A crown steeple, or crown spire, is a traditional form of church steeple in which curved stone

flying buttress The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of a ramping arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, to convey to the ground the lateral forces that push a wall ou ...

es form the open shape of a rounded crown. Crown spires first appeared in the Late Gothic church architecture in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

during the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, continued to be built through the 17th century and reappeared in the late 18th century as part of the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

Gothic crown spires

The crown steeple on Newcastle Cathedral was erected in 1448. The crown spire of

St Giles' Cathedral St Giles' Cathedral (), or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century; ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

was erected in 1495, and rebuilt by John Mylne in 1648. Another medieval crown steeple was built on the

Chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

of King's College, Aberdeen (1500–1509), although this too was rebuilt in the 17th century, after the original blew down. The crown steeple of the Glasgow Tolbooth, in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

's Merchant City, was built in 1626–1634 by John Boyd, and at the time was the only such steeple in western Scotland. In 1698, Sir Christopher Wren added a tower with a crown steeple to St Dunstan-in-the-East, London.

Gothic Revival crown steeples

Crown steeples were often incorporated into

churches. An octagonal bell tower with crown spire was added to St Giles' Church in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the ...

in 1790. The open spire of Faversham Parish Church, Kent was built in 1797, and a crown steeple was added to Tillington Parish Church, Sussex, in 1807. A secular example tops the Wallace Monument, near Stirling, erected in 1869 to a design by the architect John Thomas Rochead. Other ecclesiastical examples include those at

Tarbert, Kintyre Tarbert (, ; more fully ''Tairbeart Loch Fìne'' "Tarbert fLoch Fyne" to distinguish it from Tarbert, other Tarberts) is a village in the west of Scotland, in the Argyll and Bute council areas of Scotland, council area. It is built at the h ...

(1886), and the Kelvin Stevenson Memorial Church, Glasgow, by John James Stevenson (1902). The south facade of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, London, is a hybrid of Gothic and classical architectural forms, topped by a crown steeple. This part of the building was designed by

Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb, (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in par ...

, and completed in 1909.

Modern versions

One of the most recent examples is at St Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow, where an aluminium crown spire was added in 1964. This replaced an historic crown steeple whose weight had begun to threaten the integrity of the tower. This was illustrated in Slezer's view of Linlithgow Palace. A crown spire was proposed for the long-unfinished crossing of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

, scheduled to be completed in time for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2013. Nothing came of it.

References

{{reflist Architectural elements Architecture in Scotland Architecture in England Gothic Revival architecture