William Burges - Partnership With The Marquess of Bute

Partnership With The Marquess of Bute

In 1865, Burges met John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. This may have resulted from Alfred Burges's engineering firm, Walker, Burges and Cooper, having undertaken work on the East Bute Docks in Cardiff for the second Marquess in 1855. The 3rd Marquess became Burges's greatest architectural patron; both 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".

On his succession to the Marquessate at the age of one, Bute inherited an income of £300,000 a year, and, by the time he met Burges, he was considered the richest man in Britain, if not the world. Bute's wealth was important to the success of the partnership: as Burges himself wrote, "Good art is far too rare and far too precious ever to be cheap." But, as a scholar, antiquarian, compulsive builder and enthusiastic medievalist, Bute brought more than money to the relationship and his resources and his interests allied with Burges's genius to create what McLees considers to be "Bute's most memorable overall achievement."

"A prime example of the partnership of aristocratic patron and talented architect produc the marvels of Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch."

—Dixon and Muthesius characterising the relationship between Burges and Bute.

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". The architectural writer Michael Hall considers Burges's rebuilding of Cardiff Castle and the complete reconstruction of the ruin of Castell Coch, north of the city, as representing his highest achievements. In these buildings, Crook contends that Burges escaped into "a world of architectural fantasy" which Hall describes as "amongst the most magnificent the Gothic Revival ever achieved."