0:00:11 > 0:00:13Britain has many iconic buildings,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17but when it comes to buildings that are an icon of Britain itself,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21there's one that stands head and shoulders above the rest.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23The clock tower of Big Ben.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Built just over 150 years ago,
0:00:30 > 0:00:35it's meant to evoke a Medieval land of chivalry and honour.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37Its design harks back to the Middle Ages,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40but it's not out of place in the 21st century.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45You'd think that the man who designed it
0:00:45 > 0:00:47would be a household name
0:00:47 > 0:00:50but Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
0:00:50 > 0:00:53has drifted into relative obscurity.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59He was half-French but had a moral vision for Britain.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03He wanted to change the nation through architecture.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07The Gothic Revival that he inspired
0:01:07 > 0:01:09transformed our landscape.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17He died aged just 40,
0:01:17 > 0:01:21but his influence stretches from almshouses at one extreme
0:01:21 > 0:01:24to the Palace of Westminster at the other.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29And he still inspires the hi-tech architects of today.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35And yet, he's scarcely recognised.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I think it's time we reassessed the legacy
0:01:38 > 0:01:42of this devout and complicated man.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54I want to show you that like Darwin, Dickens, Brunel, Turner,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Pugin deserves to be considered
0:01:57 > 0:02:01one of the greats of 19th-century Britain.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Born in 1812, Pugin grew up in Georgian Britain.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25It was a time with its own enduring version of England -
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Regency houses and Georgian terraces.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35For me, Georgian architecture is the epitome of elegance.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39It's graceful, light, it's beautifully proportioned,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43but for Pugin it was an abomination,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47and the reason was politics.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54In the 1830s, Britain was in the throes of a revolution,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56the Industrial Revolution.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00But while the mill owners got rich,
0:03:00 > 0:03:05the workers flooding into the cities lived in disease-ridden slums.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11This inequality fed social unrest
0:03:11 > 0:03:13and Pugin feared it would bring revolution
0:03:13 > 0:03:16of an entirely different kind,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19according to Rosemary Hill, his biographer.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23We forget that in the early 1830s
0:03:23 > 0:03:26there was the worst civil unrest that this country has ever seen.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Many people thought there would be a revolution.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31Many people had a general sense
0:03:31 > 0:03:34that the end of civilisation was approaching.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40In Pugin's eyes, the times called for strong moral leadership,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44but what they got was George IV.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Viewed as a hedonistic dilettante, cartoons like this
0:03:53 > 0:03:57reflect the widespread contempt in which the king was held.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02And his detractors took the same dim view of Georgian architecture.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07While the slums were proliferating,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10the king and his favourite architect John Nash
0:04:10 > 0:04:14lavished a fortune on buildings like Buckingham Palace.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17But these classically-styled edifices
0:04:17 > 0:04:19were often highly deceptive.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22Many were just one room deep,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26their long facades giving a false impression of size.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Look at these buildings through Pugin's eyes
0:04:30 > 0:04:33and they start to fall apart in your hands.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37The columns that don't actually hold anything up at all.
0:04:37 > 0:04:38The stuccoed front -
0:04:38 > 0:04:42designed to look like stone but that's just covering up brick.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47These buildings were all fur coat and no knickers,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50they look great but there's often very little behind them.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52To the people of the time,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56they were everything that was rotten with the king and his court.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59They were frivolous, they were foolish and they were spendthrift.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02But to Pugin they were more than that.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06They were a physical symbol of moral degeneracy.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Just 24 and full of youthful contempt for the Establishment,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Pugin launched an astonishing literary attack
0:05:15 > 0:05:18on this stucco-fronted society.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24First published in 1836, he called it...
0:05:24 > 0:05:25Contrasts.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29One of the things I love about Contrasts
0:05:29 > 0:05:32is how thoroughly rude it is.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35It doesn't hold back its punches in any way.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38The National Gallery, Buckingham Palace,
0:05:38 > 0:05:40the British Museum -
0:05:40 > 0:05:42to us models of elegance,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45to Pugin an absolute "disgrace".
0:05:47 > 0:05:50This book is like an early recording of Elvis or punk rock
0:05:50 > 0:05:55and it tells you that everything you think you know is wrong.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58It's aggressive, it's funny, it's satirical,
0:05:58 > 0:06:02but it's not just the work of an angry young man.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05It has a moral vision at its heart.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08It tells you the way the world used to be
0:06:08 > 0:06:11and the way the world could be again.
0:06:11 > 0:06:17And it's going to capture its moral vision in architecture.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22For Pugin, the Britain of the Middle Ages
0:06:22 > 0:06:24was an idealised, more moral age
0:06:24 > 0:06:29and that morality was reflected in its soaring Gothic architecture.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34So throughout Contrasts, Pugin puts the boot into
0:06:34 > 0:06:37the immorality and shoddy buildings of Regency Britain
0:06:37 > 0:06:40in contrast to its Medieval past.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Pugin's view in Contrasts was to say to his contemporaries,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48"We have shoddy buildings because we have shoddy souls.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52"There is something wrong with our cities because there is something wrong with ourselves."
0:06:52 > 0:06:55Contrasts was hugely controversial
0:06:55 > 0:06:58but it was also a bestseller,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02putting the name of the 24-year-old Pugin on people's lips.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07I think that it was hugely influential as an idea.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10It doesn't go into great detailed arguments,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13it hits a lot of popular targets bang on the nose.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16And it made his reputation instantly as an architect,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19even though he hadn't really built anything.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22That anomaly soon disappeared.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Between 1838 and 1839,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28Pugin was hard at work,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32designing no fewer than 18 churches, two cathedrals, three convents,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34and two monasteries
0:07:34 > 0:07:37as well as several private homes and schools.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44And this church, St Giles in Cheadle, Staffordshire,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49epitomises this early rush of Pugin's work above all others.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53It is Contrasts brought to life.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04But while the exteriors of the church catch the eye...
0:08:04 > 0:08:09it's the interior decorations that justify St Giles's nickname
0:08:09 > 0:08:11of "Pugin's Gem."
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Course, you don't really get a feel for it in this light.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26Just need to go and put some money in the meter.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52Cheadle is remarkable.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56When the lights come on you see that you're surrounded
0:08:56 > 0:09:00by images of saints and angels and prophets,
0:09:00 > 0:09:03and that's what Pugin was trying to achieve.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07He wanted it to be the case that wherever your eyes might rest
0:09:07 > 0:09:12they see something to move you, to edify you, to enrich you.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Everything in here takes its inspiration
0:09:16 > 0:09:17from Medieval churches,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20not just in decoration
0:09:20 > 0:09:24but also in the way that Pugin controls the space.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29This is Pugin's rood screen,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32which separated the nave and the people
0:09:32 > 0:09:36from the chancel where the priests performed the mysteries of the mass.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38It was hugely controversial -
0:09:38 > 0:09:40nothing like this had been seen
0:09:40 > 0:09:43in an English parish church for centuries,
0:09:43 > 0:09:47but to Pugin, hugely important, as marking the point
0:09:47 > 0:09:50at which Earth met Heaven
0:09:50 > 0:09:54and the people had a window into paradise.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03Pugin hoped that St Giles and his other Gothic Revival churches
0:10:03 > 0:10:07would usher in a new, more spiritual age.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10It would be devoutly Christian,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13one where people respected and supported each other,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17where the rich would provide both moral leadership
0:10:17 > 0:10:19and financial care for the poor.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23And Gothic architecture would shape and reflect
0:10:23 > 0:10:25this brave new world.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29Nobody had thought really before the late 18th century
0:10:29 > 0:10:32that you would do anything with a Medieval building
0:10:32 > 0:10:36other than either knock it down or simply adapt it to modern needs.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39This idea that there was something of value in these buildings,
0:10:39 > 0:10:42that they weren't just crude, asymmetrical lumpy things
0:10:42 > 0:10:43was quite a new idea.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48So what was it about these "crude, lumpy things"
0:10:48 > 0:10:50that was so important to Pugin?
0:10:52 > 0:10:57To answer that, we must look to his very earliest influences.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Pugin's parents couldn't have been more different.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Catherine Welby, his mother,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10was from wealthy Lincolnshire land-owning stock.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12The family's local parish church
0:11:12 > 0:11:15gives you a good idea of the Welby heritage -
0:11:15 > 0:11:17privileged,
0:11:17 > 0:11:18traditional,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20conservative.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24But Pugin's father, Auguste Charles, was none of these.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27A penniless artist, he'd fled to England
0:11:27 > 0:11:28from the French Revolution.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34He made a living drawing illustrations for architects
0:11:34 > 0:11:37and could only afford the family home in Bloomsbury
0:11:37 > 0:11:39thanks to Catherine's inheritance.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45Auguste still had to work, travelling extensively,
0:11:45 > 0:11:47often accompanied by his family.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52And this peripatetic upbringing
0:11:52 > 0:11:55would have a dramatic effect on Pugin's life.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00Pugin had a very odd education.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03He never went to school as we would understand it at all.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05In some areas he was extraordinarily well-informed,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08probably as well-informed as any adult of his generation.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10In other areas - completely ignorant.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15Every autumn his parents travelled around the country,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18looking at - with his father drawing - Medieval buildings
0:12:18 > 0:12:20and that was how Pugin learned about architecture.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31When he was just six years old,
0:12:31 > 0:12:32his parents took him to a building
0:12:32 > 0:12:35that would inspire so much of his later work -
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Lincoln Cathedral -
0:12:37 > 0:12:42one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the whole country.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Pugin fell in love with Lincoln's Gothic features.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58The dramatic flying buttresses that support the walls and roof.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02The pointed arches that distribute the weight of masonry.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05The gargoyles that double as gutters.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11And he found the interiors just as impressive.
0:13:27 > 0:13:33The genius of the Gothic builders is that they freed stone from gravity.
0:13:33 > 0:13:34It leaps around you,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38it soars through the air, dancing over your head.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40It feels weightless.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42You completely forget that you've got
0:13:42 > 0:13:45thousands of tonnes of stone above you.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54The building is an astonishing feat of engineering,
0:13:54 > 0:13:59especially given that it was largely built around 700 years ago.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05And in Pugin's eyes, it wasn't just beautiful,
0:14:05 > 0:14:06it was honest.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08He attributed this honesty
0:14:08 > 0:14:11to the skill of the master craftsmen who'd built it.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15They were like magicians,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18but they'd showed you how they did their magic -
0:14:18 > 0:14:22the pointed arches that could hold almost any weight,
0:14:22 > 0:14:25the vaults that crisscrossed the ceilings
0:14:25 > 0:14:30showing you exactly where the lines of power and force are.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33And Pugin loved it.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41These early visits clearly made their mark.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Pugin produced this drawing - entitled My First Design -
0:14:45 > 0:14:48when he was just nine years old.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52The Gothic influence is obvious
0:14:52 > 0:14:54as is Pugin's skill as a draughtsman.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Pugin was to return to Lincoln time and again
0:15:06 > 0:15:09to sketch details of its carvings and stonework.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13These would go on to inspire the buildings and interiors
0:15:13 > 0:15:15he would design as an adult.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23But his influences weren't just from England.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30Pugin's father ran a drawing school from their home in Bloomsbury.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34It was where Pugin honed his prodigious artistic skills
0:15:34 > 0:15:38and when he was 12, his father took both the family
0:15:38 > 0:15:40and the drawing school pupils
0:15:40 > 0:15:43on a sketching tour of northern France.
0:15:51 > 0:15:52Here in Rouen,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56they encountered some of the most spectacular Gothic architecture
0:15:56 > 0:15:58in the whole of Europe.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Like Lincoln, Rouen entranced Pugin,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25its majestic cathedral feeding his fascination
0:16:25 > 0:16:28for all things Gothic.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36Pugin's father took the boys to buildings right across the region
0:16:36 > 0:16:40and they weren't just concerned with the aesthetics,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43they were getting to grips with the detailed engineering
0:16:43 > 0:16:46that held these Gothic wonders together.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57At one church, Pugin's father had a hole smashed in the roof
0:16:57 > 0:16:59and lowered some of them in one by one.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01It was actually quite dangerous -
0:17:01 > 0:17:03some of them struggled to get out again.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07But the point was, to show the boys for themselves
0:17:07 > 0:17:09not just how the church looked,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11but how the church was constructed.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14This was a theme of Pugin's entire life.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19It wasn't just about theory, about what you read in books,
0:17:19 > 0:17:24for buildings, you had to touch them, handle them, feel them.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Not all the places they visited were in good condition.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37During the French Revolution, some 30 years before,
0:17:37 > 0:17:39many churches had been attacked,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43the stonework defaced, interiors looted.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46For Pugin, this kind of vandalism
0:17:46 > 0:17:48only reinforced the contrast
0:17:48 > 0:17:50between the order of the Middle Ages
0:17:50 > 0:17:55and the chaos he saw inherent in Revolutionary ideas.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59But there was one way in which he benefited from this destruction.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Artefacts from smashed Medieval buildings
0:18:02 > 0:18:04flooded markets of the day,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07and were available at knock-down prices.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11It was the beginning of Pugin's lifelong passion
0:18:11 > 0:18:12for collecting them.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Pugin would have loved a place like this,
0:18:17 > 0:18:18although in his day
0:18:18 > 0:18:21it would have been full of Medieval art and antiquities.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24He liked nothing more than rummaging through shops,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26picking through rubbish heaps
0:18:26 > 0:18:29and hustling the clergy to see what he could get his hands on.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32He wasn't always completely straight about it either.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36There's one story that he got wind of a collector of Medieval glass
0:18:36 > 0:18:39who was never going to sell.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41So he just went around when the man was out,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44chatted up the wife, and before the man came home
0:18:44 > 0:18:50had left with pockets full of Medieval stained glass.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57The 12-year-old Pugin might have returned from France
0:18:57 > 0:19:00with a sackful of Medieval antiquities
0:19:00 > 0:19:03and yet more drawings of Gothic design,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06but he remained as yet unmoved by the Catholicism
0:19:06 > 0:19:09being practised in these great cathedrals.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18Pugin's own religious upbringing owed more to his mother Catherine.
0:19:18 > 0:19:19Staunchly Protestant,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23she followed the English norm of Low Church services,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26practised in chapels like this one.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37Well, you could hardly get more different
0:19:37 > 0:19:39from a Medieval cathedral, could you?
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Chapels like this, known as preaching boxes,
0:19:43 > 0:19:44were deliberately plain.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48They were meant NOT to stimulate the eye
0:19:48 > 0:19:52because the entire focus is intended to be there,
0:19:52 > 0:19:57on the pulpit and on the preacher sounding out the word of God.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Catherine was a devoted follower of Edward Irving,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04one of the leading evangelists of the time
0:20:04 > 0:20:09and she was determined to imbue her teenage son with similar devotion.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13But since Irving's sermons lasted for hours,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16it was always going to be a big ask.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21"Do thou who gave us thy son for sinful men now quicken my thoughts
0:20:21 > 0:20:22"that they may come...?
0:20:22 > 0:20:24"But were my God pleased to grant me thus,
0:20:24 > 0:20:26"how little doth it avail
0:20:26 > 0:20:28"amongst the myriads in the world...
0:20:28 > 0:20:31"And how abler men have endeavoured in vain
0:20:31 > 0:20:33"to beat these difficulties down."
0:20:33 > 0:20:38And so it goes on and on for hour after hour.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Pugin must have felt like he was in purgatory
0:20:43 > 0:20:44having to listen to this stuff.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48He may have agreed with Irving that the world needed changing,
0:20:48 > 0:20:50but it wasn't going to change like this.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55Pugin grew to loathe Irving
0:20:55 > 0:20:58and the Low Church style of service,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01and as a teenager, he developed a quite different devotion -
0:21:01 > 0:21:03to the theatre.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Theatre was hugely popular in the early 19th century
0:21:11 > 0:21:15and Pugin was an ardent follower of London productions.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20And the theatre offered him one of his first full-time jobs.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23I've come to the Theatre Royal in Richmond,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26one of the few Georgian theatres left,
0:21:26 > 0:21:31to find out more about the world the 15-year-old Pugin was now to enter.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35This is such fun!
0:21:36 > 0:21:39You can see how a young boy like Pugin would have been entranced
0:21:39 > 0:21:41by a place like this.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44Pugin first worked in the "flies" -
0:21:44 > 0:21:47flying scenery on and off the stage.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49But with his skills as a draughtsman,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52he quickly graduated to designing sets.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56He was now working in three dimensions
0:21:56 > 0:22:00and learning how to use detail to create dramatic impact.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04What theatre would Pugin have experienced in the 1820s?
0:22:04 > 0:22:07There was a desire,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10which had been developing over a number of years,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13to perceive the actors
0:22:13 > 0:22:15as part of their environment.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19To set Shakespeare for example, within his historical location.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21For the first time,
0:22:21 > 0:22:26the scenery was becoming a character in the play.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30- Pugin designed for Henry VIII? - Henry VIII at Covent Garden in 1831.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33- You can see the tremendous interest in details.- Mm.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37This sort of Gothic sideboard, side table at the back there,
0:22:37 > 0:22:38the Gothic sofas,
0:22:38 > 0:22:40and the detail on the door.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44All that reality, all that truth,
0:22:44 > 0:22:46all that accuracy was very important.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50The theatre gave Pugin his first opportunity
0:22:50 > 0:22:53to play with design on a grand scale.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58It also showed him how design could influence
0:22:58 > 0:23:00people's feelings and thoughts.
0:23:03 > 0:23:04Pugin was totally stage-struck.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09On the stage, he saw architecture animated, satirised,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13used as a kind of polemical tool.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17That sense of the dramatic certainly carried over
0:23:17 > 0:23:19into the buildings Pugin designed.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30And the theatre left its mark on his personal life, as well.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Georgian theatres were notorious
0:23:34 > 0:23:37for immorality on both sides of the curtain
0:23:37 > 0:23:41with prostitutes plying their trade in vacant boxes.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45It wasn't just George IV who succumbed to urges of the flesh.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51To what extent Pugin indulged these temptations we'll never know,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55but his first two wives did have theatrical connections.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00And his first wife, Anne, was five months pregnant
0:24:00 > 0:24:04when the 19-year-old Pugin walked up the aisle with her.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10Pugin wasn't the first or last young man to get his girlfriend pregnant
0:24:10 > 0:24:13but his strong moral sense of right and wrong
0:24:13 > 0:24:15meant that he wasn't going to abandon her.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19By all accounts, their marriage was very happy.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22But it was destined to be brief.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Anne died shortly after giving birth to their daughter.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35It was the first in a series of tragedies to strike the young Pugin.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37Within little more than a year,
0:24:37 > 0:24:41first his father and then his mother fell ill and died.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46At the age of 21, Pugin found himself widowed and -
0:24:46 > 0:24:48but for his infant daughter -
0:24:48 > 0:24:50alone.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55The heartbreaking loss of those closest to him
0:24:55 > 0:24:59and his distaste for the society in which he was left to fend
0:24:59 > 0:25:02combined to shape the rest of Pugin's life.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Having been the only child of older parents,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13part of a very peculiarly close-knit family,
0:25:13 > 0:25:16this shattering series of bereavements
0:25:16 > 0:25:18led him to look back at the Gothic architecture -
0:25:18 > 0:25:21that he'd known since he was a child - in a different way.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25And certainly he came to see it as more than architecture
0:25:25 > 0:25:29and it was as if, perhaps amid the wreckage in this very young life,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31the one love that hadn't failed,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33the one thing he could turn to.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37Pugin embraced the great Gothic world
0:25:37 > 0:25:39he'd fallen in love with as a child
0:25:39 > 0:25:42as a solution both to his own and to society's problems.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47It was this vision that he would lay out in Contrasts,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50using the Medieval, pre-Reformation world
0:25:50 > 0:25:54as a template to solve the problems of today.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57And it wasn't just an architectural shift.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Embracing the Gothic Age meant rejecting the Reformation
0:26:01 > 0:26:04and all it stood for.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06It meant becoming a Catholic.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11To become a Catholic in the early 19th century
0:26:11 > 0:26:12was to take a big risk
0:26:12 > 0:26:16because there was still widespread anti-Catholic sentiment.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20A bit like becoming a Communist in the 1930s,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24becoming a Catholic in the 1830s marked you as an outsider,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27maybe even a revolutionary.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30As Pugin was to discover, such people would be treated
0:26:30 > 0:26:33with suspicion and prejudice.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36PRIESTS PERFORM PLAINCHANT
0:26:42 > 0:26:46He'd converted to Catholicism whilst writing Contrasts,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50favouring an ancient ceremonial style of worship,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52complete with plainchant.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01It's easy to see the attraction this might have had for Pugin.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04It has a dramatic, theatrical quality about it.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08But it's not just about the style.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11I think Pugin would have felt that this kind of service
0:27:11 > 0:27:12had a substance to it,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17one that captured the mystery and magic of faith.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24What's certainly true,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27is his conversion to Catholicism was heartfelt
0:27:27 > 0:27:29and the zeal of the new convert
0:27:29 > 0:27:33is part of what gave Contrasts its edge.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36He was saying the Catholics are going to take back the great cathedrals.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40"I am going to walk through the west door of Salisbury Cathedral again,
0:27:40 > 0:27:41"as a Catholic."
0:27:41 > 0:27:44I mean, it's a very militant book if you read the text.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50The stridently Catholic tone of Contrasts was controversial
0:27:50 > 0:27:53but it did win him some friends,
0:27:53 > 0:27:54none more important
0:27:54 > 0:27:57than the rich and influential Catholic, John Talbot,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury.
0:28:02 > 0:28:03It was Shrewsbury's money
0:28:03 > 0:28:06that financed most of Pugin's early commissions,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08including St Giles in Cheadle.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14And Pugin also relied on a close band of collaborators
0:28:14 > 0:28:16to turn his designs into reality.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21None were more important than the builder, George Myers.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28George Myers was a Yorkshireman, red of face, bushy of beard,
0:28:28 > 0:28:31his brow knitted in a frown of perpetual concentration.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34He became Pugin's master builder.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38He had the knack both of knowing what Pugin wanted
0:28:38 > 0:28:41and the technical ability to realise it.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44When Myers wasn't involved, disaster could strike.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47On one church that used another builder,
0:28:47 > 0:28:49the belfry fell down
0:28:49 > 0:28:54but when Myers was involved, Pugin's dreams could take flight.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02It was a similar story of collaboration
0:29:02 > 0:29:03inside Pugin's churches.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10Cheadle's paintings of the saints were done by John Crace,
0:29:10 > 0:29:12who would go on to produce many of the curtains,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15carpets and wallpapers that Pugin designed.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21Herbert Minton, a tile-maker from Stoke,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24revived the Medieval technique of encaustic tile-making,
0:29:24 > 0:29:28creating these patterns with different inlaid clays.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31And all this intricate metalwork
0:29:31 > 0:29:34was supplied by Pugin's closest friend - John Hardman.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39In time, Hardman's Birmingham works
0:29:39 > 0:29:41would not just make intricate metalwork
0:29:41 > 0:29:42but stained glass
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and the sovereign's throne in the House of Lords,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48all to Pugin's design.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Creating this wealth of detail was a huge undertaking,
0:29:56 > 0:29:59but Pugin felt it worth the result.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02In later life he said,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04"Cheadle, perfect Cheadle,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07"my consolation in all my afflictions."
0:30:10 > 0:30:13When Cheadle was finally consecrated,
0:30:13 > 0:30:15it was a national and international event,
0:30:15 > 0:30:20attended by bishops and archbishops and ambassadors.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Cheadle was a vision of the future,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25a template for what the English village church would be,
0:30:25 > 0:30:32but for me, it's also like stepping inside Pugin's brain.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37It fizzes and pops, constantly working, constantly active.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42Who would have thought that the character of a man could be captured in a church?
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Pugin didn't just build churches for Shrewsbury.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54He remodelled his country seat on Gothic lines too.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00And it was from here that the two men worked towards
0:31:00 > 0:31:03a romantic re-unification of the English church,
0:31:03 > 0:31:09hoping to create one that was devoutly Catholic, uniquely English and totally Gothic.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15It was a vision which, like Shrewsbury's old estate,
0:31:15 > 0:31:17was destined to fail.
0:31:20 > 0:31:28This ruin can be taken as a metaphor for Pugin's dreams for a more moral, Catholic Britain.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30But if it's a metaphor you're after,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34Shrewsbury's great family seat is now Alton Towers.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42With its high-speed rides, thrills and spills, up and downs,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46it's the perfect metaphor for Pugin's life from now on.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53They might have deplored his conversion to Catholicism,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57but Anglicans were starting to take note of Pugin's work.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04The library at Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
0:32:04 > 0:32:09holds one of the few surviving original copies of Pugin's second great book,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13The True Principles of Pointed Architecture.
0:32:16 > 0:32:22Published in 1841, it lays out six principles for building in the Gothic style
0:32:22 > 0:32:26and I've come here to find out what impact it had.
0:32:26 > 0:32:33Timothy Brittain-Catlin is an expert on architecture and the Gothic Revival in particular.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38His first book is about how good architecture
0:32:38 > 0:32:40is the result of good society.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44This book is a book for architects and it tells you how to do it. It's an instruction book
0:32:44 > 0:32:48and it explains very carefully the overall principles,
0:32:48 > 0:32:52right down to the details of how architecture should be designed
0:32:52 > 0:32:56and made so as to be consistent with his vision of a good building and a good society.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59The two go together, that's very central to Pugin's message.
0:32:59 > 0:33:05"The smallest detail must serve a purpose or have a meaning," he says.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08You turn each little bit of it into something which expresses
0:33:08 > 0:33:12not only the message of the building, but also its construction and constructional role.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15As long as it's part of the construction,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17you're allowed to decorate it?
0:33:17 > 0:33:20You are, even if it's a very tiny part of the construction.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23One of my favourite examples is of a set of hinges.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28Pugin is comparing a modern door hinge, hidden between the door and the frame,
0:33:28 > 0:33:34something you never see and never think about, with a beautiful wrought-iron hinge of a Gothic door.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36It's expressing the material that it's made from,
0:33:36 > 0:33:40it's got something of the human touch of the person that made it
0:33:40 > 0:33:44and it's expressing the "openingness", the "door-iness" of the door, as it were.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47All that from just one tiny piece of metal.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52- I think all of my doors are on these hidden hinges... - You ought to get rid of those!
0:33:52 > 0:33:55They're completely immoral. You'll be in trouble there.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59- This is a book of passionate feeling?- Yes.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03- It's a highly emotional, highly charged book.- It's also very funny.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06It's a very funny book. His books are hysterical.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10- He's a very good writer. - What are the funny parts?
0:34:10 > 0:34:15Well, he always has a good insult. If something's not a "miserable expedient" it's "abomination".
0:34:15 > 0:34:19One of his rudest jokes is to mix up the works of very good architects,
0:34:19 > 0:34:24Soane, Nash and so on, with the work of third-rate architects in the same picture.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28He's saying all these classical people they're all the same, it's all rubbish and silly.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32Whereas Gothic architecture, it's not the person that matters,
0:34:32 > 0:34:37it's the thing that matters, the physical nature of the construction
0:34:37 > 0:34:39and that's why it caught on because it made sense.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Pugin talks a lot about truth, what he means is that
0:34:42 > 0:34:48buildings should be honest, that's to say they should be the thing that they appear to be
0:34:48 > 0:34:52and there is a sense here, all about that God is looking at your building
0:34:52 > 0:34:55and God goes round the back and if you've used cheap bricks
0:34:55 > 0:34:59round the back, he's going to know and he's going to be cross.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03- It's a question of morality. - Yes, it's a question of morality.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08And in fact that's one of Pugin's most lasting contributions to architectural history.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12That a style of architecture could be more moral than another one.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15That's completely new, no-one else has come up with that before.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Whether it's a church or a house
0:35:18 > 0:35:21or a railway station or a hospital or a school,
0:35:21 > 0:35:25- all should be built in accordance with the true principles?- Yes.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28- And increasingly, most of them were? - Increasingly, most of them were.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32There is a new generation of architect.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35They believe every word that they read here, almost as if it's gospel.
0:35:35 > 0:35:40George Gilbert Scott, one of the most influential architects of Victorian England said,
0:35:40 > 0:35:42when he read one of Pugin's books,
0:35:42 > 0:35:47"I felt as if I had been awoken from my slumbers," and he changed his ways immediately.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49Within five years of True Principles coming out
0:35:49 > 0:35:52you can see Puginite architecture across the country.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01Thanks to Pugin, Gilbert Scott and others,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05the early Victorians built a wave of new Gothic-style churches,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08railway stations, schools and town halls,
0:36:08 > 0:36:11transforming the landscape of Britain,
0:36:11 > 0:36:16and inspiring subsequent generations of architects, right into the 21st century.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25The work of today's hi-tech architects, like Richard Rogers and Norman Foster,
0:36:25 > 0:36:30has its foundations in Pugin's principles of making a building reflect its use,
0:36:30 > 0:36:36and of putting the user at the centre of the design process.
0:36:37 > 0:36:43Modern hi-tech architects often talk about the mid-Victorian period, as being the one that inspired them.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46It's the one where the architect is in control of every last thing,
0:36:46 > 0:36:50when they were doing it out of a strong desire to change something completely.
0:36:50 > 0:36:55It's a very powerful chapter in architects' collective consciousness, I think.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07In 1834, a fire burnt down the medieval Palace of Westminster.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10"Good riddance" was the response of many
0:37:10 > 0:37:15because it'd come to stand for a whole culture of political corruption.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18It was decided the replacement should be in the new Gothic style,
0:37:18 > 0:37:22which presented Pugin with the opportunity
0:37:22 > 0:37:26to stamp his moral ideas on the very seat of British power.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28Pugin's expertise was instrumental
0:37:28 > 0:37:34in helping architect Charles Barry eventually win the commission.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43The work of both men is clearly evident in the finished building -
0:37:43 > 0:37:49the rhythm and symmetrical layout betrays Barry's classical training and instincts.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52But the Gothic details, vanes that catch the light,
0:37:52 > 0:37:57carved stonework, and the spires, are undoubtedly Pugin's touches.
0:37:57 > 0:38:03And Pugin was to have an even greater influence on the interior design.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07D. Mark Collins, the Palace's Archivist and Historian,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11is here to show me some of Pugin's work in the House of Lords.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17- Hello, I'm Richard.- Very pleased to meet you. What an amazing room!
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Yes, we're standing in the Peers' Lobby,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24which is a place where members of the House of Lords can gather
0:38:24 > 0:38:27before they go into the House of Lords chamber.
0:38:27 > 0:38:33- How much of this is Pugin? - All the designs in here.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37The designs for the floor tiles, the stained glass as well,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40heraldry features throughout the Palace, Pugin loved heraldry,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44and it's in all the main rooms on the principal floor.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47These gates are more like screens than gates.
0:38:47 > 0:38:52They are a spectacular example of the work of John Hardman,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55who made all the cast brass throughout the building
0:38:55 > 0:38:57and also the stained glass as well.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02This is almost like a choir screen that you might find in a church.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07- It also gives you a semi-religious feeling about government. - Yes, I think so.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12Yes, you have a hierarchy of spaces throughout the Palace.
0:39:12 > 0:39:13Could we go in?
0:39:13 > 0:39:15Yes. They're very heavy, these gates.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19- They weigh one and a half tonnes altogether.- Crikey.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34Wow...
0:39:47 > 0:39:51You are, once again, surrounded by Pugin's ideas.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56- In this case, his idea of power. - Yes, it's meant to overawe the viewer.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59Every single surface is covered with carving.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03On top of that you have painted decoration and gilding.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07He said he made over a thousand drawings
0:40:07 > 0:40:12- for the wooden panelling in here alone.- Really, a thousand?
0:40:17 > 0:40:21With a whole Palace as his canvas, Pugin was in overdrive.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25Barry described him as "working with 50 horsepower of creation"
0:40:25 > 0:40:30and he urged Pugin to slow down, lest he make himself ill.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34Yet the massive workload didn't compromise Pugin's vision at all,
0:40:34 > 0:40:38especially when it came to the Sovereign's Throne.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45It was tradition that wherever there was a formal throne or seat
0:40:45 > 0:40:51for the monarch, then there would have been a canopy over him.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54It has a great deal of imagery.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59You have the orders of chivalry which are depicted by these little knights in armour.
0:40:59 > 0:41:05And behind the throne, the Cloth of State, as it's known, which is the Royal Coat-of-Arms.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09It's not a cloth, of course. It is carved wood. In this case, all oak.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13It makes you think of Arthur, Guinevere, Knights of the Round Table
0:41:13 > 0:41:16and a sort of Walter Scott view of the Middle Ages?
0:41:19 > 0:41:23It is a deliberate revival of English history,
0:41:23 > 0:41:29making the Parliament here a special case, separate from those on the Continent.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42The extent of Pugin's contribution led some people to claim
0:41:42 > 0:41:47that he, not Barry, should be viewed as the true architect of the Palace of Westminster.
0:41:51 > 0:41:57Just look at this design for an imaginary college, drawn by Pugin in 1834,
0:41:57 > 0:42:00the year the Houses of Parliament burnt down.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03The resemblance is uncanny.
0:42:07 > 0:42:14However, Pugin was destined to written out of the Palace's history for decades.
0:42:14 > 0:42:19Charles Barry drew in all the drawings from Pugin
0:42:19 > 0:42:23without actually making a public acknowledgement of the work
0:42:23 > 0:42:28that Pugin had undertaken, so Pugin simply remained Barry's ghost.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30He was really written out.
0:42:30 > 0:42:37In the early guide books of the Palace, he wasn't mentioned on one single occasion.
0:42:37 > 0:42:38- Not once?- No, no.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43It was in Barry's interest to sideline his collaborator,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47but Pugin himself contributed to his own undoing.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50He had no interest really in his reputation.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54He had no ability to manage publicity or build his persona.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56He liked to please people.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58He did the whole of the Palace of Westminster
0:42:58 > 0:43:02because he liked Charles Barry and didn't want to say "no".
0:43:02 > 0:43:06So he did what he did, and was largely forgotten.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Pugin missed out financially as well.
0:43:11 > 0:43:17While Barry received nearly £25,000 for his work,
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Pugin was paid a paltry £800.
0:43:26 > 0:43:31A commission that should have set Pugin up for life thus became just another job.
0:43:33 > 0:43:39Worse still, despite the popularity of the Gothic style he helped create,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42Pugin found his architectural work drying up.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Anglican rivals were being commissioned instead.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Then came another hammer blow.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Louisa, his second wife, and mother to five of his children,
0:43:55 > 0:43:57died after a short illness.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02Pugin was devastated. He became increasingly manic,
0:44:02 > 0:44:05sparkling with new ideas one moment,
0:44:05 > 0:44:08sunk in depression the next.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Now aged 32,
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Pugin would struggle with mental illness for the rest of his life.
0:44:16 > 0:44:22His eyesight began to fail and lurching between exuberance and paranoia,
0:44:22 > 0:44:25his manic behaviour would become evident in his work.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28He moved to Ramsgate,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31and it's here that he produced the third of his great books,
0:44:31 > 0:44:36An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43The book, a strident defence of Gothic,
0:44:43 > 0:44:48is Pugin's least coherent, a product of his increasingly violent mood swings.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52But it builds on the ideas outlined in True Principles,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56applying Gothic design to all forms of building
0:44:56 > 0:44:59and every aspect of interior design.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08From shutters to seats, from furniture to fireplaces,
0:45:08 > 0:45:12Pugin argued that the idea of Gothic could be applied to them all
0:45:12 > 0:45:17and there's no better place to see those ideas put into action
0:45:17 > 0:45:22than at the home he built for himself in Ramsgate, The Grange.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31The Grange is completely different from Georgian houses,
0:45:31 > 0:45:37which were designed to show a flat symmetrical front behind which rooms were just fitted in.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42Here the house has been designed from the inside out,
0:45:42 > 0:45:47its exterior appearance driven by the interior use of space.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56It's recently been restored by the Landmark Trust.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59I'm meeting their conservation officer, Caroline Stanford,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02to learn how Pugin's life and work converge.
0:46:04 > 0:46:08- Hello, I'm Richard.- Caroline. - Pleased to meet you.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13- This is quite something. - It's a very special space.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17You get a real sense of what Pugin was trying to do with his own home
0:46:17 > 0:46:19in this particular hallway.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23It's quite radical. You'd never mistake this for a Georgian House.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25No. If you look here,
0:46:25 > 0:46:29you can see how the hallway is set at the centre of the house.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33Then you've got all the rooms spinning off this central space
0:46:33 > 0:46:36in a centripetal way almost.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38Everything is swirling around.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41Exactly. It's really a very dynamic space.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46There's a sense of movement all the way round,
0:46:46 > 0:46:50the stairs shooting up in one direction, these open galleries around,
0:46:50 > 0:46:55and then his own personal wallpaper, this outrageous diagonal design,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59with his personal motto, "En Avant", "upwards", ever onwards, you feel.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03Is it a bit much? You're surrounded by his crest and his initials?
0:47:03 > 0:47:09It is, isn't it? This was a dynamic, self-absorbed individual
0:47:09 > 0:47:13who was just bursting with life in his ideas and his designs.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17Everything in the house, from floor tiles to banisters,
0:47:17 > 0:47:20is so overwhelming with its sense of Gothic
0:47:20 > 0:47:25that it blurs the line between genius and madness.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28So this is the dining room...
0:47:28 > 0:47:31Yes, the wallpaper is the original colourway.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34Fairly mad, but that's what he had.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37The candlesticks are nice examples
0:47:37 > 0:47:44of the metalwork that the Hardman Studios would have sent out across the whole country.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47- And even the doorknob is Gothic.- Gothic doorknobs!
0:47:47 > 0:47:52Look at the little escutcheon and the nice segmented knob.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56All of these infused by the spirit of the Middle Ages
0:47:56 > 0:47:59and yet produced in the most modern techniques.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Fantastic.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05Nowhere in the house better demonstrates Pugin's Gothic obsession than his library,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09where everything from the pieces on the bookshelves,
0:48:09 > 0:48:14to the inscriptions on the wall was meant to saturate him in the Medieval.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17We can imagine him sitting here at his desk, working,
0:48:17 > 0:48:22but he's also surrounded all the way round the room on this frieze
0:48:22 > 0:48:28by the names and coats-of-arms of places and people that he loved.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31So we've got the great cathedrals of Britain,
0:48:31 > 0:48:38- we've got saints, we got patrons, we've got family names.- This was meant to give him inspiration?
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Yes. It's the most personal room we have, for Pugin the man, I think.
0:48:45 > 0:48:46Married for a third time,
0:48:46 > 0:48:50Pugin would base himself at The Grange for the rest of his life.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57Cloistered in his Gothic world, he became fixated on his vision.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park was intended to showcase
0:49:09 > 0:49:12the best in design and manufacturing.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14Pugin leapt at the opportunity.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19Typically innovative, he entered a huge multi-faceted exhibit,
0:49:19 > 0:49:21inevitably on Gothic lines.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26When the exhibition opened in 1851,
0:49:26 > 0:49:31Pugin's Medieval Court, with its statues, wall hangings,
0:49:31 > 0:49:36and metalwork produced by Myers, Crace and Hardman,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39was a big hit with the public and critics alike.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43The Illustrated London News was particularly fulsome.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46"To Mr Pugin is due the highest honour," it said,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50"for demonstrating the applicability of the Medieval Arts
0:49:50 > 0:49:55"in all their richness and complexity to the uses of the present age."
0:49:56 > 0:50:02But when the prizes for the exhibits were awarded, Pugin lost out.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05The categories were organised around manufacturers,
0:50:05 > 0:50:09and Pugin, as a designer, just didn't fit into any of them.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13So once again, the fact that he was ahead of his time
0:50:13 > 0:50:15actually counted against him.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23Plunged into depression, Pugin began to suffer momentary black-outs.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28His finances remained shaky, due largely to the cost of the church
0:50:28 > 0:50:33he was building next door to The Grange, St Augustine's.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42Although this church is very obviously Gothic,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45it marks yet another departure for Pugin.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47Rather than the rising vertical lines,
0:50:47 > 0:50:52there are horizontal lines holding it permanently in place.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56And between them, this beautiful knapped flint,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59that seems to rise up from the cliffs underneath it.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12The church also marks a departure from Pugin's earlier work
0:51:12 > 0:51:16when it comes to the interiors.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21Unlike St Giles' Cheadle, or the eye-popping details of The Grange,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25St Augustine's is calm, serene, simple.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32It's a fact that's making the job of restoring the church easier.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35Paul Sharrock is the architect in charge.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37This is gorgeous, isn't it?
0:51:37 > 0:51:39It is, isn't it? This is Pugin's vision.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42This is Pugin designing for himself.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47And this is his Catholic vision of design.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50What restoration work are you undertaking?
0:51:50 > 0:51:53The building is well built, but it's 170 years old now
0:51:53 > 0:51:58and we have problems with the roofs and we have some problems with the tower.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Electrics, which are not his problem, but are ours,
0:52:01 > 0:52:04so there a number of things of that nature.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07But, what is surprising is actually everywhere you look,
0:52:07 > 0:52:09how the craftsmanship has stood up.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14- Do you think he had something that we've lost today?- Yes, I do.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17And, in a way, this building captures it.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20This building, for him, was an act of faith,
0:52:20 > 0:52:25it was saying, "This is how I believe the Catholic Church should be."
0:52:25 > 0:52:31And it's that kind of personal feeling that you have of a man
0:52:31 > 0:52:36who spent over £14,000 of his own money building this building.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38An astonishing amount of money.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42- Cos you could build a church then for..?- £1,500. - Right, so it's ten times.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45I mean, an enormous sum of money.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51The cost of St Augustine's was a constant drain on Pugin's finances
0:52:51 > 0:52:55and he was never able to afford its spire.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59To meet its expense, he took on more and more work,
0:52:59 > 0:53:01but only at a cost to his fragile health.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15Then, a few weeks before Pugin's 40th birthday,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Barry came to The Grange to discuss the Palace of Westminster's most prominent feature,
0:53:19 > 0:53:21the clock tower for Big Ben.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28The design of this landmark feature had been under discussion for years.
0:53:28 > 0:53:33Several designs had been submitted and rejected and, in desperation,
0:53:33 > 0:53:37Barry turned once again to Pugin, to come up with a fitting solution.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46Suffering from piles, worms, bouts of narcolepsy and apocalyptic visions,
0:53:46 > 0:53:51Pugin, with one final flash of inspiration, produced his most famous work.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56The tower of Big Ben is one of those buildings
0:53:56 > 0:54:00that you've seen so many times, you've stopped seeing it for looking.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02But it's absolutely lovely.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07It rises up from the ground in this stately rhythm, higher and higher,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10before you reach the clock face,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14picked out as a giant rose - its petals fringed with gold.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17There're some Medieval windows above that.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21and then you hit the grey slate roof, it greyness relieved
0:54:21 > 0:54:26by these delicate little windows - again picked out in gold leaf.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29And then it rises up again in this great jet of gold,
0:54:29 > 0:54:34to the higher roof that curves gracefully upwards to a spire
0:54:34 > 0:54:37with a crown and flowers and a cross.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40It's elegant, it's grand, it's pretty,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44it has this fairy tale quality and it makes you proud to be British.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58Too ill to work any more, Pugin wouldn't live to see his design built.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02BIG BEN STRIKES THE HOUR
0:55:06 > 0:55:11In February 1852, he suffered a mental breakdown on a trip to London,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14unable to recognise even his closest friends.
0:55:16 > 0:55:18Some said this was down to overwork,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22some to the medication he was taking, but whatever the reason,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25he was consigned to Bedlam for several months
0:55:25 > 0:55:29before his wife Jane was able to take him home.
0:55:29 > 0:55:34He never really recovered, and on 14th September 1852, he died,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37aged just 40.
0:55:44 > 0:55:49Pugin's tomb, here in his own church of St Augustine,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52is decorated with carvings of his family.
0:55:54 > 0:55:59His three wives, Anne, Louisa and Jane,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02are illuminated in the stained glass above him.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08When someone dies, it can be an opportunity to reassess their life
0:56:08 > 0:56:11and acknowledge everything that they've achieved.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15But even that was denied Pugin.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18His death coincided with that of another Kent resident -
0:56:18 > 0:56:19The Duke of Wellington.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24Wellington's death plunged the whole nation into mourning
0:56:24 > 0:56:28and Pugin to the back pages of history.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38In life, Pugin never received due credit,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41and, in death, he was sidelined for over a century.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47But recently, there has been a re-appraisal.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50Pugin was, perhaps, the one architect
0:56:50 > 0:56:55whose sense of the spiritual shaped the face of the Britain we know.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01His work underpins so much of what we see,
0:57:01 > 0:57:04be it pumping stations to the Palace of Westminster,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07town halls to village churches.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11Our high streets, everything would be different.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15We have to think of him as an utterly inspirational figure.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18The amount that he achieved in his lifetime
0:57:18 > 0:57:20really has to be an inspiration to us all.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24He's very comparable with Brunel.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27If one thinks of these two half-French little boys
0:57:27 > 0:57:30who, between them, remade the 19th-century landscape.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33Every time Brunel built a railway line, Pugin went and built a church.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35Pugin's legacy is around us.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38You can see it in the work of our hi-tech architects,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Nicolas Grimshaw, for example.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45If you work in the office of one of these architects today,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48you'll realise that even the smallest detail of their building
0:57:48 > 0:57:51is designed as part of a coherent architectural language
0:57:51 > 0:57:56which speaks of the whole nature of the building and this is Pugin's message.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04There's no doubt that if Pugin had never lived,
0:58:04 > 0:58:08Britain simply wouldn't look the way it does today.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10But it's about more than just the look.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12It's about a vision.
0:58:12 > 0:58:17A vision of architecture as a moral force, a force for good.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21And it's a vision that's as relevant today as it was then,
0:58:21 > 0:58:23and THAT is why we should remember the name
0:58:23 > 0:58:27of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd