Description: The architect of St Barnabas' Cathedral was Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. A Catholic convert with little formal architectural training, Pugin's architectural theories and practice transformed English Church building. Despite his death at just 40, he both galvanised the British Gothic Revival and stimulated Gothic revivals internationally. Within a few years of his death, Gothic revival architecture had become a worldwide movement. Saint Barnabas' Cathedral is considered to be one of his three best churches. Pugin was born in London in 1812. His father was an assistant to the architect John Nash (architect of Buckingham Palace) and thus Pugin was exposed to the world of architecture at a young age. By age 14 he had undertaken a survey of Rochester Castle. At 15 he had designed plate for London goldsmiths and had designed furniture for Windsor Castle. At age 20 he set up a stone carving business in Covent Garden. This specialised in Gothic stonework. The study of Gothic(medieval) architecture was to shape Pugin's life. During his study visits to Gothic cathedrals in Britain and Europe he became convinced that the beauty he so admired in Gothic architecture was actually the physical expression of Catholic beliefs. So, at the age of 23, he converted to Roman Catholicism. Pugin set out his architectural beliefs in his highly controversial book Contrasts (1836). In a vigorous attack on the architecture of his time, he asserted that Gothic architecture is the unique architectural expression of Christian values. Pugin urged a rediscovery of authentic Gothic architecture and authentic Christian values in British society: Gothic Revival and Christian Revival were intertwined. A truthful architecture, he believed, was one where every detail of a Church building expressed physically the religious and mystic truths at the heart of the building's function. In other words, the physical language of the building should be reinforcing the religious language of Catholic practice. These ideas made Pugin notorious. His influential later book, True Principles (1841) set out how the ideas could be progressed. Pugin expressed his theories through his own churches. These, characteristically, were archaeologically correct in their use of Gothic building principles. This was despite a shortage of funds and in contrast to earlier 'mock' Gothic building. Saint Barnabas', Nottingham was built between 1841 and 1844 at a cost of £15,000, a substantial amount of this being paid by the prominent Catholic Lord Shrewsbury. It was built in the Early English Plain Gothic style. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel was, however, highly decorated and Pugin's later churches were built in that Decorated Gothic style throughout. As well as church-building Pugin was also engaged in the greatest public building project of his day: the Houses of Parliament. These are in the Perpendicular Gothic style. Most of the interior detail is the work of Pugin. Simultaneously, Pugin's writings were gathering support and a momentum built around his ideas concerning Gothic Revival. This was to result in Gothic design on Puginian principles becoming the dominant Anglican building style from the 1840s onwards. Thousands of country parish churches were now built or restored along Gothic lines as set out in Pugin's books. The books were translated and soon stimulated Gothic Revival in Germany and Belgium. Eventually, this revival spread widely across Europe. It was also exported from Britain to India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. By the early 1850s it had become of broad international scope. Thus Pugin's writings and buildings such as St Barnabas' helped to spark a religious architectural movement of worldwide significance. (information from www,stbarnabasnottingham.org.uk)