GREATBRITISHGARDENS - Key Persons

Harold Ainsworth Peto was the eighth child out of fourteen, born to Sir Samuel Morton Peto and his wife, of Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk. Harold Peto was educated at Harrow and began his career by training & qualifying as an architect. In 1871 he went into partnership with Ernest George. Theirs was a popular and successful practice, employing assistants such as Edwin Lutyens, Guy Dauber and Herbert Baker. In 1892 after 21 years, the partnership was dissolved, due to Harold's increasing disenchantment with London , on the condition that he would not practice architecture in the UK for the next 15 years. From here his career in garden and interior design began. A long admirer of Italian Renaissance, this influence could be seen in his architectural work, and he travelled frequently to Italy. Harold Peto created some of the finest gardens in England, inspired mainly by the Italianate style but always in sympathy with the surrounding English countryside. Harold Peto wrote one book during his life, ‘The Boke of Iford'.