Gothic architecture

The Gothic architectural tradition originated in France in the mid-12th century and spread rapidly to England, where it remained the prevailing style for well over 300 years. In addition to new constructions, many earlier buildings were wholly or partially rebuilt in this manner, so that most surviving English medieval buildings are predominantly Gothic in form.

The Gothic style arose largely from the introduction of large windows, often filled with stained glass and subdivided by decorative stone tracery. The desire to increase window space drove the development of new structural techniques, which constitute most of the other distinctive features of the style: pointed arches, rib vaults, buttresses and pinnacles. These increased the strength of the building and reduced the amount of weight which had to be carried by the walls, enabling more space to be occupied by glass. They also made possible greater flexibility of proportions than Romanesque afforded. Other characteristic features include columns composed of multiple shafts and high-relief sculpture, usually of a more naturalistic character than found in Romanesque decoration.

England's Gothic architecture is conventionally divided into three chronologically successive but overlapping styles. Early English Gothic (late 12th-early 14th centuries) is the plainest and closest to French models. It is typified by the simpicity of its vaults and tracery, the use of lancet windows and smaller amounts of sculptural decoration than either Romanesque or later varieties of Gothic. Increasing proliferation and elaboration of sculptural decoration and tracery and the emergence of more complex and decorative vaults marked the transition to Decorated Gothic (late 13th-late 14th centuries). The final permutation of the English tradition, and the furthest removed from contemporary continental styles, was Perpendicular Gothic (mid 14th-early 16th centuries), named for its emphasis on continuous vertical lines and the grid patterns of its tracery. In its use of sculpture and tracery this style was sparser than Decorated, but it saw the intricacy of vaulting reach its zenith, with the development of elaborate lierne vaults and the uniquely English fan vaults. The size of windows also reached its peak in this period, while arches and vaults became flatter, developments which placed greater demands than ever before on buildings' structural strength. They were possible because Gothic structural techniques had now reached the height of their sophistication, particularly in the use of buttressing.

Certain features were distinctive to English Gothic churches, particularly cathedrals, throughout their development. They tended to be longer than continental equivalents but also lower and narrower, a fact which facilitated the construction of grand, structurally ambitious towers over the crossing, an almost ubiquitous feature of English cathedrals but virtually unknown elsewhere. In plan they were typified by extensive subdivision and the use of rectangular rather than curved forms. Unusually, many English cathedrals were monastic institutions and consequently had cloisters and polygonal chapter houses attached.

Extensive castle construction continued in the Gothic period, but displayed few of the distinctive features of Gothic church architecture. Norman designs based around a central keep gave way to castles whose most massive structure was a large gatehouse and which were sudivided either through the construction of concentric rings of walls or the use of cross-walls to partition the internal space.

In most parts of the country, non-military secular architecture was usually based on timber frames, but many royal and aristocratic residences included stone structures, particularly great halls. Stone construction was also widespread in monasteries and university buildings. Characteristics introduced from church architecture included the use of tracery to decorate windows. Vaulting, commonplace in churches, was rare in secular buildings, which were almost always roofed in wood, such as the great hammer beam roof of Westminster Hall.