William Butterfield was the most daring, rigorous, and brilliant
architect of his age, whose 60-year practice spanned the entire
Victorian era, and whose major works are found from the Firth of Clyde
and shores of Belfast to the hills of Dublin and the cliffs of Cardiff
and Devon. This book addresses the emergence of a modern society, its
expansive institutions, and its changing moral code, exploring how
Butterfield responded to and advanced that transformation in the
national life. It reflects the changing emphasis of Butterfield's work:
first, the revival, rebuilding, and reform of the country parish; then
the place of the church and the agents of social health in the
burgeoning town and city; third, the quiet revolution in secondary
education and college life; and finally, sites of refuge, sanctuary,
repose, and remembrance. Drawing extensively on the literature and
discourse of the time, each chapter discusses a societal shift and
surveys Butterfield's most important architectural contributions. The
chapters are followed by portfolios of photographs and extraordinary
sets of coloured contract drawings of projects selected to show the
originality, conviction, and variety of Butterfield's designs. Woven
through the book are characterisations of the often colourful men and
women who were Butterfield's patrons and associates, including
Gladstone, Pusey, Nightingale, and such lesser known but equally crucial
figures as Frederick Temple, 'Mother' Matilda Blanche Gibbs, the writer
Charlotte Yonge, and a score of reforming vicars, from the pious William
Butler to the radical eccentric Edward Monro.
