Richard Clarkson

300160220

DSDN171

Research Paper : A.W.N Pugin

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin 1812-1852 (Pugin) was an Architect and Designer in the early-mid

19th Century and is most widely known for his ideals, books and Victorian Churches of Gothic style.

He was significantly influenced in a number of different ways during his upbringing and young

adulthood. These influences eventually formulated his ideals and outlooks on design and

architecture. His three main influences were his parents, his schooling and his early experience in

the work force.

There is no doubt that Pugin had a profound impact on design, architecture and even the culture of

his time and of modern day. His beliefs and views of design and architecture were advanced for his

time, reinforced with strong Gothic Morals that are even now becoming increasingly relevant as

modern architecture and design evolves.1 His ideals were expressed in his books, letters and also in

person and were known in his to be unashamedly voiced in a manner that can almost be considered

prophetic saving design and architecture. The question is how these ideals and design values

developed in Pugin in his early years and what were the defining influences that captured his

absolute belief?

Born 1st March 1812 in Bloomsbury, London, Pugin brought up as an only child was trained to be an

Architect / Architectural Illustrator in the establishment run by his parents, Augustus Charles Pugin

(A.C Pugin) and Catherine Welby, whom he lived with for half his life.2 Pugin’s father was a French

émigré who established himself in London as an architectural perspectivist studying at ‘The Royal

Academy,’ Sumerset House in Strand.3 Pugin gained much of his knowledge and skill in architecture

from his father who was known as a hard worker and one of notable but not outstanding talents but

whose drawings showed a truthfulness of colour and form that his son would eventually inherit.4

1. Phoebe B. Stanton, Pugin, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971), 11. 2. Ibid., 13. 3. Rosemary Hill, God's architect : Pugin and the building of romantic Britain, (London: Allen Lane, 2007),13-14. 4. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 6-8.

Senior Pugin was also very passionate and knowledgeable about Gothic style architecture and this is

undoubtedly how Pugin gained his fixation with the Gothic style.5 This was a lifelong passion that

would lead him to become one of the most influential individuals in the early stages of the Gothic

Revival.

The role Pugin’s mother played in the development of his values, ideals and character in his early

years is essential as seen in this quote from Gods Architect:

“...hers was the dominating influence on her son for the first half of his life. Catherin Welby grew up between

two worlds... ...her temperament developed as a result into a volatile mixture of conservatism and

independence, in which her son took after her.6” Rosemary Hill 2007

The above quote reinforces Pugin’s mother’s struggle between the two different worlds of the

“England of Jane Austen” and “the Victorian age” that Pugin also faced. It was vital to the

development of Pugin, both in his work and personality, that he grew up between these two times,

had he grown up in a different time he may not have had the success he did.7 Pugin had an over

protective mother, who is said to have been the decision maker on sending him to Christ’s Hospital,

Newgate Street, also known as the “Blue Coat School.8” The quote above also indicates that Pugin

inherited some of his more unpopular characteristics from his mother such as her eccentricity,

overprotective tendencies and single minded beliefs. One thing Pugin did not inherit from his

mother, or father, was her religious direction, she was a ‘fervent ultra-Protestant’,9 whereas Pugin,

in his later years, became a devout member of the Catholic faith. In a letter to his dear friend William

Osmond in October 1833, Pugin states:

5. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 50-51. 6. Rosemary Hill, God's architect : Pugin and the building of romantic Britain, (London: Allen Lane, 2007),24. 7 Ibid., 5. 8. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 32. 9. Christabel Powell, Augustus Welby Pugin, designer of the British Houses of Parliament : the Victorian quest for a liturgical architecture, (Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, 2006.), 47.

“I can assure you after a most close and impartial investigation I feel perfectly convinced the Roman Catholic[k]

Church is the only true one...10” A.W.N Pugin 1833

The ‘investigation’ Pugin speaks of is his trip to Germany and his intense study of the various church

belief systems of the time.11 There are numerous theories on what caused Pugin to turn to God and

more still on why he chose the Roman Catholic faith. Whatever road he took, it allowed him to

become one of the Roman Churches stoutest champions.12 Though the common idea is one that tells

that the road Pugin took to finding his Catholic faith was one he took alone, I believe the death of his

first wife and both his parents within one year (1823-33) to be a major factor, a theory shared by

Christabel Powell in Augustus Welby Pugin, designer of the British Houses of Parliament : the

Victorian quest for a liturgical architecture. 13

During his time at the Blue Coat School he began to develop in all areas and became an able student.

It is interesting to note that his personality also began to take shape, as displayed in a quote from

Rev. Dr. Trollope, the Head master at the time:

“...expressing his opinions in the most dogmatic manner with volubility and vehemence... ...indeed such

rudeness would not have been tolerated in a man of less genius.14” Rev. Dr. Trollope

Already at this young age Pugin was showing signs of the qualities that would make him more than

an architect/designer. Indeed Pugin’s story as an architect is like no one else’s, and in Phoebe B.

10. Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, The collected letters of A.W.N. Pugin, ed. Margaret Belcher (Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001), 24. 11. Christabel Powell, Augustus Welby Pugin, designer of the British Houses of Parliament : the Victorian quest for a liturgical architecture, (Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, 2006.), 63-64. 12. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 40. 13. Christabel Powell, Augustus Welby Pugin, designer of the British Houses of Parliament : the Victorian quest for a liturgical architecture, (Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, 2006.), 60. 14. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 33.

Stanton’s Pugin, she refers to the fact that had Pugin not been an author or a man of such

eccentricity and outspokenness, he would have merely blended into the crowd of other Victorian

architects.15 At nine years of age we find a hint of Pugin’s greatness, foretold in one of his earliest

drawings, entitled ‘My first Design,’ a depiction of a pointed Gothic church of Pugin’s own design

(Figure 1, See images).16 This is a significant image in the story of Pugin as it is proof that his ideals of

design and architecture were ingrained in him at a very young age.

In the year 1826 at age 14 Pugin had left childhood, completed his course at Christ’s Hospital and

was being educated by his father. Here his drawing talents were further refined and his love for

architecture began to show through.17 Benjamin Ferrey, a fellow student and friend of Pugin’s who

joined him on his first independent quest to Rochester Castle,18 makes note in his book,

Recollections of Pugin, that Pugin was ‘riveted’ at the sight of the Castle, and that other Gothic or

Gothic related buildings were of great interest to Pugin. These included Westminster Abbey, the

stately Tower of London, the churches in Beverley, and countless others.19

By the year 1827 Pugin began working, designing Gothic style furniture for Windsor Castle, an

opportunity that would establish him as a talented furniture designer and craftsman while he was

still learning in his father’s office.20 It was also at this time that Pugin started to develop the

characteristic that would allow him to reach greatness, but that would also be suspected as the

15. Phoebe B. Stanton, Pugin, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971), 11. 16. Rosemary Hill, God's architect : Pugin and the building of romantic Britain, (London: Allen Lane, 2007),114-115. 17. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 34. 18. Michael Trappes-Lomax, Pugin : a mediaeval Victorian, (London [England] : Sheed & Ward, 1932), 21. 19. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 34-36. 20. Ibid., 53.

cause of his death at the age of 40.21 Pugin was, in modern day terms, an extreme ‘workaholic.’

While on one of his father’s architectural field trips to Paris Pugin’s mother writes about Pugin:

“he went before breakfast to draw in Notre Dame, when suddenly (as he describes his sensation) the whole

building on every side seemed breaking and tumbling to pieces... ...brought him home pale as death.22”

Catherin Welby 1827

As the quote demonstrates, Pugin was literally working himself to exhaustion, and on the 14th

September 1852 he passed away as a result of an overworked life, though this fact is debatable. The

other theory, one that I find to be more accurate, is that Pugin had a mental distemper that started

during his childhood, and was the cause of his mental deterioration and death.23Again we see that it

seems Pugin’s whole life is a story foretold in his childhood. As well as being a workaholic Pugin was

a perfectionist, seeing himself as a ‘scholar and representative of ancient Catholic architects.’24 At

times I believe that Pugin felt the heavy burden of being this representative and even the quote

above shows proof of how Pugin took it all on his own shoulders, even at such a young age. He was

almost a one man army fighting for the Gothic style and for Roman Catholicism. It is in quotes such

as the above that we see he began fighting at a very young age.

We can now see that Pugin’s ideals, beliefs and personality were shaped during his childhood and

teenage years, through his parents, school years and early entry to the workforce. Early-mid 19th

century England was a time of change, the industrialisation of Europe and Arts and Crafts Movement

were fast approaching, and already beginning to impact both the culture and thinking of the nation.

Pugin would become a part of this change, and it would affect him as much as he would affect it.

21. Benjamin Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin, (London : Scolar Press, 1978), 453. 22. Michael Trappes-Lomax, Pugin : a mediaeval Victorian, (London [England] : Sheed & Ward, 1932), 16. 23. Christabel Powell, Augustus Welby Pugin, designer of the British Houses of Parliament : the Victorian quest for a liturgical architecture, (Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, 2006.), 346. 24. Jane Pugin, 'Dearest Augustus and I' : the journal of Jane Pugin, ed. Caroline Stanford (Reading : Spire Books Ltd. in association with The Landmark Trust, c2004), 16.

Images

Bibliography Ferrey, Benjamin, 1810-1880. Recollections of A. W. N. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin. London: Scolar Press, 1978.

Hill, Rosemary. God's architect : Pugin and the building of romantic Britain. London: Allen Lane, 2007.

Powell, Christabel. Augustus Welby Pugin, designer of the British Houses of Parliament : the Victorian quest for a liturgical architecture. Lewiston, N.Y: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006.

Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore, 1812-1852. The collected letters of A.W.N. Pugin Vol 1 1830-1842. Edited by Margaret Belcher. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Pugin, Jane, 1825-1909. 'Dearest Augustus and I' : the journal of Jane Pugin. Edited by Caroline Stanford. Reading: Spire Books Ltd. in association with The Landmark Trust, c2004.

Stanton, Phoebe B. Pugin. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.

Trappes-Lomax, Michael. Pugin : a mediaeval Victorian. London [England]: Sheed & Ward, 1932.

(Figure 1). ‘My First Design’, 1821. “At nine, Pugin was already hoping to build

Gothic churches.15“