Dissenting Gothic

Dissenting Gothic is an architectural style associated with English Dissenters, that is, Protestants not affiliated with the Church of England. It is a distinctive style in its own right within Gothic Revival architecture that emerged primarily in Britain, its colonies and North America, during the nineteenth century.

In contrast to the pure copying of English mediaeval Gothic that was being advocated and promoted by some influential ecclesiologists during the early Gothic Revival period in Britain, most particularly by Augustus Welby Pugin and to an extent in the pages of the Camden Society's quarterly journal (The Ecclesiologist, 1841–68), Dissenting Gothic provided a less Anglo-centric interpretation of the Gothic style, and purposefully introduced modernising elements to meet clients' needs.

In Dissenting Gothic, the interests of good design could over-ride historical purity; the role of the architect was seen as originating a design solution, rather than promoting specific Gothic forms as a cause célèbre in pursuit of an idealised high church and mediaeval belief system.

Departing from the narrow confines of the approach adopted by some of the leading British ecclesiologists during the early Gothic Revival period, architects who were willing to respond to the demand for Dissenting Gothic enlarged their portfolio, drawing on mainland European Gothic architecture as well as English forms. Moreover, they could be more creative about relationship between form and function, seeking novel but appropriate ways to introduce elements not found in mediaeval Gothic churches, so as to create interiors that met the particular congregational needs of the independent or nonconformist chapel-builders of the nineteenth century; accommodate Sunday Schools and meeting rooms, with sometimes distorting effects on the physiognomy of the building; use confined city plots in efficient ways by varying from strict gothic floorplans and orientations; and experiment with a wide range of materials, and polychromatic designs, not found in mediaeval buildings.

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