Architecture of the United Kingdom

England has seen the most influential developments,[1] though Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have each fostered unique styles and played leading roles in the international history of architecture.

[1] Although there are prehistoric and classical structures in the United Kingdom, British architectural history effectively begins with the first Anglo-Saxon Christian churches, built soon after Augustine of Canterbury arrived in Great Britain in 597.

[1] Throughout the United Kingdom, secular medieval architecture has left a legacy of large stone castles, with a concentration being found lining both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border, dating from the Wars of Scottish Independence of the 14th century.

[2] Georgian, Scots Baronial and Neoclassical architecture advanced after the Scottish Enlightenment, and since the 1930s various modernist forms appeared, though traditionalist resistance movements continue with support from Charles, Prince of Wales.

The cities of Lahore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka and Chittagong have courts, administrative buildings and railway stations designed in British architectural styles.

The architecture of ancient Rome penetrated Roman Britain with "elegant villas, carefully planned towns and engineering marvels like Hadrian's Wall".

[1][6] The Norman penetration of the Scottish nobility resulted in Scoto-Norman and Romanesque architecture too, examples being Dunfermline Abbey, St. Margaret's Chapel and St. Magnus Cathedral.

[6] Although primarily homes, manor houses of the Late Middle Ages, were designed with achieving respect and maintaining status through their hospitality and lordship rather than the grandeur of their buildings.

[6] Between 1500 and 1660 Britain experienced a social, cultural and political change owing to the Union of the Crowns (the accession of James VI, King of Scots, to the throne of England) and the Protestant Reformation.

[8] The architecture of Britain this period reflects these changes; church building declined dramatically, supplanted by the construction of mansions and manor houses.

Clergyman William Harrison noted in his Description of England (1577), "Each one desireth to set his house aloft on the hill, to be seen afar off, and cast forth his beams of stately and curious workmanship into every quarter of the country.

[6] However, owing to troublesome relations with Catholic Europe, the free exchange of ideas was difficult meaning new Renaissance architecture was generally slow to arrive in Britain.

For the majority of the people of Great Britain however, domestic buildings were of poor design and materials, meaning few examples from the early modern period have survived.

[6] The arrival of Flemish people in the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Protestant craftsmen and pattern-books from the Low Countries that also prompted the multiplication of weavers' cottages.

[11][12] This union meant that Scottish politicians tended to spend most of their time in London to attend the Parliament of the United Kingdom; the tendency was that these individuals became very wealthy.

[10] Under the newly formed Kingdom of Great Britain, output from the Royal Society and other English initiatives combined with the Scottish Enlightenment to create innovations in the arts, sciences and engineering.

A collaboration in the Perpendicular Gothic style between Augustus Welby Pugin and Sir Charles Barry, it is described by Linda Colley as "the building that most enshrines Britain's national and imperial pre-tensions".

Buildings in the Queen Anne style are strongly influenced by Dutch domestic architecture: typically, they are simple rectilinear designs in red brick, with an undemonstrative charm.

Early Christian art and architecture is found throughout Northern Ireland, as well as monastic sites, gravestones, abbeys, round towers and Celtic crosses.

[22] Belfast has examples of art deco architecture such a such as the Bank of Ireland and Sinclair's department store on Royal Avenue and the Floral Hall at Bellevue.

Nicknamed the "British Pompeii",[23] Skara Brae is Europe's most complete neolithic village and the level of preservation is such that it has gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1999.

[6] The new political stability, made possible by the Act of Union,[10] allowed for renewed prosperity in Scotland, which led to a spate of new building, both public and private, during the 18th century.

Scotland produced "the most important British architects of this age": Colen Campbell, James Gibbs and Robert Adam were Scots interpreting the first phase of Classical forms of ancient Greece and Rome in Palladian architecture.

[26] Christian architecture in Scotland has a distinct style; The Royal Institute of British Architects have stated that "Scottish churches are peculiarly plain, low and often quite humble buildings".

Examples include Bryn Celli Ddu a neolithic site on the Isle of Anglesey, and Parc Cwm long cairn on the Gower Peninsula.