Robert Rippon Duke (31 May 1817 16 August 1909) was an English architect and surveyor who designed various prominent Victorian buildings in Buxton, Derbyshire. Life Duke was born in Hull, the son of a whaler, in 1817. He moved to Buxton and in 1831 became an apprentice carpenter at Buxton Estate. From 1849 to 1852 he supervised the building of the Royal Hotel (Winster Place) on Spring Gardens. He then formed the Turner and Duke building company with partner Samuel Turner. He was a self-taught draughtsman and established his own architect's practice at 31 Spring Gardens. He was a founder member of the Buxton, Fairfield and Burbage Mechanics and Literary Institute and its president in 1856. His building company collapsed in 1862. In 1863 he was appointed as architect for the 7th Duke of Devonshire's Buxton Estate. He remained in the position of architect, surveyor and building inspector for the Devonshire Estate for 45 years. This work involved the layouts of roads, approving building designs, enforcing covenants and conducting land deals. He was a trustee for the Buxton Bath Charity for 50 years. He sold his architect's business to William Radford Bryden in 1883. In later life Duke suffered from rheumatism and was confined to a wheelchair. He was a resident at The Square, alongside renowned Buxton water physicians Sir Charles Scudamore and Dr William Henry Robertson. In 1870 he designed his own home Park House on Manchester Road. Works Duke designed the Octagon concert hall in Buxton Pavilion Gardens, matching the style of Edward Milner's adjoining pavilion, and it first opened to the public in 1876. It is a glass and cast iron masterpiece of Victorian architecture, situated near the Buxton Opera House (which was designed by Frank Matcham and built in 1903). The other great Buxton building for which Rippon Duke was largely responsible is the Devonshire Dome. Originally a vast octagonal stable block designed by Georgian architect John Carr of York for William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire to accompany his magnificent Crescent, it has undergone several major transformations. In 1859, the Buxton Bath Charity had persuaded the Duke of Devonshire to allow part of the building - by then accommodating nothing like the 120 horses for which it was designed - to be converted to a charity hospital for the use of the ‘sick poor’ coming in for treatment from the ‘Cottonopolis’ and many towns around.