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02 · Medieval

Perpendicular Gothic

c. 1330–1550

English late Gothic: thin stone bars running floor to ceiling, enormous gridded windows, and fan vaulted ceilings.

Look for

Pointed arch Tracery window Vertical pier
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, England: an example of Perpendicular Gothic architecture
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, England. Photo: Christian Richardt, CC BY-SA 3.0
Henry VII Chapel, Westminster Abbey, London, England
Henry VII Chapel, Westminster Abbey London, England · Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0
Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, England
Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester, England · Geni, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bath Abbey, Bath, England
Bath Abbey Bath, England · GarfieldJAustin, CC BY 4.0
St George's Chapel, Windsor, England
St George's Chapel Windsor, England · Aurelien Guichard from London, United Kingdom (changes by Rabanus Flavus), CC BY-SA 2.0

what it is

Perpendicular is the last phase of English Gothic, named for its window tracery: vertical stone bars (mullions) run straight up to the arch and are crossed by horizontal bars (transoms), dividing the glass into tall rectangular panels. The same grid of arch-topped panels covers walls, towers and screens. Arches are often four-centered, a flattened pointed shape. Ceilings are lierne vaults, with extra short ribs between the main ones, or fan vaults, in which ribs of equal curve spread from each support in a cone.

King's College Chapel in Cambridge (1446-1515) has the world's largest fan vault, built by John Wastell in 1512-1515. The Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey in London (about 1503-1512) has a fan vault with hanging pendants. At Gloucester Cathedral, the Romanesque choir was refaced with Perpendicular paneling from 1331, and the Great East Window, finished about 1350, was then the largest window in existence. French Gothic of the same period, called Flamboyant, used curving, flame-shaped tracery instead of straight vertical lines.

how to spot one

Pointed arch An arch whose two curved sides meet at a point, called the apex. It is the standard arch of Gothic and Gothic Revival buildings and pushes outward less than a round arch. Tracery window A window divided by vertical stone bars called mullions, which branch at the top into curved stonework called tracery. It supports large areas of glass in Gothic churches and Gothic Revival buildings. Vertical pier Narrow vertical bands of stone or brick, called piers, running the full height of a facade between recessed columns of windows. They are common on early skyscrapers and Art Deco towers.

Also look for

ButtressStained glassSpireSteep gable

history

The style appeared around 1330. Early examples include William de Ramsey's chapter house at Old St Paul's Cathedral in London (1332), destroyed in the fire of 1666, and the south transept (1329-1337) and choir of Gloucester Cathedral. Gloucester's cloisters, designed between 1351 and 1377 by Thomas de Cantebrugge, have the earliest surviving fan vaults in England. The name comes from Thomas Rickman, who classified English Gothic into periods in 1812.

Perpendicular was the main style for English churches from the reign of Richard II (1377-1399) to that of Henry VIII (1509-1547). It developed only in England, with no equivalent on the Continent or elsewhere in the British Isles. King's College Chapel and Bath Abbey were among the last large works before Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries between 1536 and 1541, and work on Bath Abbey stopped unfinished in 1539. In the 19th century, Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin used Perpendicular forms for the new Palace of Westminster in London (1840-1870).

where to find it

King's College Chapel in Cambridge, the choir of Gloucester Cathedral, and Bath Abbey.

easy to confuse with

Notre-Dame de Paris, an example of Gothic Gothic Pointed arches, ribbed ceilings, and flying buttresses that let stone walls turn into glass and light. Palace of Westminster, an example of Gothic Revival Gothic Revival Medieval drama revived: pointed arches, steep gables, patterned stone window bars, and strong vertical lines.