed with the highest social circles and met several notables including Giovanni Carlo Bonomi (1743-1801), who later converted him to Roman Catholicism. Through his social links Tatham visited several archaeological sites including villas, museums, baths and gardens of which he took many drawings.
Tatham returned to England in 1796 and soon after exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy. His first independent commission was for an interior at Stoke Edith, Herefordshire for Edward Foley MP, in addition to a cottage and park gate. More importantly, he was employed by the Earl of Carlisle at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, in 1800-01 to fit up Sir Thomas Robinson's palladian wing. By the end of his career, much of Tatham's work was made up of alterations and additions to both internal and external rooms and houses.
Charles Tatham died at Trinity Hospital, Greenwich on 10 April 1842, and was buried under the hospital chapel.
Bibliography
Riddell, R (2007) ‘Tatham, Charles Heathcote (1772–1842)’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, Oxford online edn, Jan 2007)