Architecture
Architecturally, it is an expression of the Gothic Revival. It is described by K. Theodore Hoppen, in his volume of the New Oxford History of England, as Butterfield's "savage masterpiece", while Ian Nairn said "To describe a church as an orgasm is bound to offend someone; yet this building can only be understood in terms of compelling, overwhelming passion".
Butterfield departed considerably from medieval Gothic practice. He used red brick for the church, a material long out of use in London, with the walls banded and patterned in black brick, and the spire banded with stone, making it the first example of 'permanent polychrome' in the city. The interior is richly patterned, with inlays of marble and tile.
The east wall of the chancel is covered by a series of painting on gilded boards, the work of Ninian Comper and a restoration of earlier work by William Dyce. The Lady Chapel is also by Comper. The church is a Grade I listed building.
Read more about this topic: All Saints, Margaret Street
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider, and should be wise in season and not fetter himself with duties which will embitter his days and spoil him for his proper work.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)