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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Gothic Revival
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(also called neo-Gothic)
The reintroduction of the *Gothic style in architecture of the 18–19C. There had in fact been no break in a continuing Gothic tradition, only a slowing down, and historians distinguish between survival and revival. The two overlap in the 18C. The revival was characterized by a new fascination with the Middle Ages and a certain playfulness – elements which appeared at the same time in literature, though here playfulness took the form of the macabre. Horace *Walpole was a pioneer in both fields, The Castle of Otranto (1765) being the first Gothic novel and *Strawberry Hill (begun in 1750) one of the earliest Gothic Revival houses.
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In the mid-19C the movement became more historical and less playful, though there were elements of play in the fantastic creations of William *Burges. More central was the solemnity of *Pugin and *Ruskin. By the end of the century there were new Gothic churches all over Britain, promoted first by the discovery of the church commissioners in the 1820s that the Gothic style was cheaper to build than the classical (with its expensive stone lintels) and then boosted by *Anglo-Catholicism. Meanwhile in town halls, hotels and railway stations Gothic seemed the perfect medium for civic or commercial pride.
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