Kerry Downes

Kerry John Downes (born 1930) is an English architectural historian whose speciality is English Baroque architecture. He is the son of the organist Ralph Downes (1904–93). He studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where he was inspired by the lectures of Margaret Whinney. He has written about (among other things) the English architects Nicholas Hawksmoor (c. 1661–1736), Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726) and Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723), and the Flemish painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). His fellow historian James Stevens Curl has written, "Downes's productivity seems to contradict his claim that procrastination is one of his recreations".

In 1993, a collection of 24 original essays by colleagues, pupils and friends was dedicated to him, entitled English Architecture Public and Private: Essays for Kerry Downes.