Editing William Butterfield (section)

==Biography==
William Butterfield was born in London in 1814. His parents were strict [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|non-conformist]]s who ran a [[dispensing chemist|chemist]]'s shop in the [[Strand, London|Strand]]. He was one of nine children and was educated at a local school. At the age of 16, he was apprenticed to Thomas Arber, a builder in [[Pimlico]], who later became bankrupt. He studied architecture under E. L. Blackburne (1833–1836). From 1838 to 1839, he was an assistant to Harvey Eginton, an architect in [[Worcester, England|Worcester]], where he became articled. He established his own architectural practice at [[Lincoln's Inn Fields]] in 1840.

From 1842 Butterfield was involved with the [[Cambridge Camden Society]], later [[The Ecclesiological Society]]. He contributed designs to the Society's journal, ''The Ecclesiologist''. His involvement influenced his architectural style. He also drew religious inspiration from the Oxford Movement and as such, he was very [[high church]] despite his non-conformist upbringing. He was a Gothic revival architect, and as such he reinterpreted the original Gothic style in [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] terms. Many of his buildings were for religious use, although he also designed for colleges and schools.

Butterfield's church of [[All Saints, Margaret Street]], London, was, in the view of [[Henry-Russell Hitchcock]], the building that initiated the [[High Victorian Gothic]] era. It was designed in 1850, completed externally by 1853 and consecrated in 1859.<ref name=hrh1/> Flanked by a clergy house and school, it was intended as a "model" church by its sponsors, the Ecclesiological Society.  The church was built of red-brick, a material long out of use in London, patterned with bands of black brick, the first use of polychrome brick in the city, with bands of stone on the spire. The interior was even more richly decorated, with marble and tile marquetry.<ref name=hrh1/>

In 1849, just before Butterfield designed the church, [[John Ruskin]] had published his ''[[Seven Lamps of Architecture]]'', in which he had urged the study of Italian Gothic and the use of polychromy.  Many contemporaries perceived All Saints' as Italian in character, though in fact it combines fourteenth century English details, with a German-style spire.<ref name=hrh1/>

Also in 1850 he designed, without polychromy, [[St Matthias' Church, Stoke Newington|St Matthias']] in [[Stoke Newington]], with a bold gable-roofed tower. At St Bartholomew's, [[Yealmpton]] in the same year, Butterfield used a considerable amount of marquetry work for the interior, and built striped piers, using two colours of marble.<ref name=hrh1>Hitchcock 1977, pages 247–8</ref>

[[File:William Butterfield 42 Bedford Square blue plaque.jpg|thumb|Blue plaque, 42 Bedford Square, London]]
At Oxford, Butterfield designed [[Keble College, Oxford|Keble College]], in a style radically divergent from the university's existing traditions of Gothic architecture, its walls boldly striped with various colours of brick. Intended for clerical students, it was largely built in 1868–70, on a fairly domestic scale, with a more monumental chapel of 1873–6.  In his buildings of 1868–72 at [[Rugby School]], the polychromy is even more brash.<ref name=hrhb>Hitchock 1977, page 264</ref>

Butterfield received the [[Royal Institute of British Architects|RIBA]] Gold Medal in 1884. He died in London in 1900, and was buried in a simple Gothic tomb (designed by himself) in [[Tottenham Cemetery]], Haringey, North London.<ref name="Tomb">{{National Heritage List for England| num=1084329 |desc=Tomb of William Butterfield in Tottenham Cemetery, Church Lane |accessdate=27 January 2022}}</ref> The grave can be easily seen from the public path through the cemetery, close to the gate from Tottenham Churchyard. There is a [[blue plaque]] on his house in [[Bedford Square]], London.