Penrose, Francis Cramner (1817-1903), architectural historian and Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge

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Penrose, Francis Cramner (1817-1903), architectural historian and Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge

• Francis Cranmer Penrose, Hon LittD, FRS

29 October 1817 - 15 February 1903

Matriculated from Magdalene College in 1839. He was directly descended through his mother from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s sister.
Rowed in the Blue Boat, 1840, 1841, 1842.
‘Architect, archaeologist and astronomer’, surveyor of the fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral (1852-1897), he is chiefly remembered as an architectural historian. His famous work Principles of Athenian Architecture (1851, 1888, 1973) demonstrated that there were no straight lines in the Parthenon (entasis of the columns).
One of the first Honorary Fellows, 1885.
President of the RIBA, 1894-1896, and first director of the British School at Athens.
For Magdalene he undertook the restoration of the Street Front and laid out River Court (he designed the gates); part of the Chapel Court in St John’s is also his work.

Further reading:
Article: 'Unbuilt Magdalene I Penrose's Plan for Second Court (1872-73)', College Magazine, No. 30, (1985-86), pp. 21-24 (R. Hyam)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography