St Paul's Cathedral, Dundee
In 1853, Sir George Gilbert Scott was commissioned to rebuild St. Paul’s Chapel, which stood on the old castle hill of Dundee, for the Episcopal Church in Scotland. It was to be a grand new church to cater for the population of this rapidly expanding industrial city. The foundation stone was laid on 21 July 1853 and it was completed in 1855. It was not until 1905 that it was consecrated as the Cathedral of St. Paul. It was designed in the style of the Middle or Decorated period of Gothic architecture.
His client was the Bishop of Brechin, Alexander Penrose Forbes (1817-75), who was close friend of Pusey. Scott again made full use of the dramatic hill-top site, which falls away sharply to the south to the River Tay, with a 200 feet spire. This is at the liturgical west end of the church, which is actually the north end of the site. It is a hall church with externally gabled aisle bays, short transepts and an octagonal apse.
If the intended side chapels had been built on either side of the apse, it would have been a smaller version of St, Stephen’s, Vienna. The details are from Scott’s usual Middle Pointed vocabulary.
Rickman, T., Gothic Architecture: An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England, From the Conquest to the Reformation, with a Sketch of the Grecian and Roman Orders (Parker and Co., London, 1881), p. 232.
