3 - Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages and the Membrological Approach

Summary

He treated a building as he treated a machine: he took it to pieces; he pointed out what was structural and what was decorative, what was imitated and what was original; and how the most complex forms of mediæval invention might be reduced to simple elements.

John Willis Clark, from DNB

The 1820s and 1830s saw Willis seeking to establish his reputation in the world of science. The 1830s also saw his first entry into the field with which he became most closely identified, both in his own day and thereafter: the study of medieval architecture. As his nephew's words suggest, the two areas of research could be inter-related; nevertheless, the associations between the subjects are neither obvious nor inevitable, nor is it immediately apparent why Willis should have chosen to venture into a new field. Some background information is therefore required.

ARCHITECTURE IN THE 1820s AND 1830s

An interest in architecture was perhaps unavoidable. Growing up in London, as we have seen, Willis would have seen the transformation of the metropolis through new development, in particular the construction of Regent Street (1811—25), and he took an interest in the erection of several buildings there (he would later live in Regent's Park). Church architecture was part of his inheritance: his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Willis (1762—1827) was the incumbent of Hawksmoor's St George's, Bloomsbury, erected by the Commission for the Building of Fifty New Churches.