Editing Gothic Revival architecture (section)

===Ecclesiology and funerary style===
In England, the [[Anglicanism|Church of England]] was undergoing a revival of [[Anglo-Catholic]] and [[Ritualism|ritualist]] ideology in the form of the [[Oxford Movement]], and it became desirable to build large numbers of new churches to cater for the growing population, and cemeteries for their hygienic burials. This found ready exponents in the universities, where the [[ecclesiological movement]]<!-- do not link to ecclesiology, which is different--> was forming. Its proponents believed that Gothic was the ''only'' style appropriate for a parish church, and favoured a particular era of Gothic architecture – the "[[Decorated Period|decorated]]". The [[Cambridge Camden Society]], through its journal ''The Ecclesiologist'', was so savagely critical of new church buildings that were below its exacting standards and its pronouncements were followed so avidly that it became the epicentre of the flood of [[Victorian restoration]] that affected most of the Anglican cathedrals and parish churches in England and Wales.{{sfn|Clark|1983|pp=155–174}}

[[File:Exeter College Chapel, Oxford - Diliff.jpg|left|upright=1.4|thumb|[[Exeter College, Oxford]] Chapel]]

[[St Luke's Church, Chelsea]], was a new-built [[Commissioner's Church]] of 1820–1824, partly built using a grant of £8,333 towards its construction with money voted by [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] as a result of the [[Church Building Act 1818]].{{sfn|Port|2006|p=327}} It is often said to be the first Gothic Revival church in London,{{sfn|Germann|1972|p=9}} and, as [[Charles Locke Eastlake]] put it: "probably the only church of its time in which the main roof was groined throughout in stone".{{sfn|Eastlake|2012|p=141}} Nonetheless, the parish was firmly [[low church]], and the original arrangement, modified in the 1860s, was as a "preaching church" dominated by the pulpit, with a small altar and wooden galleries over the nave aisle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chelseaparish.org/stlukes.htm|title=St Luke's Church – A Brief History|publisher=St Luke's Parochial Church Council|access-date=2 November 2012}}</ref>

The development of the private [[Magnificent Seven, London|major metropolitan cemeteries]] was occurring at the same time as the movement; [[William Tite|Sir William Tite]] pioneered the first cemetery in the Gothic style at [[West Norwood Cemetery|West Norwood]] in 1837, with chapels, gates, and decorative features in the Gothic manner, attracting the interest of contemporary architects such as [[George Edmund Street]], Barry, and [[William Burges]]. The style was immediately hailed a success and universally replaced the previous preference for classical design.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://courtauld.ac.uk/event/west-norwood-cemetery|title=West Norwood Cemetery|publisher=The Courtauld Institute of Art|access-date=6 May 2020|archive-date=16 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716181401/https://courtauld.ac.uk/event/west-norwood-cemetery|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Not every architect or client was swept away by this tide. Although Gothic Revival succeeded in becoming an increasingly familiar style of architecture, the attempt to associate it with the notion of high church superiority, as advocated by Pugin and the ecclesiological movement, was anathema to those with ecumenical or nonconformist principles. [[Alexander Thomson|Alexander "Greek" Thomson]] launched a famous attack; "We are told we should adopt [Gothic] because it is the Christian style, and this most impudent assertion has been accepted as sound doctrine even by earnest and intelligent Protestants; whereas it ought only to have force with those who believe that Christian truth attained its purest and most spiritual development at the period when this style of architecture constituted its corporeal form".{{sfn|Stamp|1997|p=1}} Those rejecting the link between Gothic and Catholicism looked to adopt it solely for its aesthetic romantic qualities, to combine it with other styles, or look to northern European [[Brick Gothic]] for a more plain appearance; or in some instances all three of these, as at the non-denominational [[Abney Park Cemetery]] in east London, designed by [[William Hosking|William Hosking FSA]] in 1840.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1000789 |desc=Abney Park Cemetery, Hackney |date=1 October 1987|access-date=11 May 2018}}</ref>