Robinson travelled abroad widely and is noted to have been a prolific designer of ornamental cottages and country house residences in an variety of historicist and exotic styles. He frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1795 to 1833 and from 1823 to 1841, published a vast number of designs for rural and domestic architecture including ornamental cottages and villas, farm buildings and lodge and park entrances. He also planned a continuation of the 18th-century architectural volumes Vitruvius Britannicus, publishing volumes with plates of Woburn Abbey, Hatfield House, Hardwicke Hall, Castle Ashby and Warwick Castle from 1833 to 1841.
Robinson became a fellow of the Society of Arts in 1826 and was an early vice-president of the Institute of British Architects. Poor finances, however, forced Robinson to move abroad and he settled in Boulogne in 1840. He died there on 24 June 1858.
Bibliography
Brindle, Steven, ‘Robinson, Peter Frederick (1776-1858)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008) [accessed 2 May 2008]
Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 3rd edition (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), pp. 826-828
Dictionary of Scottish Architects, 'Peter Frederick Robinson', DSA Architect Biography Report [accessed 02 May 2008]
National Archives, National Register of Archives, Person Details, ' Robinson, Peter Frederick (1769-1858) Architect, GB/NNAF/P142413' [accessed 02 May 2008]