Editing Augustus Pugin (section)

==Palace of Westminster==
[[File:Palace of Westminster Westminster Hall south.jpg|thumb|[[Palace of Westminster]]]]
[[File:Sovereign's Throne in The House of Lords.jpg|thumb|Sovereign's Throne in the Palace of Westminster, designed by Pugin in the 1840s]]
In October 1834, the [[Palace of Westminster]] [[Burning of Parliament|burned down]]. Subsequently, the Prime Minister, Sir [[Robert Peel]], wanted, now that he was premier, to disassociate himself from the controversial [[John Wilson Croker]], who was a founding member of the [[Athenaeum Club, London|Athenaeum Club]]; a close associate of the pre-eminent neoclassical architects [[James Burton (property developer)|James Burton]] and [[Decimus Burton]]; an advocate of neoclassicism; and a repudiator of the gothic revival style.<ref name=Williams-1990-p69>{{harvp|Williams|1990|pp=69–75}}</ref> Consequently, Peel appointed a committee chaired by [[Edward Cust]], a detester of the style of [[John Nash (architect)|John Nash]] and [[William Wilkins (architect)|William Wilkins]], which resolved that the new Houses of Parliament would have to be in either the 'gothic' or the 'Elizabethan' style.<ref name=Williams-1990-p69/> Augustus W.N. Pugin, the foremost expert on the Gothic, had to submit each of his designs through, and thus in the name of, other architects, Gillespie-Graham and [[Charles Barry]], because he had recently openly and fervently converted to Catholicism, as a consequence of which any design submitted in his own name would certainly have been automatically rejected;<ref name=Williams-1990-p69/> the design he submitted for improvements to [[Balliol College, Oxford]], in 1843 were rejected for this reason.<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|p=150}} The design for Parliament that Pugin submitted through Barry won the competition.<ref name=Williams-1990-p69/> Subsequent to the announcement of the design ascribed to Barry, [[William Richard Hamilton]], who had been secretary to [[Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin]] during the acquisition of the [[Elgin Marbles]], published a pamphlet in which he censured the fact that 'gothic barbarism' had been preferred to the masterful designs of Ancient Greece and Rome:<ref name=Williams-1990-p69/> but the judgement was not altered, and was ratified by the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|Commons]] and the [[House of Lords of the United Kingdom|Lords]]. The commissioners subsequently appointed Pugin to assist in the construction of the interior of the new Palace, to the design of which Pugin himself had been the foremost determiner.<ref name=Williams-1990-p69/> Pugin's biographer, Rosemary Hill, shows that Barry designed the Palace as a whole, and only he could co-ordinate such a large project and deal with its difficult paymasters, but he relied entirely on Pugin for its Gothic interiors, wallpapers and furnishings.<ref>{{harvp|Hill|2007|pp=316–318}}</ref> The first stone of the new Pugin-Barry design was laid on 27 April 1840.<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|p=147}}

During the competition for the design of the new Houses of Parliament, Decimus Burton, 'the land's leading classicist',<ref name=Williams-1990>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Guy |year=1990 |title=Augustus Pugin Versus Decimus Burton: A Victorian Architectural Duel |publisher=Cassell Publishers Limited |isbn=0-304-31561-3 |location=London, UK |language=en-uk}}</ref>{{rp|p=83}} was vituperated with continuous invective, which Guy Williams has described as an 'anti-Burton campaign',<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|p=129}} by the foremost advocate of the neo-gothic style, Augustus W.N. Pugin,<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|pp=67–78}} who was made enviously reproachful that Decimus "had done much more than Pugin's father ([[Augustus Charles Pugin]]) to alter the appearance of London".<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|p=75}} Pugin attempted to popularize advocacy of the neo-gothic, and repudiation of the neoclassical, by composing and illustrating books that contended the supremacy of the former and the degeneracy of the latter, which were published from 1835. In 1845, Pugin, in his ''Contrasts: or a Parallel Between the Noble Edifices of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries and Similar Buildings of the Present Day'', which the author had to publish himself as a consequence of the extent of the defamation of society architects therein, satirized John Nash as "Mr Wash, Plasterer, who jobs out Day Work on Moderate Terms", and Decimus Burton as "Talent of No Consequence, Premium Required", and included satirical sketches of Nash's [[Buckingham Palace]] and Burton's [[Wellington Arch]].<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|pp=75–77}} Consequently, the number of commissions received by Decimus declined,<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|pp=83–84}} although Decimus retained a close friendship with the aristocrats amongst his patrons, who continued to commission him.<ref name=Williams-1990/>{{rp|p=108}}

At the end of Pugin's life, in February 1852, Barry visited him in Ramsgate and Pugin supplied a detailed design for the iconic Palace clock tower, in 2012 dubbed the Elizabeth Tower but popularly known as [[Big Ben]]. The design is very close to earlier designs by Pugin, including an unbuilt scheme for [[Scarisbrick Hall]], Lancashire. The tower was Pugin's last design before descending into madness. In her biography, Hill quotes Pugin as writing of what is probably his best-known building: "I never worked so hard in my life [as] for Mr Barry for tomorrow I render all the designs for finishing his bell tower & it is beautiful & I am the whole machinery of the clock."<ref>{{harvp|Hill|2007|pp=481–483}}</ref> Hill writes that Barry omitted to give any credit to Pugin for his huge contribution to the design of the new Houses of Parliament.<ref>{{harvp|Hill|2007|p=480}}</ref> In 1867, after the deaths of both Pugin and Barry, Pugin's son Edward published a pamphlet, ''Who Was the Art Architect of the Houses of Parliament, a statement of facts'', in which he asserted that his father was the "true" architect of the building and not Barry.<ref>{{harvp|Hill|2007|pp=495–496}}</ref>