Gothic architecture
Sens Cathedral (begun between 1135 and 1140) was the first Cathedral to be built in the new style (St. Denis was an abbey, not a Cathedral). Other versions of the new style soon appeared in Noyon Cathedral (begun 1150); Laon Cathedral (begun 1165); and the most famous of all, Notre-Dame de Paris, where construction had begun in 1160.
Gothic House
Non-ecclesiastical Gothic-style buildings are rare in Brighton: the only other examples are Wykeham Terrace, the Percy and Wagner Almshouses on Lewes Road, and the former Brighton Forum (now "Citibase Brighton"; originally a teacher training college). (Wilds may have been commissioned to design Wykeham Terrace, but there is no definite proof of this). Wilds and Busby were accustomed to designing in various styles—their range in Brighton along encompasses Greek Revival, Classical, Regency, and Italianate, and Wilds tried a fusion of Oriental and Indo-Saracenic Revival styles for his own home at Western Pavilion, built in 1831. Gothic House is their only known commission in the Gothic style, though, and it is the only such design they actually executed. Although its date puts it at the beginning of the Gothic Revival period, "it is not early Gothic Revival but "Gothick" (i.e. Georgian Gothic)", a style also described as Regency Gothic. The only other Regency Gothic buildings in Brighton, the National Schools at Church Street in the North Laine, were demolished in 1971 for a road widening scheme which never happened. The design has been likened to the proto-Gothic of Strawberry Hill House (1749–1776) in London by local historian Antony Dale, who calls it "more realistic than [that] ... [but] the house could hardly lay claim to be called a serious Gothic construction". He instead describes it as an "experiment" by Wilds and Busby. The building has also been called "fanciful and irresponsibly Gothick".