It is some time since there has been a major book on Victorian architecture. In this weighty and magnificently illustrated volume, Professor Curl brings together many of the subjects that he has studied throughout his professional life. He has always been interested in Victorian architecture and the subheading of this book, ‘diversity and invention’, provides the reasons: most buildings of the nineteenth century exhibit great confidence and certainty in all their many forms and these characteristics are always contrasted in the Professor’s mind with the timidity and dullness of most of the architecture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, which he dislikes, reserving his especial hatred for the Modern Movement. Even though he acknowledges that ‘the rate of wholesale destruction of Victorian built fabric has slowed after the orgies of demolition, during and after the 1939–45 war’, Curl still sees the problems of neglect, inner-city decay, vandalism and political decisions which have ‘all eroded the rich legacy left to us by our Victorian forefathers’. He still feels that ‘notions of the Victorian Age in the popular mind tend to be simplistic, distorted, and wildly inaccurate’. So he considers the situation better, but still not good enough, and this book is more propaganda – an appeal to his readers to use their eyes and to save what is left – than a straightforward historical textbook for students.

Nevertheless, Curl wants to give a substantially complete picture of this immense and complicated story and so he writes only about the British Isles and keeps fairly strictly to the time limits of the nineteenth century. After considering some of the characteristics of the period, such as the relentless urbanization of the country and the vast increase in the collection of documentary evidence, he starts by tackling his subject stylistically, beginning with an excellent account of the Gothic Revival, which provides such a strong theme to the century. He notes, of course, the influence of Pugin and his introduction of the sense of morality into the art of architecture. Curl seems to have invented the phrase ‘True Picturesque’ which he ascribes to Pugin, whereas what Pugin believed in, and indeed practised all his life, were the ‘True Principles’ of his Gothic designs. Another of this author’s quirks is to call the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott ‘Great Scott’ wherever his name occurs. But Curl’s supreme hero of the period up to 1851 is Butterfield and the building is the Ecclesiologists’ model church of All Saints, Margaret Street. His defence of Butterfield against any charge, especially that of ugliness in his work, and All Saints is impressive:

Curl continues by describing other styles, such as Italianate, Tudor, Round-arched, Baronial, Egyptian and the Domestic, including Queen Anne and Old English. He draws particular attention to the individual contribution of Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson and he also considers the use of glass and iron and terracotta, and touches on traffic schemes, sewers, the disposal of the dead and cemeteries. He does not find Ruskin’s influence helpful and is not afraid to say so:

Curl writes well about philanthropic housing, model villages and some London estates. Sometimes he describes building types, but in his final chapter he looks at an odd mix of clubs, pubs and theatres. Yet it is always churches that interest him most. In this way two groups of archetypal Victorian buildings miss out rather badly: they are municipal buildings and grand country houses and their city counterparts.

It is a particular type of church that fascinates him: the ‘High’ Church of England, with its concentration on the Eucharist. As he reaches the end of the nineteenth century he gives much space to the ritualism and politics of such buildings, with many of his ideas derived from Anthony Symondson.

He illustrates this with some lovely pictures of churches by Bodley and Garner, Norman Shaw, J F Bentley, E S Prior, ‘Middle’ Scott, Temple Moore and Ninian Comper. He even pushes his time limits a bit to include Giles Gilbert Scott’s Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

The illustrations are, of course, a most important element in Curl’s arguments and they form a particularly well-chosen and generous collection. The photographs are usually dated, which gives them a special interest. Unfortunately, few plans are shown unless they are part of an original print. The book itself is also well designed. So will Curl’s propaganda succeed? His conclusion is that:

He has certainly had a good try!