The English Gothic architecture is an independent evolution of the continent. At the end of the twelfth century began to replace the reigning Norman style (name given to this country in the Romanesque style) and runs until more than a century after it was introduced in Florence Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. Art historians have traditionally divided the English Gothic into three periods:  First or early Gothic English Gothic (Early English) is the first phase, which begins with the choir of Canterbury Cathedral, built under the French model. In 1192 it begins building the cathedral of Lincoln, the work will last throughout the thirteenth century. The purest English Gothic of the period represented by the Salisbury Cathedral that is executed at a stretch. The style is more horizontal than in France and developed a kind of facade, called Display, emerges as a front screen with a small access door and arches decorated with numerous statues, covering the entire surface, including towers, ships are lengthened. Westminster Abbey, begun in 1245 is influenced by the French style.

 Curved or decorated Gothic (Decorated Style), covers the period from the late thirteenth century and half of the fourteenth century. Characteristic of this period are the windows with tracery, and it also built a polygonal chapter houses.  Perpendicular Gothic (Perpendicular Style) develops from the middle of the fourteenth century and it corresponds to the later phase of the Gothic to be characterized by the fan vaults, the use of molding on the walls and vertical tracery and the generalized Tudor called arc. The most representative works are in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, highlight the King's College, Cambridge, which was begun in 1443, the church of St. George in Windsor and Henry VII in Westminster Abbey. There is also a great development of civil architecture.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY