It seems incredible today that Vanbrugh should switch careers so easily. Born in London in 1664 (two years before the Great Fire), the son of a cloth merchant of Protestant Flemish descent (Van Brugh), his family fled the capital’s plague and he grew up in Chester. He had a spell as a wine merchant, went to India to work for the East India Company and had a long stint as a soldier. Although the details are a little obscure, he appears to have been working undercover on the continent to bring about the invasion of England by the Dutch king, William of Orange. In the process he was captured at Calais and imprisoned in France for four and a half years, part of it spent in the Bastille.