Exterior view

In the 1820s, the Gothic Revival began to be considered as a serious style for more than country houses, rivaling the predominant Neoclassicism. One of the first areas in which the Gothic Revival emerged triumphant was church building. The pattern of the exterior was for a tall west tower, though furnished with large tracery windows, buttresses and pinnacles. In the lavish design of St. Luke’s in Chelsea, the western classical portico is replaced by a low Gothicizing porch with pointed arches and ogee hoods. The nave and aisles within are completely vaulted in stone, thereby attempting to imitate Gothic not only in decoration but also in the structure.