William Butterfield
Born(1814-09-07)7 September 1814
London
Died23 February 1900(1900-02-23) (aged 85)
NationalityBritish
OccupationArchitect
AwardsRoyal Gold Medal (1884)
BuildingsSt Ninian's Cathedral, Perth in Scotland, St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne in Australia
ProjectsKeble College, Oxford

William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a British Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy.

Biography

William Butterfield was born in London in 1814. His parents were strict non-conformists who ran a chemist's shop in the Strand. He was one of nine children and was educated at a local school. At the age of 16, he was apprenticed to Thomas Arber, a builder in Pimlico, who later became bankrupt. He studied architecture under E. L. Blackburne (1833–1836). From 1838 to 1839, he was an assistant to Harvey Eginton, an architect in Worcester, where he became articled. He established his own architectural practice at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1840.

From 1842 Butterfield was involved with the Cambridge Camden Society, later The Ecclesiological Society. He contributed designs to the Society's journal, The Ecclesiologist. His involvement influenced his architectural style. He also drew religious inspiration from the Oxford Movement and as such, he was very high church despite his non-conformist upbringing. He was a Gothic revival architect, and as such he reinterpreted the original Gothic style in Victorian terms. Many of his buildings were for religious use, although he also designed for colleges and schools.

Butterfield's church of All Saints, Margaret Street, London, was, in the view of Henry-Russell Hitchcock, the building that initiated the High Victorian Gothic era. It was designed in 1850, completed externally by 1853 and consecrated in 1859.[1] Flanked by a clergy house and school, it was intended as a "model" church by its sponsors, the Ecclesiological Society. The church was built of red-brick, a material long out of use in London, patterned with bands of black brick, the first use of polychrome brick in the city, with bands of stone on the spire. The interior was even more richly decorated, with marble and tile marquetry.[1]

In 1849, just before Butterfield designed the church, John Ruskin had published his Seven Lamps of Architecture, in which he had urged the study of Italian Gothic and the use of polychromy. Many contemporaries perceived All Saints' as Italian in character, though in fact it combines fourteenth century English details, with a German-style spire.[1]

Also in 1850 he designed, without polychromy, St Matthias' in Stoke Newington, with a bold gable-roofed tower. At St Bartholomew's, Yealmpton in the same year, Butterfield used a considerable amount of marquetry work for the interior, and built striped piers, using two colours of marble.[1]

Blue plaque, 42 Bedford Square, London

At Oxford, Butterfield designed Keble College, in a style radically divergent from the university's existing traditions of Gothic architecture, its walls boldly striped with various colours of brick. Intended for clerical students, it was largely built in 1868–70, on a fairly domestic scale, with a more monumental chapel of 1873–6. In his buildings of 1868–72 at Rugby School, the polychromy is even more brash.[2]

Butterfield received the RIBA Gold Medal in 1884. He died in London in 1900, and was buried in a simple Gothic tomb (designed by himself) in Tottenham Cemetery, Haringey, North London.[3] The grave can be easily seen from the public path through the cemetery, close to the gate from Tottenham Churchyard. There is a blue plaque on his house in Bedford Square, London.

Works

Keble College Chapel, Oxford
St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia
St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, Scotland
William Butterfield's original design for the new Anglican cathedral (St Paul's) in Melbourne, Australia
All Saints, Margaret Street, London (detail of interior)
St Mary's church, Brookfield
St Andrew's Church, Rugby
St Barnabas's Church, Horton-cum-Studley
St Mark's Church, Dundela, Belfast
Font of Ottery St Mary Parish Church, Devon
Chalice designed by William Butterfield, 1856–1857 (hallmarked) V&A Museum no. CIRC.521–1962
Chapel, Rugby School

Butterfield's buildings include:

Publications

Instrumenta Ecclesiastica, 1847
  • Ecclesiological late Cambridge Camden Society, ed. (1847). Instrumenta Ecclesiastica (in Latin). with etchings from drawings by William Butterfield. London: Ecclesiological late Cambridge Camden Society. John Van Voorst.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hitchcock 1977, pages 247–8
  2. ↑ Hitchock 1977, page 264
  3. ↑ Historic England. "Tomb of William Butterfield in Tottenham Cemetery, Church Lane (1084329)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  4. ↑ Historic England. "Cotham Church (1282286)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  5. ↑ "Pleasance, St John's Episcopal Church with Lych Gate and Boundary Wall, Jedburgh, Scottish Borders". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  6. ↑ "Beginnings". Coalpit Heath: St Saviour's Church. August 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Homan 1984, page 106
  8. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 252
  9. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 579–583
  10. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 365
  11. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 366
  12. ↑ "Ottery St Mary". Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. Exeter. 30 March 1850. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Historic England. "Golden Lion Hotel (1342241)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  14. 1 2 Pevsner, 1966, page 253
  15. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 90
  16. ↑ Rhea, Nicholas (1985). Portrait of the North Yorkshire Moors.
  17. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 458
  18. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 177
  19. ↑ O’Brien, Charles; Bailey, Bruce; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David W. (2018). The Buildings of England Hampshire: South. Yale University Press. p. 176. ISBN 9780300225037.
  20. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page705
  21. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 101
  22. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 162
  23. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 291
  24. ↑ "St John the Evangelist Churchyard". London Gardens Online. 1 November 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  25. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 293
  26. ↑ Historic England. "Pitt Chapel School, Pitt (Grade II) (1095781)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  27. ↑ "History & architecture". All Saints Margaret Street website. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  28. ↑ Historic England. "Church of St. Mary the Virgin (1042179)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  29. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 182
  30. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 531
  31. 1 2 Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 82
  32. ↑ Historic England. "St Alban's Clergy House and attached railings with lamp-holder (1272352)". National Heritage List for England.
  33. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 166
  34. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 160
  35. ↑ Lanagan, Paul. "Houghton-le-Spring: Hillside Cemetery Lych Gate Restoration". houghtonlespring.org.uk.
  36. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 140
  37. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 319
  38. ↑ The Buildings of England: Lancashire – Manchester and the South East, 2004
  39. 1 2 Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 693
  40. ↑ Heywood, Joy. "William Butterfield (1814–1900)". Enfield: Saint Mary Magdalene. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  41. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 154
  42. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 164
  43. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 118
  44. ↑ "Parishes: Lyndhurst | British History Online". British History Online. 10 June 1908. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  45. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 470
  46. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 266
  47. ↑ "Home". Holy Saviour Church Hitchin.
  48. ↑ Pevsner, 1960, page 112
  49. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 268
  50. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 656
  51. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 84
  52. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 685
  53. ↑ Marsden, Susan, Paul Stark and Patricia Sumerling, Heritage of the City of Adelaide, Adelaide 1990, pp. 347-349
  54. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 571
  55. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 144
  56. ↑ Birtchnell, Percy (1960). A Short History of Berkhamsted. The Bookstack. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-871372-00-7.
  57. ↑ Sheppard, F.H.W., ed. (1970). "St. Paul's Church". Survey of London: volume 36: Covent Garden. pp. 98–128.
  58. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 374
  59. ↑ Verey, 1970, pages 370–371
  60. 1 2 Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 182
  61. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 120
  62. ↑ "St Denis' East Hatley". Hatley. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  63. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 563
  64. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 254
  65. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 283
  66. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 357
  67. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pages 225–229
  68. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 95
  69. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 354
  70. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 68
  71. 1 2 "St. Andrew's parish church, Rugby".
  72. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 591
  73. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 251
  74. ↑ "A Community of Faith". stjohnsclevedon.org.uk.
  75. ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 213
  76. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1973, page 188
  77. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 105
  78. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 427
  79. ↑ "Church of St Peter, Ceulanamaesmawr, Ceredigion". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk.

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