In 1851, John Henry Newman received a packet of architectural drawings for his new Oratorian church in Birmingham. It was never built – today’s Birmingham Oratory was designed after his death – but in moments of distress or reflection Newman took them out and pored over them.
Which architect had he commissioned? Surely AWN Pugin, the most famous Catholic architect of the day? Or perhaps another Catholic, JJ Scoles, architect of the Jesuit Farm Street Church?
For a long time, it was believed that Newman had chosen the French Gothic Revival architect EE Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), famous for his restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris.
