Earls Court Living
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival was a Victorian movement which believed artists should seek inspiration from the works of the medieval church builders rather than from ancient Greece or Rome (and heaven forbid that anyone should simply invent something new).
Gothic was a strand which threaded through all architectural movements of the late 18th and the 19th centuries. The Neo-Classical guru, Robert Adam, designed castles in a style which might be called neo-Gothic. Nash used Gothic elements in some of his buildings. But a mainstream enthusiasm for our Gothic heritage was largely championed by Victorian architects such as Augustus Pugin (1812 - 1852) and Sir Charles Barry (1795 - 1860) whose most influential achievement - and the greatest monument to Gothic Revival - is the Houses of Parliament, which they built and decorated between 1836 and 1865. John Ruskin's books which praised Venetian Gothic as well as English Decorated style were also influential in winning support for the new style. Many public buildings were constructed in this seemingly mediaeval style, including the Law Courts in the Strand and Tower Bridge.
The obvious effect on domestic architecture was that doors and windows began to be built with pointed arches and stone surrounds. Typical features of High Victorian Gothic are exuberant forms and decoration, turrets, polychrome brickwork, steeply pitched roofs, gables, pointed arches, bay windows, elaborate porches, mediaeval details such as decorative corbels and gargoyles, stained glass and patterned floor tiles.
