Lieutenant-Colonel James Burton (previously James Haliburton) (29 July 1761 – 31 March 1837) was an English property developer. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography identifies him as the most successful property-developer of Regency and of Georgian London, in which he built over 3000 properties in 250 acres. Between 1792 and 1802, he spent over £400,000 (about £30 million in 21st-century money) on the Foundling Hospital Estate alone.

Burton built most of Bloomsbury (including Bedford Place, Russell Square, Bloomsbury Square, Tavistock Square, and Cartwright Gardens), and St John's Wood, Regent Street, Regent Street St. James, Waterloo Place, St. James's, Swallow Street, Regent's Park (including its Inner Circle villas in addition to Chester Terrace, Cornwall Terrace, Clarence Terrace, and York Terrace). He financed, and his company built, the projects of John Nash at Regent's Park (most of which were designed by his son Decimus Burton) to the extent that the Commissioners of Woods and Forests described him, not John Nash, as 'the architect of Regent's Park'. Burton also developed the town of St Leonards-on-Sea which is now part of Hastings.

Burton and his sons were members of London high society during the Georgian era and during the Regency era. He was an early member of the Athenaeum Club, London, whose Clubhouse his company built to a design by his son Decimus Burton, who became the club's "prime member". Burton was a friend of Princess Victoria (the future Queen Victoria), and of the Duchess of Kent. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers, and Sheriff of Kent.

In addition to the famous architect Decimus Burton, James Burton Senior's sons included the pioneering Egyptologist and libertine James Burton Junior, and the physician Henry Burton who discovered the Burton line. He was the grandfather of Constance Mary Fearon, who was the founder of the Francis Bacon Society.

The Burtons' London mansion The Holme (which was designed by his son Decimus Burton) was described by architecture critic Ian Nairn as 'a definition of Western civilization in a single view'. James Burton also built the Burtons' Tonbridge mansion, Mabledon.

Family James Burton was born in Strand, London, as James Haliburton, on 29 July 1761. He was the son of William Haliburton (1731–1785), who was a Scottish property-developer from Roxburghshire, who descended from John Haliburton (1573 – 1627) from whom Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was descended on the maternal side. Burton's paternal great-grandparents were The Rev. James Haliburton (1681 – 1756) and Margaret Eliott who was an aunt of George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield.

Burton was a cousin of the Canadian author and British MP Thomas Chandler Haliburton, and thereby of the Canada First founder Robert Grant Haliburton and the civil servant Arthur Lawrence Haliburton, 1st Baron Haliburton, who was the first Canadian to be raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

Burton's mother was Mary Foster (who was previously Mary Johnson; 1735–1785), whom his father married in 1760, who was the daughter of Nicholas Foster of Kirkby Fleetham, Yorkshire. William Haliburton and Mary Foster had two sons, James and another who died in infancy.

James (b. 1761) was christened with the name 'James Haliburton' at Presbyterian Chapel, Soho, London. He shortened his surname to Burton in 1794, between the births of his fourth and fifth children.

Education James was educated at a day-school in Covent Garden before he was privately tutored, including in architecture. In July 1776 he was articled to a surveyor named James Dalton, with whom he remained for six years,J. Manwaring Baines F.S.A., Burton's St. Leonards, Hastings Museum, 1956. until 1782, when he commenced with speculative construction projects, in some of which Dalton was his partner.

Significant property developments Bloomsbury: including the Foundling Hospital Estate on which he built 586 houses from 1789, and spent over £400,000 (about £30 million in 21st-century money), between 1792 and 1802. These included Brunswick Square, Guilford Street, and Mecklenburgh Square(on which he built 600 houses); Bloomsbury Square (where the remaining north side are Burton's original houses); Russell Square; Bedford Place; Montague Street; Tavistock Square; Tavistock House (for himself); Cartwright Gardens (which were originally named Burton Crescent, after him); and Burton Street and Burton Crescent (which were named after him). St John's Wood Regent Street: Burton built 191 of the houses of Regent Street, and their joining archways. Five of the largest blocks of Regent Street were purchased by Burton in 1817. Burton's houses on Regent Street are No. 4 to No. 12; No. 17 to No. 25; No. 106 to No. 128; No. 132 to No. 154; No. 133 to No. 167; No. 171 to No. 195; and No. 295 to No. 319. These were built, together with Carlton Chambers, between 1817 and 1820. He also built between Leicester Street and No. 129 Swallow Street in 1820. He built the east side of Regent Street in 1821, and the west side of Regent Street, between the Quadrant and Oxford Street, and its archways, in 1822. He built north of Old Burlington Street, and the east side of the street between Chapel Court and the entrance to the King Street Chapel SW1, in 1822. Regent Street St. James (Lower Regent Street). Waterloo Place, St. James's, whose facades Burton modelled on those of the Place Vendome in Paris, between 1815 and 1816. Regent's Park, including the Inner Circle villas; Cornwall Terrace (1821); York Terrace; Clarence Terrace (1823); and Chester Terrace (1825). The Holme, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, (1818) The mansion of the Burton family, designed by his son Decimus Burton and built by James Burton's company. It has been described as 'one of the most desirable private homes in London' by architectural scholar Guy Williams, and the architectural critic Ian Nairn described it as 'a definition of western civilization in a single view'. St Leonards-on-Sea (1827 - 1837).

The architectural scholar Guy Williams contends, "He [Burton] was no ordinary builder. He could have put up an imposing and beautifully proportioned building, correct in every constructional detail, from the roughest of sketches tossed patronizingly at him by a "gentleman architect"". James's industry made him quickly 'most gratifyingly rich'. Burton worked as an 'Architect and Builder' in Southwark between 1785 and 1792.

By 1787, Burton was lauded in Southwark: in 1786 he had built the Blackfriars Rotunda in Great Surrey Street (now Blackfriars Road) to house the Leverian Museum, for museum proprietor James Parkinson; this building subsequently housed the Southwark Institution.

Burton when aged 28 years proposed to build on the land that was made available by the Foundling Hospital, on which he had worked from 1789. He built 586 houses there from 1789, and spent over £400,000 (about £30 million in 21st century money), on developments there between 1792 and 1802. He built the earliest part of the Royal Veterinary College in Camden Town in 1792 - 1793.

Between 1790 and 1792, he asked the Governors of the Foundling Hospital for a permission to exclusively build the whole of Brunswick Square, but they declined to waive their rule of prohibition of any one speculator to develop more than a small proportion of the land, and granted Burton only land on the south side of Brunswick Square and part of Guilford Street. Subsequently, however, Burton expanded that holding by further purchases until he became the most extensive builder on the Hospital's Estate, and owned most of its western property. He between 1792 and 1802 he built 586 houses on the Estate, on which he spent over £400,000 in Georgian money, until the number of his constructions on the estate were 600. Samuel Pepys Cockerell, advisor to the Governors of the Foundling Hospital, commended Burton's excellence:

"Without such a man [James Burton], possessed of very considerable talents, unwearied industry, and a capital of his own, the extraordinary success of the improvement of the Foundling Estate could not have taken place... By his own peculiar resources of mind, he has succeeded in disposing of his buildings and rents, under all disadvantages of war, and of an unjust clamour which has repeatedly been raised against him. Mr. Burton was ready to come forward with money and personal assistance to relieve and help forward those builders who were unable to proceed in their contracts; and in some instances he has been obliged to resume the undertaking and complete himself what has been weakly and imperfectly proceeded with...".

The contemporary Oxford Dictionary of National Biography contends that 'there is certainly no doubt about his energy and financial acumen'. Burton's industry made him 'most gratifyingly rich'. Throughout his development of the Foundling Hospital Estate, Burton was encouraged by Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, and his successor, John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, and by The Worshipful Company of Skinners, to develop the remainder of Bloomsbury and their adjacent estates. In 1800, Burton bought a portion of the London estate of the Dukes of Bedford, and demolished the Bedfords decaying London mansion, Bedford House, on the site of which he constructed family homes, including the houses of Bedford Place and Russell Square.

Style

In these Bloomsbury developments, Burton again demonstrated his architectural flair, as Williams describes: "James Burton became adept at relieving the monotony of long residential terraces by allowing their central blocks to project slightly from the surfaces to each side, and by bringing forward, too, the houses at each end". Williams also records that "the ironwork in a classical style in James Burton's Bloomsbury terraces was, and often still is, particularly fine, though mass produced". The Bloomsbury Conservation Areas Advisory Council describes Burton's Bloomsbury terraces, "His terraces are in his simple but eloquent Neoclassical style, with decorative doorcases, recessed sash windows in compliance with the latest fire regulations, and more stucco than before". Jane Austen described Burton's new area of London in Emma: "Our part of London is so very superior to most others! - You must not confound us with London in general, my dear sir. The neighbourhood of Brunswick Square is very different from all the rest".

In 1970, John Lehmann predicted that Burton's Bloomsbury would soon disappear "except for a few isolated rows... to remind us of man-sized architecture in a vanished age of taste". Burton exhibited his design of the south side of Russell Square at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1800. Burton's urban designs were characterized by spacious formal layouts of terraces, squares, and crescents.

In 1807 Burton expanded his Bloomsbury development north, and was also involved extensively in the early development of St John's Wood.Victoria County History: Middlesex and London. Celebrating the birth in July 1761 of James Burton, the founder of St Leonards-on-Sea and builder-developer in Bloomsbury . Accessed 18 June 2016. He then left London for a project in Tunbridge Wells but returned in 1807 to build over the Skinners Company land between the Bedford Estate and the lands owned by the Foundling Hospital, where he built Burton Crescent (which was later renamed Cartwright Gardens), Burton Street, and Burton Place, which were named after him. These developments included, for himself, the Tavistock House, on land that is now occupied by the British Medical Association, where he lived until he moved to The Holme in Regent's Park, which was designed for him by his son Decimus Burton. Burton also developed the Lucas Estate.