Decimus
Burton was born on 30th September 1800; his first name means 'tenth' in
Latin - he was his parents' tenth child. As a young man he became an architect,
designing many public buildings and houses including the Hyde Park screen
and the Athenaeum Club in London and buildings in St Leonards in Sussex,
where he lived for part of his life. He also designed buildings in glass
and iron, such as the Palm House in Kew Gardens in London.
He became a
friend of Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood who owned the land on which Fleetwood
now stands. Peter had a dream of recreating the buildings and wide tree-lined
streets of St Leonards on the Fylde coast near Rossall Point, which on
a map of 1786 was described as a 'rabbit warren'. Peter asked Decimus
to design the new town which would be called 'Fleetwood'. The architect
lived in Fleetwood while the new town was taking shape, first in Dock
Street and later in Queens Terrace. A railway was built to make it easier
for people to travel to Fleetwood.
Today, the
layout of the streets is still partly as Decimus planned it over 160 year
ago, and some of the buildings he designed are still in use, such as St.
Peter's Church, the North Euston Hotel, Queens Terrace and the Custom
House which is now the Museum.
Decimus Burton
was very important in the early development of Fleetwood and his skill
as an architect and designer was seen not only in Fleetwood but also in
many other places in England, Scotland, Wales and abroad. The style of
architecture he used mainly imitated that of the ancient Greeks; this
is known as the 'classical' style of architecture.