page_title: John Douglas (architect)
section_title: Styles
hierarchical_section_title: John Douglas (architect) / Styles and practice / Styles
caption_attribution_description: English: Parish church of St John the Evangelist, Winsford, Cheshire, seen from the northeast
context_page_description: John Douglas was an English architect who designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales, and northwest England, in particular in the estate of Eaton Hall. He was trained in Lancaster and practised throughout his career from an office in Chester. Initially he ran the practice on his own, but from 1884 until two years before his death he worked in partnerships with two of his former assistants.
  Douglas's output included new churches, restoring and renovating existing churches, church furnishings, new houses and alterations to existing houses, and a variety of other buildings, including shops, banks, offices, schools, memorials and public buildings. His architectural styles were eclectic. Douglas worked during the period of the Gothic Revival, and many of his works incorporate elements of the English Gothic style. He was also influenced by architectural styles from the mainland of Europe and included elements of French, German and Dutch architecture. However he is probably best remembered for his incorporation of vernacular elements in his buildings, in particular half-timbering, influenced by the black-and-white revival in Chester.
context_section_description: Although the firm where Douglas received his training was in a provincial city in the north of England, it was at the forefront of the Gothic Revival in the country. The Gothic Revival was a reaction against the neoclassical style, which had been popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and it incorporated features of the Gothic style of the Middle Ages. Both Edmund Sharpe and E. G. Paley had been influenced by the Cambridge Camden Society and, more specifically, by A. W. N Pugin who believed that "Gothic was the only correct and Christian way to build". Sharpe had also been influenced by Thomas Rickman, and he had written papers on medieval scholarship himself. Paley had been influenced by his brother, Frederick Apthorp Paley, who was enthusiastic about Gothic architecture, and who had also been influenced by Rickman. During the time Douglas was working in Lancaster the firm was responsible for building and restoring churches in Gothic Revival style, one of which was St Wilfrid's Church in the Cheshire village of Davenham, some 3 miles (5 km) from Sandiway. Douglas's first church, that of St John the Evangelist at Over, Winsford, was entirely English Gothic in style, more specifically Early Decorated.
  Douglas's influences were not from England alone. Although he never travelled abroad, he incorporated Gothic styles from continental countries, especially Germany and France. This combination of Gothic styles contributed to what has come to be known as the High Victorian style. Its features include a sense of massiveness, steep roofs which are frequently hipped, round turrets with conical roofs, pinnacles, heavy corbel tables, and the use of polychromism. Many of Douglas's works, especially his earlier ones, are High Victorian in style, or incorporate High Victorian features. One characteristic feature of Douglas's work is the inclusion of dormer windows rising through the eaves and surmounted by hipped roofs.
  Another major influence in his work was the rise of interest in vernacular architecture. By the time Douglas moved to Chester, the black-and-white revival using half-timbering was well under way, and Douglas came to incorporate this style in his buildings in Chester and elsewhere. The black-and-white revival did not start in Chester, but it did become Chester's speciality. The first Chester architect involved in the revival had been Thomas Mainwaring Penson, whose first work in this genre was the restoration of a shop in Eastgate Street in the early 1850s. Other early Chester architects involved in the revival were T. A. Richardson and James Harrison and it came to be developed mainly by T. M. Lockwood and by Douglas. Part of Douglas's earliest work for the Grosvenor family, the entrance lodge to Grosvenor Park, used half-timbering in its upper storey; this is the first known use by Douglas of black-and-white. Other vernacular motifs were taken from earlier styles of English architecture, in particular, the Tudor style. These include tile-hanging, pargetting and massive brick ribbed chimney stacks. In this style, Douglas was influenced by the architects Nesfield and Shaw. Douglas also used vernacular elements from the continent, especially the late medieval brickwork of Germany and the Low Countries.
  A characteristic of Douglas's work is his attention to both external and internal detailing. Such detailing was not derived from any particular style and Douglas chose elements from whichever style suited his purpose for each specific project. His detailing applied particularly to his joinery, perhaps inspired by his experience in his father's workshop, and was applied both to wooden fittings and to the furniture he designed. A further Continental influence was his use of a Dutch gable. The most important and consistently used element in Douglas's vernacular buildings was his use of half-timbering, which was usually used for parts of the building. However, in the cases of Rowden Abbey and St Michael and All Angels Church, Altcar, the entire buildings were timber-framed.
caption: St John's Church, Over, Winsford
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