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    Victorian Gothic House Styles
    Victorian Gothic House Styles
    Victorian Gothic House Styles
    Ebook148 pages2 hours

    Victorian Gothic House Styles

    By Trevor Yorke

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    About this ebook

    Gothic is a potent word. For many people it conjures up images of dark, atmospheric castles, ruined abbeys, and horror stories set in misty graveyards. All this could not be further from the truth. Some 150 years ago Victorian Gothic architecture was a colourful, innovative and exciting departure from the foreign Classical styles that had been dominant for so long. It heralded a fresh, vibrant era for English architecture, representing the nation’s growing stature and confidence in its own abilities and signalling a daring, new approach to building. In recent years its romance and flamboyance have found renewed favour with the public. Major examples such as the Midland Hotel, St Pancras, the Albert Memorial and the huge town halls in cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Bradford are all well known. Recent treasures of discovery include Tyntesfield, the National Trust’s country house in Somerset. But there are numerous, more subdued yet equally attractive examples of Victorian Gothic housing. They stand proudly in towns up and down England and are steadily being returned to their former glory by new owners. Trevor Yorke describes the importance of this period of architecture and shares the joy of its exuberance. His book will be welcomed by everyone with an interest in the Victorian Age and especially by those living in and restoring a Gothic Revival style house of their own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCountryside Books
    Release dateNov 6, 2012
    ISBN9781846748363
    Victorian Gothic House Styles
    Author

    Trevor Yorke

    Trevor Yorke is a professional author and artist who has studied and written about various aspects of England's architectural and industrial heritage. He has produced many illustrated books that introduce the reader to these topics and writes articles and reviews for various magazines. He lives in the UK.

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      Book preview

      Victorian Gothic House Styles - Trevor Yorke

      HOUSE STYLES

      Trevor Yorke

      First published 2012

      © Trevor Yorke 2012

      All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without the prior permission of the publisher:

      COUNTRYSIDE BOOKS

      3 Catherine Road

      Newbury, Berkshire

      To view our complete range of books, please visit us at

      www.countrysidebooks.co.uk

      ISBN 978 1 84674 304 7

      Illustrations by the author

      Designed by Peter Davies, Nautilus Design Produced through MRM Associates Ltd., Reading

      Typeset by CJWT Solutions, St Helens Printed by Berforts Information Press, Oxford

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      Chapter 1

      VICTORIAN GOTHIC STYLE

      Definition and Origins

      Chapter 2

      VICTORIAN GOTHIC HOUSES

      Large Houses and their Architects

      Chapter 3

      VICTORIAN GOTHIC HOUSING

      Semis, Terraces and Estate Houses

      Chapter 4

      VICTORIAN GOTHIC DETAILS

      Doors, Windows and Decoration

      Chapter 5

      VICTORIAN GOTHIC INTERIORS

      Fixtures and Fittings

      PLACES TO VISIT

      USEFUL WEBSITES

      GLOSSARY

      INDEX

      Introduction

      Gothic is a very potent term. It conjures up images of ruined abbeys and castles, horror stories set in misty graveyards, and intense music fans donned in long black coats. Gothic is dark, spooky and atmospheric.

      However, 150 years ago it was something far more specific: a new and exciting revival of medieval architecture which displaced the foreign Classical styles as the dominant form of building. It could be colourful, moral and powerful, representing a nation’s growing stature and confidence in its indigenous history and future direction. Railway stations, churches, town halls, and the new houses of the upper and middle classes could be designed free from the rules of symmetry, with an honesty in construction and the use of the pointed arch.

      FIG 0.1: A Victorian Gothic house, with labels of its key parts.

      Despite the relatively short dominance of this High Victorian Gothic Revival from the late 1840s through to the early 1870s, the ideals of many of its leading lights and the new approach to architecture it initiated were to inspire the next generation of designers and sow the seeds for the later Arts and Crafts movement.

      This book sets out to explain the background, introduce the most notable architects and show, using clearly labelled illustrations and my own photographs, the unique features of Gothic Revival houses. The first chapter defines the style, explains how it developed and its effect upon contemporary and later culture. The second chapter describes the finest houses and the work of the leading architects, giving a brief biography of each and examples of their work. The next chapter shows the mass-produced housing which imitated the work of these top designers, the brick semis and terraces which are the familiar face of Gothic Revival in this country. The fourth chapter is packed with photographs of key features and distinctive details which can help identify the style and assist in selecting authentic parts when renovating a house. The final part looks inside at the rooms and describes their original appearance and the style of decoration, furniture and fittings which could be found.

      For anyone who simply wants to recognise the style, understand the contribution of key characters and appreciate what makes Gothic houses special, this book makes a colourful and an easy-to-follow introduction to the subject. If the reader is fortunate enough to own such a house, then the illustrations and text will hopefully enlighten them as to its value and aid any planned renovation or redecoration. For those of us who can but look on and admire, I hope the book helps clarify the true essence of the style and why it is such a unique and valuable contribution to a street, a community or even a town, one which is only now being appreciated.

      Trevor Yorke

      www.trevoryorke.co.uk

      FIG 1.1: The Gothic Revival of the 1850s and ’60s changed the face of buildings in this country. The key element of the style was the use of the pointed arch as in the different types of window and door used here at Berkhamsted Old Town Hall, Herts.

      Definition and Origins

      WHAT IS GOTHIC?

      Gothic architecture is characterised primarily by the use of the pointed arch. Although it is associated with medieval churches, abbeys and cathedrals, and the revival of this style in the 19th century which will be the focus of this book, the pointed arch is a constructional tool not restricted to these periods. As G. E. Street, one of its leading Victorian advocates stated, ‘Gothic ... is emphatically the style of the pointed arch and not of this or that nation, or of this or that age’.

      However, when his generation of architects studied the buildings of Europe built from the 12th through to the 16th century they were inspired by more than just this more flexible form of arch. The fact that structural elements like buttresses were left exposed on the exterior of medieval churches and, in many cases, embellished with carvings, was an honesty in construction in stark contrast to the Classical style of buildings which was dominant in the early 19th century. The stone and brick used was left in its natural state and, if decorated, was only done so in patterns formed from different coloured types rather than the stucco-covered brick houses which imitated fine masonry in most Victorian cities. The way in which medieval builders arranged the elements of their buildings to suit the requirements of each part, with little concern for the overall appearance, inspired the Revivalists to create asymmetrical façades and free the interior from the restrictive rules of symmetry which had dominated architecture through the 18th century. Inevitably they also used many of the other details which they noted on these medieval buildings, such as battlemented walls, gable ends, pinnacles and towers, not simply copying them but adapting the forms to modern use.

      This Gothic Revival from the 1840s through to the 1870s was more than just a

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