Early Career Fellowship - Imperial Gothic: Religious Architecture and High Anglican Culture in the British Empire

The project traced the global reach and influence of the Gothic Revival movement in architecture throughout Britain’s global empire during the mid nineteenth century. It focused on religious buildings, examining the reinvigoration of the Church of England’s colonial and missionary agenda and its relationship to the rise of Anglican ecclesiology, revealing the extraordinary nature and extent of building activity that occurred across the British world at this time.

1) that a much more extensive network of clerical and architectural associations existed between Britain and its colonies in the transfer of knowledge and experience than previously understood



2) that this network was crucial to the 'building' of the British colonial world, thus transforming the landscapes of the non-European world both dramatically and permanently



3) that religion, especially Anglicanism, played a greater role than previously understood in this transformative process, and that religion in general was a crucial factor in the cultural 'mission' of empire



4) that theoretical discourse regarding foreign and colonial architecture affected thinking in the 'metropolis' on concepts concerning 'development' far more than previously supposed



5) that 'colonial' church architecture was not simply a lesser or debased version of what could be found at 'home', in Britain, and that it had a specific purpose and set of challenges to deal with, thus extending our understanding of what constituted ecclesiology during the Victorian age