List of octagonal buildings and structures: Difference between revisions

Octagon buildings and structures are characterized by an octagonal plan form, whether a perfect geometric octagon or a regular eight-sided polygon with approximately equal sides.

The oldest surviving octagon-shaped building^{[citation needed]} is the Tower of the Winds in Athens, Greece, which was constructed circa 300 B.C.; the Pharos also had octagonal design elements but no longer stands. Octagon houses were popularized in the United States in the mid-19th century and there are too many to list here, see instead the list of octagon houses. There are also octagonal houses built in other times and cultures.

Below is a list of octagonal buildings and structures worldwide, excluding houses and windmills.

At least 19 historic octagon houses are known to exist in Canada distributed across 4 eastern provinces.^[1] For a list of these houses, See: List of octagon houses. In Canada, the octagon house craze also engendered an octagonal deadhouse phenomenon. This included octagonal deadhouses, pre-burial edifices, built in the mid to late 1800s along Yonge Street in south-central Ontario, from just north of Toronto to Aurora.

• Yumedono at Hōryū-ji, Ikaruga (739)
• Octagonal Hall of Eisan-ji, Gojō (760-764)
• Hokuendō of Kōfuku-ji, Nara (1210)
• Saiendō of Hōryū-ji, Ikaruga (1250)
• Main Hall of Keikyuin of Kōryū-ji, Kyoto (1251)
• Three-Story Pagoda of Anraku-ji, Ueda (1290s)
• Aizendō of Tōfuku-ji, Kyoto (1333-92)
• Main Hall of Busshō-ji, Mito (1585)
• Nanendō of Kōfuku-ji, Nara (1789)
• Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (1964)
• Pagoda of Genjo Sanzoin Complex in Yakushi-ji, Nara (1991)
• Sugamo Ohdai Kannondō in Taisho University, Tokyo (2013)

• The Octagon, the former Trinity Congregational Church in Christchurch, New Zealand

• Convent of Christ (Tomar, Portugal), 12th-15th Century. The adjacent chapel is only one of two octagonal chapels in the world. The other is in Jerusalem.
• Charola, Portuguese Info on the Chapel of the Convent of Christ.

• Abbot’s Kitchen, Glastonbury
• Abbot’s Kitchen, Oxford
• Avenue Methodist Church in Sale, Greater Manchester
• Dutch Cottage, Rayleigh, Essex
• Eighteenth century replicas of the Athenian Tower of the Winds in the ornamental gardens of the following stately homes:
• Jubilee Tower, Lancashire
• Naze tower, Walton on the Naze
• Octagon, Birmingham the world’s tallest octagonal residential skyscraper.
• Octagonal chapter houses at the following cathedrals:^[3]
• Octagon Centre, Sheffield
• Octagonal lantern tower, Ely Cathedral, Ely
• Octagon Chapel, Norwich
• Octagon Temple at Cliveden
• Dreghorn & Springside Parish Church
• St James Church, Teignmouth
• Great Pagoda, Kew Gardens, London
• Storm Tower at Compass Point, Bude, Cornwall
• St. John’s Methodist Church, Arbroath
• United Reformed Church in Cheadle Hulme
• The main tower of Hadlow Castle, Kent
• The Butter Market, Barnard Castle, County Durham
• Hertford College‘s Middle Common Room, Oxford
• Octagonal Tower, Cardiff Castle, Cardiff, built by Robert Beauchamp 1425
• Octagonal drawing room, Castell Coch, Tongwynlais, Cardiff, built by William Burges for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, 1870s
• All seven towers of Caernarfon Castle, Caernarfon, built by James of St George for Edward I, late thirteenth century
• Porth-y-Tŵr, St Davids, Wales, thirteenth century