A. W. N. Pugin Biography, Buildings and Best Books

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) was an English architect, designer and writer and the most passionate advocate of the Gothic Revival. In books such as Contrasts and The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture he argued that Gothic was the only truthful architecture, and with Charles Barry he designed the Palace of Westminster, creating its interiors, furniture and the clock tower now called Elizabeth Tower.

A family of draughtsmen

Pugin was born in London in 1812, the son of the French-born architectural draughtsman Augustus Charles Pugin. He designed furniture for Windsor Castle at 15 and worked as a stage designer before converting to Catholicism in 1835.

Contrasts and True Principles

His book Contrasts (1836) compared medieval and modern buildings to argue for Gothic as a moral architecture. The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841) set out rules of honest construction and ornament that influenced later designers from Ruskin to the Arts and Crafts movement.

Churches and Westminster

He designed many Catholic churches, including St Giles’ in Cheadle (1846), and built his own house and church at Ramsgate. From 1836 he worked with Charles Barry on the new Palace of Westminster, designing interiors, tiles, glass and furniture, and in his last years the great clock tower. He died in Ramsgate in 1852.