Context 158 - March 2019

C O N T E X T 1 5 8 : M A R C H 2 0 1 9 51 including timber panelling and the headmaster’s throne (he really did have a gothic throne), and they went into the new school building. Pugin would go on to design the Sovereign’s throne in the House of Lords. Birmingham has several surviving Pugin buildings, including St Mary’s Convent in Lozells, the seminary at Oscott, a number of churches, and St Chad’s Cathedral, which contains many Pugin- designed treasures in its crypt. Pugin was born in 1812, the only child of middle-aged parents, an English mother and a French father, who both doted on him. The family lived in Bloomsbury, London, in a happy household, full of life, and from within the family home Pugin’s father ran a drawing school. Pugin was indoctrinated into gothic design from an early age; as a boy, he made annual trips with his father to study the medieval cathedrals of England and France. At the age of 15 he started working for his father, who was a cabinetmaker as well teaching architectural drawing; and the pair of them, father and son, worked together on furniture for George IV at Windsor Castle. At 18, Pugin was running his own furniture-making business in London, and he was also designing and making stage scenery for the Covent Garden theatre. At the start of his career, Pugin would travel up to the Midlands, where some of his best clients lived, like Mrs Gough of Perry Hall, and Mrs Amherst of Fieldgate House, Kenilworth, for whom he later built St Augustine’s Church, Kenilworth. Pugin visited Kenilworth Castle with the Amhersts. This is the castle that inspired Sir Walter Scott to write his historic novel Kenilworth. Scott’s historical novels had a significant effect on British culture in the first half of the 19th century. The young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were fans, and they were also interested in gothic design. Scott’s novels fuelled Pugin’s interest in medieval gothic design and chivalry. Pugin’s life became intertwined with the Amhersts of Kenilworth. Later in life he became secretly engaged to Mrs Amherst’s daughter Mary, but the relationship ended when she decided to become a nun. Mrs Amherst’s son, Kerril, was a boy when Pugin first visited the family home. Later, when Kerril went to study for the priesthood at Oscott Seminary, on the edge of Birmingham, Pugin taught him there as the professor of ecclesiastical antiquities. Kerril later became a bishop and remained a good friend to Pugin. At the age of 19 Pugin, designing stage scenery for the Covent Garden theatre, was dating a Covent Garden actress, Anne, three years his senior, who he would take on outings to Christchurch in Dorset.When I visited Christchurch recently I stumbled on an altar table, hidden away in a corner of the priory. The inscription states: This table was made and presented to this church by Augustus Welby Pugin, AD 1831. I wonder if Anne was with him when he presented the table to the church. She might have been waiting secretly outside because Pugin had got Anne pregnant, which would have been scandalous at the time. They eloped and Pugin lied about his age so that they could marry without parental consent. His parents were forgiving and took in the newlyweds, but the next couple of years were tumultuous for Pugin. After giving birth to a daughter, Pugin’s beloved young wife tragically died. Pugin fulfilled her dying wish that she be buried in the Priory at Christchurch. By the time Pugin was 21, his devoted father and mother had also died, leaving him alone with St Chad’s, Birmingham, was the first Catholic cathedral built in England since the Reformation (Photo: Oosoom, Wikimedia Commons)