Architectural Styles

Modern or traditional?

There are various issues to consider when choosing your home and what kind of space is most suitable for your needs.
Older properties offer generous proportions, but if they have not been modernised can lack in facilities such as up to
date central heating, double glazing and built-in storage.

Modern properties, on the other hand, tend to be smaller, may have lower ceilings, which makes them easier to heat,
but can make you feel cramped. Depending on the property, modern houses can be unique and have the latest
technology and energy saving features. This is also true of refurbished older buildings.

One of the latest trend in city centers has been the conversion of old industrial buildings into Lofts, mixing the old with
the new. This brings together the generous proportions and the character of the more traditional properties with the
latest comfort and technology of the 21st century.

The most popular architectural styles in London are:

Traditional

Georgian (c.1720 - 1820)

As an architectural style, 'Georgian' refers to the period 1780-1820. As a period, it covers the years between 1714 and
1820.

Georgian architecture is classical in the majority of the exteriors, influenced by Roman Architecture. The interiors were
more elaborate with a wide colour palette. In this period, walls in fashionable houses were paneled from floor to ceiling
and divided horizontally into three parts to represent the classical proportions of the column. Walls would have been
painted in a single colour, although a darker shade might have been used to emphasise details such as the skirting and
door (stronger colours were expensive). Plasterwork reached a height of delicacy and elegance. Ceilings were divided
into segments defined by moldings around the ceiling rose with details highlighted in white against delicate muted tones.
The colours most used were light blue, lavender, pink and pea green - never primary colours. Fixtures and fittings were
also used to introduce colour.
Main Features:

 Generous proportions with high ceilings

 External doors with 6 panels and a fanlight
 Flat or shallow roof partially hidden behind a parapet
 Stucco-faced external ground floor
 Yellow bricks replaced red (it gave a more stone-like appearance)
 Marble or stone fireplace shelf supported by pilasters
 Niches shaped like scallop shells for ornaments
 Plain openings, with deep double-hung sash windows
 Doors and windows have entablatures, pediments, consoles and either
pilasters or columns
 Wallpaper using wood blocks, stenciling or flocking
 Greater use of pine and fir, and less of oak
 Wrought and cast iron balustrades on staircases in one sweeping curve only
rising to the first floor (higher floors being served by a secondary staircase)
 Colours of outside ironwork blue or steel blue, doors green or blue, windows
dark brown in plain paint or grained
 Plasterwork with smaller compartments arranged around the sides of ceilings
leaving large compartments round, square or octagonal in the centre.

Victorian (c.1830 - 1901)

Victorian architecture was made up of several styles, the main ones being Italianate or Renaissance and Queen Anne
or Medieval.

In reaction to the classical style of the previous century, the Victorian age saw a return to traditional British styles in
building, Tudor and mock-Gothic being the most popular. Enormous houses were built looking more like great
cathedrals rather than houses.

The early Victorian period is characterised by overly elaborate details and decoration;during the late Victorian the style
was simpler. The Industrial Revolution made possible the use of new materials such as iron and glass.
A major plus with Victorian homes is the steep pitch of the roof, which makes them great candidates for loft conversions.

Main Features:

 Bay sash windows

 Terracotta tiles
 Ornamental stonework and striped, multi-coloured brickwork
 Warm terracotta colours
 Brick faced houses with painted stucco to emulate stone
 Dark fabrics - red and green - falling into ponderous folds
 Wide mantelpieces on fireplaces to accommodate masses of ornaments
 Cast iron grates
 Baths of very decorative cast iron
 Woodwork painted white (late Victorian)
 Bare floorboard surrounding carpets
 Walls covered in flowered wallpaper
 Elaborately turned balusters and newel posts in staircases
 Wooden dado rail painted white, around the room below a brightly patterned
wallpaper
 Picture rail and above the rail a decorative frieze
 Cornices above friezes (High ceilings were unfashionable so all the horizontal
lines were used to visually reduce the height of the ceiling)

Edwardian (c.1901 - 1910)

As an architectural style, 'Edwardian' refers to the period 1901 to 1918. As a period, it covers the years between 1901
and 1910.
The Edwardian era was a period of revivalism, taking ideas from the mediaeval and Georgian periods, among others.
Houses mixed and matched many influences.

Houses had wider frontages so there was often more room for a hall, in larger houses this was even used as a living
room. For example, it would be furnished with a desk and perhaps even a fireplace.
The underlying themes of buildings and interior design of the Edwardian era were for expensive simplicity and sunshine
and air. Colours and detailing were lighter than in the late 19th century, looking back to the Georgian era of a century
before. The desire for cleanliness continues. As gas and then electric light became more widespread, walls could be
lighter as they did not get so dirty and looked better in the brighter light. Decorative patterns were less complex, both
wallpaper and curtain designs were plainer.

There was less clutter than in the Victorian era. Ornaments were perhaps grouped rather than everywhere. Displays of
flowers were placed to complement the floral fabrics and wallpapers.

Today, fine examples of these homes can be most often found in areas like Dulwich, Southeast London or in the
"garden suburbs".

Main Features:

 Rough cast walls

 Small paned leaded windows
 Magpie work
 Rustic bricks
 Art Nouveau (*) influences in fire places, light fittings, stained glass and door
furniture
 Jacobean details such as gargoyles, heraldic devices, mullioned windows,
studded doors and Dutch gables
 Houses with Neo-Georgian influence: large bays and sash windows, columns
and pilasters
 Half timbering
 Small feature windows to create a picturesque effect
 Wooden porches with turned spindles
 Brackets and decorative fretwork
 No dado rails, leaving only the picture rail
 Walls decorated in uniform colours with contrasting woodwork Bare
floorboards decorated with rugs

(*) Art Nouveau (c.1890 - 1919)

Themes in this period would be the rose, iris, waterlily, dragonfly, butterfly, snail and peacock. A distinctive feature was
the whiplash or spiral of smoke. Another popular motif was the woman's face with her hair flowing in waves about her as
caught in the wind or under water. Strong, asymmetric shapes. Nymphs and fairies emerging from flowers. Naked ladies
stretching upwards, holding lights.
This was a very short period and it fell into great disfavour until the 1970's, for this reason very few whole rooms
remain.

Art Deco (c.1925-1939)

Art Deco style was the first widely popular style to break with the early 20th century styles of Revival and beaux-arts
styles. It consciously strove for modernity, simplicity, and a streamlined effect - typical of the newly emerging Machine
Age.
This style had two phases: Zigzag Moderne of the 1920s and Streamline Moderne of the 1930s and 1940s. Although
many public buildings - courthouses, jails, bandstands, schools - were built during the Great Depression in this style,
sometimes, the Art Deco designs were not actually built until after World War II!

The style was particularly popular for commercial buildings, such as banks, cinemas and courthouses.

Main features:

 Flat roof
 Two stories stucco walls, painted white or light pastels
 Glass blocks steel casement windows
 Small round windows curved corner walls concrete basement walls
 Low-relief geometrical designs, often with parallel straight lines
 Zigzags, chevrons, and stylized floral motives
 Smooth-faced stone
 Concrete foundations
 Metal railings

1930s

During the 1930s people moved out to the suburbs to take advantage of affordable newly-built homes and better public
transport links.

This suburban developments were established in the countryside around existing towns and cities and produced a wide
variety of domestic styles - from updated Victorian cottages, Tudor style miniatures mannors and "Modern" homes,
made from cement and steel with streamlined curves and uncomplicated lines.

The typical house of the 1930's was generally smaller than those before 1914. It had a front room off a hall, a second
living room at the rear and a kitchen. Upstairs there were two large bedrooms, a third much smaller room and bathroom
and toilet. An addition to the typical house was the garage. A new pattern was the bungalow with all its rooms on a
single level, or the chalet-style bungalow with one or two bedrooms in the roof.

The 1930's saw a significant increase in the number of flats or apartments built.
Main Features:

 Herringbone brickwork
 Tile-hung walls and weatherbording
 Diamond shaped leaded panes in wooden framed windows with iron
casements
 Red clay roof tiles (not slate)
 Porche with simple hood with console brackets or gabled
 Oak doors with iron nails and fittings
 Two story bay with angled or half rounded sides
 Oak panelling interiors
 False beams

Modern (this term includes several styles)

Before the 1930s, architectural styles had always referred to previous styles. From this point on, however, new buildings
should not make any reference to traditonal architecture. Modernism had cut all ties with the past. A new aesthetic was
needed, one that represented the new epoch, the age of the machine. At the same time, it also provided affordable
housing for the common man.

The International Style was particularly well suited to large metropolitan apartments and office towers. On the whole,
Modernism was never really accepted by the public, it was more appreciated by big businesses and governments.

From the mid 60s (Postmodern Architecture), there was a shift towards interest in historical styles and the preservation
of older buildings. This lead to the renovation of many older landmark buildings and to a tendency to resist new
architecture that seemed to threaten the scale or stylistic integrity of existing structures. In general it can be said that the
Postmodernists value individuality, intimacy, complexity, and occasionally even humour.

The inflexible, confrontational approach of modernism has been replaced by a more inclusive sense of the architectural
heritage that acknowledges and seeks to preserve the very finest achievements of every period.

DID YOU KNOW?

In the early Georgian period, the women would leave the men in the dinning room when the meal was finished, and go
to the "withdrawing room", which gave the name to today's "drawing room". The dining room was the masculine
preserve and was decorated in a masculine way and the drawing room in a soft and feminine way.

Georgian homes were made of brick or stone, which became a compulsory requirement in London following the Great
Fire of 1666.

The word Modern derives from the Latin "modo", meaning "just now" or "right now". Even though when we talk about
art, design and architecture, we associate its use almost exclusively with the 20th century and possibly beyond, it has
been used in the English and Latin languages for a very long time.

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