A crown steeple, or crown spire, is a traditional form of church

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a relig ...

in which curved stone

flying buttress The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to p ...

es form the open shape of a rounded crown. Crown spires first appeared in the

Late Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art which began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by t ...

church architecture in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

during the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Ren ...

, continued to be built through the 17th century and reappeared in the late 18th century as part of the Gothic Revival.

Gothic crown spires

The crown steeple on St Nicholas Church, Newcastle upon Tyne was erected in 1448. The crown spire of

St Giles' Cathedral St Giles' Cathedral ( gd, Cathair-eaglais Naomh Giles), or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 1 ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

was erected in 1495, and rebuilt by John Mylne in 1648. Another medieval crown steeple was built on the

Chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common typ ...

King's College, Aberdeen King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Abredonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Univers ...

(1500–1509), although this too was rebuilt in the 17th century, after the original blew down. The crown steeple of the Glasgow Tolbooth, in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

Merchant City The Merchant City, a new name introduced through urban renewal by the Scottish Development Agency and the city council in the 1980s is one part of the metropolitan central area of Glasgow. It commences at George Square and goes eastwards reachin ...

, was built in 1626–1634 by John Boyd, and at the time was the only such steeple in western Scotland. In 1698,

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 church ...

added a tower with a crown steeple to

St Dunstan-in-the-East St Dunstan-in-the-East was a Church of England parish church on St Dunstan's Hill, halfway between London Bridge and the Tower of London in the City of London. The church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and the ruins are now a publ ...

, London.

Gothic Revival crown steeples

Crown steeples were often incorporated into Gothic Revival churches. An octagonal bell tower with crown spire was added to St Giles' Church in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

in 1790. The open spire of Faversham Parish Church, Kent was built in 1797, and a crown steeple was added to Tillington Parish Church, Sussex, in 1807. A secular example tops the

Wallace Monument The National Wallace Monument (generally known as the Wallace Monument) is a 67 metre tower on the shoulder of the Abbey Craig, a hilltop overlooking Stirling in Scotland. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, a 13th- and 14th-century Scottish her ...

, near Stirling, erected in 1869 to a design by the architect

John Thomas Rochead John Thomas Rochead (28 March 1814 – 7 April 1878) was a Scottish architect. He is most noteworthy on a national scale for having been the designer of the Wallace Monument. Life He was born in Edinburgh, the son of John Rochead and Catheri ...

. Other ecclesiastical examples include those at

Tarbert, Kintyre Tarbert ( gd, An Tairbeart, , or ''Tairbeart Loch Fìne'' to distinguish it from other places of the same name) is a village in the west of Scotland, in the Argyll and Bute council area. It is built around East Loch Tarbert, an inlet of Loch Fyn ...

(1886), and the Kelvin Stevenson Memorial Church, Glasgow, by John James Stevenson (1902). The south facade of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

, London, is a hybrid of Gothic and classical architectural forms, topped by a crown steeple. This part of the building was designed by

Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in par ...

, and completed in 1909.

Modern versions

One of the most recent examples is at St Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow, where an aluminium crown spire was added in 1964. A crown spire was proposed for the long-unfinished crossing of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

, scheduled to be completed in time for the

Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for the 60th an ...

in 2013. Nothing came of it.

References

{{reflist Architectural elements Architecture in Scotland Architecture in England Gothic Revival architecture