The Gothic is a style associated with late medieval English art and architecture. Discover how it became popular in later centuries to ‘revive’ the ideas of this period and to style literature, architecture, visual and decorative art, landscape design and music after its features.
The Gothic
According to John Ruskin’s 1853 essay, The Nature of the Gothic, the Gothic style of the late medieval period encompassed features including irregularity, variety and naturalism. It also tended to favour the individuality of the craftsperson or artisan, rather than the classical and Neo-classical tendency to seek perfection.
Early origins of Gothic Revival
Although antiquarian and literary interest in late medieval art dates to the late 16th century, Gothic Revivalism began to gain real popularity with the ideas of 18th-century Whig politician, Horace Walpole.
Both his 1764 novella, The Castle of Otranto, and the Gothic Revival mansion that he created, Strawberry Hill, inspired a host of Gothic fictions, artistic endeavours and architecture, which were all moderately subversive of Neo-classical orderliness.
Gothic and Englishness
In its better-known 19th-century incarnations, the Gothic was seen as the quintessentially English style, and was adopted by both church and state as an expression of Englishness.
The Gothic was taken up by the Tractarians and others attempting to reinvigorate the ‘true’ English church. Parish churches all over the country were ‘restored’ to an ‘original’ medieval framework, often destroying early medieval features in the process.
When Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin designed the Houses of Parliament in 1835, they chose the Gothic Revival style. This reflected their view that a return to a medieval ethos would correct what they saw as a post-Reformation decline in English architecture.
In the later 19th century, William Morris based his Arts and Crafts decorative style on the late medieval modes of individual craftsmanship, local materials, and dedication to the vernacular – returning to a more humble style using skills passed down through the generations.
Adopting these principles was a way of recovering the more humane methods of an earlier period in the face of the mechanisation of manufactured goods in post-industrial Britain. These ideas are clearly demonstrated at Red House, Morris's home and 'Palace of Art', which was designed by his close friend and architect, Philip Webb.
Social and political implications
The Gothic Revival revitalised English culture based upon assumptions about the beneficial nature of the medieval past.
At first it was a progressive response to Neo-classical order and all its rigidities in the 18th century. However, it ultimately became part of a far more extensive push for social and political freedom in the later 19th century.
Returning to the perceived community of designer-artists, artisans and craft labourers who built the country’s great pre-Reformation cathedrals, manors, and churches seemed the ideal retreat from the dark, mechanised and urban world of the 19th-century industrial revolution.
Examples of Gothic Revival features at the places in our care
The home of Victorian Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, Hughenden in Buckinghamshire was remodelled in 1862 into a suitable country seat and ‘Gothicised’ to include plaster vaults in the hall. The comfortable rooms with their Victorian decoration include the sitting room, bedroom and study.
This Victorian Gothic masterpiece in Devon was designed for Sir John Heathcoat Amory by William Burges, a renowned designer known for his eccentricity and flamboyance. Burges had a rocky relationship with the Heathcoat Amory family and was fired halfway through the project. He was replaced by another reputable designer, John Dibblee Crace, who turned out to be another ill-fated choice. Much of Crace's work was covered up by the family, but later restored by the Trust.
This quintessential Tudor moated manor house in Norfolk has a magnificent gatehouse and accessible priest hole. The rooms show the development from medieval austerity to neo-Gothic Victorian comfort and include displays of embroidery by Mary Queen of Scots.
Built for the Beale family in 1891, Standen, West Sussex, was Philip Webb’s last commission. It's filled with William Morris wallpapers, Morris and Co. Arts and Crafts furniture, innovative light fittings by W.A.S. Benson and ceramics and accessories by William de Morgan. Some of the embroidered wall hangings were sewn by Margaret Beale and her daughters.
The only house commissioned, created and lived in by William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, Red House in London boasts original features and furniture by Morris and Philip Webb. You can also see stained glass and paintings by Burne-Jones and embroidery by Jane and Elizabeth Burden. The interior is coupled with bold architecture and a garden designed to 'clothe the house'.
One of the last surviving Victorian estates in the country, Tyntesfield in Somerset is a masterpiece of Gothic Revival style, bristling with turrets, towers and ecclesiastical details including the extravagantly designed chapel. Many of the original wallpapers, carpets, fabrics and furniture have survived, all carefully preserved by four generations of the Gibbs family.
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Trusted Source
This is a Trusted Source article, created in partnership with the University of Oxford. This article contains contributions from Allison Adler Inglis-Taylor. Allison is a researcher specialising in English literature, history, and culture from 1800 to the present day at the University of Oxford.
Architecture
From dovecotes to manor houses, uncover the architecture across the National Trust.
Find out more about our Trusted Source articles, which were created in partnership with the University of Oxford, and explore topics related to the special places in our care.
Learn how William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, brought the natural world indoors with his wallpapers and textiles, which are still instantly recognisable today.
Learn how both social and technological change have influenced architecture throughout history, and find out where to see examples of each period at the places we look after.
