Imperial Gothic: Building Anglican Identity through Church Architecture in the British Colonial World

The gothic revival was a global phenomenon. Architecturally speaking, this had significant consequences during the mid-nineteenth century as Britain’s territorial empire continued to expand. By c.1850 Britain had reached the relative apogee of its international power and influence. As missionaries and clergymen spread throughout Britain’s empire, carrying Christian doctrines and forms with them, they transformed the landscapes of the non-European world. As Christianity was an important component of British social and national identity during the Victorian age, gothic revival churches were understood as embodying (and signifying) the values and ideals of that identity, allowing church organisations in the colonies to shape colonial society in a visually conspicuous manner.

This paper shall discuss the substantial impact that the ideas of the Ecclesiological (former Cambridge Camden) Society had on Anglican church design in the British colonial world between 1840 and 1870. Many of the clergymen who left Britain as missionaries were members of this society, taking its ideas and implementing them wherever they went. Coupled with this was the notion that the churches they erected were perceived as the ‘front line’ in a global battle against heathenism, ignorance, nonconformism, and republicanism. In this respect, Church of England clergymen and missionaries saw themselves as not merely miles Christi but also, and importantly, champions of a particular sense of British national civilisation and identity. This paper shall argue that the gothic revival and its multifarious inherent meanings and associations were central to this ‘mission’.