What church is of red brick?
In 1859 Burges began work with Ambrose Poynter on the Maison Dieu, Dover, which was completed in 1861. Emulation of the original medieval style can be seen in his renovation of the grotesque animals and in the coats of arms incorporated into his new designs. Burges later designed the Council Chamber, added in 1867, and in 1881 began work on Connaught Hall in Dover, a town meeting and concert hall. The new building contained meeting rooms and mayoral and official offices. Although Burges designed the project, most of it was completed after his death by his partners, Pullan and Chapple. The listed status of the Maison Dieu was reclassified as Grade I in 2017 and Dover District Council, the building's owner, is seeking grant funding to enable a restoration, focussing on Burges's work.In 1859–60, Burges took over the restoration of Waltham Abbey from Poynter, working with Poynter's son Edward Poynter and with furniture makers Harland and Fisher. He commissioned Edward Burne-Jones of James Powell & Sons to make three stained-glass windows for the east end, representing the Tree of Jesse. The Abbey is a demonstration of Burges's skills as a restorer, with "a profound sensitivity towards medieval architecture." Mordaunt Crook wrote of Burges's interior that, "it meets the Middle Ages as an equal."
In 1861–2, Burges was commissioned by Charles Edward Lefroy, secretary to the Speaker of the House of Commons, to build All Saints Church, Fleet, as a memorial to Lefroy's wife. She was the daughter of James Walker, who established the marine engineering company of Walker and Burges with Burges's father Alfred, and this family connection brought Burges the commission. Pevsner says of Fleet that "it has no shape, nor character nor notable buildings, except one," that one being All Saints. The church is of red brick and Pevsner considered it "astonishingly restrained." The interior too is simply decorated but the massive sculpture, particularly of the tomb of the Lefroys and of the gabled arch below which the tomb originally stood, is quintessentially Burges, Crook describing it as "not so much muscular (gothic) as muscle-bound."
All Saints Church