Georgian architecture is a huge topic to cover, introducing Neo-Palladianism, Gothic and Chinoiserie, which I shall explain, however this post will only focus on the Neo-Palladianism style. I have many photos of Georgian buildings, not just because I love this style, but because lot of buildings from this period survived and have been preserved. The Georgian architecture covered nearly the entire 18th century and has distinctive features of its style that are very significant in English structures. We find Georgian buildings in Jane Austin and even in Sherlock Holmes films, even if the last story took place late in the Victorian London – by that time Georgian architecture formed the ambience of many towns such as London, Bath, Brighton, Cheltenham, Royal Leamington Spa and Edinburgh. In order to understand Georgian architecture and what it represents, we have to have a quick look at the history first.

Historical background

During Queen Anne’s reign, England and Scotland united and Great Britain was born in 1707. Even though she had 17 pregnancies, she died without an heir and the British had to look for a new and protestant king. They finally chose the great grandson of Jacob I, George I from the House of Hanover. George was German and remained German as he could not learn English properly during his reign and he surrounded himself with German culture. The new dynasty were adopters of a new architectural style, the Neo-Palladianism.

Baroque was still in use, however the British associated this style with the Catholics, therefore it was avoided as much as possible. As above example shows, they far sooner put up with a foreign king than with an English Catholic king, so this is how much religion and architecture did matter those days. The country flourished during the industrial and agricultural revolution in the 18th century and the rich became richer and spent their money on making more comfortable housing. Young aristocrats traveled across Europe and returned to England with enthusiasm for classical architecture. Neo-Palladianism was a simple style which was the entire opposite of that in the French court. Yet, it spread quickly and its success laid in the harmony of the proportions and relationships between the horizontal and the vertical. The style was inspired by the works of the 16th century architect, Andrea Palladio and could be summed up as the revival of the Classical style of the Ancient Rome with an Anglo-Saxon twist.

The terrace

The 18th century was the century of urbanization, which meant there was more need for new housing than ever before. The terrace seems to solve this problem as it involved many apartments within a small place. Terraces had different forms: crescent, straight or square. Landowners built terraces for letting purposes for the Middle classes. Investors worked with architects, however, often architects were also investors.

The typical Georgian terrace was tall and narrow, with a long back garden. Almost every house (except the poorest) had a basement where the kitchen, the pantry and other storage facilities were. At the front, the basement overlooked a deep void below the street called “the area”. Stairs lead down to here which was used by tradesmen and servants. The floor plan of a terrace house was simple: one room in the front and one in the back and a staircase at one side. Windows on the ground floor were short in height for static reasons but they were taller on the first floor. On the second floor windows again were shorter in height and on the top floor they were square shaped. This is in connection with the fact that the height of the “piano nobile” (principle floor) of a Palladian terrace was bigger than the rooms on the second floor, however, later – due to fire precaution – heights on every floor became the same. Chimneys were built by the party walls because in this way it could strength the structure of the house and later this became a fire regulation. Bigger houses had many flues and these were cleaned by children until 1840, but in reality until 1864. Georgian houses were built in Flemish bond (brick laying style) using either stone or bricks. Tuck-pointing – when a different colour mortar was used in the mortar joints of brickwork – is very typical in this period providing a refined look of the brickwork. Doors of terraced houses were placed on one side of the facade, whilst on bigger country houses you would find a central two-winged door. Doors were of six panels and since the 1720s fanlights appeared. Entrance doors were decorated with wrought iron fences and supports for oil lamps which formed an arch over the entrance. Windows of the Georgian house were sash-windows.

Evolution of the Georgian terrace from left to right:

1) The baroque influence is still there – ornate coloumns, balustrade parapet, urnes on the roof
2) Early Georgian terrace – sizes of windows are distinctive features
3) Late Georgian terrace – floors/room heights are equal, iron fence

The Villa

In the second half of the 18th century the most popular country residence type was the villa which used to be the second home of the owner or residence of a city merchant close to London. There is a high number of villas in the Home Counties surrounding London. In villas the number of rooms were reduced to the minimum: a hall, a drawing room, saloon and library which remained the ideal structure until the 19th century.

The Country House

Houses in the countryside were one block with a pitched roof, central door which often was the only decorative element on the house. From the 1720s onwards doorcases had columns or pilasters and a pediment. These were mostly white to give more emphasis. The roof of Georgian houses were tiled but later in the end of the 18th century slate was used. Bay windows became popular in the second half of the 18th century.

Georgian Grand Houses

The grand Georgian country houses had a rusticated basement (rough masonry design), a staircase each side of the building leading up to the main entrance onto the piano nobile. This was the floor where the main social events were held. Windows on this floor were pedimented (either segmental or triangular), windows on the top floor were square. By the end of the 18th century rooms on the ground floor became important again. A temple front with columns was popular to provide a classical look to the building. Some houses had flat roofs so that the buildings looked bigger and more enormous. In this way roofs were often invisible apart from the dome if the building had any. Flat roofs were decorated with balustrades in general, rich decoration was avoided. If anything, then plant and geometrical patterns were used.

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The Georgian architecture is special and determines England’s look and ambiance as did much as the Tudor, Elizabethan or the Baroque style. Although it has very distinctive features, I must admit, sometimes it is still difficult for me to identify a Georgian house. So it is not that easy to detect some buildings especially in the countryside, yet I hope I could provide an overview about the Georgian style.

The next chapter in English architecture is a bit blurred just like the history: Cromwell’s Commonwealth and then the Restoration. I must admit, I had to read the architecture of this period several times to understand it. One of the reasons is that different styles overlap each other and like many other things, the architecture of this period differs from that of the continent a lot. Yet, I attempt to summarize it to the best of my knowledge.

After the Elizabethan and Jacobean style there is no clear name of architectural style in the coming period. Pevsner calls the following period as New Developments (1625-1710) or New Design (1660-1710) rather than an exact architectural style. As far as I could figure out, the first one could be called Palladianism and the second one baroque, however there is the Carolean style as well – just to confuse me even more. The years imply these overlap each other, but in terms of the styles, there is a huge difference between them.

Palladianism comes from the name of an Italian architect, Andrea Palladio who inspired this architectural style. This style adopted and developed the works of Palladio in the 16th and 17th centuries. We would think this equals Classicism, but Pevsner suggests it is a late sprout of Renaissance.

In the Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture everything was used which was interesting and exciting: coloumns and gables – without following any sensible proportion or consistency. Inigo Jones was the first real modern architect who studied the works of Palladio. Jones travelled to Italy several times to study Italian architecture. He learnt from the Italian architects that buildings have to be considered as a whole and has to be planned according to rational rules both in its floor plan and its facade. Jones preferred simple designs, because “there is no need for heavy and ornate decoration in serious architecture” which also meant he represented something which was the complete opposite of Rome and as such the Baroque architecture.

Jones planned only a few buildings and one of his masterpieces was the Queen’s House in Greenwich, the Covent Garden Houses which did not survive and the Banqueting House. As I do not have any photos of palladian buildings of mine, to present this style I am using two buildings as examples: Nostell Priory in Yorkshire and Basildon Park in Berkshire. Although their style is rather Neo-palladian, they can help to explain the distinctive features. Both buildings have simple lines and are segmented horizontally. The portico emphasizes the building which in most cases contains columns and a tymphanon and sometimes a balcony. The Venetian windows were very popular and is a trademark of Palladio.

The Baroque in England ran parallel with that of the Continent between the Great fire of London (1666) and the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). However, whilst the Baroque flourished in France in the middle of the 17th century, it hardly influenced arts in England. The Baroque in England is Baroque according to Pevsner, but differs a lot from the Baroque of the continent, just like the architectural style of the greatest English architect of this period, Sir Christopher Wren.

After the Stuart period, a simple Dutch style spread quickly with its curved or triangle gables. Whilst England welcome these Northern European and Dutch features, Charles II and the court brought ideas from France and some from the Netherlands, following some distinctive Baroque features of the continent. The representative architecture (court) followed the French example, whilst private buildings preferred the Dutch style. Until 1660 buildings were planned by bricklayers and carpenters. The planning of buildings after 1660 was done by the first educated architects like Wren, Hawksmoor and Vanburgh who welcomed continental Baroque. Wren’s work contain both the Dutch and the French style. Wren studied engravings about the Dutch architecture and went on a tour in Paris, because to his mind, Paris was the best school of architecture those days in Europe. Wren was not a qualified architect. He studied in Oxford and was interested in sciences where he was appointed to a Professor of Astronomy in 1661. At the beginning of his career he designed a few buildings for fun, but after the Great fire of London in 1666 he decided to focus on architecture.

The Restoration or Carolean style was popular between 1660 and 1680. Charles II returned to England from exile and the strict and puritan style of Cromwell was exchanged with Dutch and French art. With the growing power of the East India Company exotic products became available mainly from China and Japan: tea, porcelain, varnish and even Indian people. Chinoserie became popular, blue and white china, new kettle shapes, colourful Indian textiles.

However, in the 1660s London still looked like id did in the Middle Ages with its narrow mews, timber framed houses whose floor plans were narrow on the ground floor but broadened on upper floors. As a result houses on the top floor almost reached each other. After the fire in London in 1632 Charles II warned builders to be fined, but this was not enough, unfortunately.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 started in a royal bakery on Pudding Lane in the City and destroyed 80 percent of London’s buildings within 3 days. Reed and wood was restricted as building materials, but as these were cheap, builders carried on using them. After the Great fire of London, Wren was asked to rebuild many houses and churches and he became the royal architect in 1669. He designed 51 churches and 4 more in the suburbs of London. His main work is the St Paul’s cathedral, which was built in a classical style, but with a baroque twist.

The Building Act of 1667 categorized buildings based on their inner space. It ordered bricks to be used on facades and the minimum thickness of walls. Timber was only allowed to be used as frames of buildings, or as lintels and doorcases. Height of buildings were also limited: maximum five storey buildings were allowed to be built. This was the birth of the terrace houses as well which utilised the space in the most effective way and provided a more organized and elegant look and soon became the home of the aristocracy and merchants in London. The floor plan was simple: one room in the front and one in the back on each floor, the staircase was on either side of the building as well as the front door. Storage, kitchen and other utility rooms were in the basement.

Humble houses were influenced by the Dutch style and were built mainly from red bricks with Flemish bond and not English anymore. Stone quoins at the angles were popular as well as white cornices with modillions, mansard windows and sash windows. Doorcases often have a hood on console brackets. I particularly like the scallop shell shaped hood above doors which is very distinctive. White swan-neck and segmented pediments are also common features of the period. Gibbs surround around doors were popular in this period and were widely used until the 18th century.

Although the majority of the aristocrats owned a house in London, they thought about their estates in the countryside as their real home. These manor houses were often built from bricks with quoins at the angles. The building was either square shaped or rectangular and might had two wings on both sides. It had a pitched roof and a triangled porch. Castles of this period, however were built with a flat roof often decorated with balustrade parapet which often had urnes, cones and vases on top as decoration. A very distinctive feature of the baroque is the oval and the bullseye window.

Elizabethan and Jacobean houses have a very unique ambience, especially grand houses. These buildings are often used for filming – whether for Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Miss Marple or Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, it does not matter. Elizabethan houses are typically English just like Tudor buildings, which combined with the other the architectural styles have formed Britain. To understand the Elizabethan buildings we have to have a quick look at the history.

Elizabeth I reign was called the Golden Age, Britain’s heyday after having beaten the Spanish Armada and becoming the ruler of the sea. This period was the golden age of literature as well. The economy of the country flourished, the financial situation of the population improved due to the wool and cloth trade. Even the less wealthier could afford to build houses, or to renovate their Tudor buildings. No wonder a lot of cottages were built in this period, which as a period was called the Great Rebuilding.

Elizabethan architecture was influenced by three styles: the Italian Renaissance, the styles of the French castles alongside the Loire and Flemish strapwork buildings. Therefore this is a complex style with French and Flemish elements, as far as the architecture of the court were concerned and English ones as far as the profane architecture. In England of Elizabeth I everything was welcome which was spectacular and new and in this way everything was accepted whether it was tasteful or not. Not to forget, in this period houses were not designed by architects but by builders or wealthy noblemen who did it as a hobby. Every summer Elizabeth I travelled across the country and stayed at the estates of the aristocracy. These big, fancy houses were called the prodigy houses and were often built for the purpose to entertain and host the queen and were close to main roads. As for the sizes of these houses, we might consider them to be overly large, but in reality they were not. To put it into perspective, on a summer trip the household escorting the queen consisted of 150 people and all had to be accommodated. Sometimes the prodigy house was not big enough and temporary buildings were erected next to the grand house.

The characteristics of the Elizabethan style is the desire for symmetry and height in elevation and the floor plan having a more compact form. Builders wanted to express their status in society, therefore, a big change of the period is the outward looking form of the building. The floor plan of the new manor house was an “E” or an “H” shape (apparently there is no connection between the shape and the initials of the queen). The kitchen was in the shorter wing, the living room in the longer wing of the building. The main entrance was in the middle followed by the hall. Bedrooms and the long gallery were on the upper floors. The Long Gallery had a special function: this is where the family entertained or exercised (walk, fencing, playing games) in case of bad weather and it was a perfect spot for the family’s painting collection.

The importance of the hall became less and even its function changed in this period. In the Middle ages the family dined in the hall, but in the Elizabethan period this function was taken over by the best room. However, in grand houses dining and entertaining took place in the great chamber.

The main entrance of the grand houses was emphasized to express the wealth of the owner and this resulted in some really ornate entrances. Another status symbol, were huge glass windows as glass still was a luxurious item, although more glass was produced in this era than before. Pattern of lead windows in the 15th century was diamond shaped, but became rectangular in the 17th century.

The facade might be doubled or tripled in this period. While the facade of an Elizabethan manor house was gabled (either triangle or curved – Flemish influence), Jacobean manor houses had flat roofs with parapet (see above Hardwick Hall), or had towers with domes to emphasize the height of the building. The parapet often contained the initials of the owner using stone balustrades (see above “E” and “S” on top of Hardwick Hall standing for Elizabeth Shrewsbury). The mansard window was born in this period and both styles used elevated bay windows which could be round or angled.

Changes in the grand houses influenced smaller houses as well. The smaller, two or three bedroom houses became elevated, the hall was downstairs, bedrooms upstairs. This horizontal segmentation was adopted by the cottage as well towards the end of the 17th century. In many houses the attic was built for storage, or to accommodate servants, or for both. Town houses changed as well: the hall, which was the centre of the house in the middle ages disappeared and the best chamber was established. Bedrooms were on upper floors, therefore the inner height of the houses decreased but the number of floors increased.

Wherever you go in England you would find houses built of bricks. Some people associate terracotta coloured bricks with the Mediterranean world, but for me, bricks mean the North: there are plenty of brick houses in the Benelux countries, in Scandinavia and in the UK. These buildings have a special ambience and not just because of the different architectural styles they were built in, but because different types of bricks were used. First of all let’s have a look at the history of bricks in England.

Early English bricks

In the Tudor period, houses were built of timbers (half-timbering), more exactly the frame of the house was built of timber. Walls were plastered. Bricks were already available during the Tudor period, but they were very expensive, therefore bricks often did not have a functional role in buildings, they were rather used as a decorative element. The most popular brick pattern of the Tudor period was herringbone and diapering. For diapering, different coloured bricks were used for a diamond shape. The darker coloured bricks used for this pattern were overburnt bricks and this was a brilliant way of using them up.

The spread of the bricks

Bricks spread in the 17th century, especially after the Great Fire in London in 1666 when the new housing act prescribed houses in London should be built of bricks. This resulted not only in safer houses, but in new architectural styles. Bricks spread from East-Anglia (Suffolk and Norfolk) via Dutch immigrants, but England also imported bricks from the continent for wool in return. Bricks being mainly imported, they still were expensive and only the richest could afford it. Even they only built or covered the facade of their buildings with bricks but the rest of the building kept the half-timbering.

Bricks were transported via the canals of England in the 18th century and with the spreading of the railway in the 19th century the transportation of bricks became cheaper.

The colour

The colour of the brick always reflected the colour of the local clay that was used for production: yellowish white in Oxford, red and yellowish grey in London, white in Suffolk, deep red in Lincolnshire and blue in Staffordshire. Using different coloured bricks in a building made their appearance more interesting and doors and windows could be emphasized. The Victorians loved using different coloured bricks and they even reintroduced diapering of the Tudor period.

Other ways of decoration

Buildings were decorated not only with different coloured bricks, but with different bonds. Of course bonds were important from static point of view, but later on different bond types were used within the same building for decoration. The three main bonds that are used in England are:

• English bond
• Flemish bond
• Stretched bond

Main English brick types

Let’s have a look at 3 brick types: London Stock brisk, Accrington brick alias NORI and the blue Staffordshire brick.

London Stock brick

The London Stock brick gets its distinctive yellowish colour from the clay of Kent and South of England. Many houses in London and in the South East were built of this brick type.

NORI alias Accrington brick

This is an engineering brick which means that it was used where strength and big resistance was needed (against acid, steam etc), for example for bridges, railway stations and factories. NORI brick has a high iron content and this is why it has a deep red colour. It was produced in the brick factory in Accrington first (Manchester area) and there are several stories as to why got the name NORI. I like the following one the most: allegedly they wanted to put the word IRON into the mould but unfortunately it turned out the other way round. Nori bricks were used for example for the Blackpool Tower or the Battersea Power Station.

Staffordshire blue brick

The clay used for this brick was mined around Staffordshire. The brick was fired at a very high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere, which resulted in blue coloured bricks.

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Bricks are just one of the many building materials used in England. You can read more about other building materials here.

The first details on a house that shouted at me instantly over here in England were the terracotta rooftop finials, more exactly the gargoyle-look-like dragon figures. At first I did not have a clue what that was and thought it is only the foible of the owner of the house. But as I kept on bumping into more and more rooftop finials and different figures, I realized, it only can be another typically English thing…

But what are these finials and where do they originate from?

As it happens, rooftop finials were widely used all over the world: the Romans used them and they were beloved accessorizes in the Chinese culture and architecture, too. They all were made of clay and terracotta.

The decoration of the ridge of the roof and gables revived in the Victorian times. No wonder, the Victorians loved details no matter what building they built. Rooftop finials were made of terracotta and the most popular shapes were balls and spikes often decorated with leaves and cones, but crosses, clubs and spears were also popular. They wanted to emphasize the gable and the roof with this little detail and the house became perfect in their eyes.

Before 1870s, in the Gothic Revival period the dragon and other figures were preferred to keep the evil spirits away. This custom probably originated in the Chinese belief.

There are many roof finials in Maidenhead and its surroundings (Cookham, Marlow, Henley-on-Thames etc), especially in the form of demons, dragons and swans – mainly made by local builders, J. K. Cooper & Sons in the 19th century.

Today’s selection

If you fancy having a finial on your roof, you can select among different ones: round or square shaped base or angled finials to start with, and on top of the standard designs such as ball, spike, cross, cone, leaf, gargoyle, dragon, you could buy an owl, crown or swan neck finial and other quirky designs as well.

It goes without saying that a Victorian roof can be considered perfect only in case the ridge of the roof is decorated appropriately. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a wide range of ridge tiles available as well. Tiles with one or two holes, clubs shaped holes, or tiles shape of a comb.

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The rooftop decoration may appear funny or in some cases too much (especially for a foreigner), but let me say, these tiny details give a special character to English dwellings no matter if it is a charming little cottage in the countryside or a big Victorian town house.

The more places you visit in England, the more you will see how different houses are. This is not only because of the different architectural styles, but also because of the different materials used. The English architecture is very colourful: in Cornwall you would find grey granite houses, yellow limestone cottages in the Cotswolds, sandstone buildings in Yorkshire, which all look very different to the black and white timber framed houses in Cheshire, or the weatherboarding houses in Kent. Basically the material was used for building that was available in the region. Let’s have a look at the most important ones that were used in English architectures over the centuries.

Stone

Apart from East-Anglia (Suffolk and Norfolk) stone was available in all part of Britain. Sandstone in Scotland and Yorkshire, limestone in the South. Granite is available in Scotland, Aberdeen and in Cornwall. On top of these below stones were used:

Portland stone: Dorset, often carved

Kentish ragstone: has a blueish colour, a very hard stone cannot be carved therefore there are not too many decoration on houses built from this stone.

Sandstone: mostly used in Yorkshire, see photo below.

Carrstone: Available in Norfolk, however, brick is the main building material in this region.

Yellow limestone: Cotswolds and Oxfordshire

Slate

Slate was mainly used for building roofs, however, in places where slate was the only available material, houses too were built from it. In this case bigger slate pieces were used on strategically important parts of the buildings such as corners and lintels, smaller pieces were used to fill the walls.

Granite

Granite was available only in Scotland and Cornwall. It is a very hard material, cannot be carved, so no decoration on houses built from granite.

Earth walls

There are two types of earth bricks in England: 1) cob, 2) clay lump. Cob is a mix of clay, straw and fibre materials which is then transferred into moulds and used immediately. Clay lump is a two-stage process: straw, grass, pebbles and clay is mixed and then transferred to a mould. The brick has to dry completely and used only then. Earth walls are plastered with lime based render to protect them from the elements.

Plaster

At the beginning clay and cob was used to fill walls and plaster them. From the 16th century limewash became fashionable. This surface could be decorated with raised patterns known as ‘pargeting’ where ‘par’ means all over and ‘jeter’ means throw. It was very popular in East Anglia in the 17th and 18th century, yet it is hard to find any original.

Stucco

Stucco was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Lime plaster was used at the beginning, but later on cement was introduced from the 18th century. Palladio suggested to cover the entire buildings with stucco so that joints are covered. The ground floor of many Georgian and Victorian houses were rendered in stucco to give a different visual emphasis to the building.

Cast stone

Cast stone was used as far back as the 11th Century. It was also used to form stone toilets. Often the bottom part of a building was made of cast stone.

Flint

Flint was used where it was available, in East-Anglia and at lime stone seasides. Flint is almost always used with other building materials such as bricks to give flint a frame.

Mathematical tiles, hanging tiles, weatherboarding

Timber framed houses became unpopular in the 18th century. Those who did not have enough money to build one in bricks or rebuild the existing timber framed one, used a trick in form of a mathematical tile. With mathematical tiles the old timber framed walls were covered and gave the look of a brick house. Hanging tiles and weatherboarding were used for the same reason. People often had money to cover the facade only with one of the above, or they put up a brick wall in front of the facade so that it looks like the entire house was a brick house, but the old structure was visible behind the wall.

The main purpose of all of these building materials was to keep out the British weather, which in the vast majority of cases was done successfully and there are many examples of these materials and buildings still standing and the methodologies are still used today.

Below drawings show: 1) hanging tiles, 2) weatherboarding, 3) mathematical tiles.

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These were the main building materials in England, however in the next post we will see which materials were used for the roof.