Crossley, Paul, 1945-2019

By Professor Tim Ayers

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Date
19 Jun 2026

Paul Crossley was a leading architectural historian of the Gothic period, with a particular specialism in Poland and Central Europe. In his published work and teaching, he brought Gothic architecture as a European phenomenon into the mainstream of study in British universities. He was also the leading scholar of his generation on the historiography of Gothic architecture. Books include a monograph on Gothic Architecture in the Reign of Kasimir the Great, Church Architecture in Lesser Poland, 1320–1380 (1985), and a new edition of Paul Frankl’s Gothic Architecture (2003). A charismatic lecturer and teacher, he worked at the University of Manchester and the Courtauld Institute in London.

Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 23

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