[Anon], ‘The Style of the New Foreign Office’

The design for the new Foreign Office in London was a cause celebre that came to be known as ‘Battle of Styles’. In 1855, a decision was made for a new Foreign Office and an architectural competition was announced. In the letter to The Times on 19 October 1859 reproduced in this article, the correspondent concluded that ‘Gothic, then is national; it is constructively real; it is equally adapted to all sorts of buildings; it is convenient; it is cheap. In none of these respects does Italian surpass it; in most of them it is very inferior to it’. “The only objection with the shadow of a reason in it is the common objection that Gothic buildings are dark. But this is really the merest fallacy. Some Gothic buildings are dark. “Gothic, then, is national; it is constructively real; it is equally adapted to all sorts of buildings; it is convenient; it is cheap.