The importance of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) to Victorian architecture and design cannot be overestimated. Key to his recognition in our times was a major exhibition of his work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1994 — coincidentally, the very year that the Victorian Web itself entered the internet. The exhibition drew widespread attention to Pugin's legacy, which was described in the Art Newspaper of the time as "crucial" not only to the Gothic Revival in architecture, but to the Arts and Crafts movement, inspired by the same fundamental principle of honest craftsmanship.
The following year brought a smaller exhibition of Pugin's designs at Ramsgate Library in Kent. A seaside town on the Isle of Thanet, Ramsgate was where Pugin and his family settled in 1844 at The Grange, a house of his own design. The Pugin Society was launched there in the same year as the smaller exhibition. One of the very few societies in the country to be devoted to a single architect, under committed and capable leadership it soon grew into a thriving organisation celebrating his life and works. While its central focus is on Pugin himself, its interests range widely to encompass his family and associates, including (in particular) his architect sons and descendants; the major ecclesiastical ornament firm of John Hardman of Birmingham; and the wider application of Pugin's ideas in architecture and the associated arts, both at home and abroad.
Since its foundation, the society has gone from strength to strength. In the winter of 1995/96, a matter of months after it was founded, it launched a journal, aptly entitled True Principles in tribute to Pugin's own foundational publication of 1841, The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture. The journal was given different subtitles over the years, becoming The Journal of the Pugin Society in 2004, and Transactions of the Pugin Society in 2021 — the subtitle still used today. There is an annual newsletter as well, entitled equally happily Present State, after Pugin's 1843 book, The Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England. A number of books have also been published under the society's imprint.
In addition to these print publications, the society has a splendid website, from which the colourful motifs at the top and foot of this webpage are taken (with kind permission). Since 2020 there has been a regular electronic newsletter, too, currently edited by the society's original founding secretary, Catriona Blaker. This kind of continuity just confirms the commitment that Pugin inspires in the society as a whole.
By print and online, members are notified of a varied programme of activities in different parts of the country, as well as other publications by major architectural historians. Helped by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the society also offers some well-thought-out and engaging educational materials for schools.
We are delighted to recommend the society to our readers, and aim to promote both the society itself, and a greater understanding of Pugin, by sharing news and occasional papers from its various publications. Pugin's watchward was "En Avant," repeated around the family crest featuring a martlet, seen on the right here in the stained glass of the library window at The Grange. It is an inspiring motto, and one to which we also pledge ourselves.
Click HERE to visit the Pugin Society website.
Created 23 April 2026