One of the most important architects practising in Britain during the
years 1820-1880, Anthony Salvin had a long and successful career as a
builder of country houses and churches and as a restorer of some of the
most important castles in England, including Windsor Castle and the
Tower of London. In the first book-length study of this important
architect, Dr Allibone has incorporated previously unpublished material
concerning Salvin's life and buildings, including contemporary letters,
building accounts, diaries, and reproductions of Salvin's architectural
drawings, in order to shed new light on artistical, political, economic
and religious developments in nineteenth-century England. Concerned
through his career with finding authentic medieval examples for new
buildings in the Gothic style, Salvin led the way to return to the
'real' Gothic architecture that cumulated later in the nineteenth
century with the works of men like Alfred Waterhouse, William Burges and
George Edmund Street. A knowledge of his career will further an
appreciation of the works of these later, more widely studied
architects. Including 181 illustrations as well as a comprehensive
catalogue listing all the known data for 366 of Salvin's projected and
executed works, this study should find a large audience among those
interested in the history of architecture and in Victorian England in
general.
