Butterfield, William
Butterfield, William (1814–1900). Architect. Undoubtedly the most original of Victorian Gothic Revival architects, though not to the taste of those who like their buildings restrained. He was greatly influenced by Pugin, and his early churches were at least as stylistically correct as the latter's. He then discovered north Italian Gothic, however, which seems to have liberated his spirit. His first characteristic masterpiece is All Saints, Margaret Street, in his native London (1859); his most famous—or notorious—is Keble College, Oxford (1873–6), to which a common reaction is ‘Who knitted it?’; and his biggest single building is that part of Melbourne Anglican cathedral (1877–84) which was built before its commissioners lost their nerve and contracted a duller architect to finish it. All are distinguished by their polychromaticism, and by their Anglo-catholic atmosphere; although in fact Butterfield hated ritual, and never worked for the Roman church on principle. Photographs of him make him appear dour, and he lived a monkish kind of life.
Bernard Porter
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Butterfield, William