Architecture · Gothic & the revivals
1795â1860 · English
Gothic Revival and the Italianate palazzo style
Sir Charles Barry won the 1836 competition to replace the Houses of Parliament, burnt down two years earlier, and spent the rest of his life building them, with Augustus Pugin supplying the Gothic detail. Barry himself was no Goth by temperament: his London clubs introduced the Italian Renaissance palazzo to Britain, and he worked equally happily in Greek, Tudor and Italianate. He was the founder of an architectural dynasty and died suddenly with his greatest building still unfinished.
A riverside parliament of almost a thousand rooms, won in an 1836 competition and detailed throughout by a younger Gothic zealot (1840â1870)
Westminster, London
The Palace of Westminster, rebuilt after the fire of 1834 and finished by his son Edward after his death.
A Pall Mall club whose courtyard is roofed over in glass, its front modelled on a Roman palace by Sangallo (1838â1841)
Pall Mall, London
The Reform Club, modelled on the Palazzo Farnese; Phileas Fogg begins his journey from it.
An earlier Pall Mall club in the Italian manner next door, whose garden front has no columns at all (1829â1832)
Pall Mall, London
The Travellers Club â the building that introduced the Renaissance palazzo style to London.
A Hampshire house recased in Elizabethan dress with corner turrets, later famous on television as a wartime hospital and home to a resident earl (1839â1842)
Hampshire, England
Highclere Castle, remodelled for the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon; the setting of Downton Abbey.
A Yorkshire town hall with a soaring spire-topped tower, opened by the Prince of Wales in 1863 and finished by the architect's son (1859â1863)
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax Town Hall, completed by Edward Middleton Barry.
A Greek Revival building in Manchester with an Ionic portico, built as an institution for promoting the fine arts (1824â1835)
Manchester, England
Built as the Royal Manchester Institution â one of his early classical works.
A London square remodelled around the architect's terrace and balustrades, its north side raised to hold a national gallery (1840)
London, England
Trafalgar Square, laid out to his design; the fountains were rebuilt by Lutyens a century later.
An Italianate house above the Thames, rebuilt twice after fires for a duke and later home to a Tory hostess's political set (1850â1851)
Buckinghamshire, England
Cliveden, rebuilt for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland; later the Astors' house and the scene of the Profumo affair.