Gothic Revivalist architect and designer. He received his education at King's College School, London, where he studied under John Sell Cotman. In 1843 he began to study engineering, but left to work in the office of the surveyor Edward Blore. There he worked on the restoration of Westminster Abbey. In 1849 he joined the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt, the Special Commissioner and Secretary to the Great Exhibition of 1851, and contributed to the official record of the exhibition, The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols (1851-1853). Burges was deeply influenced by the work of A. W. N. Pugin and in the 1860s, by Islamic and oriental design. He made regular study trips in Britain and Europe, copying the medieval monuments he saw. In 1855 and 1856 Burges made prize-winning designs for Lille Cathedral and the Crimea Memorial Church in Constantinople, but neither building was carried out; his first important ecclesiastical design to be realised being St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, which he began in 1862. At the International Exhibition of 1862 he was responsible for the laying out of the Medieval Court. From the late 1860s until his death Burges worked for John Patrick Crichton Stuart, the Third Marquess of Bute, on a prestigious commission at Cardiff Castle. He completely re-designed the building, giving the castle a dramatic exterior with towers, pinnacles and crenellations and extraordinary interiors. He was also responsible for the "re-building" of Castell Coch. He was friendly with the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Morris and their circle.
Gothic Revivalist architect and designer. He received his education at King's College School, London, where he studied under John Sell Cotman. In 1843 he began to study engineering, but left to work in the office of the surveyor Edward Blore. There he worked on the restoration of Westminster Abbey. In 1849 he joined the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt, the Special Commissioner and Secretary to the Great Exhibition of 1851, and contributed to the official record of the exhibition, The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols (1851-1853). Burges was deeply influenced by the work of A. W. N. Pugin and in the 1860s, by Islamic and oriental design. He made regular study trips in Britain and Europe, copying the medieval monuments he saw. In 1855 and 1856 Burges made prize-winning designs for Lille Cathedral and the Crimea Memorial Church in Constantinople, but neither building was carried out; his first important ecclesiastical design to be realised being St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, which he began in 1862. At the International Exhibition of 1862 he was responsible for the laying out of the Medieval Court. From the late 1860s until his death Burges worked for John Patrick Crichton Stuart, the Third Marquess of Bute, on a prestigious commission at Cardiff Castle. He completely re-designed the building, giving the castle a dramatic exterior with towers, pinnacles and crenellations and extraordinary interiors. He was also responsible for the "re-building" of Castell Coch. He was friendly with the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Morris and their circle.
Bio by: julia&keld
Gravesite Details
Burges was buried in the tomb he designed for his mother in West Norwood Cemetery.
Advertisement
See more Burges memorials in:
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
