Davis also designed the house's Gothic furniture.

"It's hard to make a piece of store equipment that looks like a piece of Gothic furniture," he said.

While the additional furniture reflects a 'worldly' taste (the Wooton desk, etc.) the house was mainly filled with Victorian Gothic furniture.

Today the house remains in excellent historic condition, with original Gothic furniture and embossed Lincrusta Walton wall decoration.

Only then did he become a serious collector of anything - first French Renaissance and Gothic furniture, then Orientalist paintings and finally Islamic art.

In 1827 Pugin's father, the architect Augustus Charles Pugin, was asked to create some Gothic furniture for King George IV.

He particularly criticized Gothic furniture.

The charm of Gothic furniture, like the charm of a ruggedly handsome, brooding Gothic hero, can be used to devastating effect.

They include an elegant salon, a chapel, a red sitting room with Gothic furniture, a study with yellow wallpaper, a nursery, a kitchen, a grand staircase and an Oriental room with Ming-style chairs.

At 15, he was hired for a guinea a day to make drawings for the Gothic furniture that was needed at Windsor Castle.