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Encyclopedia entry: Perpendicular architecture
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to British History
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to British History 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. (Hide copyright information)
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Perpendicular architecture
was the last, great, culminating phase of
Gothic
architecture in England, so called because of the vertical lines of its window tracery and the similar effect of panelling, executed in stone, covering wall surfaces. Complex and decorative, it also makes use of the ‘four-centred’ arch, allowing extended, sometimes enormous, window apertures. Ever more intricate ‘stellar’, ‘fan’, and ultimately ‘pendant’ vaulting systems are also typical. So distinctively English was this style, and of such longevity (
c.
1350–1550), that the term ‘Perpendicular’ fails to convey its true importance; as John ...