The Battle of the Styles is a term used to refer to the conflict between supporters of the Gothic style

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 and the Classical style

Classical architecture

Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...

 in architecture. In Britain this led to public debates between Decimus Burton

Decimus Burton

Decimus Burton was a prolific English architect and garden designer, He is particularly associated with projects in the classical style in London parks, including buildings at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and London Zoo, and with the layout and architecture of the seaside towns of Fleetwood and...

 and Augustus Pugin

Augustus Pugin

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an English architect, designer, and theorist of design, now best remembered for his work in the Gothic Revival style, particularly churches and the Palace of Westminster. Pugin was the father of E. W...

. In France it led to controversy over the work of Viollet-le-Duc. The "battle" arose from the Gothic revival of the late 18th Century, when the supremacy of Classicism as the embodiment of taste was challenged.

Later in the century the revival of vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...

 led to an increasing palette of styles from which architects could choose, including Queen Anne style

Queen Anne Style architecture

The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...

 and "Tudorbethan" models. Numerous stylistic options led to a debate about prefabricated stylistic options in architecture, which eventually mutated into the Arts and Crafts

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 style and then into Modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

.