A crown steeple, or crown spire, is a traditional form of church steeple in which curved stone flying buttresses form the open shape of a rounded crown. Crown spires first appeared in the Late Gothic church architecture in England and Scotland during the Late Middle Ages, continued to be built through the 17th century and reappeared in the late 18th century as part of the Gothic Revival.
Another medieval crown steeple was built on the Chapel of King's College, Aberdeen (1500–1509), although this too was rebuilt in the 17th century, after the original blew down.[3]
The crown steeple of the Glasgow Tolbooth, in Glasgow's Merchant City, was built in 1626–1634 by John Boyd,[4] and at the time was the only such steeple in western Scotland.[5]
The south facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 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, and completed in 1909.[12]
One of the most recent examples is at St Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow, where an aluminium crown spire was added in 1964.[13] This replaced an historic crown steeple whose weight had begun to threaten the integrity of the tower. This was illustrated in Slezer's view of Linlithgow Palace. [14]
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