John Francis Bentley


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This is the first biography of John Francis Bentley (1839-1902), best known as architect of Westminster Cathedral, since his daughter Winefride de l’Hôpital’s Westminster Cathedral and its Architect (1919). Bentley was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, and went to London to work in the office of Henry Clutton, a distinguished High Victorian architect who became a Roman Catholic in 1856. Bentley also converted, and, after setting up his own practice in 1860, came to be widely recognised as the best Catholic architect of his time. He built comparatively few complete churches, but did extensive work in adding to and furnishing other architects’ churches. He had remarkable skill in the design of woodwork, metalwork, stained glass, and organ cases, all of which are covered in the book. His finest parish church is Holy Rood, Watford, but the climax of his career was the commission in 1894 to design Westminster Cathedral, which was almost complete when he died in 1902.




John Francis Bentley


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Accessions


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Westminster Cathedral


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It is one hundred years since Westminster Cathedral was opened for publish worship. Built within cheeky proximity to Westminster Abbey, it was a design and architectural specification which was and remains immensely ambitious. This is the story of the Cathedral since its first planning stages through to the present day.













Newman University Church, Dublin


Book Description

In 1854, John Henry Newman, one of the foremost intellectual figures of the nineteenth century, was officially installed as the rector of the first Catholic university in Ireland. University Church (constructed in 1855–6) was Newman’s first objective when he agreed to the rectorship and it can be considered as a tangible manifestation of the idea behind the unprecedented Catholic university in Dublin – the posing of an erudite Catholic alternative to post-Enlightenment secularism and Protestant hegemony through a style-based analogy to the early Church. Despite physically embodying what Newman wished to achieve in and through his new university, this ‘early Christian' style church, which drew upon Roman and Byzantine basilicas, has received little attention. This book charts for the first time the significant place that the building occupies within the history of Victorian revivalist architecture. Niamh Bhalla explores the meaningful connection between the church’s context and the ambiguity of its ‘early Christian’ style. In the intersection of these two things, a significant monument was created. The study of University Church therefore provides an effective lens to understand more comprehensively the architectural revivalism that dominated the nineteenth century, particularly the first stirrings of basilican and Byzantine revivalist architectures in the British Isles. Praise for Newman University Church, Dublin 'Newman University Church, Dublin is an important contribution to the burgeoning study of historistic architecture of the nineteenth century. In studying the larger contexts of the church, Niamh Bhalla illumines the aspirations of Cardinal Newman for the university that he directed and Catholicism in Ireland and the United Kingdom.' Robert S. Nelson, Yale University 'A riveting analysis of the University Church and its intellectual background. Niamh Bhalla steers us effortlessly through the many strands of architectural and religious thought that lie behind Newman’s church, while revealing its seminal place in the history of the Byzantine revival.' Roger Stalley, Trinity College Dublin




The Architects and Architecture of London


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The guide explains why London is the way it is. It helps you link the historical and contemporary into a single pattern of significant places, spaces and buildings. It highlights old and new as a lively and vibrant pattern of on-going creative activity rooted in established urban patterns.




Architectural Record


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