Victorian architecture (1837-1901)
Though new technology drove innovation in Victorian architecture, nostalgia was its keynote. Past eras were plundered for inspiration.
Both watered-down Regency Classicism and the
Greek Revival continued after Victoria came to the throne, but as her long
reign wore on a battle of the styles
developed. The Gothic Revival had a powerful grip on the
imaginations of architects between 1855 and 1885. That still left room for a
bewildering array of other borrowings from the past. Perhaps national pride
encouraged an admiration for the architecture of previous periods of national
confidence: Elizabethan, Jacobean and Scottish
Baronial. Meanwhile Italianate Romanesque
was one of the styles encouraged by John Ruskin's influential works (see
sources below).
Britain had led the industrial revolution. The Great Exhibition of 1851 displayed the end products in a showcase which was itself a triumph of 19th-century engineering. The Crystal Palace designed by Sir Joseph Paxton was lavish with Victorian innovations - iron-frame construction, sheet glass, and integral heating. Its use of prefabrication and standardisation was a pointer to the future.
This vision of the machine age produced a backlash. The Arts and Crafts Movement, triggered by John Ruskin and William Morris, promoted the revival of traditional building crafts and the use of local materials in emulation of vernacular architecture. Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912) was a brilliant exponent of the approach, producing a series of influential country houses in the 'Old English' style and then developing the 'Queen Anne' style for town and country. He was followed by the even more admired Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944).
Though it sprang from nostalgia, some elements of Arts and Crafts design influenced the development of a new style towards the end of the century - Art Nouveau. As the endless parade of period imitation began to pall, Art Nouveau offered a break with the past.
Guides
- Avery, D., Victorian and Edwardian Architecture (2003). The helpful index acts as a list of architects of the period and the buildings they designed.
- BBC, Period Style: Victorian gives details of interiors.
- Brodie, A., Felstead, A., Franklin, J., Pinfield, L. and Oldfield, J., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (RIBA 2001). The definitive biographical reference tool for the Victorian and Edwardian periods, based on material in the British Architectural Library and elsewhere.
- Dixon, R. and Muthesius, S., Victorian Architecture (1976).
- Girouard, M.,Sweetness and Light: The
Queen Anne
Movement, 1860-1900 (1977). - Girouard, M., The Victorian Country House (1971).
- Orbach, J., Victorian Architecture in Britain (1987).
- Osband, L., Victorian House Style: An architectural and interior design sourcebook (1991).
- Wedd, K., The Victorian House (The Victorian Society 2000).
- Yorke, T., The Victorian House Explained (2005).
- The Victorian Society is the national society responsible for the study and protection of Victorian and Edwardian architecture.
Primary Sources
- The Builder (1843- ). See the online index.
- The Building News (1855-). See the online index.
- Ruskin, John, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849).
- Ruskin, John, The Stones of Venice (1851-3).