Crown steeple

A crown steeple, or crown spire, is a traditional form of church steeple in which curved stone flying buttresses form the open shape of a rounded crown. It appeared in medieval church architecture in England and Scotland, and reappeared in the 19th century as part of the Gothic Revival.

The crown steeple on Newcastle Cathedral, in Newcastle upon Tyne, was erected in 1448 and is possibly the earliest example of this form of steeple. The crown spire of St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, was erected in 1495, and rebuilt by John Mylne in 1648. Another medieval crown steeple was built at King's College, Aberdeen (1500–1509), although this too was rebuilt in the 17th century, after the original blew down. The crown steeple of the Tolbooth Steeple, in Glasgow's Merchant City, was built in 1626-1634 by John Boyd, and at the time was the only such steeple in western Scotland. In 1698, Sir Christopher Wren added a tower with a crown steeple to St Dunstan-in-the-East, London.

Crown steeples were often incorporated into Gothic Revival churches. The open spire of Faversham Parish Church, Kent was built in 1797, and a crown steeple was added to Tillington Parish Church, Susssex, in 1807. Others include those at Tarbert, Argyll and Bute (1886), and the Kelvin Stevenson Memorial Church, Glasgow, by John James Stevenson (1902).

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