¶ … London has a rich architectural history. Some of the most popular buildings today come from the 19th century when Victorian Gothic architecture was popular. St. Pancras New Church offers a take at Greek revival style with a brick build, faced with Portland stone. Another Victorian style building, Manchester Town Hall, while built in the same century as St. Pancras, has its differences thanks to the rapid expansion and accompanying pollution so frequently seen in Victorian cities. Both structures hallmarks of British Victorian architecture, but also indelibly varied and indicative of the skill and engineering of the architects of the era. Pancras Paris Church, also called St. Pancras New Church is a Greek Revival church located in St. Pancras, London. The structure was constructed in three years from 1819-1822 and designed by Henry William and William Inwood. Placed along the south side of Euston Road and the northern boundary of Bloomsbury, the designers intended for the building to serve as the new principal or main church for the parish of St. Pancras. The old and original parish church existed to the north of what is called New Road.

Because the southern part of the parish expanded, a new church was a necessary addition. Using the Ionic order, the church was built in the style of Greek revival and has a tower and portico made entirely of stone. Capitals of the columns and other external decoration is of terracotta. Inspiration came from two ancient Greek monuments, the Tower of the Winds as well as the Erechtheum. Both monuments were erected in Athens.

The Greek inspiration marks the first main difference of the two structures as the town hall was inspired by its surrounding landscape versus foreign architecture. Another is its execution as the church mimics several things that were key features of the Greek monuments. Because the Greek monuments served as the main and practically only inspiration, it was more Greek revival than Victorian. Although, if one looks at the image provided of the original version of the church, the top portion of the structure is similar to the town hall's build.

The inspiration from Erechtheum helped the Inwoods create doorways modeled from this monument, as is the majority of the ornamentation and the entablature. In fact, when the plans for St. Pancras were approved, Henry William Inwood was in the city of Athens and brought actual excavated fragments and plaster casts of details of the Erechtheum back to England.

The west end mimics the basic arrangement of the portico with the tower and vestibules established at St. Martin-in-the-Fields by James Gibbs. The Tower of the Winds influenced the octagonal domed ceiling of St. Pancras' vestibule. The east end houses an apse, flanked by two of the building's most original features, the Erechtheum inspired tribunes. The designers chose to support the entablatures via caryatids. Different from the Erechtheum, the caryatid holds an emblematic empty jug or an extinguished torch, suitable for their positions above entrances of the burial vault. The caryatids are made of terracotta and were built in sections modelled by the church's terracotta supplier, John Charles Felix Rossi.

Each tribune has behind it a stone sarcophagus. Studded with lion's heads, the cornices provide a beautiful addition to the church. Underneath the portico are the three entrances. The design did not include side doors. However, it does include galleries supported by cast-iron columns and has an 18-meter flat ceiling. Designed as vestries were the tribune's upper levels, providing contrast to the lower sections and showing another marked difference. The church designers made things so it could add aesthetic value to the structure versus the town hall which added features that added practical value.

A lot of the interior mimics aspects of the two aforementioned monuments. The interior of the apse takes the form of half of a circular temple, painted to imitate marble, with six columns, raised on a plinth. A notable feature of the church is the crypt that can hold 2,000 coffins. While the capacity was intended for 2,000 coffins, because the practice of interments ended by 1854, only five hundred interments took place in the crypt. During World War I and World War II, the crypt served as an air-raid shelter. Present use of the church is an art gallery.

Comparing the uses of the church's crypt to the offices that were and are housed in Manchester Town Hall, there are some similarities in the sense that the public used these spaces. These spaces also transformed over time due to the changing needs of those that used them. And like the town...

In 1970, builders added a North Chapel. 1981 brought interior restorations. The building was also given a Grade I listing.
Manchester Town Hall, a Neo-Gothic, Victorian municipal building located in Manchester, England, is the ceremonial headquarters of the Manchester City Council. The building houses several local government departments. Similar to St. Pancras new church, it faces several key features of the area from Albert Square to St. Peter's Square and Albert memorial. Finished in 1877, architect Alfred Waterhouse designed Manchester Town Hall. With grand ceremonial rooms and offices decorated with Manchester Murals illustrate beautifully the history of the city and inspires admiration of London rather than St. Pancras that inspires admiration of Athens and ancient Greek monuments.

The Sculpture Hall and entrance contain statues and busts of influential figures like Bariroli, Joule, and Dalton. The clock tower dominates the exterior, rising to 85-meters, housing the clock bell named Great Abel. Similar to St. Pancras New Church, the bulding was granted the Grade I listed building status and is regarded as the best example of Gothic revival architecture worldwide.

Victorian cities due to heavy pollution and rapid growth, caused major issues for architects. This is because of overcrowding, noise, visibility and accessibility of buildings, awkward sites, and air pollution. Architectural devices like suspended first floor rooms enabled sufficient availability of window light throughout buildings and was made possible through the use of extra dormers and windows, skylights, and iron-framed construction. Glazed white bricks helped areas with less light appear brighter along with mosaic marble paving.

In rooms of significance, the designer used clear glass with lightly-colored tints due to the sky of Manchester not favoring the use of deeply stained glass. Practicality was a main theme throughout the town hall. Although medieval styling was kept in mind, the building supported 19th century practical technologies by having gas lighting as well as a warm-air heating system that provided fresh, warmed air.

The air was then fed into stairwells to help in ventilating corridors. Banister rails ingeniously supplied lighting via gas filled pipes. Using wrought-iron beams and concrete, the building structure was made to be fireproof, a distinct difference from the St. Pancras New Church that did not keep something like this in mind.

Practicality and innovation were the hallmarks of Manchester Town Hall. Imitation and Greek revival were the hallmarks of St. Pancras New Church. Manchester Town Hall was designed with practicality in mind because of the way the Victorian cities were at the time. The conditions made it necessary to increase interior lighting and provide functionality over aesthetics. Aesthetics and function have long been things architects have had to balance.

While a functional building provides practicality and use, aesthetics is needed to make a building iconic. Manchester's clock tower and clock, and St. Pancras' large Greek style columns are what make these buildings memorable and attribute to the aesthetic quality of both structures. The crypt of the church and the offices and air ventilation of the town hall add function and enable it to be used by the public, becoming indispensable at times. Function and aesthetics are integral aspects of architecture and these two structures exhibit each remarkably.

... two deeper intuitions about architecture in general; it seems only natural to expect aesthetics and function to complement architecture, yet it also seems natural to overlook functional defects when aesthetic qualities are outstanding. ... aesthetic experience of architecture is not only about the contemplation of visual form, but is also multisensory and immersive, involving the volumes, textures, and sounds that determine how a building feels as we move through it (SHINER, 2011, p. 31).

In conclusion, Manchester Town Hall and St. Pancras New Church are excellent examples of British Victorian era architecture. Manchester Town Hall demonstrated how Greek revival could impart beauty and tradition to a building. St. Pancras New Church demonstrated why Victorian Gothic Architecture was and is so highly regarded. Both balanced aesthetics with function with differences remaining in the style of construction and the value on aesthetics for the church and the value on function for the town hall.

London has many examples of great and wondrous architecture. Its history is rich and the stories behind these structures shows just how varied the reasons were and the uses for these buildings were. That is why both of these buildings and buildings like it are…