Pugin

The most important exponent of the Gothic Revival in English architecture was Augustus Welby Pugin, who in a short working period, from 1835 until his death in 1852, designed more than a hundred buildings, wrote eight books, and established a flourishing business for the production of metalwork and stained glass. Pugin, a Catholic convert, who equated Gothic architecture with Christianity, expressed his profound religious convictions in his writings and in the building of such churches as St Giles, Cheadle, and St Barnabas, Nottingham. He also designed convents, monasteries, schools, and houses, but is perhaps best known for his superb decorations for the Houses of Parliament. Pugin was well ahead of his time in his advocacy of purity and function in architectural design, but his single-minded assertive perfectionism and fidelity to medieval style earned him many contemporary attacks. This authoritative study by Phoebe Stanton, Associate Professor of the History of Art at The Johns Hopkins University, constitutes an exhaustive and perceptive re-assessment of Pugin's status.