Victorian Churches in England

James Stevens Curl

The religious buildings erected during the reign of Queen Victoria are not only numerous, but offer a wide range of architectural styles, fine furnishings, and much else besides. They were expressions of the importance of religion in that period, and their existence and qualities were often related to the aspirations of the clergy, laity, and individual benefactors. The finest buildings were, even more, the result of a passionate commitment to an architecture soundly based on scholarly studies known as ecclesiology.

The lecture places religious buildings of the Victorian age in their complex settings, and highlights the religious atmosphere, arguments, and controversies of the time. It charts the progress of the Gothic Revival, explains differences in the architectural responses, and outlines the influences of the main protagonists involved.