Cockerell, Charles Robert (1788-1863)

English architect. He built mainly in a neoclassical style derived from antiquity and from the work of Christopher Wren. His buildings include the Cambridge University Library (now the Cambridge Law Library; 1837-42) and the Ashmolean Museum and Taylorian Institute in Oxford (1841-45).

He was trained by his father who was also an architect, then worked under Robert Smirke. After travelling extensively in the Levant, Greece, and Italy from 1810 to 1817, he started independent practice in London. He succeeded his father as surveyor to St Paul's in 1819, and became architect to the Bank of England in 1833.

From 1840 to 1857 he was professor of architecture at the Royal Academy. He was the first recipient of the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1848, and president of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1860. Cockerell published many books including The Temples of Jupiter Panhellinius at Aegina, and of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae (1860).