I still recall how I wandered around
the war torn streets thinking that everywhere was damaged and
forlorn, and covered in a thick black patina, from the smog that
frequently fell. Like a stone.
That at times, made even
circumnavigating the other side of the street impossible.
The first church that I attended,
was attached to our school. That was St Georges, and is a Grade I
listed building of 1812. St Georges is one of the earliest buildings
to be constructed by metal skeleton. Leaving it light and allowing
the architecture to float in in its Georgian Gothic splendour. The
decoration hanging on its Rickman designed cast iron frame.
I would not know the name Pugin, it
would mean nothing to me until I started to feed the thirst for
knowledge that I started developing while still in short pants.
Gothic was born of
Rickmans work and was championed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.
The first time I looked up at the
heavenly architecture of st Georges that was heightened and was
shimmering in tinted colours, like a magic lantern slide. I wandered
into a world of why. As the light from the only stained glass windows
that escaped the Luftwaffe, pierced the pulpit during the services
that I had to endure. My mind would wander.
http://www.stgeorgeseverton.com/
It was built on the site of the old
Liverpool lighthouse and Beacon lane fed up to its plateau. This was
the old welsh town of Liverpool.
There were numerous massive buildings
that I recall, that would either fall down or be demolished and the
architecture of the firm of Pugin and Pugin, I would later find out,
filled the streets around my home with Gothic pearls.
Our Lady Immaculate with the ambitious
foundations of the Chancel Chapel on St Domingo Road. That would
never be more than that. The plans to build a Majestic Cathedral, at
the top of our street had never been able to to be realized. For lack
of finances.
I could feel those ambitions all
around me, enveloping my senses.
Decades later I would become a
specialist in the restoration of listed buildings and then move into
the world of antiques.
But I will never forget the way it made
me feel to live in such a place with its monumental faded Gothic
glory at every turn.
So now, when I may, understand the
esoteric's of design, I try to keep on furthering my knowledge by the
continual feeding of that seed. That grew out of those bombed out
buildings that I played in as a child.
There were three Pugin and Pugin
buildings in stones throw from, our house.
I want to explore here, a little more
about The Great Gothic Master of Design.
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin (Born
1812) wrote a scathing attack on British Georgian architecture. He
called it an abomination.
CONTRASTS was written by Pugin when he
was 25 and he does not hold back in his thought. The Industrial
revolution of the 1830's had saw huge civil unrest.
A strong moral leadership was called
for. But it was not there.
The country was burdened with George
IV. Who did fancy himself as a patron of the arts.
He wanted to work on Buckingham Palace
and the kings favourite architect John Nash who was a master of
disguise was employed.
This work showed what we call Facadism
where a building is cloaked in a Stucco fronting.
Pugin was an angry young man. He
thought he would cleanse the immorality of this Georgian style. In
'Gothic' he asks the questions of the reasons of the demise of
architecture.
Even though we now look at Georgian as
an example of style that is admired, he thought Gothic was the way
forward. Believing classicism to be false to a higher ideal.
St Giles in Staffordshire was an
attempt to turn the tide of immorality through architecture. In his
eyes Medieval fusion would be controlled into a channel of heavenly
paradise. To him, the Gothic revival was devoutly christian. This was
his brave new world......of looking back.
His mother Catherine Welby and August
Charles had fled the french revolution and they settled in
Bloomsbury. As a direct result of Catherine's inheritance. They were
wealthy. The young Pugin never really went to school. His father
supplemented their income by doing architectural drawing. At five
years of age his parents took him to Lincoln Cathedral. He was struck
by the genius of the prizmatic light dousing the building in
contrasting colour's, that was built 700 years before.
He admired the honesty, and how the
building was made.
Its skeleton was on show, there for all
to see.
His father ran a drawing school and he
and the pupils were taken to Northern France. Rouen Cathedral
entranced him.
There is a drawing in the national
archives entitled My first design at 9 years old.
He learnt about the engineering. How
buildings held up. How they were built.
He was shown them the bones of how they
were constructed. He would feel them.
Many Cathedrals were looted during the
revolution. Many with sculptures were defaced. He noted this.
He would collect and would study
fragments of medieval glass.
Low church services were held in
preaching boxes in small chapels and his mother supported Edward
Irving who was a sort of evangelist of the day.
He began to loathe the low style of
service and turned to the theatre.
The Theatre Royale Richmond, entranced
him at 15 years old, he saw the scenery flying on and off the stage.
As if by magic. He began to study in three dimensions and in 1831 he
designed quite lavishly for Henry VIII.
He gained a sense of the dramatic, with
the immorality of the theatre.
Ann was 5 months pregnant when Pugin
married her. He did the right thing and they seemed happy, until Ann
died, shortly after childbirth. Then his mother died. And at the age
of 21 he was a single parent. He was shattered by events and buried
himself in the wreckage of his life and his Gothic ideal.
Contrasts won him the friendship of
John Talbot the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury and his money gave
him the capital for amongst others St Giles in Cheadle.
Cheadle, my perfect Cheadle he declared
in later life. Picture The west doors of St Giles
At the consecration of his Gothic
masterpiece of St Giles, Archbishops were present. He had come a long
way. It was a national event. He wanted to capture a spirit something
he felt and it all went into his ideas for Gothic.
Talbot's stately home is now Alton
Towers.
He had converted to catholicism while
writing 'Contrasts'. He adored the playing out of the service with
all theatrical theatrical manner, he adored.
George Myers was his prefered builder,
a Yorkshire man. They struck a chord, he had a understanding what
Pugin wanted. Though on one project he was not involved in, the
Bellfry fell down.
He would design wallpapers and Mintons
took the decision to reinstate the practice of making encaustic tiles
around his designs.
His friend John Hardman would make his
metalwork and stained glass.
'The True Principle Of Pointed
Architecture' was his second book. Published in 1841 it laid down six
principles for building in the Gothic style.
Pugin believed good architecture is
good society and it lays down all the principles of how to achieve
this. A vision. Detail must have meaning. If it is constructed it can
be decorated.
In his work he puts the hinge in full
view showing exactly how the door is opening. A hidden hinge was
imoral he thought.
He declared classicism was wrong and
truth and honesty was Gods work.
'God will see if you skimp on hidden
parts of the building' he would declare. This inspired a new
generation of architects such a s George Gilbert Scott.
Who would say after reading Pugin.
'I felt as if I had awoken from my
slumbers'.
The whole landscape of Britain would
subsequently change through the thoughts and writings of the man'.
Though some people claim that modern
buildings such as the Pompidou or Lloyds of London hold true. This is
stupid thinking. They may hold the twisted principles dear but these
have been, shall we say, stretched by the architects for good PR.
The Palace of Westminster burnt down
and the rebuilding of the corrupt place would be replaced by Pugins
moral ideal. Charles Barry had classic training, but Pugin
overshadowed him. The towers were definatly Pugin which led but the
heraldic interior, combining the work of John Hardman, that showed an
ideal to an almost heavenly enlightenment of the mind.
We take for granted today the interiors
of the chamber because we see it almost every day on TV. But it was
made to overawe everyone who came in contact. And from his thousand
drawings, he aimed for perfection. He was a man posessed. Working
tirelessly.
The Soveriegns Throne is an example
encompassed. The medieval view in revival form, evoked history and
with a linear heritage from days gone by.
Though Barry was the architect, Pugin,
in 1834 had designed an imaginary college and by co-incidence the
year the Houses of Parliment burnt down.
It is almost the same building.
He was subsequently, unfairly written
out of the final finished scheme. Barry claiming it all. While Pugin
was working, he had no idea of the PR that was playing out around
him.
Pugin worked because he wanted to.
Barry got £25,000 while Pugin got £800.
Pugin had entered the debate
surrounding wallpaper which was now entering into more mainstream
consciousness after the Great Exhibition by designing a series of two
dimensional papers. These were mostly heradic motifs for The Palace
of Westminister. He would design a hundred different styles. There is
a wonderful book showing his pattern designs from 1851-1859 in the
V&A. Of course the best place to see them would be in place, on
the walls. Of those hundred different wallpaper designs that were
commissioned many were lost but his inspiration would seep into the
public. I picked hand blocked Pugin wallpaper for my hall that is
still available today if you know where to look. Though most of his
designs would be too bold for most domestic settings. This debate be
continued by Morris and Co.
His work then strangely dried up. This
was his time, and he wasn't there.
Louisa his second wife of 5 children
then died and at 32 he would struggle to cope with his paranoair.
He then wrote another book in Ramsgate.
An Apology for the Revival of Christian
Architecture in England. He explains as best he can under the
pressure of his developing illness and proclaims Gothic should be on
every detail as what was in The Grange, that he designed for himself.
It is.....Gothic to the core. Designed from the inside out and not
the other way round, as of most architects of the day seemed to do.
Rooms were arranged in the need for movement he was absorbed in
theatrical vibrancy of its interiors.
Trefoiled escutcheons and Gothic
handles with inscriptions declaring his love of patrons, family and
places. It's as if he wanted to surround himself in a cocoon.
He married a third time.
He would stay at the Grange for the
rest of his life.
He would exhibit at the 1851
Exhibition, a medieval court. It was acclaimed at all levels. Though
he never won a prize for manufacture as a designer.
He then built a church next to the
Grange. St Augustin's. Of napped flint, sandwiched between horizontal
lines and courses of stone. This was a new departure in architecture
for him. This building has recently been restored. His finances
suffered.
It encapsulated his faith. £14,000 of
his own money and he couldnt afford the spire.
It was all becoming too much. He was
having blackouts.
The Westminister clock tower hadn't
been built and Barry turned to Pugin who was ill with piles, worms
and strange visions.
The finished article is said to be a
masterpiece in delicacy reaching for the heavens.
He never made the opening of his design
after a mental breakdown.
Consigned to Bedlam and in 1852 at the
age of 40 he died. His tomb in St Augustin's decorated with carvings
of his family.
He died at the same time as The Duke of
Wellington and his death was relegated to the back pages of the
periodicals. This maybe a metaphor or a symbol of his whole life. His
son E.W Pugin would continue his work.
It took a hundred years for his
recognition to come to the fore.
Half French, as was Brunel. They both
were largely forgotten.
They, in time would both become greats.
In working on his book Gothic revival
published 1928 Kenneth Clarke found it hard to believe that a man so
little known was actually so important.
But still Pugin needs to be explored
because what he created was more than buildings it was an ideal, a
movement.
There are not many who could do that.
And Pugin is one of the greats.
I will always remember the lightness of
the cast iron framed architecture of St Georges. I visited there
recently. The side entrance to the back of the church still has the
same atmosphere and smell from decades past.
Looking at old photographs, I also
remember the stolid Victorian remnants of the Victorian buildings of
the era I grew up in. Most of it is heavy, over adorned, over
engineered and self apposing.
I think this is why I love the
lightness of the Georgians at their best..... and the freshness and
the feel of the best of French Art Deco.
Though I do declare I love the work and
appreciate the ideals of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.
I noticed a rather grubby looking but well framed oil painting just as travel restrictions started to be applied which made it difficult to handle it in person. So I was more than relieved to find that it was in excellent condition when I eventually got to see it.
