0:00:07 > 0:00:10The St Pancras Grand Midland Hotel in London
0:00:10 > 0:00:13is a Gothic Revival masterpiece,
0:00:13 > 0:00:16a Victorian fairy-tale palace,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18a cathedral of commerce.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28For years unloved and abandoned,
0:00:28 > 0:00:31now resurrected to its former glories.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38But behind its facade, lies a dark secret.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45On Thursday, in early May 1897,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49a real-life Gothic tragedy took place here.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55It was a tale of madness, alcoholism,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58religious conflict and sexual scandal.
0:01:01 > 0:01:08It happened in one of the hotel's warren of more than 300 rooms.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Nobody knows exactly where the ghosts from a Gothic past reside.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20A 57-year-old man lay on his deathbed, disgraced,
0:01:20 > 0:01:22forgotten, broken.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28His body ravaged by cirrhosis of the liver and heart disease.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31He had been a heavy drinker.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37His estranged family gathered around the bed to bid him farewell,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41and this included the 16-year-old son
0:01:41 > 0:01:44he had only ever met once before.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49This moving, Gothic scene took place within the masterpiece
0:01:49 > 0:01:53designed by the late father of the dying man.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56The family were the Gilbert Scotts
0:01:56 > 0:02:01and their tale is the greatest story Charles Dickens never told.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09Over three successive generations, the Scotts enjoyed triumph, wealth
0:02:09 > 0:02:15and acclaim, but also suffered controversy, tragedy and scandal.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21As a dynasty, they shaped 19th century Britain and beyond.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26They helped to give the greatest empire in history
0:02:26 > 0:02:28its look and identity.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34They believed they could beautify Britain by rebuilding it
0:02:34 > 0:02:35in the Gothic style...
0:02:37 > 0:02:43..at the same time as embracing the glory of God and the power of money.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50They took the language of the past and built the future.
0:02:53 > 0:02:59The Gilbert Scotts were inspired architects who took the historic,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01Gothic style of Britain,
0:03:01 > 0:03:03adapted it to the industrial
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and technological world and, in the process,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10paved the way for the architecture of the 20th century.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45The first of the great Scotts, as we could call them,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47was George Gilbert Scott.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49He's one of the most prolific, brilliant
0:03:49 > 0:03:52and controversial architects working
0:03:52 > 0:03:54in Britain during the 19th century.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57He spent a lot of his time on trains like this,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00travelling around the land to visit his various projects.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02And while travelling by train, he would
0:04:02 > 0:04:07while away the time completing a rather personal journal.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11He wrote, for example...
0:04:11 > 0:04:15"So far as I was personally concerned, my love
0:04:15 > 0:04:18"of Gothic architecture was wholly independent
0:04:18 > 0:04:20"of books relating to it.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24"None of which, I may say, I had seen at the time
0:04:24 > 0:04:28"when I took to visiting and sketching Gothic churches."
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Scott's passion for the Gothic was aroused as a boy growing up
0:04:36 > 0:04:38in rural Buckinghamshire.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41He was born in the village of Gawcott,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44where his father was the vicar,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48so Scott was surrounded by Gothic churches.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56At the age of 16, Scott set off from his humble origins to
0:04:56 > 0:04:57seek his fortune in London.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04He became an architect's apprentice, but his first boss moaned
0:05:04 > 0:05:08that Scott wasted his time doing drawings of medieval buildings.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14The young architect could see the future in the past,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16but he would have to wait.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20After the death of his father in 1834, the career of this
0:05:20 > 0:05:25fledging architect was forced down a rather un-Gothic and ungodly route.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34In that year, new legislation led to the building of scores
0:05:34 > 0:05:37of workhouses for the poor,
0:05:37 > 0:05:39like this one in Northampton
0:05:39 > 0:05:42designed by Scott in the classical style
0:05:42 > 0:05:45when he was in his early 20s.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49This is a raw and chilling building, and a reminder that Scott
0:05:49 > 0:05:54started his career designing in the late Georgian, classical tradition.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01Anyone who has read Dickens will be well aware of the cruelty
0:06:01 > 0:06:05and abuses associated with the workhouse system.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09But for struggling young architects like Scott in the 1830s,
0:06:09 > 0:06:15the sudden boom in the construction of workhouses offered a gravy train.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20It was tempting to ask no questions and jump aboard to make money.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30Later, Scott would call this work dirty and disagreeable,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34but he needed the money because he had a young family to support.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Scott toiled hard and built about 40 workhouses...
0:06:43 > 0:06:47..as well as Reading jail...
0:06:47 > 0:06:50and an asylum for orphans at Wanstead in Essex.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Scott was, perhaps, typical of his age, God-fearing, ambitious,
0:07:00 > 0:07:05hard-working. A bit of a snob about his family.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09Desperate to make the social climb, fearful of fall.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14And, I'm sad to say, he didn't look like a sort of typical
0:07:14 > 0:07:18romantic Goth, with his piercing eyes and mop of hair.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22But to judge by later portraits, a balding
0:07:22 > 0:07:26and rather conventional mutton chopped bank manager.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31Typical, I suppose, of a businessman architect.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33And business dictated that he
0:07:33 > 0:07:36designed workhouses in the classical style,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40but his true passion in life was the Gothic.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Scott had a profound knowledge of medieval buildings
0:07:43 > 0:07:46and had a very good eye, as well as a good understanding,
0:07:46 > 0:07:48of how they were constructive.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51And he was caught up in the great enthusiasm for the Gothic, combined
0:07:51 > 0:07:54with the religious revival which occurred in the 1830s and '40s.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58And then he read Pugin, and he talks about how he was somebody
0:07:58 > 0:08:02that had awoken from a dream by the thunder of Pugin's writings.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05And after that, he wanted to be a Gothic revivalist.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15Pugin was the architect who gave the Gothic Revival a programme
0:08:15 > 0:08:19and a manifesto and Scott was a keen apostle.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22It was in Oxford, the city of dreaming spires,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24that Scott designed one of his finest
0:08:24 > 0:08:27and most revealing Gothic Revival buildings,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30the chapel of Exeter College.
0:08:30 > 0:08:36The chapel, constructed in the late 1850s, is something of a surprise.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39It's very large and it's based
0:08:39 > 0:08:43on a mid-13th century French prototype -
0:08:43 > 0:08:46the Sainte-Chapelle - the Royal Chapel
0:08:46 > 0:08:48on the Ile de la Cite in Paris.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53A modest early 17th century chapel was swept away from this grand,
0:08:53 > 0:08:58sophisticated, metropolitan construction. Very ambitious.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02But Scott wanted to make it the centre of a reconstructed
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Gothic world.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Scott adhered to Pugin's principle
0:09:08 > 0:09:10that Gothic architecture reigned supreme
0:09:10 > 0:09:14because it was Christian and structurally refined
0:09:14 > 0:09:17unlike the classical, which he believed was pagan in origin.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23He was a Gothic magpie, who copied the details from Sainte-Chapelle
0:09:23 > 0:09:26in Paris and other churches he'd visited on the Continent...
0:09:28 > 0:09:31..with saints enveloped in exuberant canopies,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36grotesque gargoyles warding off evil spirits...
0:09:36 > 0:09:40and the most slender of spires pointing to the heavens above.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48Mmmm.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52As with the Sainte-Chapelle,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56the glory of this building is its interior.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01Huge windows allowing God's light to flood inside.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06Light manipulated, made sacred by colour, by the stained glass.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15It's also a monument to authentic Gothic construction.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Stone vaults, stone ribs,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22restrained outside by these massive stone buttresses.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28The buttresses follow a key principle of Gothic
0:10:28 > 0:10:31architecture - honesty.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34Their beauty comes from their functional perfection.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40The inspiration of Sainte-Chapelle was very direct.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45Scott had visited the chapel during his French tour of 1847
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and made a series of studies of the chapel.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52These are shafts, column shafts, grouped together.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Capitals and from the capitals spring these lovely,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59minimal stone ribs.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And between the ribs, areas of stonework.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09He thought it beautiful, but also, he believed it to be
0:11:09 > 0:11:12the ultimate expression of the Gothic
0:11:12 > 0:11:16system of construction in which shafts and capitals and ribs
0:11:16 > 0:11:22and vaults and decoration were all working together in happy harmony.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30The same thing could be said about Scott's life.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33He was the archetypal self-made Victorian man,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35who was busy building a dynasty.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41In many ways,
0:11:41 > 0:11:46the story of the Scott dynasty could be a novel by Charles Dickens.
0:11:46 > 0:11:52Great Expectations crossed with Nicholas Nickleby and Bleak House.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58It's a story of a battle for success, a fear of failure,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01light and shade, life and death.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10George Gilbert Scott had five sons with his wife, Caroline Oldrid.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15Scott's favourite son was number three, Albert Henry.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18He won a scholarship to Exeter College
0:12:18 > 0:12:22and studied here amongst his father's Gothic buildings.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27Scott doted on the boy and wrote proudly about his academic
0:12:27 > 0:12:30achievements in mathematics and science.
0:12:30 > 0:12:31The future looked rosy.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42By now, the family lived in the idyllic village of Ham in Surrey.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Home was the grand manor house.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Scott's hard work had paid off and he was a wealthy man.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56But, as in a Dickensian melodrama,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59where there was triumph, tragedy lurked nearby.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06In January 1865, Albert Henry caught a chill
0:13:06 > 0:13:10while boating on the Thames and fell gravely ill.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Scott rushed home to be at his son's bedside.
0:13:16 > 0:13:17I have in front of me,
0:13:17 > 0:13:22reproductions of the handwritten pages from Scott's Journal.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26This was what he wrote about Albert Henry.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30"He seemed to wake from some fearful dream
0:13:30 > 0:13:35"and with the fullest conviction, that he was in the world of spirits.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41"He told me he had seen the torments of the lost
0:13:41 > 0:13:44"and he was filled with the most intense horror."
0:13:45 > 0:13:51Think of this, your favourite son, cradled in your arms and dying.
0:13:51 > 0:13:56He tells you he's been to Purgatory. He's seen the suffering of the dead.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59He's terrified that he's going to return and join them
0:13:59 > 0:14:02in their suffering, and there is nothing you can do to help him.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09The horror, the intense horror that Scott must have suffered.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14After three days of mental and physical suffering,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Albert Henry died aged just 20.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32He was buried in the churchyard at nearby Petersham in
0:14:32 > 0:14:34a tomb designed by his father.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43Death robbed Scott of his son,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45but it also presented him with an opportunity
0:14:45 > 0:14:49to seal his reputation as a Gothic trailblazer.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Poignantly, when Albert Henry died, Scott was designing
0:14:56 > 0:15:01a memorial for another Albert - the husband of Queen Victoria.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06His death at the age of 42 in 1861 had left the Queen
0:15:06 > 0:15:08overwhelmed by grief.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21The Albert Memorial is a most extravagant affair.
0:15:21 > 0:15:27Gothic, sacred architecture, used to celebrate the life of one man.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31It's inspired by a ciborium, which is the canopy erected in a church
0:15:31 > 0:15:34over the high altar.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39But here, the altar has been removed and instead
0:15:39 > 0:15:42is an image of Albert.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45Or indeed has the altar been removed?
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Is Albert actually sitting on the altar?
0:15:48 > 0:15:51In which case, this is surely somewhat blasphemous.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59Certainly, the glittering statue of Albert has a god-like presence.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03But this is much more than just a monument to grief,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07the Victorian equivalent of the Taj Mahal.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11It gave regal pedigree to the new national style.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17The memorial marked the coming-of-age of the Gothic Revival.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22When completed in 1872, it was hugely popular
0:16:22 > 0:16:26and soon became a national icon.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31It also carried a particular message about the nation's aspirations,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34ambitions, achievements, about empire.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43It suggests that empire, the conquest and exploitation of
0:16:43 > 0:16:47distant lands, was validated by what Britain could bring
0:16:47 > 0:16:48to their inhabitants.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59It creates an image of civilisation and superiority,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03of virtue and dignity,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08of Christian values and technological progress.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21There's one detail I particularly love.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24There's a portrait of George Gilbert Scott.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28He had himself inserted there amongst the great architects,
0:17:28 > 0:17:29past and present.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38So, the son of a country vicar had made it at last to the high
0:17:38 > 0:17:41table of architectural culture.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Queen Victoria was so delighted by this memorial to her beloved
0:17:47 > 0:17:52husband that, in 1872, she made George Gilbert Scott a knight.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03If churches and monuments had made Scott's reputation,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07they were not the limit to his ambition for the Gothic Revival.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11He wanted to take it much further.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18One of Scott's lesser-known, but most intriguing buildings,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22lies hidden near this woodland in Nottinghamshire.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24It's his only country house.
0:18:24 > 0:18:29And its design gave him the opportunity to disprove what
0:18:29 > 0:18:34he called that absurd supposition that Gothic architecture is
0:18:34 > 0:18:37exclusively and intrinsically ecclesiastical.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44The old Kelham Hall had been destroyed by fire in 1857
0:18:44 > 0:18:47and the owner, the local squire
0:18:47 > 0:18:51and Conservative MP, John Manners-Sutton,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54chose Scott to rebuild it in the fashionable Gothic style.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03Designing Kelham Hall gave Scott the opportunity to experiment
0:19:03 > 0:19:04with the Gothic language.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08He wanted to demonstrate that he could design a country house
0:19:08 > 0:19:12that was comfortable, convenient and modern, yet Gothic.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Scott didn't want to replicate an esteemed Gothic model,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24as he had done slightly earlier with the chapel at Exeter College.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27He wanted to create something new,
0:19:27 > 0:19:31an authentic 19th-century Gothic architecture.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33The result is somewhat curious.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36A bit of a mix and match affair, really.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40It doesn't look like a church, nor particularly does it look
0:19:40 > 0:19:42like a country house.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44More, I suppose, like a public building.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47A Town Hall roomed in the countryside.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Golly, this does feel like a public building.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05This double height, medieval-style
0:20:05 > 0:20:12Great Hall with masonry vault with ribs. Incredible scale.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15And also, the corridor has a vaulted ceiling -
0:20:15 > 0:20:21most unusual for a country house. Not cosy, certainly.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Also...feels like a church, despite what Scott wanted to achieve.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34This was the withdrawing room,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37but there's a central column,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41this shaft, making it feel rather like a cathedral chapter house,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45so the inspiration is ecclesiastical.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49These shafts are marble, but below them, iron,
0:20:49 > 0:20:50wrought iron, you see?
0:20:52 > 0:20:57And beautiful, wrought iron capital mould stone, but wrought iron.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07But this Victorian pile has a sinister, Gothic tale to tell.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Well, tell me about the man for whom this house was built,
0:21:12 > 0:21:13John Manners-Sutton.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16John Manners-Sutton, very respectable on the surface,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19MP for Newark on two occasions, fine, upstanding
0:21:19 > 0:21:21man in the local community,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23an excellent aristocratic fellow.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26But of course underneath this veneer, there was dark,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29deep undercurrents of a Gothic nature.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32He was absolutely a horror to his wife.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37He committed vile acts of cruelty over a long period of time.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40And the initial cause of this ghastly treatment?
0:21:40 > 0:21:43She found out that her husband was committing
0:21:43 > 0:21:46adultery on a serial level,
0:21:46 > 0:21:50in other words, with many, many women, in Kelham Hall itself.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Good heavens. He brought his doxies back here his and misbehaved,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55- almost in front of his wife?! - Yes, indeed.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59And this is really someone who is behaving as a monster.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08While working on Kelham Hall, Scott won a commission,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11which seemed like the chance in a lifetime to take
0:22:11 > 0:22:15the Gothic Revival to new heights in the secular realm.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21But it drew him into a battle of wills with the most powerful
0:22:21 > 0:22:25man in the land, the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31It was over a new building for the Foreign Office in the heart
0:22:31 > 0:22:34of British Government at Whitehall.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36It was potentially the most important
0:22:36 > 0:22:40and high profile job in Scott's career.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44Certainly, it was the longest. In the end, it went on for 21 years.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49And it was very lucrative, bringing in £35,000 in fees.
0:22:49 > 0:22:54But I would suggest that also, it was the most humiliating job.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57It was a key conflict in the mid-19th century
0:22:57 > 0:23:00battle of the styles, which pitted the virtues of the Gothic
0:23:00 > 0:23:03against the might of the classical.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06Scott, of course, believed in the Gothic.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08Gothic was the national style, it was rational,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11it was Christian and he was determined to show what he could do.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14But Palmerston was horrified by the idea that Scott was going to
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Gothicise the whole of Whitehall.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20He felt he had to resist this tide of pointed arches.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Once his Gothic design had been rejected by the man
0:23:23 > 0:23:27he calls "my archenemy", erm, "had become autocrat of England",
0:23:27 > 0:23:30he came up with a compromise which was Byzantine.
0:23:30 > 0:23:31Palmerston took one look at it
0:23:31 > 0:23:33and said it was "neither one thing nor t'other.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35"A regular mongrel affair".
0:23:35 > 0:23:39So, Scott had to think, should he resign on principle,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43- but he really believed that the job had come to him by providence.- Yes.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46And he wasn't going to give it up.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48So, in the end, he did as he was told
0:23:48 > 0:23:52and produced an extremely creditable classical design.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59It was almost unthinkable - the Gothic evangelist built
0:23:59 > 0:24:03a temple to the classical.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05Just as Scott was losing the biggest architectural
0:24:05 > 0:24:09battle of his life, the grim reaper came back to haunt him.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21This is Scott's Journal for March 1872.
0:24:24 > 0:24:31Now... "A terrible blow has fallen upon me."
0:24:31 > 0:24:35His beloved wife Caroline had died.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40It led to much soul-searching and to guilt.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44He says, "Oh, my dearest wife...
0:24:46 > 0:24:52"If thou canst hear me now, forgive the faults which thou knowest
0:24:52 > 0:24:55"but too well."
0:24:55 > 0:25:00Really broken man.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Scott designed this beautiful tomb for Caroline in the churchyard
0:25:18 > 0:25:21at Tandridge, the Surrey village where they'd been living.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27One of the reasons Scott may have felt he'd neglected Caroline
0:25:27 > 0:25:31was he'd been working obsessively on a major new commission.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36After the grief of losing both his wife and the battle
0:25:36 > 0:25:42of the styles, it seemed the last chance to restore his self-respect
0:25:42 > 0:25:46and win back his reputation as a leader of the Gothic Revival.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57It wasn't a cathedral or a palace or even a country house.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01It was a bustling hotel for a railway station,
0:26:01 > 0:26:07but this is a grandiose design that transcends commercial function.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10It proclaims to the world what would have been
0:26:10 > 0:26:14if the Foreign Office had been built in its original Gothic vision.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23When the Midland Railway Company launched a competition to find
0:26:23 > 0:26:25an architect for a hotel and offices for the new
0:26:25 > 0:26:30St Pancras Station in London, Scott entered a design that was much
0:26:30 > 0:26:32larger and more expensive than the brief.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38But amazingly, he still won.
0:26:43 > 0:26:49The Midland Grand Hotel is arguably George Gilbert Scott's masterpiece.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Some critics argue that it's architecturally too
0:26:52 > 0:26:58grand for a mere railway hotel, but that surely was to miss the point.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01This was the Cathedral of its age,
0:27:01 > 0:27:07celebrating new technology, improved communications, progress.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10It gave the modern world the pedigree of history.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17Scott used Gothic detail and allied it with bold
0:27:17 > 0:27:20and modern methods of construction to produce a building that
0:27:20 > 0:27:22has vigour and originality.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34I love this marriage between heroic Victorian engineering
0:27:34 > 0:27:39and the Gothic revival architecture.
0:27:39 > 0:27:45The architecture was beautiful, full of crafted details and ornament.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Lovely brickwork.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50This granite shaft here, this stone shaft,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55whereas engineering is ruthless, unadorned,
0:27:55 > 0:28:00simply wrought iron plates riveted together.
0:28:00 > 0:28:06Simple and honest expression of the means and materials of construction.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14Stepping inside is like entering another world -
0:28:14 > 0:28:16a world of glamour and excess.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21The grand staircase is the architectural
0:28:21 > 0:28:24showpiece of the hotel.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28It floats through space in the most impressive manner.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31And also, it reveals a brilliant
0:28:31 > 0:28:36and eclectic mix of architectural influences.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41Together, these reveal the richness of Gilbert Scott's imagination.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54The masterstroke of his vision is how he marries
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Gothic Revival principles to modern construction methods.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04He takes the past and paves the way for the future.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18This is the ladies' coffee room as was
0:29:18 > 0:29:22and it's fascinating here to see how, in public rooms like this,
0:29:22 > 0:29:28major public rooms, Scott fused medieval building traditions
0:29:28 > 0:29:34with modern building technology to forge a new
0:29:34 > 0:29:37and distinct Gothic style of architecture.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41Between these lovely granite columns, very traditional,
0:29:41 > 0:29:45between these columns and the wall, you can see these beams
0:29:45 > 0:29:50standing, but those beams are in fact made out of wrought iron.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54Here, the essential structure is exposed
0:29:54 > 0:29:57and in the Gothic spirit ornamented.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02It's incredible, really, those gilded details being in fact
0:30:02 > 0:30:06the rivets holding the wrought iron plates together.
0:30:12 > 0:30:13The hotel was pioneering.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17Radiators heated the corridors
0:30:17 > 0:30:22and ceiling cornices were perforated for ventilation,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25and had the first passenger lift in London, now gone.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31When it opened in 1876,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35the Midland Grand Hotel was state of the art...
0:30:36 > 0:30:40..but as tastes and fashions changed its popularity waned.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47It closed as a hotel in 1935
0:30:47 > 0:30:50and became railway company offices before being abandoned.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56For years it lay neglected and faced demolition.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14But miraculously it has been restored to its former glories
0:31:14 > 0:31:18and is once more a fitting testament to the genius of
0:31:18 > 0:31:20Sir George Gilbert Scott.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28Scott died in 1878.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32He'd done much single-handedly to give Victorian Britain
0:31:32 > 0:31:34its aesthetic language
0:31:34 > 0:31:37and transform the Gothic into a national style.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42Where better to be buried than the medieval Gothic masterpiece of
0:31:42 > 0:31:43Westminster Abbey?
0:31:47 > 0:31:52In total, he'd designed or restored at least 850 buildings.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11His death was not the end of the Scott dynasty.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14He had a son, a brilliant son, who's capable of developing
0:32:14 > 0:32:19the Gothic language of architecture into the later 19th century.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23The son was also called George Gilbert Scott,
0:32:23 > 0:32:27but has been known rather cruelly to history as Mad Scott.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33It was always going to be a struggle following in the footsteps
0:32:33 > 0:32:36of such a successful and famous father.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40Middle Scott enjoyed a privileged education,
0:32:40 > 0:32:43but he would never escape from his father's shadow.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50He was a gifted architect,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53we know that from his surviving drawings and buildings...
0:32:56 > 0:33:00..but it was impossible to live up to his father's great expectations.
0:33:03 > 0:33:04To make it worse,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07misfortune and the loss of some of his best buildings
0:33:07 > 0:33:09have diminished his legacy.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15Well, Scott Junior and his father, their relationship was complicated.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18But George Gilbert Scott Junior worked closely with his father
0:33:18 > 0:33:21on a number of restoration projects,
0:33:21 > 0:33:23not least that of rebuilding the spire and tower of
0:33:23 > 0:33:25Chichester Cathedral after it collapsed,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28but I think he was temperamentally different.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32He was certainly more refined, but his two finest buildings,
0:33:32 > 0:33:34the two London churches, Kennington and Southwark,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37were badly damaged in the Second World War and then destroyed.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40So we just have photographs now of St Agnes, Kennington.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44It was in its day almost a revolutionary building.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48This looked at the late Gothic and it sought refinement and elegance.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52In many ways it was in the, as it were, the High Victorian tradition
0:33:52 > 0:33:56of urban churches - very bare on the outside.
0:33:56 > 0:33:57And the glory of St Agnes, Kennington,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59it's quite clear from the photographs,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02was the interior, and that's what impressed me.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12Middle Scott is a tantalising figure.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18While his father's legacy seems to be everywhere,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21you have to hunt for examples of his genius.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29I've come to a very remote location on
0:34:29 > 0:34:32the edge of the north Yorkshire moors
0:34:32 > 0:34:34to see the best surviving Gothic church
0:34:34 > 0:34:38with which middle Scott was involved.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41The church is named St Mary Magdalene Eastmoors,
0:34:41 > 0:34:43and there it is in front of me.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47Gosh, this is exciting. Ah!
0:34:47 > 0:34:48Golly.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54It's small, of course, I knew that.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57But I can see, architecturally...
0:34:57 > 0:34:59it's very big indeed.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03This is a sign post to where the Gothic Revival was going.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12Pretty amazing little bellcote. There it is, the tower...
0:35:12 > 0:35:15with a pyramid. Strange and inventive details,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18not directly dependant on Gothic prototypes,
0:35:18 > 0:35:20but this is an invention in the Gothic spirit.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24Look at the door - it's absolutely fascinating.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26You have...
0:35:26 > 0:35:32this slab of masonry, smooth with very little ornamentation.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35This big, very simplified...
0:35:35 > 0:35:39Gothic moulding around the top of the portal.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43And that's it. Otherwise, plain, abstract, simple, modern.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47And there's no great carved corners detail,
0:35:47 > 0:35:49just the edge of the roof coming down
0:35:49 > 0:35:53and these lovely water spouts, no gargoyles.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59Oh!
0:35:59 > 0:36:01The nave.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03Well...
0:36:03 > 0:36:08sophisticated, simplicity. The roof is wonderful. Wonderful.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11It's a medieval-style wagon roof, that's what they're called,
0:36:11 > 0:36:13pointed with a ridge.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16But it has an utterly modern feeling
0:36:16 > 0:36:20because it's so reduced, so minimal in a way.
0:36:20 > 0:36:21It's a celebration.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25It's celestial, the heavens, it has a feeling of joy.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27It's important down below
0:36:27 > 0:36:29and then this wonderful sophisticated shape
0:36:29 > 0:36:31and colour up there.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35And the lovely tiny beams slightly cambered up in traditional manner
0:36:35 > 0:36:37with stencilling.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41Again, very playful, just little flowers. God's creation.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47Another thing which is fascinating, fascinating,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49here in front of me...
0:36:49 > 0:36:50What appears to be, again,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53a very modern, abstract and strange window is in fact
0:36:53 > 0:36:55an ancient medieval tradition.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57This is a squint,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01a medieval idea, so that people in the aisle would stand there
0:37:01 > 0:37:05and have a view through here of the high alter.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10And the reredos is lovely too - very much of the period.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Of course, more obviously directly Gothic.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19This building is charming and very important.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24It's been given much more of the simple language of the modern age,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28where direct reference to history is to a large degree abandoned,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31and pure Gothic form and spirit is being used
0:37:31 > 0:37:33to create a 20th century architecture.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Fascinating, fascinating, and important.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Within such a small building lurks such a big idea,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42lurks the modern world.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50Middle Scott experimented with different architectural styles,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53of which his Gothic father wouldn't have approved.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56This can be best seen in Hull,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59where he designed a number of houses in the suburbs.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04George Gilbert Scott Senior wanted to demonstrate that Gothic
0:38:04 > 0:38:08was appropriate for all types of buildings, churches of course,
0:38:08 > 0:38:13but country houses, museums, hotels, railway stations.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16His son, middle Scott, had a somewhat different idea.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Yes, Gothic for churches, or even public buildings,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23but for domestic architecture he wanted to go back to
0:38:23 > 0:38:27the English classical tradition called the Queen Anne Revival.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30Wonderful example here of middle Scott's work.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Queen Anne really is an earlier style, early 17th century.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38His idea really, I suppose, was that this type of architecture
0:38:38 > 0:38:41represented the great English domestic tradition
0:38:41 > 0:38:44and made more comfortable homes.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03Scott's palate of materials and variety of details is fascinating.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05Very attractive.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10Red brick, white painted joinery, white areas of plaster.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12The details are Classical,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15the mask up there appearing from foliage,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18very lovely, sort of early 17th century.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21I think these panels are particularly interesting. Look here.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25You see triangles impressed in what would be plaster or concrete.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27Very hard. Lovely.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32It's a sense of ornament achieved in the most abstract and minimal way.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39Middle Scott was clearly his own man.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44He branched out further from his father in 1874
0:39:44 > 0:39:45when he set up Watts & Co.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53The company today run by his great-great granddaughter,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55Marie-Severine de Caraman Chimay,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57who has some ribald tales to tell.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02Lots of stories like he used to go to the opera house
0:40:02 > 0:40:04and measure a lady's bottom with his dividers.
0:40:04 > 0:40:05I heard this!
0:40:05 > 0:40:08Now I hear you say it, I have to believe it!
0:40:08 > 0:40:10I think we have to believe it cos...
0:40:10 > 0:40:14when you read about what he's done and all about his life,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17yes, you can see that probably he did this.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19He was obsessed with anything...
0:40:19 > 0:40:21Anything had to be aesthetic, designed.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24He wanted to like everything he had at home,
0:40:24 > 0:40:26so if you didn't like a plate of a bit of crockery,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29- he would just smash them on the floor.- As a child?
0:40:29 > 0:40:31I think as an adult as well.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34I know the feeling. I often do it myself.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37- Do you have pictures?- Yes!
0:40:37 > 0:40:41I mean, they loved partying, so that's them in fancy dress.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Absolutely fascinating.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46He's had a few brandies, maybe.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49He's smiling at her with, seemingly, affection.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53She's looking a little bit unamused, isn't she?
0:40:53 > 0:40:56- We have one remaining drawing he did.- Oh, really?
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Oh, design for a wallpaper, I suppose.
0:41:00 > 0:41:01Probably.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05I mean, we're still looking and studying it to find out.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10- This... So this was designed by him for the company?- Yes.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13- It's the only one you have. - It's the only drawing that we have.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17And then on, the other hand, we have examples of... That's a wallpaper.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21- This is similar, but not the design. - No, it's not the same.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23But we haven't got the original design,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26but we know that's one of his...designs.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28And it's quite nice.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32I was looking through the stock book the other day of 1878
0:41:32 > 0:41:35and it's already in there, and we're still doing it today.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45It seems that middle Scott, unlike his workaholic father,
0:41:45 > 0:41:46was an eccentric dandy.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Then disaster tipped him towards madness.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59In 1870, middle Scott's house and studio in Cecil Street,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02off The Strand, was destroyed by fire.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05He lost all his drawings, his beloved library,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07in a sense, his identity.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12That would be enough to drive you mad.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14Enough to drive me mad.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19He started drinking heavily
0:42:19 > 0:42:22and seemed to rebel against his family background.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25He had a complete mental breakdown.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34First of all, was he rejected something of what his father
0:42:34 > 0:42:35stood for by becoming a Roman Catholic,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38although he waited until his father was dead.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40This caused a breach certainly with his brother John Oldrid,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43who inherited Sir Gilbert's practice.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47And after that, his behaviour became extremely erratic and distressing.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50I don't think it had anything to do with architecture.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53Indeed, his architectural ability remained quite unimpaired.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00He designed the Roman Catholic church of St John the Baptist
0:43:00 > 0:43:03in Norwich, today the cathedral of East Anglia.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09It turned out to be his largest work
0:43:09 > 0:43:12and surely would have made his father proud.
0:43:16 > 0:43:18But his life was unravelling.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23His brother tried to have him committed for lunacy...
0:43:27 > 0:43:29..so middle Scott fled to France,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32where he set himself up with a French mistress.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36On his return, things only got worse.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47Middle Scott's behaviour became increasingly bizarre
0:43:47 > 0:43:49and disruptive, to put it mildly.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53In consequence, he was abandoned by his outraged wife,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57who no doubt feared that middle Scott's behaviour would plunge
0:43:57 > 0:44:00the family into social disgrace.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04They put middle Scott here for a while,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08in the St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, a lunatic asylum,
0:44:08 > 0:44:13which strangely has in its grounds a splendid Gothic chapel
0:44:13 > 0:44:16designed, of course, by Gilbert Scott Senior.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Strange coincidence.
0:44:23 > 0:44:29While here, middle Scott, I suppose out of desperation, out of anger...
0:44:30 > 0:44:34..wanted protest, attempted to burn the hospital down.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48I have a lot of sympathy for middle Scott.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51His odd behaviour was due to mental illness
0:44:51 > 0:44:54and his family didn't behave with much sympathy,
0:44:54 > 0:44:56support or understanding.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00The Times waded in and accused John Oldrid
0:45:00 > 0:45:04of operating out of fury, out of anger.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08He was so put out by the affair his brother had been having with
0:45:08 > 0:45:10the anonymous French lady.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17There was to be no reprieve for middle Scott.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22He died in 1897 at the age of 57 of cirrhosis of the liver,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25brought on by his heavy drinking.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32His final days were spent in the Midland Grand Hotel,
0:45:32 > 0:45:35his father's Gothic masterpiece.
0:45:37 > 0:45:38Why remains a mystery.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43Could dying there have been homage to his great father
0:45:43 > 0:45:45or some kind of twisted revenge?
0:45:47 > 0:45:50He was buried in the cemetery of St John's Parish Church
0:45:50 > 0:45:54in Hampstead, near where he'd lived with his family
0:45:54 > 0:45:57before everything started to go wrong.
0:45:57 > 0:45:58Well...
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Well, well well.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04You never think that one of Britain's most intriguing
0:46:04 > 0:46:0919th century architects lies buried here, not much of a monument,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13just an off-the-peg slab with a cross on it.
0:46:13 > 0:46:14Let's have a look.
0:46:16 > 0:46:17Let's have a look.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21No-one has bothered to clear the brambles away.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27"In memory of George Gilbert Scott.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32"FSA. Sometime fellow of Jesus College Cambridge."
0:46:33 > 0:46:35Well, well, well.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39"On whose soul, Jesus, have mercy."
0:46:42 > 0:46:48Middle Scott had genius, but his life was blighted by scandal,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51family conflict and mental illness.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55I suppose it was impossible for him to follow successfully in
0:46:55 > 0:46:59the slipstream of such an ambitious and successful father.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03So in his way he rebelled and followed a different path,
0:47:03 > 0:47:06a path that led him initially to a sublime...
0:47:07 > 0:47:12..Gothic architecture and ultimately to grotesque Gothic tragedy.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24Perhaps the most touching epitaph to middle Scott
0:47:24 > 0:47:28came from his son Giles, who hardly knew his father.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33He remarked, "I always think that my father was a genius,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36"who was a far better architect than my grandfather,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39"and yet look at the reputations of the two men."
0:47:57 > 0:48:00Giles once commentated that he only met his father twice,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04and one of these meetings was on his father's death bed,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07so it's hard to see how middle Scott could have inspired Giles
0:48:07 > 0:48:11to take on the baton of the Scott dynasty.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15We know that Giles was encouraged by his energetic mother
0:48:15 > 0:48:19and taken under the wing of one of his father's former colleagues,
0:48:19 > 0:48:23who would work in the brave new world of the 20th century,
0:48:23 > 0:48:26when modernist architects were determined to consign
0:48:26 > 0:48:29the Gothic to the dustbin of history.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33It was up to Giles not to just preserve the Scott legacy,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35but to reinvigorate it.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39His opportunity came sooner than anyone could have expected.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49In 1901, while still training,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51he entered a competition for
0:48:51 > 0:48:53the design of an Anglican cathedral for Liverpool.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03It's impossible to overestimate the size and importance of this job.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07It was only the third new Anglican cathedral built in this country in
0:49:07 > 0:49:11the 350 or so years since the Reformation.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14More than 100 architects competed.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21When the competition for Liverpool Cathedral was open,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25his mother, who I think was probably a good character,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28came around and said, "Giles, where are your drawings?"
0:49:28 > 0:49:31He was like, "You know, I've done a few
0:49:31 > 0:49:33"because we do things like that in the practice."
0:49:33 > 0:49:35"OK, let's put them on the table."
0:49:35 > 0:49:38And she put everyone around the table and they all worked on drawings,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42finishing the stones and everything, details, and he won the competition.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45Of course, the competition was an anonymous competition.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47Yes, and he won.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49No-one knew he was one of the Gilbert Scotts.
0:49:49 > 0:49:50And he was only 21.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58For the easy-going young man, this was Wonderland.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04It was his chance to bring the Gothic into the 20th century
0:50:04 > 0:50:07and prove it was still relevant to the modern age.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19The reredos at the high alter is a thorough essay in medieval Gothic.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21But look in the other direction,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24towards the part of the cathedral constructed from the 1920s,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27and you can see emerging from Gothic form and detail
0:50:27 > 0:50:31the world of modern architecture,
0:50:31 > 0:50:35characterised by soaring, lofty spaces
0:50:35 > 0:50:38and increasing bold simplicity.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40And look at that strange bridge,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42like a factory walkway.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46This is not so much the house of God, but a power house.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54It's a brilliant fusion of the Gothic and the modern.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08This becomes clear once you delve beneath the skin of the cathedral
0:51:08 > 0:51:10and see how it's built.
0:51:14 > 0:51:15I'm in the crossing tower -
0:51:15 > 0:51:19astonishing, modern, industrial construction.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23Below me is the vault, which one can see from
0:51:23 > 0:51:25the body of the floor of the church.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28Stone, I believe, but also areas of concrete there.
0:51:28 > 0:51:33But above me, all this reinforced concrete construction -
0:51:33 > 0:51:37the walls, strong, modern brick.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40Of course, an entirely different atmosphere to
0:51:40 > 0:51:43the body of the cathedral below.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52Inside, the bell tower is like a skyscraper -
0:51:52 > 0:51:57an almost shocking contrast to what's outside -
0:51:57 > 0:52:00but it remains faithful to Gothic Revival principles.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10Giles Scott rejected the modernist view that ornament is a crime
0:52:10 > 0:52:14and sought to graft the best ideas of modernism on
0:52:14 > 0:52:17the best traditions of the past.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22It was the perfect marriage of the Gothic and modernist.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27He is honest about the materials and means of construction,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30at the same time as humanising the building,
0:52:30 > 0:52:35by adding details inspired by the past, he's looking to the future.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41Outside, you can see more clearly
0:52:41 > 0:52:44how Scott forged a modern architecture
0:52:44 > 0:52:47by evolving the Gothic tradition.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50Here, Gothic details are reduced,
0:52:50 > 0:52:57instead are cliff-like areas of plain wall, wonderful utilitarian
0:52:57 > 0:52:59oblong windows and that large window.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03That's a strangely un-Gothic quadrant side
0:53:03 > 0:53:06and, over there, the wall's bevelled.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08This is Gothic, but Art Deco Gothic.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17Giles would work on the cathedral throughout his life
0:53:17 > 0:53:20and he would go on to produce many other buildings that combined
0:53:20 > 0:53:23a modern sensibility with a respect for history.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33I'm on my way to Scott's masterpiece.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38Along the Thames, we can take in
0:53:38 > 0:53:40some of the other highlights of his career.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45First, there's the iconic Battersea Power Station.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49In the 1930s, Giles designed the chimneys in
0:53:49 > 0:53:52the style of giant classical columns.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05After the Second World War, he was brought in to help rebuild
0:54:05 > 0:54:09the Palace of Westminster, which had been bombed during the Blitz.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16And there's his smallest and perhaps best-known design -
0:54:16 > 0:54:17the telephone box.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24We pass under Waterloo Bridge -
0:54:24 > 0:54:27completed in 1945 to Giles's designs -
0:54:27 > 0:54:30before we reach our destination.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36It's opposite St Paul's Cathedral,
0:54:36 > 0:54:40and I believe it links the Gothic Revival of George Gilbert Scott
0:54:40 > 0:54:43with his grandson's modern take on the Gothic.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50It's the former Bankside Power Station,
0:54:50 > 0:54:52now known as Tate Modern.
0:54:54 > 0:54:59Bankside is Giles Gilbert Scott's greatest and most ruthless
0:54:59 > 0:55:04expression of his modernistic brick cathedral industrial style.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09The great chimney in the centre of the composition reveals this to be
0:55:09 > 0:55:12a functional industrial building,
0:55:12 > 0:55:17and yet it invokes memories of medieval towers,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20giving the structure the sublime
0:55:20 > 0:55:25and sculptural presence of a structure rooted in history.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33Like his grandfather's masterpiece, the Midland Grand Hotel,
0:55:33 > 0:55:37for many years, Bankside was reviled and threatened with demolition
0:55:37 > 0:55:40after its closure as a power station in 1981.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Gavin Stamp led a campaign to save it.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04What a fantastic space.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06It's like a great ship or a cathedral.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Just think what you could do with it,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11and yet it's going to be demolished.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13As far as I'm concerned, that is a crime
0:56:13 > 0:56:16for this is the finest power station every built -
0:56:16 > 0:56:18the greatest temple of power.
0:56:22 > 0:56:23It worked.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26I now declare the Tate Modern open.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35A disused temple to power became
0:56:35 > 0:56:38the nation's most popular temple to the arts.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46I imagine that the idea that Bankside should become
0:56:46 > 0:56:49an art gallery would have been beyond Scott's wildest dreams.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51But it's such a beautiful, sound structure
0:56:51 > 0:56:55that is has proved to be astonishing and adaptable.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58He built the great, refined, sublime landmark,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01and thank goodness it's found a new use.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05Tate Modern is a wonderful building
0:57:05 > 0:57:09and the cathedral-like turbine hall, a magnificent space.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12It enshrines the architectural principles of
0:57:12 > 0:57:14the 19th century Gothic Revival,
0:57:14 > 0:57:18and is a testimony to the creative brilliance and continuity of
0:57:18 > 0:57:20the Scott Dynasty.
0:57:23 > 0:57:24It's an honest building,
0:57:24 > 0:57:28expressing truthfully the methods and the materials of construction.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32And faithful to the Gothic Revival principle -
0:57:32 > 0:57:35decorating the essential structure...
0:57:36 > 0:57:40..so the functional beams and rivets become the building's ornaments.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47The artistic journey to Bankside, over three generations of
0:57:47 > 0:57:52the same family, has revealed a surprising and dramatic link
0:57:52 > 0:57:55between the Gothic Revival and modernist architecture.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07It's no exaggeration to say that
0:58:07 > 0:58:09the story of the Gilbert Scott dynasty
0:58:09 > 0:58:12is a story of British architecture,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15from the early Victorian era to the 20th century.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19Thanks largely to its efforts, the Gothic Revival
0:58:19 > 0:58:22became more than simply a rehash of history,
0:58:22 > 0:58:25it became a foundation stone of modernism.