Party with the goths

Augustus pugin
Pugin is 200 years old in March. Staffordshire would be a good spot to start the celebrations

Words Eleanor Young

This year will see a feast of Pugin celebrations. Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was born on 1 March 1812. His Gothic revivalism is best known for his Palace of Westminster interiors and designs for Big Ben. But north Staffordshire is home to an amazing 14 of his buildings, including what is sometimes considered his best church – St Giles in Cheadle. Not far away in Birmingham, his St Chad’s Cathedral graces the inner ring road. Cheadle and Birmingham will be the centres for many of the events, including visits, a drawing competition and lectures. Elsewhere, in Kent, an appeal has been launched for work on St Augustine’s, Ramsgate (to add to a HLF grant), that Pugin built for himself and is buried in, and Kent University is running a conference on the international impact of the gothic revival.

Pugin’s own story, told in God’s Architect by Rosemary Hill, is fascinating. She traces his disappointment with the treatment of churches through his notebooks to his publication of Contrasts, soon after his conversion to Catholicism. Contrasts attempts to show ‘how intimately the fall of architectural art in this country is connected with the rise of the established religion’. In a sense his Catholicism and developing gothic style were both ways of returning to the Middle Ages and their ‘wonderful superiority’. He worked in Ireland, Australia and Tasmania, and France before he died at just 40. But the group of buildings in north Staffordshire is remarkable.

The cluster is thanks to the support Pugin received from John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury and political leader of the Catholics in the House of Lords. He was impressed by the theological and moral aspects of Pugin’s architecture and was behind many of his commissions in the West Midlands. Alton Towers – now at the centre of the theme park – was the family seat for many years and is where Shrewsbury is thought to have first encountered Pugin’s work through his Gothic engravings and religious thoughts in Contrasts. Alton Towers grew under Pugin’s hand as he added the Talbot Gallery and remodelled much of the mansion and estate including the chapel. Shrewsbury, as funder or fundraiser, often made Pugin’s involvement a condition – even by replacing other architects on the job.

Architect Aaron Chetwynd describes the Pugin architecture he lives and works alongside.‘You do notice Pugin buildings around Staffordshire, it’s quite special for that. And there is the influence beyond. You see the buildings in the middle of the countryside and think “Wow”. It was such a short golden age as agriculture turned to industry and before World War I and death duties took their toll. If these celebrations could bring attention to Alton Towers and Cotton College [a nearby manor house that was extended by Pugin] that would be a good thing.’

‘Cotton College is vast and derelict. Someone has got to work out how to reuse it. Pugin designed everything at Alton Towers – candlesticks, doorhandles… As an architect you do want to see a building restored.’

So how are some of these Pugin buildings faring? Father Michael Fisher is a leading architectural historian on Pugin and has been on Alton Towers’ heritage team since 1998. ‘The Shrewsburys left in 1924 and the furniture was sold. The estate was requisitioned and there was no maintenance. It came back to its owners only in 1950,’ explains Fisher. He attributes the stripping of the house, starting with the lead roofs, to the pressures of repaying short term loans. The Royal Commission for Historical Monuments in England got in to record the building before the timber was sold off in 1951-2 but was powerless to stop it (although those powers came just a year later).

‘Then nothing was done until 1980, though not too much has fallen down,’ says Fisher. The house is now ringed by over 50 rides and attractions along with food outlets as well as a spa and two hotels. 

Fisher sees cause for optimism; ironically starting with the Hex ride that was set up for the Millennium. It goes through the main entrance tower of the house, using the armoury and octagon gallery, which Pugin decorated, before leading out into other buildings. And it draws on the history of the house and family – perhaps the beginning of seeing the towers as an asset in themselves. ‘We are extremely proud of our heritage and our association with Pugin,’ says Mark Kerrigan, operations and development director for Alton Towers Resort. ‘The towers building is at the heart of our attraction and, together with the magnificent formal gardens, it provides us with a unique aspect.’

Section 106 money linked to Hex brought some reroofing and the restoration of some Pugin stained glass. The invisible stabilisation of structures followed and this year renovation of the big oriel window in the banqueting hall designed with John Hardman Powell – by then Pugin’s son in law. The full restoration is being done by the firm that came from that collaboration Pugin, Hardman and Powell, which is now based at St Chad’s Cathedral Birmingham.

Cotton College has been closed since 1989 although the Pugin-designed church alongside remained open until dry rot was discovered last year. But the current developers have been working on plans for the last 12 years. The complex of buildings over 26ha including houses, a – rather green – swimming pool and various wings including from the 1960s is described by the most recent architect of the project, Stuart Hodgkinson of Lathams, as ‘a palimpsest of overlays from 1846, much consolidated in a robust manner’. The Amos Group hopes to submit drawings for planning in the next 8-10 weeks.

‘If all goes well,’ says founder Colin Amos. ‘We would like to make a start this year.’

He admits that the contribution of Pugin doesn’t add any market value. But what it has done is give the developer a stronger argument with English Heritage for building houses as enabling developments to pay for repairs on the grade II listed property. The plan is for either 10 or 30 houses around the grounds plus 14 apartments in the existing buildings and three house conversions. The hallmarks of the Pugin house already on the site have been applied to the new designs in terms of fenestration patterns and gable ends mixed with a contemporary look. Until planning is approved though the building stands empty and rather dilapidated, emergency stabilising works notwithstanding.

Luckily not all of Pugin’s local buildings are in such parlous state. Alton Castle with its church and cloisters has a busy life as a Catholic retreat with 8,000 children visiting each year. The climbing wall and camping don’t appear to detract from this building which Fisher describes as ‘straight out of Wagner’. And then of course there is St Giles, Cheadle, often referred to as ‘Pugin’s gem’.

Fisher explains that the church started modest and became grander and the end result is full of the colours, tiles and pointed architecture that we associate with the best of Pugin’s work. Cheadle will be a fitting place to start the celebration of Pugin’s work on 1 March.

BICENTENARY HIGHLIGHTS

Father Michael Fisher’s Gothic For Ever: AWN Pugin, Lord Shrewsbury, and the Rebuilding of Catholic England  will be published in March by Spire Books

Architectural tour and discussion
Part of the ‘Arts and Architecture’ club. Free.
St Giles, Cheadle, Staffordshire
7pm, 15 February.
First in a series of three – other tour dates to be confirmed

Bicentenary Celebrations
Afternoon celebrations marking the bicentenary of Pugin’s birth including launch of the free ‘Pugin Guides’, guided architectural tours, Hardman exhibition and various activities.
Pugin Centre, Lulworth House, High Street, Cheadle, ST10 1AR.
2-4:30pm (TBC), 3 March

Heritage Open Days
Tours of St Giles, Cheadle; Cotton College, Cotton; Alton Towers; Alton Castle; (TBC)
6-9 September

Other events
A drawing competition, debates on the legacy of Pugin and an exhibition at St Chad, Birmingham, training and demonstration workshops in Victorian architecture, Pugin inspired carnival with gothic style costumes and a schools education programme are also planned.

For up to date information on events celebrating the bicentenary go to http://tinyurl.com/72ybgyu or email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)