James Wyatt, Fonthill Abbey, 1795-1807

Designed and built for the eccentric William Beckford, Fonthill Abbey had an enormous cruciform plan with a panoramic gallery more than 100 metres long, some of it presented in the state of ruin, the rest put to domestic uses Wyatt created a visionary delirium that proved, however, to be structurally weak the giant 84 metre high tower ended up collapsing one night in 1825, destroying most of this romantic fantasy, leaving only the north wing.