Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin was invited to lecture at the Heritage Ottawa’s two day colloquium entitled “The Origins and Significance of Residential Gothic Architecture in Ottawa”. The colloquium began on Friday morning with an excursion to the Gothic influenced Old St Mary’s Church (1822-1825) followed by a guided tour of Earnscliffe (1855 – 1857), former home of Sir John A. Macdonald and current residence of the British High Commissioner in Canada. Dr Brittain-Catlin’s lecture on Friday evening was held at St. Alban’s Church, his presentation on the architect A.W.N. Pugin was much anticipated and very well received.
Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin said: ‘it was an honour to join this important event. It has been very exciting to discover how Pugin’s ideas not only arrived in Ottawa but took such powerful and distinct form. We know about the influence of the British gothic revival on Canadian church architecture, but to discover such a clear impact of the revolutionary pinwheel on domestic architecture was a revelation. Thanks to the excellent work of Bruce Elliott, David Jeanes and their colleagues, future appreciation of these important houses looks much more secure’.
Whilst in Ottawa Dr Brittain-Catlin also acted as visiting scholar at the Department of Art History, at the invitation of Professor Peter Coffman, and amongst other activities talked about his new book Bleak Houses: disappointment and failure in architecture.