Burford Methodist Church is a baroque building in the High Street of Burford, Oxfordshire. It was built between about 1715 [1] and 1730 [2] as a private house and converted in 1849 to a Wesleyan Chapel. [1] It is a Grade II* Listed Building. [2]
Burford Methodist Church is a baroque building in the High Street of Burford, Oxfordshire. It was built between about 1715 [1] and 1730 [2] as a private house and converted in 1849 to a Wesleyan Chapel. [1] It is a Grade II* Listed Building. [2]
Baroque architecture flowered for only a very brief period in Britain's architectural history, reaching its apex under the guidance of such architects as John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor who transformed the more florid European style of Baroque, as promoted by Christopher Wren, into a more severe form peculiar to Britain. There, Baroque tended to be favoured by the travelled upper classes, who had seen the genre in mainland Europe, however, even by this minority it was not universally admired. When John Vanbrugh persuaded the government and the saviour of England, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, to permit him to design Blenheim Palace in the Baroque style, Marlborough's wife the formidable Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough was accompanied by a large group of intellectuals, who included Alexander Pope, in being strongly critical. [3]
Therefore, to find an early example of the Baroque in the high street of a small provincial English town is unusual, more unusual, is that the building sits on a small site still surrounded by its original neighbours - older, smaller medieval buildings which though rare today in their surviving quantity and composition are of little individual architectural merit and serve to accentuate the height and classicism of their more refined neighbour; thus, the church retains a setting which is part of Baroque architecture's original concept - the element of surprise; until the early 20th century, this was exemplified by the sight of St. Peter's Basilica rising incongruously out of the jumble of medieval architecture that was the Borgo before the creation of the Via della Conciliazione, which although it has created a grand approach and perspective to the Basilica has taken away the Baroque element of surprise as one suddenly came upon the Piazza San Pietro from the jumble of narrow streets and small squares.
The church was designed as a private house, for a local lawyer, John Jordan. [4] The building is on three floors, a high and clearly visible semi-basement, which would have contained the kitchens and domestic secondary rooms; the first floor which was the principal floor containing the main reception rooms and entrance; and the 2nd floor containing principal bedrooms. Given the date of the house, it's possible that the principal bedroom was on the first floor in the piano nobile style, but no documentary evidence survives describing the original layout.
The front (and only) façade is fully rusticated from the 1st floor upwards; it is of five bays divided by six fluted pilasters surmounted by Corinthian capitals which are united by an entablature supporting a balustraded parapet. The principal entrance which occupies the central bay of the first floor is heavily pedimented in the style of James Gibbs and reached by a flight of steps which rise over and shield from view the entrance to semi-basement. This secondary entrance to the house, intended only for use by servants and tradesmen is reached by a descending, segmented external double staircase, a common enough feature in a baroque house ascending the principal entrance, but rare when descending to a secondary entrance.
The windows are ornamented by dropped keystones and aprons. In order to maintain the scale and perspective of the building, the windows are by necessity long and narrow this creates an illusion of greater height — illusion being a typical Baroque feature. [5] The illusion has been somewhat modified, however, by the late 19th century replacement glazing bars on the first and second floors. The glazing bars on the ground floor, which are likely to be original, give smaller panes which are more in the English Baroque style as seen at other contemporary baroque buildings, such as Easton Neston. The crowded features of the Baroque façade are not dissimilar to those at Heythrop Park, also in Oxfordshire, where Francis Smith, the architect, worked as building contractor.
In 1849 the house was sold and converted into a church. [4] The conversion work involved the complete gutting of the upper two floors. These became one vast hall intended for use as worship. A large indoor balcony, intended to provide extra seating, was erected at first floor level and the ornamental urns which decorated the balustraded parapet were removed as "inconsistent with the sacred character of the building." [4]
The building was still used as a Methodist church and was part of the Witney and Faringdon Methodist circuit. As of 2023 the church has closed and is for sale with agents Fisher German https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141151295#/?channel=RES_BUY
Nicholas Hawksmoor was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principal architects of the time, Christopher Wren and John Vanbrugh, and contributed to the design of some of the most notable buildings of the period, including St Paul's Cathedral, Wren's City of London churches, Greenwich Hospital, Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. Part of his work has been correctly attributed to him only relatively recently, and his influence has reached several poets and authors of the twentieth century.
Blenheim Palace is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between 1705 and 1722, and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
Sir John Vanbrugh was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697), which have become enduring stage favourites but originally occasioned much controversy. He was knighted in 1714.
Burford is a town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswold hills, in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is often referred to as the 'gateway' to the Cotswolds. Burford is located 18 miles (29 km) west of Oxford and 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Cheltenham, about 2 miles (3 km) from the Gloucestershire boundary. The toponym derives from the Old English words burh meaning fortified town or hilltown and ford, the crossing of a river. The 2011 Census recorded the population of Burford parish as 1,422.
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Giacomo Leoni, also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Palladio. Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism in English architecture, beginning in earnest around 1720. Also loosely referred to as Georgian, this style is rooted in Italian Renaissance architecture.
Combe is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Witney in Oxfordshire. It is bounded to the south and southwest by the River Evenlode, to the northwest partly by the course of the Akeman Street Roman road and partly by a road parallel with it, and to the east by the boundary of Blenheim Great Park. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 768.
Easton Neston is a large grade I listed country house in the parish of Easton Neston near Towcester in Northamptonshire, England. It was built by William Fermor, 1st Baron Leominster (1648–1711), in the Baroque style to the design of the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.
Sir Edward Lovett Pearce was an Irish architect, and the chief exponent of Palladianism in Ireland. He is thought to have initially studied as an architect under his father's first cousin, Sir John Vanbrugh. He is best known for the Irish Houses of Parliament in Dublin, and his work on Castletown House. The architectural concepts he employed on both civic and private buildings were to change the face of architecture in Ireland. He could be described as the father of Irish Palladian architecture and Georgian Dublin.
Shilton is a village and civil parish about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) northwest of Carterton, Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 626.
Bladon is a village and civil parish on the River Glyme about 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 km) northwest of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. It is where Sir Winston Churchill is buried. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 898.
English Baroque is a term used to refer to modes of English architecture that paralleled Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and roughly 1720, when the flamboyant and dramatic qualities of Baroque art were abandoned in favour of the more chaste, rule-based Neo-classical forms espoused by the proponents of Palladianism.
The architecture of Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire, reflects that which can be found in many small towns in England. The architecture contained in many of the country's great cities is well recorded and documented, as is that of the numerous great country houses. Frequently, the work is by one of England's more notable architects – Christopher Wren, John Vanbrugh, Robert Adam, William Kent or even Quinlan Terry. What is less well known is the local architecture in the market towns, often inspired by the work of the great master architects or architectural styles popular at the time. English merchants would often return from a visit to one of the nearby cities, or having seen a glimpse of one of the great country houses then require a replica of what they had seen. A local architect would then be employed to recreate it, within limited financial restraints. Sometimes the patron would merely draw an image of what he required and a builder would then interpret the requirements to the best of his often limited ability.
St Paul's, Deptford, is one of London's finest Baroque parish churches, cited as "one of the most moving C18 churches in London" in the Buildings of England series. It was designed by gentleman architect Thomas Archer and built between 1712 and 1730 in Deptford, which was then a settlement in Kent but is now part of South East London. It was one of the 50 churches that were to be built by the New Church Commissioners, although only 12 were ultimately constructed. With St John's, Smith Square, it was one of two churches designed by Archer to be built under the Act.
Heythrop Park is a Grade II* listed early 18th-century country house 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast of Heythrop in Oxfordshire. It was designed by the architect Thomas Archer in the Baroque style for Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury. A fire in 1831 destroyed the original interior. From 1922 until 1970 Heythrop housed first a Jesuit tertiary education college, and later a training establishment. The house is now the main building of the Heythrop Park Hotel, Golf & Country Club.
Vanbrugh Castle is a house designed and built by John Vanbrugh for his own family, located on Maze Hill on the eastern edge of Greenwich Park in London, to the north of Blackheath, with views to the west past the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich down to the Thames reaching as far as the Houses of Parliament.
The King and Queen is a pub in the seaside resort of Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove. The present building, a "striking" architectural "pantomime" by the prolific local firm Clayton & Black, dates from the 1930s, but a pub of this name has stood on the site since 1860—making it one of the first developments beyond the boundaries of the ancient village. This 18th-century pub was, in turn, converted from a former farmhouse. Built using materials characteristic of 16th-century Vernacular architecture, the pub is in the Mock Tudor style and has a wide range of extravagant decorative features inside and outside—contrasting with the simple design of the neighbouring offices at 20–22 Marlborough Place, designed a year later. English Heritage has listed the pub at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Corn exchanges are distinct buildings which were originally created as a venue for corn merchants to meet and arrange pricing with farmers for the sale of wheat, barley, and other corn crops. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley. With the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, a large number of corn exchanges were built in England, particularly in the corn-growing areas of Eastern England.
The architecture of Bedford Park in Chiswick, West London, is characterised largely by Queen Anne Revival style, meaning an eclectic mixture of English and Flemish house styles from the 17th and 18th centuries, with elements of many other styles featuring in some of the buildings.