 Ewan Christian has rarely been regarded as a great genius in the architectural world and his work has been much criticised since his death as being generally dull and lifeless and that it often lacks elegance and grace.The Pevsner Architectural Guides of "The Buildings of England" series contain some particularly severe criticisms of many of his works, especially his church restorations, as at St Peter and St Paul's Church in Shelford, Nottinghamshire, where the entry refers to a ruthless restoration by "the callous Mr Christian" while that for St Mary's, Aldingbourne in West Sussex refers to Christian's "horrible restoration" of 1867 leaving the exterior "maimed and valueless" and claimed his work on the windows to have been carried out "with real hatred" – a rather provocative and questionable statement.Even during his lifetime some thought his buildings to be uninspired and his church restorations insensitive – on this subject William Morris (1834–96) once wrote that Christian was "a great criminal" in relation to his supervision of work at St Andrew's Church, Deopham in Norfolk.