Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
1812-1852

English architect, furniture designer and champion of the Gothic Revival. He was the first architect to deplore industrialism and exalt gothic architecture and medieval furniture.

After a series of deaths in his family, including his young wife, his father and mother, and his aunt, who left him a small inheritance, he decided to turn his talents to architecture, became a Catholic, and spent time travelling in England and abroad, studying Gothic architecture and design. He published "Contrasts" (1836), which argued that since gothic was an expression of a Roman Catholic society, only such a society could produce true gothic. He continued to expound this position in True Principles of Pointed Architecture (1841) which John Ruskin used as a foundation for his criticism of Victorian excess. From 1837 until his death, he designed some hundred or so buildings, mainly churches and his work includes several Roman Catholic cathedrals, including St. Ostwald's in Liverpool, St. George's in Southwark and St. Chad's in Birmingham.

He attempted to create entire coherent, consistent architectural and interior environments "to express entire schemes of design in Gothic terms, rather than employ Gothic architectural details as means of decorations." He was a prolific designer of stained glass, metalwork, furniture, textiles, wallpapers, embroideries, ceramics, and jewellery.

In 1836 and 1837 and again in 1844 and 1852 he worked with Charles Barry on the designs for the new Houses of Parliament with responsibility for designing all the ornamental detail, and probably also the execution of the working drawings.

The death of his second wife in 1844 and the recurrence of an old illness cast a shadow over Pugin's last years. His practice declined as other architects emerged to serve Roman Catholic clients. During his last years he worked with Sir Charles Barry on the new Palace of Westminster and with his son on The Grange, St. Augustine's Church and his own house.