Georgian & Regency Houses Explained

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Georgian & Regency Houses Explained Page 6

by Trevor Yorke


  Palladian houses relied on correct proportions for the composition of the façade with little decoration other than the doorway surround. The temples of the Ancients, with a rustic cut stone base upon which the columns stood, carrying the entablature above, were transmuted to the domestic house, with the ground floor acting as the base either by a rusticated finish to the masonry or with a string course along its top edge, and a further string course to mark the entablature above the second floor. There was an element of honesty to the style as interior use was emphasised on the outside with the largest windows on the first floor, the new piano nobile, where the main reception rooms were. Most façades were plain but some had moulded window surrounds and door cases with flat, segmented or pedimented tops.

  FIG 4.7: A Second Rate terrace (see Fig 3.22) from the early Georgian period displaying some of the features that were characteristic of larger houses in this period.

  FIG 4.8: Examples of a terrace and a large rural detached house in a Palladian style.

  FIG 4.9: GIBBS SURROUNDS: James Gibbs was another proponent of Palladian style who visited Italy initially to train for the priesthood but returned an architect. He published books that made the style accessible to the builder rather than architects but he is best known for the door and window surround with distinctive spaced blocks which he popularised.

  Later Georgian Styles 1760–1800

  In the second half of the 18th century the austere, refined, elegant Palladian style continued to dominate housing stock, especially terraces. The façade was still controlled by rules on proportion and a desire for symmetry. Window glazing bars became thinner and sash boxes from 1774 were hidden fully behind the outer face of the wall. Exterior woodwork was banned so porches were less frequently fitted unless of stone or stucco and decorative semi-circular fanlights became very popular. Cornices at the top (no longer of timber) and the parapet above tend to be more simple and plain although decorative stone or stucco cornices were fitted to the finest examples.

  There were subtle changes, however, as a new generation of architects looked not to Ancient and Renaissance Italy for inspiration but to newly recorded buildings from Ancient Greece. Larger houses were no longer based purely upon the designs of Palladio; instead they were sourced directly from archaeology and architects had a greater freedom to mix different periods into one house. James ‘Athenian’ Stuart and Nicholas Revett were among the first to publish their studies in the 1760s, heralding in a more refined form of decoration, but sometimes severe and stark structural forms like the baseless Doric column (see Fig 4.11). This Greek revival had little effect on the design of urban houses until the last decades of the century and tends to appear on the terrace only in the design for columns on a doorway or in a band of decoration.

  FIG 4.10: Examples of houses from the second half of the 18th century including features that were popular in this period, such as bay and Venetian windows, façades that were less decorative and large fanlights.

  FIG 4.11: The new records of Ancient Greek architecture resulted in forms that were earlier than the Roman types becoming popular especially the Greek Doric (left) with its fluted column and the Ionic (right).

  The most popular and influential architect of this period was Robert Adam who, along with his brother, created a unique style that gave patrons more varied and decorative structures, without being too austere like the Greek Revivalists or breaking with traditional symmetry when using Gothick forms. He was one of the first to design the house in its entirety, from the exterior down to the smallest detail, and was notable for his interiors, especially his use of screens and niches to control the space within a room. His style is recognisable on the exterior of houses by the use of shallow mouldings for decoration in bands across a façade or around a porch entablature, swags or garlands and round medallions. He also had a preference for Venetian windows and shallow arched recesses, which added variety to the design, and doorways that had sidelights, engaged columns and fanlights covering the whole.

  FIG 4.12: Details from houses in the Adam brothers’ style with their distinctive delicate, shallow mouldings.

  Regency Styles 1790–1837

  At the same time as these new forms of classical architecture were appearing, a new concept and source for design was evolving. This was to lead to a greater variety of architectural styles, which is characteristic of the Regency period. The country was boosted by a growing empire and industry and sought a national identity, one that was home grown and not set in the ancient world, and the answer came from the landscape. In the past the countryside was viewed more as a factory floor with fields, rivers and forests providing essential materials and food, with any mountainous areas viewed with disdain. However, in the middle of the 18th century, a new way of thinking and looking at the surrounding landscape developed and the drama and beauty of the English countryside were appreciated for the first time. Improved coaches and new turnpike roads meant that previously remote areas like the Peak District, Lake District and Scotland could be easily visited and new guidebooks suddenly appeared on the market, especially after the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars brought an end to the Grand Tours and foreign travel.

  FIG 4.13: A façade of a house designed by James Wyatt, one of the leading architects of the late 18th century and a rival of Robert Adam, with labels highlighting some of the fashionable features used at the time.

  Along with this Picturesque movement came a growing appreciation for medieval architecture. Ruined abbeys had been seen as bleak and Catholic and were hence unloved, but now they were appreciated as the work of God and were painted and recreated in landscape gardens. Castles with their rugged appearance clashed with the fashionable and symmetrical classical buildings, yet by the turn of the century a wave of patriotism had been inspired in the wake of the threat from France, and sham fortified country houses began to be built. The effects of these new aesthetics on housing was freedom with structural planning so that buildings could be asymmetrical, different styles and sources could be assimilated onto one building and designs based upon the medieval pointed arch became fashionable.

  FIG 4.14: LOWTHER CASTLE, CUMBRIA: In the early years of the 19th century mock castles and country houses decorated with battlements were built, partly due to the Picturesque movement but also as a patriotic reaction to the threat from Napoleon.

  Gothick, as it was termed to differentiate it from the later Victorian Gothic (which was a more accurate representation of medieval architecture), is characterised by shallow pointed arched windows and doors with tracery forming Y shapes and drip moulds above them. Solid or battlemented parapets on gables, white stucco-covered exteriors, and prominent Tudor styled chimneys also featured although the main body of the house may still have been symmetrical. It was popular for detached villas, smaller houses on country estates and gatehouses, and details from the style – such as the windows – can sometimes be found on terrace housing. Another variation of Olde English architecture was the Cottage Orné style, over romanticised chocolate box cottages with thatched roofs, designed for the middle classes on the edge of town rather than to improve the standard of often still woeful rural housing.

  FIG 4.15: Details from Gothick style houses with the distinctive Y-shaped glazing bars, battlements, shallow pointed arches and stucco-covered exteriors.

  The simple style of Ancient Greek architecture, which had first been recorded back in the 1760s, came into fashion. The Neo Classical style could be stark and in the hands of architects like Sir John Soane (see Fig 2.3) almost modern in its simple geometric forms. For most housing this Greek Revival meant the use of the Greek Ionic and Doric orders. Contact with far-flung parts of the empire also resulted in an assimilation of their styles, rarely in the design of a whole structure but in the decoration and details. Chinese pagoda style roofs were commonly fitted to balconies and discoveries from Ancient Egypt resulted in the occasional decorative motif or tapered pilaster.

  For the vast majority of detached and terrace
housing a distinctive Regency style developed incorporating elements from all the above styles and new forms from France and Italy. The most notable feature was the use of stucco on the exterior; although commonly painted white or cream today, it was more usual at that time for it to be coloured to simulate the popular grey and beige stone of the day. The increased availability of slate meant that low pitched roofs with overhangs and no parapet became popular on housing.

  The use of decorative ironwork on the exterior, especially the balcony, was another distinctive and widespread feature. Half basements became common and so the ground floor was raised up with a set of steps, stucco-covered brick or stone porches supported on columns (porticos) were also popular. On smaller houses semi-circular fanlights remained in vogue, many having the distinctive reeded moulding that was used inside and out on Regency houses and usually continued up over the arch at the top of a door.

  FIG 4.16: Cottage Orné was a type of pretty, quaint, usually thatched cottage style, as in this example, but was designed for wealthy occupants who looked for new Picturesque style building in the fashionable suburbs and countryside rather than for rural folk.

  FIG 4.17: Details from houses in a Greek Revival style.

  FIG 4.18: EDENSOR DERBYSHIRE: Rural estate housing broke with formal design of earlier work (see Fig 2.16) and became more picturesque, inspired by designs from books like John Loudon’s ‘Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture’ of 1833. These details of houses from Edensor were inspired by this book, and feature clockwise from the top left medieval battlements, Mock Tudor timber framing, Norman blind arcading and Italian villas.

  FIG 4.19: A façade of a Regency terrace, highlighting some of the fashionable features.

  Windows became even more elegant with metal used to strengthen the glazing bars enabling them to become as thin as possible, with large panes of glass and taller windows on the piano nobile. Bay windows, which had been introduced in the second half of the 18th century, became popular especially in fashionable resorts, but unlike the earlier canted (angled) and semi-circular types, the Regency is notable for shallow bow windows usually the full height of the façade.

  FIG 4.20: Although stucco was widespread, stone and exposed brick were still used. Note the raised half basement and Ionic capitals on the brick example from Liverpool (top) and the iron balconies and window guards on the others from Stamford (middle) and Cheltenham (bottom).

  FIG 4.21: A Greek Revival style detached house with a low pitched roof, which was distinctive of the Regency period. Note also the porch and pilasters which have Greek key decoration at the top under the eaves.

  FIG 4.22: Examples of Regency ironwork from balconies, which used patterns like scrolls, foliage, geometric and Greek key.

  FIG 4.23: A house with a half basement and Greek Doric porch raised up a set of steps to make it more imposing.

  Many of these flamboyant styles persisted into the early Victorian period with classical terraces still dominant in the town and a new Italianate style popular on suburban villas, before the more serious and sombre red brick Gothic began to dominate (see The Victorian House Explained in this series).

  FIG 4.24: Regency doorways often had distinctive reeded, plain or patterned surrounds, which carried on over the arch of the fanlight as in this example.

  FIG 4.25: An early 19th century window with thinner glazing bars and in this example a blind box at the top in which was originally stored a pull-out external blind to cast shade on the room within.

  FIG 4.26: Early examples of bow windows on a hotel dating from the late 1770s. Later examples had larger expanses of glass with thinner glazing bars.

  FIG 4.27: Chinese styles were fashionable in the Regency period, although this was mostly in interior design and furniture. The pagoda inspired design of balcony roofs, however, was a common and distinctive feature on the exterior of many Regency houses.

  Period Details

  FIG 4.28: DOORS: The front door to a house was typically a six panelled design (as opposed to the Victorian four panel) with a short top section, large middle and small to medium bottom. There was more variety in the Regency period with different shaped and deeper panels. These were usually fielded (with a raised central part and sunken bevelled edges) but in areas that were prone to dirt or damage might have a stronger flush panel with just a beaded edge (2, 3 and 17). Cheaper housing and doors out of sight on larger houses could use a simple plank and batten type (18).

  Early door surrounds could be flamboyant (19), some still with Baroque style hoods (1 and 15), or more usually a flat top supported on brackets originally without a fanlight at this date (3 and 14). Later entrances might have no surround due to taste and building regulations and the decoration was put into the fanlight (7 and 9) while some finer houses had classical stone pedimented pieces (2, 11, 12, 20 and 24). There was a wider range of styles in the late 18th century and into the Regency period, such as Gothick (21); while some were extravagant (6 and 8), others were restrained with the moulding going up the sides and continuing over the arch or square top (16 and 23). Doors could be painted in a white lead paint, black or dark green.

  FIG 4.29: FANLIGHTS: Fanlights became popular from the mid 18th century to illuminate the narrow hall behind the front door. They may have also been fitted to existing as well as new houses with the old doors shortened (the middle or upper panels are often reduced in height) or replaced to accommodate a rectangular shape opening. Early types tend to have thicker wooden or metal bars, and more simple designs by the mid 18th century, taking the form of an arch with fanned segments. Later styles from the 1770s became more delicate (5, 14 and 21), sometimes very elaborate (22 and 25) and occasionally with Gothick style tracery (7 and 27). Most were semi-circular in shape with a batwing (1, 5 and 16) being a popular pattern. Improved metal working techniques through the Napoleonic wars allowed decorative fanlights to be cheaper until new sheet glass in the 1830s made the intricate glazing bars obsolete and Victorian types tend to be rectangular with only a few geometric bars, if any.

  FIG 4.30: SASH WINDOWS: Vertically sliding sash windows dominated houses throughout the period, either with both sashes moving over each other supported by pulleys and weights or, in cheaper examples, simply held open by wedges. A notable change in design was the position of the sash box or frame within the wall, at first exposed and flush (4 and 8) then later set back (7) and after the 1774 Building Act hidden behind the brickwork or masonry (10 and 12). The other improvement was the thickness of the glazing bars–thicker at first (2, 8 and 11) but gradually thinning and with the insertion of metal into them in the Regency period they became very fine, coupled with new larger sheets of glass (9 and 10). The twelve pane window was the most common, its proportions suiting the classical style terrace although sixteen pane types (3, 6, 8 and 11) were also common. Some sash windows had sidelights to make a triple set (5) or had semi-circular heads (12).

  FIG 4.31: OTHER WINDOWS: There was also a wide range of distinctive window shapes, most with sashes but some still with casement openings (side hinged) (12). Venetian windows (with a tall semi-circular opening and two square headed sidelights) were used by Palladian designers and remained popular throughout the century (1, 6, 9 and 15). Semi-circular shapes were also common, often used in conjunction with Venetians (7 and 9), and round or elliptical windows were used, too, especially early on in the period (5). Dormer windows set in the roof to illuminate the attic were prominent in the early decades (13) but were hidden behind the parapet in Palladian style terraces and most later examples. Bay windows came into fashion after being introduced by Robert Taylor in the 1750s and 60s. The earlier ones tend to be canted (angled sides) (8), then curved in the later 18th century (16), with the bowed, elliptical type popular in the Regency period (11). On cheaper housing or on the upper floor under the eaves of larger houses, a shorter, horizontally sliding sash window that did not need pulleys was used (2, 4 and 18) – commonly known as Yorkshire sashes. In the top storey workshops of
mill town terraces longer versions of these were used (14, 20, 21 and 22).

  FIG 4.32: WINDOW DETAILS: Most windows through the period had no decorative surrounds but on finer houses, especially stone and earlier examples, raised classical mouldings around the edges were used (8), often with a pedimented top to emphasis the centre or the piano nobile (6). Later Gothick style houses also used a drip mould above the window (11). Security from rioting and theft was a problem for many as was protection from the elements so external window shutters were fitted, often just on the ground floor but in some cases on all windows (1, 2 and 13). They were held on simple pin hinges (4) and kept back against the wall by stays (3, 5 and 12) when open but were locked from the inside when shut by bolts (1 and 13). Protection from the sun was also required for residents, furniture, carpets and fabrics so external pull-down blinds became popular in the Regency period to shade the windows and even doors (see Fig 4.28.23). When not in use they withdrew up behind a blind box or pelmet, which usually had a simple decorative profile, and it is these that often remain on houses (7, 8, 9 and 10).

 

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