William Burges (architect)
Encyclopedia
William Burges was an English
architect
and designer
. Amongst the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, Burges sought in his work an escape from 19th century industrialisation
and a return to the values, architectural and social, of an imagined mediaeval England. His career was short; his first major commission at Cork was won in 1863 when he was thirty-five and he died aged only fifty-three in 1881, but in this span of under twenty years he established himself as "the most brilliant architect-designer of his generation", his "own strange genius turn(ing) the Middle Ages
into magic".
Burges's most notable works, Cardiff Castle
and Castell Coch
were undertaken for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
. To enter either Cardiff Castle
or Castell Coch
is to enter "an architecture of dreams." Others conceived that High Victorian Dream, painted it and wrote of it, "but only Burges built it."
Burges's architecture rivals that undertaken by the greatest architects of the Victorian era. But the range of his achievements in architecture, design, metalwork, jewellery and stained glass outdoes them all: "In furniture and stained glass he matches the finest work of Morris and Co. In jewellery and metalwork he is really without rival."
Burges's period of influence and acclaim was short. By his death the Victorian Dream was over and in the decades following Victorian architecture was almost universally derided. The last forty years, however, have seen a renaissance in the study of Victorian
art, architecture and design and Burges's place at the centre of that world as "a wide-ranging scholar, an intrepid traveller, a corruscating lecturer, a brilliant decorative designer and an architect of genius" is again appreciated.
(1796–1886), a wealthy civil engineer
who undertook work in Cardiff
for John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute
, himself the father of Burges' later, greatest, patron, the 3rd Marquess
. Alfred Burges made a considerable fortune, some £113,000 at his death, and this wealth enabled Burges to devote his life to the study and practice of architecture, without requiring that he actually earn a living.
Burges entered King's College London
in 1839 and remained for five years before being articled, at the age of sixteen, to the office of Edward Blore
, surveyor to Westminster Abbey. Blore was an established architect, being "Special Architect" to both William IV
and Queen Victoria, and had made his reputation as a gothic revivalist. After five years, Burges moved to the offices of Matthew Digby Wyatt
. Wyatt was then almost at the height of his influence and public prominence, culminating in his leading role in the direction of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Burges' work on the Medieval Court for this exhibition was highly influential on the subsequent course of his career.
Of equal importance and influence was Burges' travelling. "All architects should travel, but more especially the art-architect; to him it is absolutely necessary to see how various art problems have been resolved in different ages by different men." Enabled by his private income, Burges moved through England, then France
, Belgium
, Holland, Switzerland
, Germany
and Spain
, Italy
and Sicily
, Greece
and finally into Turkey
, studying and drawing on a prodigious scale. What he saw, and sketched, provided a repository of influences and ideas that he used, and re-used, for the whole of his career. The influence of the East, both Near and Far, was also profound; his fascination with Moorish design finding ultimate expression in the Arab Room at Cardiff Castle
, and his absorption of Japanese techniques having a significant impact on his metalwork. As he received his first major commission late in his career, at thirty-five, his subsequent career did not see the "development" that might be expected. His style was formed by his study, his thinking and his travelling and "once established, after twenty years' preparation, his 'design language' had merely to be applied, and he applied and re-applied the same vocabulary with increasing subtlety and gusto."
In 1856 Burges established his own architectural practice at 15 Buckingham Street, The Strand
. Some of his early items of furniture were created for this office and later moved to The Tower House
, Melbury Road, Kensington
, the home he built for himself towards the end of his life. His early architectural career was relatively unsuccessful although he won prestigious commissions for Lille Cathedral, the Crimea Memorial Church and the Bombay School of Art. All remained unbuilt, at least to Burges' designs. Most regrettable of all was his failed entry for the Law Courts in the Strand which, if built, would have given London its own Carcassonne
, "a re-creation of a thirteenth century dream world and a skyline of great inventiveness."Victorian Architecture page 170 Undaunted, and fortified by the his belief that Early French provided the answer to the crisis of architectural style that beset mid-Victorian England; "I was brought up in the 13th century belief and in that belief I intend to die";The Builder, vol.34, 1876, p.18 he finally secured his first major commission for St. Fin Barre's Cathedral Cork in 1863. Vastly exceeding the intended budget, he produced a building that in size is little more than a large parish church but in impression is indeed "a cathedral becoming (of) such a city and one which posterity may regard as a monument to the Almighty's praise."The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork: page 37, quote from The Southern Reporter, 12 May 1862 Other commissions, both ecclesiastical and domestic, followed including substantial remodelling of Gayhurst House, Buckinghamshire
for the second Lord Carrington.The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire
after Burges's death. Second to Chapple was William Frame, who acted as clerk of works for the castle. Horatio Walter Lonsdale was Burges's chief artist, contributing extensive murals both for Castell Coch
, and for Cardiff Castle
. His main sculptor was Thomas Nicholls who started with Burges at Cork, completing hundreds of figures for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral and the Animal Wall
at Cardiff. Ceccardo Fucigna was another sculptor who undertook the Madonna and Child above the drawbridge at Castell Coch, the figure of St. John over the mantelpiece in Lord Bute's bedroom at Cardiff Castle and the bronze Madonna in the roof garden. Lastly was Axel Haig
, a Swedish-born illustrator, who prepared many of the watercolour perspectives with which Burges entranced his clients. Mourdant Crook calls them "a group of talented men, moulded in their master's image, art-architects and medievalists to a man - jokers and jesters too -devoted above all to art rather than to business."
in 1855 but this is uncertain. Bute was a landed aristocrat, industrial magnate
, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, High Tory, Roman Catholic convert and became Burges's greatest architectural patron. Both Burges and Bute were men of their times, both had fathers whose industrial endeavours provided the means for their sons' architectural achievements, and both sought to "redeem the evils of industrialism by re-living the art of the Middle Ages
".
However occasioned, the connection lasted the rest of Burges's life and led to his most important works. To the Marquess, and his wife, Burges was the "soul-inspiring one", and the relationship between them was "a prime example of the partnership of aristocratic patron and talented architect produc(ing) the marvels of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch."Victorian Architecture page 14 That the Marquess was the richest man in Britain was an essential factor, for Burges was not a cheap architect. As he himself wrote "good art is far too rare and far too precious ever to be cheap." But Bute brought more than money to the partnership. He was a serious scholar, passionate antiquarian and committed medievalist and his resources and his interests allied with Burges's genius to stupendous effect. Burges' re-building of Cardiff Castle
and the complete reconstruction of the ruin of Castell Coch
, (the Red Castle), north of the city, represent his highest achievements.Michael Hall The Victorian Country House page 91 In these buildings, Burges escaped into "a world of architectural fantasy" but undertaken with a genius that sets them far apart from 19th century feudal pastiches and makes them "amongst the most magnificent the Gothic Revival ever achieved."His contemporary, the architect Edward William Godwin
said of Burges that "no one of the century of this country or any other that I know of, ever possessed that artistic rule over the kingdom of nature in a measure at all comparable with that which he shared in common with the creator of the Sphinx
and the designer of Chartres
.The Burlington Magazine 1981, Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: William Burges at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Burges began building at Cardiff Castle
in 1868. Originally a Roman fort and later a Norman castle, the building had been extensively remodelled by both Capability Brown
and Henry Holland
Pevsner Architectural Guides: Glamorgan page 198 and it was necessary for Burges to incorporate the existing structure into his work. This "over-laying" can clearly be seen, either from the park or from the courtyard, with the silhouette showing Burges' capping of the Georgian towers by gothic steeples. However, the Clock Tower, which was begun on Bute's coming of age in 1869, is entirely Burges' own.
The first part of the re-building, it formed a suite of bachelor's rooms, the Marquess not marrying until 1872, comprising a bedroom, a servant's room and the Summer and Winter smoking rooms. The rooms are sumptuously decorated with gildings, carvings and cartoons, many allegorical in style, depicting the seasons, myths and fables.Pevsner Architectural Guides: Glamorgan page 204 Work continued along Holland's Georgian range including the construction of the Guest Tower, the Arab Room, the Chaucer Room, the Nursery, the Library, the Banqueting Hall and bedrooms for both Lord and Lady Bute. Almost the entire of Burges's usual team were involved, including Chapple, Frame and Lonsdale. Following Burges' death in 1881, further areas of the castle were developed along the lines he had set, culminating in the Animal Wall
, which was not completed until the 1920s by the third Marquess' son, the fourth Marquess. The Swiss bridge that originally crossed the moat to the pre-Raphaelite garden which the Animal Wall
encompassed, was demolished in the nineteen thirties. Also gone is the Grand Staircase. It was long thought that the staircase, shown in a watercolour perspective prepared by Axel Haig
, had never actually been built but very recent research has shown that the Grand Staircase was in fact constructed.The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan: page 202 Cardiff Castle is unique as an example of High Victorian Gothic Romanticism: "Alton castle, Eaton Hall, Carlton Towers, Alnwick, Peckforton, none approaches the Burgesian Sublime. And none has comparable interiors. Cardiff is incomparable. Its silhouette has become the skyline of the capital of Wales. The dream of one great patron and one great architect has almost become the symbol of a whole nation."
In 1872, whilst work at Cardiff Castle was at its height, Burges presented a scheme for the complete reconstruction of Castell Coch
, a ruined thirteenth century fort to the north of Cardiff on the Bute estate. The restoration, in truth a complete rebuilding, began in the year Burges presented his plans and was again unfinished on Burges' death nine years later. The result is perhaps Burges' most perfect composition demonstrating his mastery of architectural form, by the inspired use of cube, cylinder and cone to create an impressive vision of a thirteenth-century knight's castle.The Victorian Country House: page 336 The elaborate interiors equal those at Cardiff, if not exceeding them in their completeness, exhibiting "a sumptuous quality which can seldom have been equalled in the Middle Ages
".Victorian Architecture page 46
The exterior of Knightshayes Court
and the interior mouldings were completed before he was dismissed by Sir John Heathcoat-Amory
in 1874 in favour of the cheaper, and less alarming, J D Crace. Park House
, the fore-runner of his own, was completed for Lord Bute's engineer, James McConnochie. His two best churches were also undertaken in the 1870s, the Church of Christ the Consoler
at Skelton-on-Ure and St Mary's, Studley Royal. His patron, George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon
, although not as rich as Bute, was the Marquess's equal in "romantic medievalism". Both churches were built as memorial churches for the Marquess's brother-in-law, Frederick Grantham Vyner, who was murdered by Greek bandits in 1870. Vyner's mother commissioned the Church of Christ the Consoler
and his sister St Mary's, Studley Royal. Both begun in 1870, Skelton was consecrated in 1876 and Studley Royal in 1878. At Skelton Burges achieved "great opulence, if of a somewhat elephantine character." At Studeley Royal, he created his "ecclesiastical masterpiece, a dream of Early English glory."The Buildings of England - Yorkshire: West Riding page 504 In each, the stained glass is "uncommonly excellent (with) none of the faults of most Victorian glass."
In 1870 Burges was asked to draw up an iconographic scheme of decoration for St. Paul's Cathedral, its interior unfinished since the death of Wren. In 1872, he was formally appointed architect and over the next five years produced details schemes of decoration designed to ensure the interior of the cathedral surpassed that of St. Peter's in Rome. However, artistic and religious controveries led to Burges's dismissal in 1877 with none of his plans undertaken.
Burges' last major work was for himself, his "Palace of the Arts", The Tower House
, Melbury Road, Kensington. All the earlier forms from Cardiff Castle, the McConnochie House, Knightshayes and Castell Coch are re-used in miniature to create a perfect synthesis of Burges' style.London 3: North West, The Buildings of England, page 511, Bridget Cherry and Nikolas Pevsner, 2002 The Tower House in Burges's day also illustrated his supreme skill as a jeweller, metal-worker and designer, containing some of his finest pieces of furniture including the Zodiac Settle, the Dog Cabinet and the Great Bookcase, the last of which Charles Handley-Read described as "occupying a unique position in the history of Victorian painted furniture."Charles Handley-Read, article in the Burlington magazine (1963) Of Burges's metal-work the artist Henry Stacy Marks
wrote "he could design a chalice as well as a cathedral...His decanters, cups, jugs, forks and spoons were designed with an equal ability to that with which he would design a castle."H S Marks "Pen and Pencil Sketches" (1894) Within the Tower House Burges placed some of his finest metalwork, including goblets, decanters, claret jugs, the Mermaid Bowl and the Cat Cup, chosen by Lady Bute as a memento after his death, and the Elephant Inkstand, which stood on his drawing room table but has since been lost, of which Mordaunt-Crook writes "it is the very epitome of its creator's special genius: (his) answer to the dilemma of style". The Tower House
was "the most complete example of a medieval secular interior produced by the Gothic Revival, and the last."
. Later he undertook the creation of works as gifts for or commissions from patrons such as the Sneyd dessert service or the Bute claret jug. But his most astonishing works are those he created for himself, often with the proceeds of the winning of an architectural competition. Examples include the Elephant Inkstand, "the very epitome of its creator's special genius", the pair of jewelled decanters funded by the fee for the plans for the Crimea Memorial Church
, and the Cat Cup, created by Barkentin in commemoration of the Law Courts competition, of which Mordaunt Crook writes: "Its technical virtuosity sets standards for the Arts and Crafts phase. But the overall conception, the range of materials, the ingenuity, the inventiveness, the sheer gusto of the design, is perculiarly, triumphantly Burges."
but much of Burges's work there was destroyed in the Blitz. Mordaunt Crook writes, "At Waltham, Burges does not copy. He meets the Middle Ages
as an equal."
.
Art Applied to Industry, a series of lectures he gave to the Society of Arts in 1864, illustrates the breadth of his interests. They covered "Glass, Pottery, Brass and Iron, Gold and Silver, Furniture, The Weaver's Art, and External Architectural Decoration."Art Applied to Industry: A Series of Lectures, Contents page
in The Graphic
of 1871, a pencil drawing in profile by Edward William Godwin
of 1875, a caricature by Edward Burne-Jones
of 1881, and three posed photographs from 1881 by Henry Van Der Weyde.
Whatever his physical shortcomings, his personality, his conversation and his sense of humour were attractive and infectious, "his range of friends running the whole gamut of pre-Raphaelite London." Contemparies refer to Burges's child-like nature, Dante Gabriel Rossetti composing a limerick about him that ran: "There’s a babyish party called Burges, Who from childhood hardly emerges. If you hadn’t been told, He’s disgracefully old, You would offer a bull’s-eye to Burges".
Robert Kerr's novel of 1879, The Ambassador Extraordinary, involves an architect Georgius Oldhousen, whom Mordaunt Crook considers to be clearly based on Burges; he is "not exactly young in years but is in an odd way youthful in appearance and in manners Georgius can never grow old.. His strong point is a disdain for Common Sense...His vocation is Art.. (a) matter of Uncommon Sense."
His interests beyond architecture included some louche, although not atypical, pursuits of the Victorian rich including clubbing; Burges was elected to the Athenaeum Club, London
in 1874, was a member of the Arts Club and the Hogarth Club and was elected to the Royal Academy
in the year of his death; collecting, Freemasonry, ratting and opium. The influence of drugs on his life and his architectural output has been debated, Mordaunt Crook speculating that it was in Constantinople, on his tour in the 1850s, that he "first tasted opium" and the Dictionary of Scottish Architects stating with certainty that his early death was brought about "at least partly as a result of his bachelor lifestyle of smoking both tobacco and opium."Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Biography Report In England's Thousand Best Houses Simon Jenkins
queries why Sir John Heathcoat-Amory
chose as his architect "an opium-addicted bachelor Gothicist who dressed in medieval costume..."England's Thousand Best Houses: Knightshayes Court - p.182 Burges's own diary of 1865 includes the reference "Too much opium, did not go to Hayward's wedding" Abstract William Burges Diaries: November 1865 and Mordaunt Crook concludes that "it is hard to resist the conclusion that (opium) reinforced the dreamier elements in his artistic make-up".
Burges never married.
on 20 April 1881. He caught a chill whilst undertaking "a long ride in a dog cart" overseeing works at Cardiff and returned to London, half-paralysed, where he lay dying for some three weeks. He was buried in the tomb he designed for his mother at West Norwood
, a suitably gothic cemetery by the architect William Tite
. On his death, John Chapple, Burges's office manager and close associate for over twenty years, wrote "a constant relationship...with one of the brightest ornaments of the profession has rendered the parting most severe. Thank God his work will live and ... be the admiration of future students. I have hardly got to realize my lonely position yet. He was almost all the world to me."The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork: page 53 Lady Bute, wife of his greatest patron, wrote, "Dear Burges, ugly Burges who designed such lovely things - what a duck."
William Burges was "the most dazzling exponent of the High Victorian Dream. Pugin
conceived that dream; Rossetti
and Burne-Jones painted it; Tennyson
sang its glories; Ruskin
and Morris
formulated its philosophy; but only Burges built it." His own words, in his letter of January 1877 to the Bishop of Cork, sum up his career "(In the future) the whole affair will be on its trial and, the elements of time and cost being forgotten, the result only will be looked at. The great questions will then be, first, is this work beautiful and, secondly, have those to whom it was entrusted, done it with all their heart and all their ability."
In St. Fin Barre's, together with memorials to his mother and sister, there is also a memorial plaque to Burges. "Erected by Alfred Burges
to the memory of his eldest son. Designed by Burges himself, it shows the King of Heaven presiding over the four apostles, who hold open the Word of God."The Victorian Web: William Burges Under the inscription Architect of this cathedral is a simple shield and a small, worn plaque with a mosaic surround, bearing Burges's entwined initials and name.
Burges' death came as the Gothic revival was already waning as an architectural force. Within twenty years his style was considered hopelessly out-dated and owners of his work, such as the Heathcoat-Amory's, sought to eradicate all traces of his endeavours from their homes.The Buildings of England: Devon page 527 From the 1890s to the middle of the last century Victorian
architecture was almost universally derided. Serious critics wrote of "the collapse of taste", ridiculing "the uncompromising ugliness" of some of that era's greatest buildings and attacking the "sadistic hatred of beauty" of some of its finest architects.Nineteenth Century Architecture in Britain, Reginald Turnor, 1950 Of Burges, they wrote almost nothing. His buildings were disregarded or altered, his jewellery and stained glass were ignored, and his furniture sold for next to nothing.
"He founded no school".. (had few adherents outside the circle of his practice).. and trained no further generation of designers.".Gothic Revival: page 215 Even had the stylistic scene remained unchanged, his architecture was too rich, too unique and too expensive to allow for many practitioners, or patrons, to attempt to follow it. The list of projects he completed is relatively short, the number of architectural competitions lost and commissions unbuilt depressingly long. Burges's contemporary and collaborator in the area of stained glass, the artist Nathaniel Westlake
lamented "competitions are seldom given to the best man - look at the number poor Burges won, or should have won, and I think he executed only one."
Almost Burges's sole champion in the years after his death was his brother-in-law, Richard Popplewell Pullan. Pullan was primarily an illustrator, as well as a scholar and archeologist. He trained with Alfred Waterhouse
in Manchester, before coming to Burges's office in the 1850s. In 1859, he married Burges's sister. Following Burges's death in 1881, Pullan lived at The Tower House
and published collections of Burges's designs, including Architectural Designs of William Burges (1883) and The House of William Burges (1886).
Given Burges' long-standing interest in Japanese art, it should be noted that he did have some adherents in Japan. Josiah Conder
studied under him, and, through Conder's influence, the notable Japanese architect Tatsuno Kingo
was articled to Burges in the year before the latter's death. Meiji Revisited: The Sites of Victorian Japan, p. 21, p. 194
's 1951 study of the exhibits at the Great Exhibition, "High Victorian Design", makes no mention of him, despite his significant contributions to the Medieval Court. In a seventy-page guide to Cardiff Castle
, published in 1923, he is referenced only twice, and on each occasion his name is misspelt as "Burgess". However, the past thirty years have seen a very significant revival of interest. By far the best, indeed the only, full study is J. Mordaunt Crook
's William Burges and the High Victorian Dream (1981, John Murray, and now out of print). In the dedication to that volume, "In Mem. C.H.-R", Mordaunt Crook acknowledges his debt to Charles Handley-Read
, perhaps the first serious scholar of Burges, whose notes on Burges were bequeathed to Mordaunt Crook following Handley-Read's suicide. Other valuable sources, from a limited range, are two articles on Cardiff Castle and Castle Coch in Mark Girouard
's The Victorian Country House (1979, Yale University Press, now out of print); the catalogue to the exhibition held in Cardiff in 1981 to commemorate the centenary of Burges's death, entitled The Strange Genius of William Burges (1981, edited by J Mordaunt Crook, published by The National Museum of Wales, also out of print) ; and John Newman's The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan (1995, Pevsner Architectural Guides series). The current curator of Cardiff Castle, Matthew Williams, has also written a number of Burgesian/Bute articles for the architectural press. The most recent addition to the study of Burges is The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork, by David Lawrence and Ann Wilson (2006, Four Courts Press).
(V&A), the Bedford Museum and Art Galleryhttp://www.cecilhigginsartgallery.org/burges/burges.htm, and Manchester Art Gallery
. No listing is given here of his extensive creations of jewellery, metalwork and glass. Mordaunt Crook has a full and valuable appendix of Burges' work with an indication as to whether the work is still in situ, was never executed, has now been removed/demolished or where the present location is unknown.
to represent, firstly, Burges's ecclesiastical works, then his domestic commissions from wealthy patrons, and lastly his architectural and decorative fantasies.
Gothic
Feudal
Fantastic
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
. Amongst the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, Burges sought in his work an escape from 19th century industrialisation
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
and a return to the values, architectural and social, of an imagined mediaeval England. His career was short; his first major commission at Cork was won in 1863 when he was thirty-five and he died aged only fifty-three in 1881, but in this span of under twenty years he established himself as "the most brilliant architect-designer of his generation", his "own strange genius turn(ing) the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
into magic".
Burges's most notable works, Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
and Castell Coch
Castell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
were undertaken for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute KT, KSG, KGCHS was a landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist and architectural patron.-Early life:...
. To enter either Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
or Castell Coch
Castell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
is to enter "an architecture of dreams." Others conceived that High Victorian Dream, painted it and wrote of it, "but only Burges built it."
Burges's architecture rivals that undertaken by the greatest architects of the Victorian era. But the range of his achievements in architecture, design, metalwork, jewellery and stained glass outdoes them all: "In furniture and stained glass he matches the finest work of Morris and Co. In jewellery and metalwork he is really without rival."
Burges's period of influence and acclaim was short. By his death the Victorian Dream was over and in the decades following Victorian architecture was almost universally derided. The last forty years, however, have seen a renaissance in the study of Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
art, architecture and design and Burges's place at the centre of that world as "a wide-ranging scholar, an intrepid traveller, a corruscating lecturer, a brilliant decorative designer and an architect of genius" is again appreciated.
Early life
Burges was born on 2 December 1827, the son of Alfred BurgesAlfred Burges
Alfred Burges was a British civil engineer. He was apprenticed to the civil engineer James Walker, and in turn trained several other engineers such as Sir Joseph Bazalgette....
(1796–1886), a wealthy civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
who undertook work in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
for John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, KT, FRS was the son of John, Lord Mount Stuart and the former Lady Elizabeth McDouall-Crichton...
, himself the father of Burges' later, greatest, patron, the 3rd Marquess
John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute KT, KSG, KGCHS was a landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist and architectural patron.-Early life:...
. Alfred Burges made a considerable fortune, some £113,000 at his death, and this wealth enabled Burges to devote his life to the study and practice of architecture, without requiring that he actually earn a living.
Burges entered King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
in 1839 and remained for five years before being articled, at the age of sixteen, to the office of Edward Blore
Edward Blore
Edward Blore was a 19th century British landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland ....
, surveyor to Westminster Abbey. Blore was an established architect, being "Special Architect" to both William IV
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
and Queen Victoria, and had made his reputation as a gothic revivalist. After five years, Burges moved to the offices of Matthew Digby Wyatt
Matthew Digby Wyatt
Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt was a British architect and art historian who became Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Surveyor of the East India Company and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge.-Life:...
. Wyatt was then almost at the height of his influence and public prominence, culminating in his leading role in the direction of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Burges' work on the Medieval Court for this exhibition was highly influential on the subsequent course of his career.
Of equal importance and influence was Burges' travelling. "All architects should travel, but more especially the art-architect; to him it is absolutely necessary to see how various art problems have been resolved in different ages by different men." Enabled by his private income, Burges moved through England, then France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Holland, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and finally into Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, studying and drawing on a prodigious scale. What he saw, and sketched, provided a repository of influences and ideas that he used, and re-used, for the whole of his career. The influence of the East, both Near and Far, was also profound; his fascination with Moorish design finding ultimate expression in the Arab Room at Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
, and his absorption of Japanese techniques having a significant impact on his metalwork. As he received his first major commission late in his career, at thirty-five, his subsequent career did not see the "development" that might be expected. His style was formed by his study, his thinking and his travelling and "once established, after twenty years' preparation, his 'design language' had merely to be applied, and he applied and re-applied the same vocabulary with increasing subtlety and gusto."
First commissions
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
. Some of his early items of furniture were created for this office and later moved to The Tower House
The Tower House
The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
, Melbury Road, Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, the home he built for himself towards the end of his life. His early architectural career was relatively unsuccessful although he won prestigious commissions for Lille Cathedral, the Crimea Memorial Church and the Bombay School of Art. All remained unbuilt, at least to Burges' designs. Most regrettable of all was his failed entry for the Law Courts in the Strand which, if built, would have given London its own Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
, "a re-creation of a thirteenth century dream world and a skyline of great inventiveness."Victorian Architecture page 170 Undaunted, and fortified by the his belief that Early French provided the answer to the crisis of architectural style that beset mid-Victorian England; "I was brought up in the 13th century belief and in that belief I intend to die";The Builder, vol.34, 1876, p.18 he finally secured his first major commission for St. Fin Barre's Cathedral Cork in 1863. Vastly exceeding the intended budget, he produced a building that in size is little more than a large parish church but in impression is indeed "a cathedral becoming (of) such a city and one which posterity may regard as a monument to the Almighty's praise."The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork: page 37, quote from The Southern Reporter, 12 May 1862 Other commissions, both ecclesiastical and domestic, followed including substantial remodelling of Gayhurst House, Buckinghamshire
Gayhurst House, Buckinghamshire
Gayhurst House is a late-Elizabethan country house in Buckinghamshire, with important contributions by the Victorian architect William Burges. It is located near the village of Gayhurst, several kilometres north of Milton Keynes...
for the second Lord Carrington.The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire
Burges's team
Burges was not unique amongst Victorian architects in forming around him a team of assistants but the loyalty he inspired, and the consequent longevity of the partnerships, perhaps was. John Starling Chapple was the office manager, joining Burges's practice in 1859. It was Chapple who completed the restoration of Castell CochCastell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
after Burges's death. Second to Chapple was William Frame, who acted as clerk of works for the castle. Horatio Walter Lonsdale was Burges's chief artist, contributing extensive murals both for Castell Coch
Castell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
, and for Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
. His main sculptor was Thomas Nicholls who started with Burges at Cork, completing hundreds of figures for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral and the Animal Wall
Animal Wall
The Animal Wall is a sculptured wall depicting 15 animals in the Castle Quarter of the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is a Grade I listed structure.-History:...
at Cardiff. Ceccardo Fucigna was another sculptor who undertook the Madonna and Child above the drawbridge at Castell Coch, the figure of St. John over the mantelpiece in Lord Bute's bedroom at Cardiff Castle and the bronze Madonna in the roof garden. Lastly was Axel Haig
Axel Haig
Axel Haig was a Swedish-born artist and illustrator. His paintings, illustrations and etchings, undertaken for himself and on behalf of many of the foremost architects of the Victorian period made him "the Piranesi of the Gothic Revival."...
, a Swedish-born illustrator, who prepared many of the watercolour perspectives with which Burges entranced his clients. Mourdant Crook calls them "a group of talented men, moulded in their master's image, art-architects and medievalists to a man - jokers and jesters too -devoted above all to art rather than to business."
Burges and Bute
In 1865, Burges met John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. The connection may have occurred as a result of Burges' father's own connection with the 2nd Marquess, Alfred Burges's engineering firm, Walker, Burges and Cooper having undertaken work on the East Bute Docks at CardiffCardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
in 1855 but this is uncertain. Bute was a landed aristocrat, industrial magnate
Magnate
Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...
, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, High Tory, Roman Catholic convert and became Burges's greatest architectural patron. Both Burges and Bute were men of their times, both had fathers whose industrial endeavours provided the means for their sons' architectural achievements, and both sought to "redeem the evils of industrialism by re-living the art of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
".
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
and the complete reconstruction of the ruin of Castell Coch
Castell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
, (the Red Castle), north of the city, represent his highest achievements.Michael Hall The Victorian Country House page 91 In these buildings, Burges escaped into "a world of architectural fantasy" but undertaken with a genius that sets them far apart from 19th century feudal pastiches and makes them "amongst the most magnificent the Gothic Revival ever achieved."His contemporary, the architect Edward William Godwin
Edward William Godwin
Edward William Godwin was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic "Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by The Stones of Venice, then moved on to provide designs in the "Anglo-Japanese taste" of the Aesthetic...
said of Burges that "no one of the century of this country or any other that I know of, ever possessed that artistic rule over the kingdom of nature in a measure at all comparable with that which he shared in common with the creator of the Sphinx
Sphinx
A sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head or a cat head.The sphinx, in Greek tradition, has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless...
and the designer of Chartres
Chartres
Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...
.The Burlington Magazine 1981, Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: William Burges at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Burges began building at Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
in 1868. Originally a Roman fort and later a Norman castle, the building had been extensively remodelled by both Capability Brown
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
and Henry Holland
Henry Holland (architect)
Henry Holland was an architect to the English nobility. Born in Fulham, London, his father also Henry ran a building firm and he built several of Capability Brown's buildings, although Henry would have learnt a lot from his father about the practicalities of construction it was under Brown that he...
Pevsner Architectural Guides: Glamorgan page 198 and it was necessary for Burges to incorporate the existing structure into his work. This "over-laying" can clearly be seen, either from the park or from the courtyard, with the silhouette showing Burges' capping of the Georgian towers by gothic steeples. However, the Clock Tower, which was begun on Bute's coming of age in 1869, is entirely Burges' own.
The first part of the re-building, it formed a suite of bachelor's rooms, the Marquess not marrying until 1872, comprising a bedroom, a servant's room and the Summer and Winter smoking rooms. The rooms are sumptuously decorated with gildings, carvings and cartoons, many allegorical in style, depicting the seasons, myths and fables.Pevsner Architectural Guides: Glamorgan page 204 Work continued along Holland's Georgian range including the construction of the Guest Tower, the Arab Room, the Chaucer Room, the Nursery, the Library, the Banqueting Hall and bedrooms for both Lord and Lady Bute. Almost the entire of Burges's usual team were involved, including Chapple, Frame and Lonsdale. Following Burges' death in 1881, further areas of the castle were developed along the lines he had set, culminating in the Animal Wall
Animal Wall
The Animal Wall is a sculptured wall depicting 15 animals in the Castle Quarter of the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is a Grade I listed structure.-History:...
, which was not completed until the 1920s by the third Marquess' son, the fourth Marquess. The Swiss bridge that originally crossed the moat to the pre-Raphaelite garden which the Animal Wall
Animal Wall
The Animal Wall is a sculptured wall depicting 15 animals in the Castle Quarter of the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is a Grade I listed structure.-History:...
encompassed, was demolished in the nineteen thirties. Also gone is the Grand Staircase. It was long thought that the staircase, shown in a watercolour perspective prepared by Axel Haig
Axel Haig
Axel Haig was a Swedish-born artist and illustrator. His paintings, illustrations and etchings, undertaken for himself and on behalf of many of the foremost architects of the Victorian period made him "the Piranesi of the Gothic Revival."...
, had never actually been built but very recent research has shown that the Grand Staircase was in fact constructed.The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan: page 202 Cardiff Castle is unique as an example of High Victorian Gothic Romanticism: "Alton castle, Eaton Hall, Carlton Towers, Alnwick, Peckforton, none approaches the Burgesian Sublime. And none has comparable interiors. Cardiff is incomparable. Its silhouette has become the skyline of the capital of Wales. The dream of one great patron and one great architect has almost become the symbol of a whole nation."
In 1872, whilst work at Cardiff Castle was at its height, Burges presented a scheme for the complete reconstruction of Castell Coch
Castell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
, a ruined thirteenth century fort to the north of Cardiff on the Bute estate. The restoration, in truth a complete rebuilding, began in the year Burges presented his plans and was again unfinished on Burges' death nine years later. The result is perhaps Burges' most perfect composition demonstrating his mastery of architectural form, by the inspired use of cube, cylinder and cone to create an impressive vision of a thirteenth-century knight's castle.The Victorian Country House: page 336 The elaborate interiors equal those at Cardiff, if not exceeding them in their completeness, exhibiting "a sumptuous quality which can seldom have been equalled in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
".Victorian Architecture page 46
Later works
Bute's commissions formed the major corpus of Burges' work from the late 1860s until his death. However, he continued to accept other appointments.The exterior of Knightshayes Court
Knightshayes Court
Knightshayes Court is a Victorian country house in Tiverton, Devon, England, designed by William Burges for the Heathcoat-Amory family. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "an eloquent expression of High Victorian ideals in a country house of moderate size." The house is Grade I listed as of 12 May...
and the interior mouldings were completed before he was dismissed by Sir John Heathcoat-Amory
Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Baronet
Sir John Heathcoat Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Baronet , was a British businessman and Liberal politician.Born John Amory, he was the maternal grandson of John Heathcoat, Member of Parliament for Tiverton, and assumed the additional surname of Heathcoat by Royal license. He was a partner of J...
in 1874 in favour of the cheaper, and less alarming, J D Crace. Park House
Park House, Cardiff
Park House, formerly known as McConnochie House, is a town house in Cardiff. It was built for James McConnochie, Chief Engineer to the Bute Docks, by the Gothic revivalist architect William Burges. It is a Grade I listed building...
, the fore-runner of his own, was completed for Lord Bute's engineer, James McConnochie. His two best churches were also undertaken in the 1870s, the Church of Christ the Consoler
Church of Christ the Consoler
The Church of Christ the Consoler is a Victorian Gothic Revival church built in the Early English style by William Burges. It is located in the grounds of Newby Hall at Skelton-on-Ure, in North Yorkshire, England...
at Skelton-on-Ure and St Mary's, Studley Royal. His patron, George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon
George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon
George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon KG, GCSI, CIE, PC , known as Viscount Goderich from 1833 to 1859 and as the Earl de Grey and Ripon from 1859 to 1871, was a British politician who served in every Liberal cabinet from 1861 until his death forty-eight years later.-Background...
, although not as rich as Bute, was the Marquess's equal in "romantic medievalism". Both churches were built as memorial churches for the Marquess's brother-in-law, Frederick Grantham Vyner, who was murdered by Greek bandits in 1870. Vyner's mother commissioned the Church of Christ the Consoler
Church of Christ the Consoler
The Church of Christ the Consoler is a Victorian Gothic Revival church built in the Early English style by William Burges. It is located in the grounds of Newby Hall at Skelton-on-Ure, in North Yorkshire, England...
and his sister St Mary's, Studley Royal. Both begun in 1870, Skelton was consecrated in 1876 and Studley Royal in 1878. At Skelton Burges achieved "great opulence, if of a somewhat elephantine character." At Studeley Royal, he created his "ecclesiastical masterpiece, a dream of Early English glory."The Buildings of England - Yorkshire: West Riding page 504 In each, the stained glass is "uncommonly excellent (with) none of the faults of most Victorian glass."
In 1870 Burges was asked to draw up an iconographic scheme of decoration for St. Paul's Cathedral, its interior unfinished since the death of Wren. In 1872, he was formally appointed architect and over the next five years produced details schemes of decoration designed to ensure the interior of the cathedral surpassed that of St. Peter's in Rome. However, artistic and religious controveries led to Burges's dismissal in 1877 with none of his plans undertaken.
Burges' last major work was for himself, his "Palace of the Arts", The Tower House
The Tower House
The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
, Melbury Road, Kensington. All the earlier forms from Cardiff Castle, the McConnochie House, Knightshayes and Castell Coch are re-used in miniature to create a perfect synthesis of Burges' style.London 3: North West, The Buildings of England, page 511, Bridget Cherry and Nikolas Pevsner, 2002 The Tower House in Burges's day also illustrated his supreme skill as a jeweller, metal-worker and designer, containing some of his finest pieces of furniture including the Zodiac Settle, the Dog Cabinet and the Great Bookcase, the last of which Charles Handley-Read described as "occupying a unique position in the history of Victorian painted furniture."Charles Handley-Read, article in the Burlington magazine (1963) Of Burges's metal-work the artist Henry Stacy Marks
Henry Stacy Marks
Henry Stacy Marks was an English artist who took a particular interest in painting birds.-Life:Henry Stacy Marks was born in London as the fourth child of John Isaac Marks and Elizabeth née Pally. His father was a solicitor who later became a coach builder...
wrote "he could design a chalice as well as a cathedral...His decanters, cups, jugs, forks and spoons were designed with an equal ability to that with which he would design a castle."H S Marks "Pen and Pencil Sketches" (1894) Within the Tower House Burges placed some of his finest metalwork, including goblets, decanters, claret jugs, the Mermaid Bowl and the Cat Cup, chosen by Lady Bute as a memento after his death, and the Elephant Inkstand, which stood on his drawing room table but has since been lost, of which Mordaunt-Crook writes "it is the very epitome of its creator's special genius: (his) answer to the dilemma of style". The Tower House
The Tower House
The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
was "the most complete example of a medieval secular interior produced by the Gothic Revival, and the last."
Metalwork and jewellery
"Burges's genius as a designer is expressed to perfection in his jewellery and metalwork." Burges was more than an architect, indeed his buildings have been described as "more jewel than architecture"E Chateris Life and Letters of Edmund Gosse, page 149 and his obsession and his ability in these fields enabled him to create architecture that was beyond architecture, not "machines for living in...(rather) fantasy capsules, three-dimensional passports to fairy kingdoms and realms of gold." Burges began with primarily religious artefacts; candlesticks, chalices, pectoral crosses, as individual commissions or as part of the decorative scheme for buildings over which he had complete artistic control. Examples include the chalices for St Michael's Church, BrightonSt Michael's Church, Brighton
St. Michael's Church is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. Located on Victoria Road in the Montpelier area, to the east of Montpelier Road, it is one of the largest churches in the city of Brighton and Hove...
. Later he undertook the creation of works as gifts for or commissions from patrons such as the Sneyd dessert service or the Bute claret jug. But his most astonishing works are those he created for himself, often with the proceeds of the winning of an architectural competition. Examples include the Elephant Inkstand, "the very epitome of its creator's special genius", the pair of jewelled decanters funded by the fee for the plans for the Crimea Memorial Church
Crimea Memorial Church
The Crimea Memorial Church, also known as Christ Church, is a Church of England church in the Beyoglu - Taksim district of Istanbul, Turkey. It is built on land donated by Sultan Abdulmecit and was constructed between 1858-68 in memory of British soldiers who had participated in the Crimean War.The...
, and the Cat Cup, created by Barkentin in commemoration of the Law Courts competition, of which Mordaunt Crook writes: "Its technical virtuosity sets standards for the Arts and Crafts phase. But the overall conception, the range of materials, the ingenuity, the inventiveness, the sheer gusto of the design, is perculiarly, triumphantly Burges."
Stained glass
Burges's contribution to the development of the manufacture and artistry of stained glass in Victorian architecture is significant, "in the renaissance of High Victorian stained glass, Burges played an important role." Working with, and patronising some of the finest manufacturers, Burges "transformed the quality of English stained glass." His importance was as much in the encouragement of new techniques, as in the genius of his conceptions. Working with a range of craftsmen, including William Gualbert Saunders, his designs had "a vibrancy, an intensity and a brilliance which no other glass-maker could match."Saint Fin Barre at Cork: William Burges in Ireland page 92 Lawrence considers Burges was particularly indebted to Saunders: "his technique (gave) Burges's glass its most distinctive characteristic, namely the flesh colour. This is unique, had no precedents and has had no imitators."Saint Fin Barre at Cork: William Burges in Ireland page 93 Perhaps his highest achievement in the area of stained glass was as St. Fin Barre's. The history of that cathedral has detailed commentaries on the glass there, of which the co-author, David Lawrence, writes, "The impact created by all these glowing, coloured religious images is overwhelming and intoxicating. To enter St. Fin Barre's Cathedral is an experience unparalled in Ireland and rarely matched anywhere." The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork: page 110 Similarly impressive results were attained at Waltham AbbeyWaltham Abbey (abbey)
The Abbey Church of Waltham Abbey has been a place of worship since at least 1030, and is in the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. The Prime Meridian passes through its grounds. Harold Godwinson is said to be buried just outside the present abbey...
but much of Burges's work there was destroyed in the Blitz. Mordaunt Crook writes, "At Waltham, Burges does not copy. He meets the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
as an equal."
Furniture
Burges's furniture was, second to his buildings, his major contribution to the Victorian Gothic revival; "More than anyone, it was Burges, with his eye for detail and his lust for colour, who created the furniture appropriate to High Victorian Gothic." Enormous, elaborate and highly painted, Burges's furniture was "medieval in a way no other designer ever approached." Despised even more than his buildings in the reaction against Victorian taste that occurred in the early twentieth century, his furniture came back into fashion in the latter part of that century and prices paid for pieces are now astronomical.Apollo, November 2005 The most recent example of the price his furniture now commands is the £850,000 paid for the Zodiac Settle by the Bedford Museum and Art Gallery, comprising a £480,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), £190,000 from the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and £180,000 from the Art Fund. Designed by Burges in 1869-71, the "theme is typical of his love of colour, mythology and fun." The settle was originally designed for Buckingham Street and was subsequently moved to The Tower HouseThe Tower House
The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
.
Art Applied to Industry, a series of lectures he gave to the Society of Arts in 1864, illustrates the breadth of his interests. They covered "Glass, Pottery, Brass and Iron, Gold and Silver, Furniture, The Weaver's Art, and External Architectural Decoration."Art Applied to Industry: A Series of Lectures, Contents page
Personal life
Fat, short and so short-sighted that he once mistook a peacock for a man,Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Brochure Burges was physically unprepossessing, described by the wife of his greatest patron as "ugly Burges." "Burges seems to have been sensitive about his appearance and the number of known images of him is small." The only known portraits are: a painting on a panel of the Yatman Cabinet by Edward John Poynter of 1858, a photograph from the 1860s by an unknown author showing Burges dressed as a court jester, a sketch by Theodore Blake WirgmanTheodore Blake Wirgman
Theodore Blake Wirgman was an English painter and etcher who moved to London, studied at the Royal Academy schools, became a painter of history and genre subjects, and worked as a portrait artist for The Graphic....
in The Graphic
The Graphic
The Graphic was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Limited....
of 1871, a pencil drawing in profile by Edward William Godwin
Edward William Godwin
Edward William Godwin was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic "Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by The Stones of Venice, then moved on to provide designs in the "Anglo-Japanese taste" of the Aesthetic...
of 1875, a caricature by Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
of 1881, and three posed photographs from 1881 by Henry Van Der Weyde.
Whatever his physical shortcomings, his personality, his conversation and his sense of humour were attractive and infectious, "his range of friends running the whole gamut of pre-Raphaelite London." Contemparies refer to Burges's child-like nature, Dante Gabriel Rossetti composing a limerick about him that ran: "There’s a babyish party called Burges, Who from childhood hardly emerges. If you hadn’t been told, He’s disgracefully old, You would offer a bull’s-eye to Burges".
Robert Kerr's novel of 1879, The Ambassador Extraordinary, involves an architect Georgius Oldhousen, whom Mordaunt Crook considers to be clearly based on Burges; he is "not exactly young in years but is in an odd way youthful in appearance and in manners Georgius can never grow old.. His strong point is a disdain for Common Sense...His vocation is Art.. (a) matter of Uncommon Sense."
His interests beyond architecture included some louche, although not atypical, pursuits of the Victorian rich including clubbing; Burges was elected to the Athenaeum Club, London
Athenaeum Club, London
The Athenaeum Club, usually just referred to as the Athenaeum, is a notable London club with its Clubhouse located at 107 Pall Mall, London, England, at the corner of Waterloo Place....
in 1874, was a member of the Arts Club and the Hogarth Club and was elected to the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in the year of his death; collecting, Freemasonry, ratting and opium. The influence of drugs on his life and his architectural output has been debated, Mordaunt Crook speculating that it was in Constantinople, on his tour in the 1850s, that he "first tasted opium" and the Dictionary of Scottish Architects stating with certainty that his early death was brought about "at least partly as a result of his bachelor lifestyle of smoking both tobacco and opium."Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Biography Report In England's Thousand Best Houses Simon Jenkins
Simon Jenkins
Sir Simon David Jenkins is a British newspaper columnist and author, and since November 2008 has been chairman of the National Trust. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and London's Evening Standard, and was previously a commentator for The Times, which he edited from 1990 to 1992...
queries why Sir John Heathcoat-Amory
Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Baronet
Sir John Heathcoat Heathcoat-Amory, 1st Baronet , was a British businessman and Liberal politician.Born John Amory, he was the maternal grandson of John Heathcoat, Member of Parliament for Tiverton, and assumed the additional surname of Heathcoat by Royal license. He was a partner of J...
chose as his architect "an opium-addicted bachelor Gothicist who dressed in medieval costume..."England's Thousand Best Houses: Knightshayes Court - p.182 Burges's own diary of 1865 includes the reference "Too much opium, did not go to Hayward's wedding" Abstract William Burges Diaries: November 1865 and Mordaunt Crook concludes that "it is hard to resist the conclusion that (opium) reinforced the dreamier elements in his artistic make-up".
Burges never married.
Death
Burges died, aged 53, at The Tower HouseThe Tower House
The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
on 20 April 1881. He caught a chill whilst undertaking "a long ride in a dog cart" overseeing works at Cardiff and returned to London, half-paralysed, where he lay dying for some three weeks. He was buried in the tomb he designed for his mother at West Norwood
West Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery is a cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery.One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and...
, a suitably gothic cemetery by the architect William Tite
William Tite
Sir William Tite, CB was an English architect who served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was particularly associated with various London buildings, with railway stations and cemetery projects....
. On his death, John Chapple, Burges's office manager and close associate for over twenty years, wrote "a constant relationship...with one of the brightest ornaments of the profession has rendered the parting most severe. Thank God his work will live and ... be the admiration of future students. I have hardly got to realize my lonely position yet. He was almost all the world to me."The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork: page 53 Lady Bute, wife of his greatest patron, wrote, "Dear Burges, ugly Burges who designed such lovely things - what a duck."
William Burges was "the most dazzling exponent of the High Victorian Dream. Pugin
Pugin
Pugin most commonly refers to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin , English architect and designer.Other members of his family include:...
conceived that dream; Rossetti
Rossetti
Rossetti may refer to:* Biagio Rossetti , an architect and urbanist from Ferrara, the first to use modern methods* Carlo Rossetti , an Italian Catholic cardinal* Cezaro Rossetti , a Scottish Esperanto writer...
and Burne-Jones painted it; Tennyson
Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the first Baron Tennyson, was an English poet.Tennyson may also refer to:-People:* Baron Tennyson, the barony itself** Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet...
sang its glories; Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
and Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
formulated its philosophy; but only Burges built it." His own words, in his letter of January 1877 to the Bishop of Cork, sum up his career "(In the future) the whole affair will be on its trial and, the elements of time and cost being forgotten, the result only will be looked at. The great questions will then be, first, is this work beautiful and, secondly, have those to whom it was entrusted, done it with all their heart and all their ability."
In St. Fin Barre's, together with memorials to his mother and sister, there is also a memorial plaque to Burges. "Erected by Alfred Burges
Alfred Burges
Alfred Burges was a British civil engineer. He was apprenticed to the civil engineer James Walker, and in turn trained several other engineers such as Sir Joseph Bazalgette....
to the memory of his eldest son. Designed by Burges himself, it shows the King of Heaven presiding over the four apostles, who hold open the Word of God."The Victorian Web: William Burges Under the inscription Architect of this cathedral is a simple shield and a small, worn plaque with a mosaic surround, bearing Burges's entwined initials and name.
Legacy
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
architecture was almost universally derided. Serious critics wrote of "the collapse of taste", ridiculing "the uncompromising ugliness" of some of that era's greatest buildings and attacking the "sadistic hatred of beauty" of some of its finest architects.Nineteenth Century Architecture in Britain, Reginald Turnor, 1950 Of Burges, they wrote almost nothing. His buildings were disregarded or altered, his jewellery and stained glass were ignored, and his furniture sold for next to nothing.
"He founded no school".. (had few adherents outside the circle of his practice).. and trained no further generation of designers.".Gothic Revival: page 215 Even had the stylistic scene remained unchanged, his architecture was too rich, too unique and too expensive to allow for many practitioners, or patrons, to attempt to follow it. The list of projects he completed is relatively short, the number of architectural competitions lost and commissions unbuilt depressingly long. Burges's contemporary and collaborator in the area of stained glass, the artist Nathaniel Westlake
Nathaniel Westlake
Nathaniel Hubert John Westlake was a 19th-century British artist specializing in stained glass.-Career:Westlake began to design for the firm of Lavers & Barraud, Ecclesiastical Designers, in 1858, and became a partner ten years later, making the firm Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, of which he...
lamented "competitions are seldom given to the best man - look at the number poor Burges won, or should have won, and I think he executed only one."
Almost Burges's sole champion in the years after his death was his brother-in-law, Richard Popplewell Pullan. Pullan was primarily an illustrator, as well as a scholar and archeologist. He trained with Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse was a British architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture. He is perhaps best known for his design for the Natural History Museum in London, and Manchester Town Hall, although he also built a wide variety of other buildings throughout the...
in Manchester, before coming to Burges's office in the 1850s. In 1859, he married Burges's sister. Following Burges's death in 1881, Pullan lived at The Tower House
The Tower House
The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
and published collections of Burges's designs, including Architectural Designs of William Burges (1883) and The House of William Burges (1886).
Given Burges' long-standing interest in Japanese art, it should be noted that he did have some adherents in Japan. Josiah Conder
Josiah Conder (architect)
Josiah Conder was a British architect who worked as a foreign advisor to the government of Meiji period Japan...
studied under him, and, through Conder's influence, the notable Japanese architect Tatsuno Kingo
Tatsuno Kingo
was a Japanese architect born in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Kyushu.He studied in Japan at the Imperial College of Engineering where he was one of the first to graduate in 1879 under British architect Josiah Conder. He visited England and worked in the office of William Burges in 1881-2. He taught...
was articled to Burges in the year before the latter's death. Meiji Revisited: The Sites of Victorian Japan, p. 21, p. 194
Study of Burges
Burges' limited output, and the general unpopularity of his work for much of the century following his death, meant that he was little studied. PevsnerPevsner
Pevsner is a surname, and may refer to:* Antoine Pevsner , a Russian sculptor* Sir Nikolaus Pevsner , a German-born British scholar of the history of architecture;** ....
's 1951 study of the exhibits at the Great Exhibition, "High Victorian Design", makes no mention of him, despite his significant contributions to the Medieval Court. In a seventy-page guide to Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
, published in 1923, he is referenced only twice, and on each occasion his name is misspelt as "Burgess". However, the past thirty years have seen a very significant revival of interest. By far the best, indeed the only, full study is J. Mordaunt Crook
J. Mordaunt Crook
Professor Joseph Mordaunt Crook, CBE, FBA, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, D.Phil, MA, generally known as J. Mordaunt Crook, is an English architectural historian and specialist on the Georgian and Victorian periods...
's William Burges and the High Victorian Dream (1981, John Murray, and now out of print). In the dedication to that volume, "In Mem. C.H.-R", Mordaunt Crook acknowledges his debt to Charles Handley-Read
Charles Handley-Read
Charles Handley-Read was an architectural writer and collector and the first serious 20th century student of the work of William Burges, "a pioneer in Burges studies who was the first to assess the historical brillance of Burges as gesamtkunstwerk architect and designer."Handley-Read was born in...
, perhaps the first serious scholar of Burges, whose notes on Burges were bequeathed to Mordaunt Crook following Handley-Read's suicide. Other valuable sources, from a limited range, are two articles on Cardiff Castle and Castle Coch in Mark Girouard
Mark Girouard
Dr Mark Girouard MA, PhD, DipArch, FSA is a British architectural writer, an authority on the country house, leading architectural historian, and biographer of James Stirling.- Family life :...
's The Victorian Country House (1979, Yale University Press, now out of print); the catalogue to the exhibition held in Cardiff in 1981 to commemorate the centenary of Burges's death, entitled The Strange Genius of William Burges (1981, edited by J Mordaunt Crook, published by The National Museum of Wales, also out of print) ; and John Newman's The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan (1995, Pevsner Architectural Guides series). The current curator of Cardiff Castle, Matthew Williams, has also written a number of Burgesian/Bute articles for the architectural press. The most recent addition to the study of Burges is The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork, by David Lawrence and Ann Wilson (2006, Four Courts Press).
List of works
This list of his buildings is fairly, but not fully, comprehensive but the list of furniture is selective. Good examples of the latter can be seen in the Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
(V&A), the Bedford Museum and Art Galleryhttp://www.cecilhigginsartgallery.org/burges/burges.htm, and Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery is a publicly-owned art gallery in Manchester, England. It was formerly known as Manchester City Art Gallery.The gallery was opened in 1824 and today occupies three buildings, the oldest of which - designed by Sir Charles Barry - is Grade I listed and was originally home to...
. No listing is given here of his extensive creations of jewellery, metalwork and glass. Mordaunt Crook has a full and valuable appendix of Burges' work with an indication as to whether the work is still in situ, was never executed, has now been removed/demolished or where the present location is unknown.
Buildings
- Salisbury CathedralSalisbury CathedralSalisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
, 1855-59 - Chapter House restoration - Treverbyn Vean, CornwallCornwallCornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, 1858-62 - decoration and fittings for Col. C.L.Somers Cocks. Since altered - Gayhurst House, BuckinghamshireGayhurst House, BuckinghamshireGayhurst House is a late-Elizabethan country house in Buckinghamshire, with important contributions by the Victorian architect William Burges. It is located near the village of Gayhurst, several kilometres north of Milton Keynes...
, 1858-65 - alterations for Lord Carrington - Maison Dieu, DoverDoverDover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
and Town Hall, 1859-75 - alterations and extensions - Waltham AbbeyWaltham Abbey (abbey)The Abbey Church of Waltham Abbey has been a place of worship since at least 1030, and is in the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. The Prime Meridian passes through its grounds. Harold Godwinson is said to be buried just outside the present abbey...
, 1859-77 - restoration - St.Elizabeth's Almshouses and Chapel, WorthingWorthingWorthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, 1860 - for his father, Alfred, who founded the charity - All Saints Church, FleetAll Saints Church, FleetAll Saints Church is an Anglican parish church of the town of Fleet in the county of Hampshire, England. It is notable due to its architect, William Burges and was constructed 1861-2 as a memorial church to Janet Walker. It was extended to the west in 1934 by A J Steadman and a Lady Chapel was...
, Hampshire, 1860–62 - Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, CorkCork (city)Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, Ireland, 1863–1904 - Yorke Almshouses, ForthamptonForthamptonForthampton is a village in Gloucestershire, England in the Cotswolds area. The village is located close to the River Severn five miles from the market town of Tewkesbury and features "a great number of interesting buildings", several duck ponds, a church, a collection of thatched cottages and...
, GloucestershireGloucestershireGloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, 1863-4 - Worcester College, OxfordWorcester College, OxfordWorcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...
, 1864-79 - chapel redecoration - Oakwood Hall, BingleyBingleyBingley is a market town in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal...
, YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, 1864-5 internal decoration, in collaboration with Edward Burne-JonesEdward Burne-JonesSir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
. Since altered - Skilbeck's Warehouse, 1865-6, remodelling of a drysalter's warehouse on Upper Thames Street - now demolished
- Holy Trinity Church TemplebreedyHoly Trinity Church TemplebreedyHoly Trinity, Templebreedy was designed by William Burges, who also designed the main Diocesan church Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral. It is of great architectural significance....
, Crosshaven, Co. Cork, Ireland, 1866–68 - Cardiff CastleCardiff CastleCardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...
, 1866-1928 - reconstruction and restoration for Lord Bute - St Michael and All Angels Church, Lowfield HeathSt Michael and All Angels Church, Lowfield HeathSt Michael and All Angels Church is a church in Lowfield Heath, a depopulated former village in the Borough of Crawley, a local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England...
, Sussex, 1867-8 - Knightshayes CourtKnightshayes CourtKnightshayes Court is a Victorian country house in Tiverton, Devon, England, designed by William Burges for the Heathcoat-Amory family. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "an eloquent expression of High Victorian ideals in a country house of moderate size." The house is Grade I listed as of 12 May...
, Tiverton, DevonDevonDevon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, 1867–74 - St Michael's Church, BrightonSt Michael's Church, BrightonSt. Michael's Church is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. Located on Victoria Road in the Montpelier area, to the east of Montpelier Road, it is one of the largest churches in the city of Brighton and Hove...
, 1868 - designs for extensions, 1892-9 - designs executed - Milton CourtMilton CourtMilton Court, near Dorking, is a 16th century country house in Surrey, which was substantially rebuilt by the Victorian architect William Burges...
, Dorking, Surrey, 1869-80 - refurbishment - The Church of Christ the ConsolerChurch of Christ the ConsolerThe Church of Christ the Consoler is a Victorian Gothic Revival church built in the Early English style by William Burges. It is located in the grounds of Newby Hall at Skelton-on-Ure, in North Yorkshire, England...
at Skelton-on-UreSkelton-on-UreSkelton-on-Ure or Skelton is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated about 1 mile west of Boroughbridge, near the A1 road motorway....
, Yorkshire, 1870–76 - St Mary's Church, near Fountains AbbeyFountains AbbeyFountains Abbey is near to Aldfield, approximately two miles southwest of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. It is a ruined Cistercian monastery, founded in 1132. Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved Cistercian houses in England. It is a Grade I listed building and owned by the...
, YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, 1870–78 - Park HousePark House, CardiffPark House, formerly known as McConnochie House, is a town house in Cardiff. It was built for James McConnochie, Chief Engineer to the Bute Docks, by the Gothic revivalist architect William Burges. It is a Grade I listed building...
, Cardiff, 1871-80 - for Lord Bute's chief engineer, James McConnochie and previously known as McConnochie House . - Speech Room, Harrow School, 1871–77
- Church of All Saints, MurstonMurstonMurston is a suburb of Sittingbourne in Kent, England....
, KentKentKent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, 1872-3 - Saint Faith's, Stoke NewingtonStoke NewingtonStoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
, London, 1872-3, badly damaged by a flying bomb in 1944 and since demolished - Castell CochCastell CochCastell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
, 1872-91 - recreation for Lord Bute - Mount Stuart HouseMount Stuart HouseMount Stuart House on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, Scotland is a Neo-Gothic country house with extensive gardens. Mount Stuart was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson for the 3rd Marquess of Bute in the late 1870s, to replace an earlier house by Alexander McGill, which burnt down in...
oratory, 1873-5 - for Lord Bute - Trinity College, Hartford, ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
: Seabury, Northam and Jarvis Halls, and unrealized College Master Plan: 1873-82. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Burgesplan.jpg - The Tower HouseThe Tower HouseThe Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
, Melbury Road, Kensington, 1875-81. For himself - Anglican Church, Mariánské LázněMariánské LázneMariánské Lázně is a spa town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. The town, surrounded by green mountains, is a mosaic of parks and noble houses...
, Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, 1879 memorial church for Mrs Anna Scott. Now a concert hall
Possible attribution
- * A photo comparison of William Burges' Tower HouseThe Tower HouseThe Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
and the St. Anthony HallSt. Anthony HallSt. Anthony Hall, also known as Saint Anthony Hall and The Order of St. Anthony, is a national college literary society also known as the Fraternity of Delta Psi at colleges in the United States of America. St...
college literary society chapter House at Trinity College (Connecticut)Trinity College (Connecticut)Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
, Hartford, CT, USA. The Connecticut building is generally attributed to J. Cleaveland CadyJ. Cleaveland CadyJ Cleaveland Cady was a New York-based architect whose most familiar surviving building is the south range of the American Museum of Natural History on New York's Upper West Side...
.
Unexecuted designs
- Lille Cathedral, 1856
- Crimea Memorial ChurchCrimea Memorial ChurchThe Crimea Memorial Church, also known as Christ Church, is a Church of England church in the Beyoglu - Taksim district of Istanbul, Turkey. It is built on land donated by Sultan Abdulmecit and was constructed between 1858-68 in memory of British soldiers who had participated in the Crimean War.The...
, 1857–63 - St John's Cathedral, BrisbaneSt John's Cathedral, BrisbaneSt John's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral of Brisbane and the metropolitan cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of Queensland, Australia...
, 1859 - Florence Cathedral, West front, 1862
- Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art, Bombay 1865-6
- Royal Courts of JusticeRoyal Courts of JusticeThe Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is the building in London which houses the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and the High Court of Justice of England and Wales...
, London, 1866–67 - St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 1870-77. Interior decoration.
- St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Episcopal)St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Episcopal)St Mary's Cathedral or the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is a cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was built in the late 19th century in the West End of Edinburgh's New Town. The cathedral is the see of the Bishop of Edinburgh, one of seven bishops...
, Edinburgh, 1873 - Truro CathedralTruro CathedralThe Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro is an Anglican cathedral located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It was built in the Gothic Revival architectural style fashionable during much of the nineteenth century, and is one of only three cathedrals in the United Kingdom...
, 1878
Major pieces of furniture and works
- The Yatman Cabinet - 1858 - the Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
- St. Bacchus sideboard - 1858 - Detroit Institute of ArtsDetroit Institute of ArtsThe Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
- The Architecture Cabinet - 1859 - the National Museum of Wales
- The Mirrored Buffet - 1859–present location unknown
- Sideboard and wine cabinet - 1859 - the Art Institute of ChicagoArt Institute of ChicagoThe School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
- Wines and Beers sideboard - 1859 - Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
- Taylor Bookcase - 1862 - Bedford Museum & Art GalleryBedford Museum & Art GalleryCecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection.- Overview :...
- Narcissus Washstand - 1865 - Bedford Museum & Art GalleryBedford Museum & Art GalleryCecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection.- Overview :...
, features in Evelyn Waugh's "The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold" - Burges' Bed - 1865 - Bedford Museum & Art GalleryBedford Museum & Art GalleryCecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection.- Overview :...
- Crocker Dressing Table - 1867 - Bedford Museum & Art GalleryBedford Museum & Art GalleryCecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection.- Overview :...
- The Clock Cabinet - 1867 - Manchester City Art GalleryManchester Art GalleryManchester Art Gallery is a publicly-owned art gallery in Manchester, England. It was formerly known as Manchester City Art Gallery.The gallery was opened in 1824 and today occupies three buildings, the oldest of which - designed by Sir Charles Barry - is Grade I listed and was originally home to...
- Zodiac Settle - 1869-70 - Bedford Museum & Art GalleryBedford Museum & Art GalleryCecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection.- Overview :...
, purchased by the museum in February 2011 and due for display on the museum's re-opening in 2012 - The Great Bookcase - 1869-72 - Knightshayes CourtKnightshayes CourtKnightshayes Court is a Victorian country house in Tiverton, Devon, England, designed by William Burges for the Heathcoat-Amory family. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "an eloquent expression of High Victorian ideals in a country house of moderate size." The house is Grade I listed as of 12 May...
, Devon. On loan from the Ashmolean MuseumAshmolean MuseumThe Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum... - Nursery Wardrobe - 1875 - Bedford Museum & Art GalleryBedford Museum & Art GalleryCecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection.- Overview :...
- Tower House Bookcase - 1878 - Knightshayes CourtKnightshayes CourtKnightshayes Court is a Victorian country house in Tiverton, Devon, England, designed by William Burges for the Heathcoat-Amory family. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "an eloquent expression of High Victorian ideals in a country house of moderate size." The house is Grade I listed as of 12 May...
- The 'Golden' Bed - 1879 - Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
- Font at St Peter's Church, Draycott, Somerset - 1861 - Controversially offered up for sale by Bath & WellsDiocese of Bath and WellsThe Diocese of Bath and Wells is a diocese in the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England.The diocese covers the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in the tiny city of...
in 2007, but retained on appeal
Gallery of architectural work
The gallery follows the themes chosen by J. Mordaunt CrookJ. Mordaunt Crook
Professor Joseph Mordaunt Crook, CBE, FBA, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, D.Phil, MA, generally known as J. Mordaunt Crook, is an English architectural historian and specialist on the Georgian and Victorian periods...
to represent, firstly, Burges's ecclesiastical works, then his domestic commissions from wealthy patrons, and lastly his architectural and decorative fantasies.
Gothic
Feudal
Fantastic