Gothic revival architecture. The movement to revive the Gothic style belongs chiefly to the late 18th century and the 19th century. Before the late 18th century it must be distinguished from Gothic Survival, an unquestioning continuation of Gothic forms, which is of course largely a matter of out-of-the-way buildings. Of major buildings mostly churches are concerned, and St. Eustache in Paris and the chapel of Lincoln's in London were completed well within the 17th century. By then, however, the new attitude of Revival had also appeared -- the conscious choice of the Gothic style in contrast to the accepted current style. The first cases are those of the finishing of Gothic buildings, cases of Gothic for the sake of conformity... but soon the choice was made for new buildings, though rarely before c. 1720.
-- John Fleming, Hugh Honour & Nikolaus Pevsner, 1991
The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture
Penguin Books, London, England