Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement popular in the Western world that began in the late 1740s in England. Its momentum grew in the early 19th century when increasingly serious and learned admirers of neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval Gothic architecture, in contrast to the neoclassical styles prevalent at the time. Gothic Revival draws features from the original Gothic style, including decorative patterns, finials, lancet windows, hood moulds, and label stops. Listed below are 15 buildings to define the architectural style:
1. Strawberry Hill
Strawberry Hill, Gothic Revival home of Horace Walpole, located on the River Thames in Twickenham, Eng. Walpole bought the house as a cottage in 1747 and gradually transformed it into a medieval-style mansion that suggested in its atmosphere the setting of his famous Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto (1765).
2. Palace of Westminster
Houses of Parliament, also called the Palace of Westminster, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the seat of the bicameral Parliament, including the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Sir Charles Barry, assisted by A.W.N. Pugin, designed the present buildings in the Gothic Revival style. The Houses of Parliament were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
3. St. Pancras Railway Station
St. Pancras railway station was designed by Sir William henry Barlow in 1868. The red brick structure is far from a pure representation of gothic architecture but rather a monumental Victorian structure that borrowed liberally from the gothic aesthetic. The single-span overall roof was the largest such structure in the world at the time of its completion. The materials used were wrought iron framework of lattice design, with glass covering the middle half and timber (inside)/slate (outside) covering the outer quarters.
4. Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894. The bridge crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and has become an iconic symbol of London. It is one of the later examples of gothic revival architecture, designed by Sir Horace Jones and built by Sir John Wolfe Barry. The bridge was a feat of mechanical engineering that would have been impossible at the start of Victoria’s reign, yet the modern machinery was clad in Gothic Revival architecture in order to harmonize with the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament upriver.
5. St. Patrick’s Basilica
The gothic revival building, designed by P. L. Morin and Father Felix Martin, is 71 meters (233 ft) long and 32 meters (105 ft) wide; the steeple reaches a height of 69 meters (226 ft). It is considered one of the most magnificent examples of its style in Canada. The interior is heavily ornamented with motifs that combine a French fleur de Lys and Irish shamrocks; more striking are the 25-meter (82 ft) columns, all carved from the same white oak and encased in marble.
6. Hungarian Parliament Building
The Hungarian Parliament Building, which translates to House of the Country or House of the Nation), also known as the Parliament of Budapest after its location, is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable landmark of Hungary and a popular tourist destination in Budapest. The Parliament Building built in the Gothic Revival style has a symmetrical façade and a central dome. Inaugurated in 1904, the Parliament of Budapest is the creation of architect ImreSteindl who ironically went blind before its completion, leaving him unable to appreciate his finished masterpiece.
7. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus knew by its former name Victoria Terminus, is a historic terminal train station and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The terminus was designed by British architectural engineer Frederick William Stevens in the style of Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival architecture. The station building is designed in the High Victorian Gothic style of architecture. The building exhibits a fusion of influences from Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival architecture and classical Indian architecture. It is one of the first and finest products of the use of industrial technology, merged with the Gothic Revival style in India.
8. Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal)
Notre-Dame Basilica is a basilica in the historic district of Old Montreal, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The interior of the church is amongst the most dramatic in the world and regarded as a masterpiece of Gothic Revival architecture. The vaults are coloured deep blue and decorated with golden stars, and the rest of the sanctuary is decorated in blues, azures, reds, purples, silver, and gold. It is filled with hundreds of intricate wooden carvings and several religious statues.
9. Trinity Church, New York
It was designed by American Institute of Architects co-founder Richard Upjohn. Upjohn was known as a leader of the American Gothic Revival movement. His magnificent design made Trinity one of the first and finest examples of Neo-Gothic architecture in the United States.
10. Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is an early American skyscraper located at 233 Broadway in Manhattan, New York City. Designed by architect Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930, with a height of 792 feet (241 m). More than a century after its construction, it remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the 30 tallest buildings in New York City. The Woolworth Building, an innovative and elegant early skyscraper completed in 1913, endures today as an iconic form on the New York City skyline.
11. Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built between 1923 and 1925, the international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-century architecture. The winner was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, with buttresses near the top. Construction on the Tribune Tower was completed in 1925 and reached a height of 462 feet (141 m) above ground. The ornate buttresses surrounding the peak of the tower are especially visible when the tower is lit at night.
12. Washington National Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The structure is of Neo-Gothic design closely modeled on the English Gothic style of the late fourteenth century. It is both the second-largest church building in the United States and the fourth-tallest structure in Washington, D.C.
13. University Of Otago Registry Building
The University of Otago Registry Building, also known as the Clocktower Building, is a Victorian and later structure in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, and is constructed from contrasting dark Leith Valley basalt and Oamaru stone, with a foundation of Port Chalmers breccia. The building houses the administrative center of the university and the office of the Vice-Chancellor. It has a Category I listing with Heritage New Zealand. It is the principal element of the Clocktower complex, the group of Gothic revival buildings at the heart of the University of Otago’s campus. The most prominent of the group, it was designed and re-designed by Maxwell Bury and Edmund Anscombe between the 1870s and the 1920s. This resulted in a revised geometry and a change to the original conception.
14. Oxford University Museum Of Natural History
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford’s natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. The neo-Gothic building was designed by the Irish architects Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward, mostly Woodward. The museum‘s design was directly influenced by the writings of critic John Ruskin, who involved himself by making various suggestions to Woodward during construction.
15. Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk
Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk (Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul), the main church of Ostend, Belgium, is a Roman Catholic Neo-Gothic church. It is built on the ashes of a previous church that occupied the site. The church was built in the Neo-Gothic style according to plans by architect Louis Delacenserie, who based his design on the Gothic Cologne Cathedral and the Neo-Gothic Votivkirche in Vienna.
