English Victorian Churches, Architecture, Faith & Revival

by James Stevens Curl

Recently I had the privilege of revisiting and giving a talk about the strikingly fine High Victorian church of St Mark’s, Dundela, in Belfast, designed by William Butterfield, setting it in the context of the architect’s extraordinary ecclesiastical creations across the British Isles. What a rewarding body of work is his, and how important it is to understand what was going on in terms of religious belief and debate affecting aesthetics in such dynamic ways in ecclesiastical architecture during the nineteenth century which resulted in the great Victorian church buildings, especially Anglican and Roman Catholic ones. To refresh and enhance my knowledge, I turned to the work of James Stevens Curl, particularly his comprehensive tome Victorian Architecture: Diversity & Invention (2007) as well as The English Heritage Book of Victorian Churches (1995). JS Curl has in his long career helped to pioneer an appreciation of undervalued aspects of Victorian architecture and sought to correct prejudice against later phases of the Victorian Gothic Revival, and to his impressive output of publications an excellent new publication has now been added:

English Victorian Churches, Architecture, Faith & Revival (John Hudson Publishing, 2022).

As one would expect from the author, it is a scholarly, richly informative, refreshingly pithy and engagingly written study and it is to be especially applauded for the clear chapter structure and format and for the terrific wealth of colour photographs of the buildings brought under discussion (exterior and interior views). It is the perfect antidote to ignorance about the period and its architecture and it is to be hoped that it will help increase understanding and appreciation of these buildings – in England, of course, but also their ‘cousins’ across the rest of these islands, including in Ulster.

The book begins with an introduction to denominations and Victorian churches – the Church of England, Nonconformity and Roman Catholicism and a discussion about the need for new churches during the period of great urban expansion, industrialisation and societal upheaval. Curl then turns his attention to architecture, antiquarianism and styles, focusing on the beginnings of Gothic scholarship and Gothic and the Nation before turning to the charged religious atmosphere of the 1830s and 40s, followed by the Anglican revival and the impact of Ecclesiology and the Anglican crisis, the search for an ideal by the aforementioned Butterfield but also George Edmund Street and George Gilbert Scott, the architecture of the 1850s, 1860s and early 1870s, featuring William Burges (in Ireland, think St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork), John Loughborough Pearson and GF Bodley, and finally turning to late Victorian Anglican churches, Anglo Catholicism and the Arts & Crafts influence as well as some non-Anglican buildings for religious observance (including a synangogue and a mosque). There are occasional necessary detours into, for example, Rundbogenstil, Neo Classicism, stylistic oddities and the work of JF Bentley, architect of the stunning Westminster RC Cathedral and also the Church of the Holy Rood, Watford (with a big and remarkable rood).

Curl posits that ‘into their churches Victorians poured creative genius, and their finest exemplars stand comparison with the best medieval work, often surpassing it in quality … most are not mere copies of medieval styles … indeed they are often marvellously original’ and his purpose in writing this volume

(aware that so much has changed in society and in the churches over recent times) is that there might be a greater realisation as to how rich is England’s 19th-century church architecture. He seeks not to write an elegy but to describe the various styles of Victorian ecclesiastical architecture and to give a flavour of the backgrounds that prompted designs and realisations, from ‘wonderful repositories of the very best exemplars produced by craftsmen of genius’ to the quirky and decidedly peculiar.

The final section of the book comprises an epilogue on the importance of church restoration and thoughtful (wistful) closing remarks, and the volume concludes with a very superior glossary (Curl also co-authored with Susan Wilson the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture after all) and a useful select bibliography.

This is highly recommended volume – an essential handbook for all who may be intrigued and want to know more about these remarkable buildings but who might be somewhat afraid of them because they don’t fully understand them (or even understand them at all), to a wonderfully illustrated go-to ready reference for those of us who are already won over to them as awe-inspired admirers, believers in their beauty, brilliance and purpose and who seek to treasure them now and into the future. The publication contains some great familiar faces –such as Truro Cathedral, All Saints Margaret Street and St Giles RC Church Cheadle, for example – but also some inspirational surprises such as St Cuthbert’s Kensington and Christ Church, Appleton-le-Moors, Yorkshire which, for this reviewer, are now firmly on the must-see list. 

Dr Paul Harron

English Victorian Churches, Architecture, Faith & Revival by James Stevens

Curl

John Hudson Publishing

Hardback, 222 pp

ISBN 978-1-7398229-3-4