page_title: Ewan Christian
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Ewan Christian / Life / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: St Giles' Church, Skelton At first glance this small village church might be mistaken for a Victorian building in an Early English style, but the church is 13th century, beautifully built, and in remarkably good condition. A lovely little building.
context_page_description: Ewan Christian was a British architect. He is most notable for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery. He was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 to 1895. Christian was elected A RIBA in 1840, FRIBA in 1850, RIBA President 1884–86 and was awarded the Royal Gold Medal in 1887.
context_section_description: Christian became one of the most respected and successful men in his profession and was highly regarded by many leading architects of the Victorian era. Many became personal friends, particularly Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–73) who also lived in Hampstead and designed his masterpiece St. Stephen's Church there, and Horace Jones (1819–87) later architect to the Corporation of the City of London (both were companions on the Continental tour of 1841–42) who was knighted and designed the great Smithfield Meat Market, Billingsgate Fish Market and Leadenhall Market for the city. George Edmund Street (1824–81), designer of the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand in London, was a great influence on his church work as was John Loughborough Pearson (1817–97), the architect of Truro Cathedral and St. Augustine's Church, Kilburn, who was a close friend and married Christian's Isle of Man cousin Jemima in 1862 (Jemima's brother Joseph Henry Christian (1832–1906) became a partner in Christian's practice in 1874 together with a former pupil Charles Henry Purday (d.1900), though work continued to be carried out in Ewan Christian's name only). W. D. Caroe (1857–1938) had been a managing assistant in Christian's office and took over as Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on Christian's death, he was also an outstanding church designer – a good example of his work being St. David's Church at Exeter.
caption: St Giles' Church, Skelton, York, which Ewan Christian published a book of illustrations of in 1846 and later restored, providing it with a new open timber roof in 1882
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