Introduction
According to Henry Russell Hitchcock, William White (great-nephew of the naturalist Gilbert White) was a master of High Victorian architectural polychromy. The architect, who had worked alongside William Butterfield as "an assistant of Street in G. G. Scott's office, was an early user of "the new polychromy that soon became the principal, though by no means the only, hallmark of High Victorian Gothic . . . at All Saints' in Talbot Road, Kensington, in London, begun in 1850" (174). White's Holy Saviour, Aberdeen Park (London, 1859) externally "is quiet and rather shapeless; but inside the red brick of the exterior gives way to a subtle harmony of patterned brickwork in beiges, browns, and mauves — assisted in the chancel by some additional decorative painting — that is unequalled in High Victorian polychromy" (179).
Works
Among the many works by White not illustrated on this site
- Holy Saviour, Aberdeen Park, London
- All Saints', Talbot Road, Kensington, London
Bibliography
Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Penguin, 1963. [Note however that William White has been confused here with William Henry White FRIBA (1838-1896); thanks to Erica Tinsley, chair of the Andover History & Archaeology Society, for pointing out the errors that resulted on an earlier version of this page.]
Hunter, Margaret Gillian. An Examination of the Work of William White, F.S.A. Architect (1825-1900). University College London Doctral Thesis. Open access. Web. 7 July 2025. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1446026/
____. William White: Victprian Architect. Downtown, Salisbury: Spire Books, 2010.
_____. "The Wisdom of William White." The Victorian No. 79 (July 2025):4-7.
Last modified 7 July 2025