Victorian Architecture and Interior

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VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural

styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century.

The period may slightly overlap the reign ofQueen Victoria, 20 June 1837 22

January 1901.

The styles often included interpretations and eclectic revivals of historic styles

mixed with the introduction of middle east and Asian influences.The name represents the British and French custom of naming architectural

styles for a reigning monarch. Within this naming and classification scheme

it follows Georgian architecture

and laterRegency architecture,

and was succeeded by Edwardian architecture.

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the

set ofarchitectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for

the first fourBritish monarchs of the House of HanoverGeorge I of Great

Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United Kingdom, and George

IV of the United Kingdomwho reigned in continuous succession from August
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e Regency style ofarchitecture refers primarily to buildings built

in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince

Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style. The period

coincides with the Biedermeierstyle in the German-speaking lands, Federal

style in the United States and the French Empire style.[1]

Edwardian architecture is the style popular when King Edward VII of the

United Kingdom was in power; he reigned from 1901 to 1910, but the

architecture style is generally considered to be indicative of the years 1901 to

1914.[1]

Edwardian architecture is generally less ornate than high or late Victorian

architecture,[2] apart from a subset used for major buildings known asEdwardianBaroque architecture.
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The most popular style of architecture prior to the Victorian era was the Greek Revival. This

style was used almost exclusively for public buildings where simplicity and dignity were

considered the most important attributes. By the 1840s the Greek style was no longer

fashionable for a private residence. Its popularity had waned about the time Victoria became

Queen. Many early cottages were built as summer residences only, with no insulation, yet the

underlying surfaces were of solid construction. Architects and builders often submitted

alternate designs for a house where the floor plans were identical, and only the facadesvaried. But when frame construction came along, houses were built quickly and ornate details

were added later. Many early homes had neither kitchens or bathrooms. As is typical of these

early homes, additions often house the kitchens and baths.

Most of the early homes, especially those built in England, were built of stone, and enhanced

with decorative "stone tracery". The number of full-blown Gothic stone mansions was never

large. Only the wealthy could afford such homes which required the labors of highly skilled

stone carvers. The costly Gothic style was eventually translated into wood, and thousands of

"Carpenter Gothic" houses still stand.

The Charastic American Carpenter Gothic style is characterized by steep gables and pointed

windows. Often the construction was vertical "Board and Batton" which was considered

particularly fitting for a Gothic cottage because of its upward tendency. In a wider sense we

now apply the term "American Gothic" to all homes of typically Victorian design. These homes

mark the real beginning of modern architecture. The homes are planned from the inside out -the layout of the rooms and the traffic pattern determines the outward look. Inside they have a

happy hide-and-seek quality of surprise.

When Gothic came to America and was translated to "Carpenter Gothic", the stone tracery

was replaced by wooden Gingerbread. The ornate wooden detail is considered a folk art.

Each carpenter had his own ideas and employed his own fanciful designs.
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The Victorian architectural period mostly spans the period of roughly 1825-1900.

The Victorians drew deeply from history, nature, geometry, theory, and personal

inspiration to create their designs. Prior to 1890, designers, though properly

trained in the academics of standard architectural systems, still managed to

employ their own creative ideas.Early Victorian structures were relatively simple in style, while those built after the

Civil War became more complicated. They combined styles as they saw fit. The

end result was often a stunning visual effect. The building styles of post-Civil War

America were elaborate and flamboyant, very much fueled by new industrial

society. Now collectively called "Victorian" the architecture was made up of

several main styles. These include Italianate, Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake,and Queen Anne. Generally, Italianate style structures have flat roof lines,

corniced eaves, angled bay windows and Corinthian-columned porches. Stick-

Eastlake structures often include square bays, flat roof lines and free-style

decorations. Queen Annes have a gabled roof, shingled insets, angled bay

windows under the gable and on occasion a tower.

Contemporary critics accuse the Victorians of needless complexity and clutter.Victorian architecture up to 1870 was thought by some, especially Europeans, to

be a failure. This near revulsion by critics was expressed at first only by a few,

but as the decade went on, criticism increased.

However, this view was obviously not shared by all then or now. A charmed critic

writing for the San Francisco Morning Call on April 21, 1887 described San

Francisco's Victorian architecture as follows:
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"The architecture of San Francisco in our residence streets has no counterpart in

the world, and we have no reason to be ashamed of it. It is light, airy and pleasing

in style, and is to the architecture of Europe and the Eastern States as Spanish

music is to the grand and heavier compositions of Wagner."

The latter part of the nineteenth century brought a new attitude toward color. Before

then, the houses of the tract builders tended to be painted all one color, usually

white, beige or gray. By 1887, many people were painting their houses in lighter,

brighter colors. The vibrant colors are one of the more easily identifiable features of

Victorian architecture today.

The years from 1870 to 1906 produced the bulk ofSan Francisco's Victorianbuildings in which there was much overlapping in style trends. One cause of the

seemingly infinite variety of Victorian architecture in Northern California is the

abundant coastal redwood. Both the structural members and much of the

decoration on San Francisco Victorian homes are redwood, a local material that

had many advantages. It was cheap and plentiful; it resisted rot, termites and fire;

and it was easily worked into different shapes.Many interiors were done in the grand manner reflecting their owners and builders.

As with the exteriors, two general styles prevailed during the period: the Italian or

Renaissance style and the medieval or Queen Anne. Interiors of the Renaissance

mode included smooth plastered walls often in light colors, marble fireplaces

usually with heavy gold mirrors above, elaborate ceiling cornices, elaborate

pediments over doors, frescoed ceilings, and chandeliers. French influence wasver stron durin the 1870s
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and early 80's. Italianate interior design had heavily molded , yet graceful door

frames and wainscoting that complemented contemporary furniture styles. Door

frames of this type disappeared with the dominance of the Queen Anne interior. The

shift to the brooding medieval style resulted in dark colorful interiors. Californians at

this period closely followed national trends.

From about 1895 to 1915, middle-class tastes turned away from the clutter andclosed off rooms of the Victorian home to more simple, open, flexible spaces: the

living room replaced the parlor. Natural wood furniture and interiors displaced the

artificial, upholstered and multi-layered look typical of the Victorian home. At the

turn of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, working-class and middle-

class homes reflected contrasting material standards.

Today, all over the United States, many homes from the Victorian architecturalperiod still stand and are considered among the most beautifully rustic in almost

any neighborhood. Many have been turned into bed and breakfast inns, hotels and

some just opened to the public as historic sites.
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Typical Characteristics of Victorian houses

Bay windows (they stick out) - A window that sticks out of a house, that can have

windows on the side of it.

Iron Railings

Flemish brick bonding

Patterns in the brickwork made from coloured bricks

Stained glass in doorways and windows.

Roofs made of slate.

No garage

Sash windows (they open by sliding the window up) Dentils - A molding going around a house with rectangle holes in it.

Column - A round or square shaped post usually holding up the roof.

Dormer - A window that sticks out from the roof that has a roof of its own.

Clapboard Siding - Wood siding used on a house

Cornice - The piece that runs along were the roof and wall meets Gable - The triangular part at the end of a building formed by the two sides of a

sloping roof.

Pediment =The piece that comes out from the roof and covers the porch.


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Portico -A porch with a roof.

Mansard Roof =- roof with two slopes, and often it is flat on top.

Transom -A window or panel, usually operable, above a window or door.

Turret -A small, skinny tower usually at the corner of a building. Oriel Window: Begins above the ground and heads up.

Bay Window: See top of page.

Reveal Window: Just sticks out from the wall.


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Narrow and Tall

Most Victorian houses are narrow, which allowed these impressive beauties to be

built on a small amount of land. They were often close to other Victorian homes,

usually near the center of town. What these houses lack in width they make up for

in height; a typical Victorian is three stories tall and perched on a full-size

basement. Stairs

Because the Victorian was built to impress, intricate or grand entrances were

usually constructed. These stairways usually lead to wrap-around front porches

adorned with turned wood or wrought iron railings.

Towers and Turrets

These unique rooms could be studies, bedrooms or libraries. They give Victorian

homes a castle feel and recall the Gothic mansions that inspired early Victorian

designs. Because these houses were often three or even four stories tall, these

turrets can be quite impressive.

Decorative Trim

Although the trim was mass-produced, there were several different styles anddesigns. Everything from Italianate egg-and-dart molding to carved Gothic Revivial

fascia can be found on a Victorian home. It's not at all unusual to find Queen Anne,

Gothic and Italianate elements all on the same house, as the goal was to create

something unique and unusual. According to Victorian design rules, the trim should

painted a distinctly different color than the siding for emphasis. In most cases, three

to five different colors of paint were used: one for the house, and the rest for thetrim.
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Bay Windows

Large windows, sometimes filled with stained glass or topped with stained glass

panels, are a common feature in Victorian houses. These bays can either be walk-

out versions or have a built-in bench.

Asymmetrical House Design

Victorian era architects loved the challenge of varied roof lines and asymmetricaldesigns. The houses were made to be individual and unique. Even if the basic

design of a group of houses is the same, you can expect to find unique window

styles and architectural details that give each house its own personality.

Extras

Classic Victorian homes have wrap-around porches with intricate trim and tiny

balconies or crow's nests on the upper floors. Some of these porches, balconies

and crow's nests were functional, but some were just for show. Nothing was too

extravagant for a Victorian home.

Finding Victorian Homes

Where can you find Victorian-style homes? You can find at least one of two

Victorian style homes in most urban areas, but some cities have more than others.The Old West End, a famous neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio, has having the most

Victorian style homes in the United States. San Francisco is also known for its

beautiful, restored Victorian homes. Savannah, Georgia is a lovelycity

to visit and explore, as its many Victorian homes are located on charming squares

with interesting gardens and sculptures, making it a fabulous place to visit. If youex lore these cities ou will find Victorian bed and breakfasts that are erfect for
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Typical Defects in Victorian Buildings

Damp: Solid masonry walls allow for water penetration, although it is not always

rising damp. However, a lack of a damp proof course, or the failure of the original

DPC is commonplace. Slate DPCs become brittle and fracture with the settlement

of the walls over time, and bitumen DPCs become friable or are simply squeezed

out by the pressure of the brickwork. Furthermore, despite the mass production of

bricks, some were still of poor quality; such bricks can be the cause of damp spots

appearing halfway up a wall in isolation and with no apparent cause. Lastly, the

application of cement render to the exterior of the property can seal in any moisture

present in the brickwork, so that any such moisture appears to the internal face of

the wall. See our page on damp for more detail. Wall tie failure: The use of cast-iron walls ties where cavity walls are present

means that the ties have often rusted through over the years. Furthermore,

Victorian builders often used fewer ties than we would use today. Also, some of the

aggregates used in mortar in some parts of the country have an electrolytic action

when wet, and cause the wall ties to corrode.

Failed coursing beams: Another construction technique of the period involvedusing timber beams as part of the wall structure. These were usually hidden behind

snapped headers, and so are not immediately apparent when the wall is viewed

externally. Over the years, the timber rots, and the wall begins to sag or bow.

Rotten floor joists: As with preceding eras, the ends of the floor joists in Victorian

buildings are built into the walls; when the wall becomes damp, the timber rots.Poorly ventilated voids beneath timber ground floors are another cause of such
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Cracking around bay windows: A common problem that occurrs with bay

windows is that they have often have little in the way of foundations, and so settle

at a different rate to the rest of the house. Also, it is common for small trees to be

planted in the front gardens of Victorian properties, which draw water from the soil

and can cause the bay window to drop. Ordinarily, underpinning can and should be

avoided in remedying the problem. Lead pipework: Intially, the pipework in plumbing was of lead, as it is maleable and

easy to form into pipes that can then be shaped and bent (useless fact: the Latin for

lead isplumbum, which is why plumbers are so called). It is uncommon for the

internal plumbing nowadays to be in the original lead, however, although there are

frequently sections of the incoming water main that are still in lead, usually where

the pipe is embedded in the brickwork below ground level. This is obviously lessthan perfect, although the inside of the pipe usually has enough limescale build-up

that the incoming water never touches the lead itself.

Ageing electrical services: Although any electrical wiring will not be original to the

building, it will have been installed at any time in the past ninety years or so, and

often not all at once. The inferences are obvious.

Poorly replaced roof coverings: Slate was commonly used to cover the roofs of

Victorian buildings, and it is not uncommon to see roofs where the original slates

have been replaced with concrete tiles. These are much heavier than slates, and

unless the roof structure has been strengthened to accommodate the tiles, there

can be problems with the rafters being over-loaded.
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Spalling brickwork: When bricks are wetted by rain, moisture is absorbed into the

exposed face of the brick.If a frost follows, the water in the face of the brick freezes

and expands, and causes the face of the brick to break away. Victorian bricks can

be quite porous, and this tendancy can be exacerbated by the use of incorrect

mortar mixes when repointing.

Defective windows: Original timber sash windows to Victorian buildings are now ofgreat age. If decoration has not been assiduously carried out to the exterior, or if

condensation has not been removed from the internal face of the windows, the

timber rots. Another problem is that is was common over the past thirty or forty

years to replace single glazed sash windows with double glazed uPVC or

aluminium units - and these can now have a detrimental effect on the value of the

property, especially if the work has been executed poorly.

Some, all or none of these defects may be present in any Victorian property,and

other defects besides. If you own a Victorian property and are concerned about any

defects present, or if you wish to purchase such a building, please do call us for

friendly, professional advice
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Victorian decorative arts refers to the style ofdecorative arts during the Victorian

era. Victorian design is widely viewed as having indulged in a grand excess of

ornament. The Victorian era is known for its interpretation and eclectic revival of

historic styles mixed with the introduction of middle east and Asian influences in

furniture, fittings, and Interior decoration. TheArts and Crafts movement,

theaesthetic movement,Anglo-Japanese style, andArt Nouveau style have their

beginnings in the late Victorian era.

Interior decoration and design

Interior decoration and interior design of the Victorian era are noted for orderliness

and ornamentation. A house from this period was idealistically neatly divided in

rooms, with public and private space carefully separated. The Parlor was the mostimportant room in a home and was the showcase for the homeowners; where

guests were entertained. A bare room was considered to be in poor taste, so every

surface was filled with objects that reflected the owner's interests and aspirations.

The dining room was the second-most important room in the house.

The sideboard was most often the focal point of the dining room and very ornately

decorated. [edit]Walls and ceilings

The choice of paint color on the walls in Victorian homes was said to be based on

the use of the room. Hallways that were in the entry hall and the stair halls were

painted a somber gray so as not to compete with the surrounding rooms.

Most people marbleized the walls or the woodwork. Also on walls it was common toscore into wet plaster to make it resemble blocks of stone. Finishes that were

" "
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16/19

choice and placement. The theory of harmony by analogy was to use the colors

that lay next to each other on the color wheel. And the second was the harmony

by contrast that was to use the colors that were opposite of one another on the

color wheel. There was a favored tripartite wall that included

adado orwainscoting at the bottom, a field in the middle and a frieze orcornice atthe top. This was popular until the 19th century. Frederick Walton who created

linoleum in 1863 created the process for embossing semi-liquid linseed oil,

backed with waterproofed paper or canvas. It was called Lincrustaand was

applied much like wallpaper. This process made it easy to then go over the oil

and make it resemble wood, leather or different types of leather. On the ceilings

that were 814 feet the color was tinted three shades lighter than the color thatwas on the walls and usually had a high quality of ornamentation because

decorated ceilings were favored.

[edit]Furniture

There was not one dominant style of furniture in the Victorian period. Designers

rather used and modified many styles taken from various time periods in history

like Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others. TheGothic and Rococo revival style were the most common styles to be seen in

furniture during this time in history.

[edit]Wallpaper

Wallpaperwas often made in elaborate floral patterns with primary colors in the

backgrounds (red, blue and yellow,) and overprinted with colours of cream andtan. This was followed by Gothic art inspired papers in earth tones with stylized
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and fabrics during the latter half of the Victorian period. Morris was inspired and

used Medieval and Gothic tapestries in his work. Embossed paper were used on

ceilings and friezes.

1 H i ht
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1. Height

Victorian homes are often taller than similar sized homes of other styles

spreading upward rather than outward. This gives them a grand sense when you

look at them, and it goes a long way to set themselves apart from other houses in

the same area. Here are a few photos of three-story Victorian buildings to give you

a better idea of what I mean. Credit: Slideshow Bruce (via Flickr)

Credit: Alaskan Dude (via Flickr)

Credit: yorkville (via Flickr)

2. Turrets

Heres where that whimsical style I mentioned comes in. Many Victorian buildingshave turrets in other words, towers. And really, whats notto love about towers?

They dont have to be extreme. Some are round. Others arent. Here are a couple

of examples of Victorian homes with turrets to give you an idea of their variety.

Credit: marada (via Flickr)

Credit: Muffet (via Flickr) 3. Millwork

The millwork on many Victorian homes sometimes takes my breath away. You just

dont see this kind of ornamental effort go into newhomes as much anymore.

Millwork is the decorative woodwork youll find on the home or inside it.

Have you ever seen old homes with gorgeous wooden doors, staircases, and built-

in shelving? Those are examples. So are baseboards, fireplace mantles, and the


19/19

Documents

Victorian Architecture and Interior