Georgian & Regency Houses Explained

by Trevor Yorke

  Originally the sash box was exposed at the front but an Act of 1709 forced builders, at first only in London, to set it back at least four inches from the face of the wall. The later 1774 Act took it a stage further and set the sash box back behind the outer wall to further reduce fire risk.

  The imposition of window tax led many builders and owners to build brick recesses in place of glazing or to block up existing openings to reduce the total number of windows by which the tax was calculated (it varied through the period, being imposed on houses with more than 6 to 8 windows before it was repealed in 1851). Be aware, though, that many windows were left blocked because it was convenient for the room behind and not because of the tax; it would have been top floor or rear windows that were more likely to be blocked for tax purposes (see Fig 3.2).

  The front door surround was also affected by this legislation as the wooden surrounds and hoods that were still popular on some houses were banned as part of fire prevention. This, coupled with changing fashion, created the plain entrance with the only decoration in the semi-circular fanlight above the door, which became characteristic of later Georgian terraces, with stone (real and artificial) or stucco-covered brick used to make classical surrounds on the finest houses. Later Regency entrances were further enlivened with the use of decorative ironwork balconies or extended porches supported on columns (porticos). See Fig 4.28 – Fig 4.31 for examples and styles of windows and doors.

  ROOFS

  Georgian detached houses posed a problem in roofing their new larger structure. Most houses in medieval and Tudor times had been built as single properties even if they butted up to others to form a continuous row. These were composed of units one room deep, as the steep pitch required to support the roof materials of the time, clay tile or thatch, could not spread beyond that without complicated and expensive trusses. In the late 17th century, however, and throughout the Georgian period the double pile house, two rooms deep, was built. The solution to the roofing issue was to still use steeper pitched roofs wide enough to overlay one room but set them either parallel, one behind the other, or in a ring to cover the wider structure. This created a problem with the valley where the two pitches met, a notorious weak point for rain to enter, which needed constant attention and maintenance. By the later 18th century, however, lighter Welsh slate became more widely available and the whole double pile could be covered by one shallow pitched roof.

  FIG 3.19: The end gable of a double pile house showing the two separate pitched roofs, which run parallel across the structure (top). The central valley was lead-lined to collect the rainwater and, if they wanted to avoid gutters down the façade, gulleys could run from the front behind the parapet, through the first gabled roof and into the valley. The second view is of a later slate-covered Regency roof, which due to its lighter weight could span the whole in one.

  FIG 3.20: Examples of the inside of a pitched roof. On the left is a king post truss, one of the types of truss that support and spread the weight of the structure. On the right is an arrangement used on terraces where the two large purlins running halfway up the slope of the roof rest upon the dividing walls between each house.

  FIG 3.21: Examples of other types of roofs to be found on Georgian and Regency houses.

  Similar problems existed for larger terraces where the roofs usually ran front to back, with the central valley above the centre of the house. This was hidden from the road below by a parapet, another feature of fire prevention to avoid flames getting to the roof timbers, but one that also suited the classical style of the façade. The introduction of slate again gave more flexibility in the design of the roof. Another type of roof that became increasingly popular on larger terraces was the mansard where the slope of the roof is made up of a steep and then a shallow pitch, creating more height within for an attic.

  Types of House

  The houses of the well-off Georgian could come in various shapes and sizes, from large detached villas and towering terraces in the towns and cities to stout square farmhouses and vicarages in the country. Despite these differences the basic principles of the interior layout, especially in terraces, was fairly fixed throughout the period. In the past, the main reception rooms had been on the ground floor and in larger houses even the principal bedchambers, but as the Palladian style became popular in the early to mid 18th century so these important rooms could be found on the first floor, raised above a rusticated ground level. The windows and ceilings were higher on this floor, the piano nobile, to emphasise its importance. In terraces the main rooms were split between the ground and first floor so as to create a similar effect. The lower level had a rusticated treatment on the exterior and contained the day to day rooms for the family while the new piano nobile above was raised in height (the ceiling height may have been the same as the ground floor but the windows were taller) to make an imposing drawing room and dining room above the noise and dirt of the street below. There was usually a balcony to overlook the front (rarely the back) with full height sash windows (French windows became popular in the 1830s and sometimes replaced the earlier sashes) or just ironwork guards across the openings in smaller houses.

  FIG 3.22: It was another aspect of first the 1667 Rebuilding Act for London and then the 1774 Building Act that urban houses were categorised by area and value into differing rates. In the later legislation First Rate was the largest and Fourth Rate the smallest (the values are of the building costs and the sizes are the total area of all the rooms together).

  It was also typical at this date for most of the service rooms to be in the basement. Early examples tended to be fully subterranean with, on the finest houses, an open area in front with steps leading down to it, a feature that became increasingly widespread from the mid 18th century. Half basements with steps leading up to a slightly elevated ground floor, which made the entrance look more impressive and cast more light into the floor below, became popular from the late Georgian period. This also reduced the depth for excavation although in many urban terraces the basement floor actually stood on the real ground level and it was the road at the front that was built up with the spoil from building. In medium-sized houses there may have only been a light well at the front with access from inside or the rear. The kitchen would have been positioned down here, with its fireplace usually up against a party wall in terraces, giving off heat all day, which must in part have reduced the problem with damp. Although there were often further service rooms at the rear in larger houses, it was not until the Victorian period that better accommodation for staff was provided.

  FIG 3.23: Cut away plans of a detached Georgian double pile house (left) and a large Regency terrace (right). Notice on the later example how the kitchen and scullery have been moved out into the rear yard now that piped water was available to create more room in the basement for a larger suite of service rooms.

  FIG 3.24: The basement of larger terraces was accessed down the steps through the ‘area’ at the front of the house. The left hand example dates from around 1740 with a full depth basement so the front door is level with the street; the right hand picture shows a later type with just a half basement so the front door is now up a set of steps, making a more imposing entrance. On smaller terraces there may have been no area and just a light well to illuminate the basement (see Fig 3.26).

  Another development in the design of terraces was the appearance of the row as a whole. As most houses were built in small groups by small-scale builders, large-scale planning may have been limited to general rules on appearance, size and position dictated by local implementation of Building Acts or by the landlord. In these larger and fashionable developments the row could be treated as one architectural piece. Palace-fronted terraces, where the ends and central dwellings are emphasised to give the whole the appearance of a large country house either in a straight row or crescent, were popular from the mid 18th century through to the end of the Regency period. Another common distinction of the Georgian and Regency terrace is that the front door was pos
itioned on the same side of each house in a row, whereas in smaller buildings and in later Victorian houses it became fashionable for the doors to be set in pairs.

  FIG 3.25: QUEEN SQUARE, BATH: A palace-fronted terrace with the end and centre elements projecting to give the impression that the whole takes the form of a country house.

  FIG 3.26: A row of terraced houses from Liverpool with their front doors on the same side of each property rather than cheaper and later Victorian dwellings where they were usually paired together.

  Despite being associated with 20th century mass housing, the urban semi-detached house first appeared as a distinctive form in the late 18th century alongside fashionable villas and terraces on the then outskirts of towns and in seaside and spa resorts. They could take on the appearance of a row of terraced houses with gaps between or two linked detached dwellings. A distinctive form in the Regency period was to have a lower unit set back from the façade containing the front door at each side of a semi or at the end of a small row of terrace houses (see Fig 3.27).

  FIG 3.27: A semi-detached and linked house with the doors set in a smaller side block, creating more room on the ground floor.

  FIG 3.28: A plan of a medium-sized terrace house from the late Georgian period.

  WORKING CLASS TERRACES

  There were also distinctive types of terrace built for the growing urban workforce, although it would have been only those fortunate enough to live in a well paid area (for instance you could earn twice as much in a Lancashire mill town than in some rural towns in the south) or to be in a senior or specialised position who could afford the rent on a small terraced property. They could range from a modest two up two down through house (with a front and rear door opening directly into the rooms) with separate bedrooms for the children and parents, down to back to backs set in rows or around courtyards with a single room above and below and possibly a cellar for storage. Although these houses, which were often squeezed in at the rear of larger properties or in haphazard developments, were later to become the slums of the Victorian period, many did provide decent accommodation at the time, often an improvement over damp hovels back in the country.

  Another distinctive type was the weavers’ terraced house where living rooms and bedrooms were on the ground and first floors with an open second floor above, lit by elongated windows to cast light on the workplace.

  FIG 3.29: A small terraced through house from the early 19th century with two ground floor rooms and two upstairs bedrooms. Where they stand today, a bathroom has usually been inserted into one of the bedrooms, leaving a small space for a box room. They do not tend to have rear extensions at this date, only a small yard or garden.

  FIG 3.30: A cut away drawing of a back to back house with a cellar, living room and bedroom stacked upon each other and no access to the side or rear.

  CHAPTER 4

  Georgian and Regency Style

  FIG 4.1: STAMFORD, LINCOLNSHIRE: Differing styles of stone Georgian houses. The right hand example is an earlier type with gabled roof and dormer windows; the left hand example is influenced by the new, more austere Palladian style and emphasises the vertical, with a parapet hiding the roof and plain window openings.

  The style of Georgian and Regency houses was dominated by classical architecture. The proportions, dimensions and detailing of the façade were based upon the orders from Ancient Greece and Rome, reinterpreted by later architects and made available to even the humble builder through numerous and detailed pattern books. The architectural quality of even the small terrace owes much to these valuable publications, which the master mason, bricklayer or carpenter would have used to guide construction. In the late 17th and early 18th century, with poor communication and little travel, changes in fashions in the building trade took time to reach more remote areas; the latest style in London could take up to fifty years to reach the most remote parts of the country. There were also local types of window or door surround and decorative features that may have only appeared in that area or persisted in a locality long after they had gone out of fashion elsewhere. However, with the growth of architecture as a trade, improved transport and the widespread availability of these pattern books, the time delay for fashions to spread begins to evaporate and local styles fade as houses become standardised.

  As a country, however, we generally lagged behind the Continent before this period and it was in 15th-century Italy that the rebirth of classical architecture, the Renaissance, became prominent, at a time when nobles back here were still constructing rambling timber framed houses. Leading architects created new forms of domestic architecture based upon the classical orders of Ancient Rome, the most notable being Andrea Palladio (1508–80). Through a study of the remains of Roman buildings and an understanding of proportions he created a distinctive style of domestic building that has become known as Palladian. His most notable achievement, however, was the book I quattro libri dell’architettura, a self publicising piece of literature in which he recorded his theories, and which was to become influential to later Georgian architects.

  FIG 4.2: A classical column and entablature with labels of its parts.

  FIG 4.3: THE CLASSICAL ORDERS: Each order had different proportions and style of entablature and capital at the top of the column. The Roman orders pictured here (from left to right), 1: Composite, 2: Corinthian, 3: Ionic and 4: Roman Doric/Tuscan, were used from before the Georgian period as they had been studied from the Renaissance onwards, and feature on early – and some later – Georgian houses. The Greek orders, however, were not recorded accurately until the mid 18th century and hence grew in popularity later in the period (see Fig 4.11).

  FIG 4.4: WINSLOW HALL, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: One of the few houses that is likely to have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren, dating from the first decade of the 18th century. It displays many of the features that were popular on similar high quality houses of the day – a hipped roof with a wooden cornice below, red brick walls with stone quoins, and a segmental arched door surround.

  Early attempts at classical architecture in this country were done with little understanding of the rules of proportion and composition. Tudor and Stuart houses tend to have columns and detailing affixed to standard structures in a sometimes amateurish way. A notable exception was the work, mainly for the Crown, of Inigo Jones (1573–1652) who, after visiting Italy, where he was profoundly influenced by the work of Palladio, returned to these shores and created the first true classical buildings. He was, however, way ahead of his time and after the Restoration in 1660 it was the domestic style of the Low Countries, where many Royalists had been based throughout the Commonwealth and from where William of Orange came in 1688, that shaped building in the late 17th century. By the opening of the Georgian period, houses were still being built under the influence of Dutch architecture and that watered down Baroque style popularised by Sir Christopher Wren (St Paul’s Cathedral), Sir John Vanbrugh (Blenheim Palace) and Nicholas Hawksmoor.

  Early Georgian Styles 1714–1760

  Large red bricked houses with white cornices and dormer windows, stone houses with moulded framed windows and flamboyant Baroque shell hoods and terraces with segmental arched windows and red brick dressing were still the common form when George I ascended the throne. Although in London these styles had fallen from favour by the 1730s they remained popular or formed eclectic mixes with later styles in other parts of the country.

  It was the classical style of Ancient Rome reinterpreted by Palladio that spread to affect most levels of housing in the first half of the 18th century. The change was fuelled in part by young nobles venturing to Italy, among other destinations, on Grand Tours designed as part of their education but often ending up as a shopping spree for ancient relics. Upon their return they wanted new houses to store their collections of antiquities and the new Palladian style met with their approval now they had seen the originals for themselves. There was also political influence as the Whigs, who had risen to power with the new monarch, sought a natio
nal style. They rejected the Baroque as too French, too Tory and hence by association Jacobite, and under the influence of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, who controlled appointments to key architectural posts, encouraged the development of the Palladian style (see Fig 1.1). The other key character was Colen Campbell who translated the works of the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius and, including his own designs and those of Inigo Jones, created the basis of an anglicised version of the ancient forms.

  FIG 4.5: BROOK STREET, LONDON: An example of a terrace in the style of Wren and typical of the turn of the 18th century and early Georgian period. It has segmental arches above windows, red brick dressing and string course and box sashes exposed to the front. The large pilasters at the extremities of the façade were also a popular Baroque feature. This house was the home of Handel for twenty-five years and then two hundred years later Jimmy Hendrix moved in next door!

  FIG 4.6: BURLINGTON STREET, LONDON: Built between 1718 and 1723 by Colen Campbell, these new terraces were designed on Palladian rules. The façade was based on the classical temple, with the lower string course marking the top of the plinth and the cornice at the top the top of the entablature.