Tudors, Pagans and Goths: A History of the Gothic Revival



Overview

The Gothic Revival is a complex phenomenon in British design that encompassed architecture, garden design, literature and aesthetics. From Shakespeare's history plays to the country houses of Horace Walpole and William Beckford, and from the self-taught architect Sarah Losh to the professional builders and architects of the Oxbridge colleges, referencing the medieval and Tudor periods is a distinctive feature of British architecture which involved many quirky personalities and outright eccentrics in terms of both architects and patrons.

This course examines the impact of historical consciousness on British architecture from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. The architecture of Oxford's colleges offers a number of examples of self-conscious historicism, from Christ Church to Keble. In addition to weekly lectures, one week will be devoted to a walking tour of relevant buildings in Oxford. There will be a final paper in which students will delve more deeply into a case study of their choice.

Programme details

Course starts: 20 Jan 2025

Week 1:  Introduction and historial consciousness in the Tudor and Stuart Periods

Week 2:  John Vanbrugh and Baroque medievalism; how to write the class paper

Week 3:  Tudors and Goths in the eighteenth century:  Horace's Walpole's Strawberry Hill

Week 4:  Gothic and the Garden:  William Kent and Lancelot Brown 

Week 5:  From the Picturesque to the Sublime:  William Beckford's Fonthill Abbey

Week 6:  Thomas Rickman and the Science of Gothic Architecture

Week 7:  Augustus Welby Pugin and the 'True Principles' of Gothic Design

Week 8:  walking tour to include the Natural History Museum and Keble College

Week 9:  Ecclesiology, Oxbridge Colleges, and the Architecture of Empire

Week 10:  John Ruskin, William Morris, and Gothic in the Arts and Crafts Movement

Certification

To complete the course and receive a certificate, you will be required to attend at least 80% of the classes on the course and pass your final assignment. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so.

Fees

Description Costs
Course Fee £285.00
Take this course for CATS points £30.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Dr Megan Aldrich

Megan Aldrich is an independent scholar who lectures and writes about aspects of architectural and design history.  Recent publications include Art and Authenticity (Lund Humphries, 2012); Thomas Rickman and the Victorians (Victorian Society, 2019); and articles in Garden History (2016), Furniture History (2018, 2020) and the Decorative Arts Society Journal (2023). She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Hon. Editorial Secretary of the Furniture History Society.

Course aims

To promote understanding of and appreciation for the deeper meanings of historicism in architecture and design.

Course objectives:

1.  to encourage students to explore the context for revived styles from the Tudor and medieval pasts

2.  to promote understanding of the distinctive characteristics of British architecture and design

3. to develop students' ability to observe and analyse individual buildings

Teaching methods

Weekly lectures will form the backbone of this class.  After one hour there will be a break, and the second half of each class will be a more informal session where students have a chance to raise questions and discuss aspects of the lecture content each week.  

The site visit in Week 8 is considered an essential aspect of the class teaching and will be useful in consolidating ideas and preparing for the final essay.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will be expected to:

1.  understand motivations and contexts for the revival of past styles of architecture

2.  identify and analyse historicist elements of design as a distinctive feature of British architecture

3.  feel confident in writing about individual buildings

Assessment methods

Students will be assessed by means of a 1500-word final paper in which they investigate a building of their choice as a case study that draws upon aspects of the class teaching.  The paper will test students' ability to observe visual architectural features of a building and draw conclusions from them.

Coursework is an integral part of all weekly classes and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework in order to benefit fully from the course. Only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard.

Students must submit a completed Declaration of Authorship form at the end of term when submitting your final piece of work. CATS points cannot be awarded without the aforementioned form - Declaration of Authorship form

Application

To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment Form (Word) or Enrolment Form (Pdf)

Level and demands

Some prior knowledge of British history, architecture or design would be helpful.

The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first-year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS)

To earn credit (CATS points) you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Students who register for CATS points will receive a Record of CATS points on successful completion of their course assessment.

Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process can either register for CATS points prior to the start of their course or retrospectively from January 1st after the current full academic year has been completed. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support