A History of Architecture in England (Art Ebook) PDF

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A HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURE
IN ENGLAND __ If)
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is a concise survey of architectural

development in this country from ^ tooj
prehistoric times to the present day.
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The account of each period is
s o
preceded by a well-balanced
summary of the political, economic,
social and cultural trends of the time.
The text is amplified by a glossary en
of terms, and there is a short

bibliography covering each
architectural period, together with
a list of representative buildings, at
the end of each chapter. An
important feature of the book is the
use of attractive line-drawings,
many of which the reader will be
able to reproduce for himself
without too much difficulty.
For this second edition the text has

been extensively revised, and much
new material has been added.
^ Jacket designed by
Gerald Wilkinson
i:^
$4.95 /
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Glossary: p. 168-173.
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A HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURE ]N ENGLAND
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<!
DOVER castle: The twelfth-centun^ keep rises above the
bailey walls with their gatehouse and mural towers
A History of
ARCHITECTURE
m
T. W. WEST M.A.
DAVID McKAY COMPANY INC

NEW YORK
To Jane and Nicholas
First published 1963
Second edition copyright 1966 T. W. West

Printed and bound in Great Britain for the
DAVID McKAY COMPANY, INC., NEW YORK
by Cox and Wyman Limited, London, Reading and Falcenham
.'^5
;^*
PREFACE
As part of the post-war renaissance of the arts there has un-

doubtedly been a revival of interest in the most social of them -
architecture. There was a time when no educated person was
without some knowledge of the subject, but for the past hundred
years and more this has not been so; with what results may be
judged in part from the state of our towns today.
Happily there are signs of change. Once again the appreciation
of architecture is considered a proper concern of intelligent
people. Notices appear in the more thoughtful newspapers and
weeklies of the latest essays in contemporary building and town
planning. The B.B.C. broadcasts appreciations of the work of
prominent modern masters like Le Corbusier and Gropius.
There has been television coverage of exciting new projects like
BrasiUa, and feature programmes devoted to historic houses.
Mr. John Betjeman and others have discriminatingly reassessed
the Victorian jungle. Guide books and coimty topographies now
give greater space to buildings both old and new, reflecting the
curiosity of the car-owning democracy that is suddenly aware of
its rich inheritance of ancient monuments, cathedrals and country
houses, which it visits in numbers far exceeding those of the

cognoscenti of the eighteenth century.
For this public a vast new spate of private building and
municipal development is being carried out, and that it is aware
of contemporary trends may be inferred from the lively contro-
versies which take place whenever the plans of some forward-
looking new technical college or block of flats are published.
The views expressed are of less importance than the response
itself: the arousing of interest is a necessary first step towards
the growth of understanding.

Surely it is not too hopeful to suppose that out of all this may
come a whole new approach to our man-made surroundings ? It
should at least ensure the preservation of the best from the past,
and could also prove a foundation of sympathy and understanding
upon which architects of the not too distant future will raise
even finer buildings than the most successful of today.
PREFACE
The approaches to architecture are several, but one of the most
fruitful is the historical, which relates social, technical and
aesthetic aspects in an evolutionary study of exceptional interest
and value. For many years the History of Architecture has been
an important optional subject in the art examinations of the
various School Certificate bodies, but it is also now being widely
recognized as a useful background study for students of general
history. Since architecture expresses more tangibly than any other
art the character and values of a society, the flavour of an epoch,
it is particularly well fitted for this role. Cultural history has long
been neglected for political, social, and economic history, but it
is at last receiving attention as a validand indeed necessary
concern of the historian.
In following this trend, the Associated Examining Board has
introduced a History of Building syllabus for its G.C.E. 'O'
level History paper and it is out of experience gained in preparing
students for this examination that this book has been wTitten.
It will, however, be found useful by all classes taking a general
course in the History of Architecture, such as those now forming

part of the art-historical education given by colleges of art
complementary to their main concern with practical training.
The subject is especially recommended to teachers who are
looking for a less traditionally academic approach to history
and to those concerned with the development of liberal studies
in technical colleges, particularly where there are craft courses in
building subjects. After all, here is a point where art and tech-
nology
'two cultures'meet in a socially useful function.
The text gives adequate coverage of the essential facts for a
course up to *0' level, thus setting free both student and
teacher from the bondage of note-taking so that the often hmited
time at their disposal may be more actively used for the visual
study of buildings, whether in reproduction or *in the flesh',
and for the investigation of the manifold relationships existing
between each style and its historical context.
The book is illustrated with diagrammatic line drawings offer-
ing the student of no special drawing ability examples on which
he can base illustrations to written work. Each chapter is intro-
duced by a short background note on the poUtical, economic,
social and cultural history of the architectural period.
CONTENTS
In order to relate the architecture to its historical context each chapter
is preceded by a note on the political, economic, social, and cultural
history of the period; and is followed by a list of representative buildings
and a select bibliography {except for chapters three and five).
PREFACE 5
CHAPTER ONE PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN 9

Prehistoric: megalithic monuments - chambered barrows - stone
dwellings - hut circles - hill-forts - villages
Roman: constructional system - use of orders - - concrete technique
features - ornament - general effect - the first towns - plans -
forum - basilicas - temples - thermae - hypocausts - theatres
- town houses - villas - Silchester church - the Wall -forts
CHAPTER TWO ROMANESQUE 25

Romanesque : definition
Anglo-Saxon: timber construction - the Kentish churches -
Northumbrian churches - Brixworth - Early Saxon carving
- the supremacy of Wessex - contacts with the Khineland -
later developments - general description - burghs - halls and
huts
Anglo-Norman: beginnings - character - constructional system -
churches -features - eleventh-century work - High Roman-
esque - motte and bailey castles - the keep - domestic
buildings - masonry
CHAPTER THREE GOTHIC I 4I

Gothic: origins -features - analysis of the structural system
Early English: concentric castles - fortification - thirteenth-
century manor houses
Decorated: quadrangular castles -pele towers -fourteenth-century
manor houses
Perpendicular: secular buildings
Timber Roofs
CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR GOTHIC 2 57
Gothic Church Plans: evolution ofparish church plans - cathedral
east ends - the great church - monasteries
Medieval Building Industry
Tudor: country houses - plans - interiors
Timber Framing: crick construction - later developments
CHAPTER FIVE RENAISSANCE 69

Renaissance: definition - early work in England
Elizabethan: sources - country houses - plans - elevations -
windows - interiors - ornament
Jacobean: staircases - smaller houses - colleges - gardens

Vernacular Architecture
CHAPTER SIX SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 82

Renaissance: the new Classicism
Inigo Jones: chief works - town planning - the square - the
seventeenth-century house - Webb and Pratt
Wren: St. Paulas - churches - plan for Eondon - English
Renaissance craftsmanship - later seventeenth century - the
^Queen Anne" house
CHAPTER SEVEN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 100

Baroque: definition - Hawksmoor's churches - Vanbrugh's
country houses
'^ Palladianism: Burlington and Kent - the Palladian country house -
landscape gardening
i Eater Georgian: Adam and the Adam style - 'Gothick^ - the
terrace house- squares - 'palace fafades^ - later town planning -
public buildings - Georgian harmony
CHAPTER EIGHT NINETEENTH CENTURY 120

Regency: Nash
Revivalism: Neo-Greek ~ Neo-Renaissance - Gothic revival -
the ""battle
of - new
styles^ types of buildings
Engineering Architecture: new materials - new techniques
Domestic Architecture: the villa - plumbing - working-class
housing - legislation - factory estates - the garden city -
municipal planning - Norman Shaw - the changing scene
CONTENTS
CHAPTER NINE TWENTIETH CENTURY 141
Kevivalism Continues: Edwardian Baroque and Neo-Classic
Domestic Architecture: Vojsej and 'free traditionalism^ - mock-
Tudor suburbs - Neo-Georgian
Pioneers Abroad: Sullivan and Wright - Gropius and the
Bauhaus - Le Corbusier
Modern Architecture: the break with the past - a new philosophy
of architecture - Functionalism - new materials and tech-
niques - frame construction - steel and ferro-concrete -
characteristics of modern architecture -
siting and landscaping
ipjo Onwards: the thirties -post-war building - prefabrication

and the modular principle - 'new towns'* - public authority
housing - high building
THE AESTHETICS OF
CHAPTER TEN
ARCHITECTURE 160
The Historical Styles of English Architecture 166
Distribution Map of Local Building
Materials 167
Glossary 168
Index 174
V.^^
LIST OF PLATES
DOVER CASTLE frontispiece
ESCOMB CHURCH, CO. DURHAM facing page 40

DURHAM CATHEDRAL 4I
king's college chapel, CAMBRIDGE 64

MORETON OLD HALL, CHESHIRE 65
WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAM 80
THE queen's HOUSE, GREENWICH 81
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, SUNDERLAND 112
OSTERLEY PARK, MIDDLESEX II3
THE PROMENADE, CHELTENHAM II5
ST. George's hall, Liverpool 128
ST.PANCRAS STATION, LONDON 129

THE R.N. BOATSTORE, SHEERNESS 144
LATE 19TH CENTURY MASS HOUSING 144
NORNEY GRANGE, SHACKLEFORD, SURREY 145
COVENTRY NEW TOWN 145
TWO SAINTS SCHOOL, LONDON 160
ALTON ESTATE, ROEHAMPTON 160

THORN HOUSE, LONDON 161
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks are due to the following for the use of photographs

Aerofilms and Aero Pictorial Ltd. (facing p. 144)
G. Douglas Bolton (facing p. 80)
Chamberlin Powell & Bon (photo John Maltby Ltd.) (facing

p. 160)
A. F. Kersting (frontispiece and facing pp. 41, 64, 65, 81)
London County Council (facing p. 160)
Eric de Mare (facing pp. 40, 112, 113, 128, 129, 144, 145)
Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum - Crown copyright

(facing p. 113)
-
-1
i':y-
CHAPTER ONE
Prehistoric and Koman
PREHISTORIC BRITAIN
The cave dwellers and nomadic hunters of these islands were
followed by the Neolithic pastoralists (2500-1900 bc), who
practised some hand cultivation, domesticated animals, and made
implements of polished stone. They mined flint as a raw material,
wove cloth, made pots, and buried their dead in long barrows.
After them came the metal- working Bronze Age folk (1900-
500 Bc), who were pastoralists at first but from about 1000 bc
became settled cultivators with ox-drawn ploughs. These people
traded with the Continent in Cornish tin and Irish gold, cremated
their dead and buried them in roxmd barrows.
The Iron Age lasted from about 5 00 bc into Roman times and
witnessed a more advanced phase of Celtic culture. Tribes were
organized socially into villages and 'states', used chariots,
wheeled ploughs and lathes, possessed a considerable agriculture,
and engaged in a trade that included corn and later money.
ARCHITECTURE IN PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

During the long ages before the Roman Conquest little that
was built could be called architecture. There must have been
various simple types of wattle shelters in use but the oldest stone
structures are the remains of megalithic monuments, the greatest
being Stonehenge. Stone circles such as these reveal a primitive
sense of ceremonial planning, but they are scarcely buildings.
The first claim might be made for the NeoHthic chambered
tomb with its flagged or corbelled roof heaped over with earth
or, better still, for the dry stone wall dwellings of Early Bronze
Age date at Skara Brae in the Orkneys, with their built-in furni-
ture of flagstones and, again, a corbelled roof. But the commonest
seem to have been the circular huts whose
prehistoric structures
Bronze Age foundations are to be found in various parts of the
ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND
MOUND OF EARTH FLAGGED OR.
CO RBELLED ROOF
CHAMBERED BARROW
CORBELLING TO
FORM A ROOF
country, and it is these with their turf or thatch roofs which
continued to serve as the standard dwelUng of the Briton

throughout the Roman period.
TIMBER POST
TURF OR THATCH
EARTH 5TON ES ON WATTLE
CIRCULAR. PIT
Sometimes hut found in villages within the con-
circles are
centric ditches of the hill-forts that were a feature of Iron Age
ENCLOSURE
STAGGERED
ENTRANCES
DITCHES
6 RAMPARTS
I RON AGE HILL FORT

lO
PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN
times,though the earliest earthworks were the Neolithic cause-
way-camps. The great ditches of the hill-forts followed the
contours of the ground and above them in their heyday rose
earth and stone ramparts surmounted by timber stockades.
Access to the central enclosure was across the ditches by cause-
ways carefully staggered to hinder the approach of an attacker.
The finest of these fortified settlements was *Maiden Castle' in
Dorset, which finally fell Roman invader.
to the
An example of a stone built Iron Age village which continued
in occupation into the Roman period may be seen at Chysauster
near Penzance. There are the remains of four pairs of houses built
of granite rubble masonry and arranged across a cobbled street.
Each house consisted of an open courtyard surrounded by a
circular wall, in the thickness of which were rooms opening
inwards. Floors were paved and roofs corbelled or thatched.
THE ROMAN OCCUPATION

The prosperity of Iron Age Britain and the richness of its
resources prompted the Roman Conquest. The invasion of
Claudius (ad 43) inaugurated a period of consolidation by
military governors in which Britain became a province of the
Empire, exporting metals, corn, wool and leather for the benefit
of Rome. Under Agricola, the first governor, the earliest real
towns were built and the first network of roads constructed.
Despite unrest in the north, the Pax Ro/p/ana maintained by the
legions gave the country four hundred years of more or less
settled rule with a civilization based on a high order of material
culture and the rule of law. By the fourth century there was a
developed agriculture in which the villa estates played an
important role, an export trade, a cloth-making industry, and
much mining of iron and other metals. When Roman rule came
to an end a hundred years later it was to take many centuries
before Britain again reached a comparable cultural level.
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
When the Romans came they brought with them a fully
developed building technique, the expression of that practical
engineering skill for which they are famed. Their system of
II
GREEK
VOLUTE ABACUS \ ACANTHUS

LEAVED
CAPITAL
ENTA5I5
FLUTI NG
BASE
DOR.IC IONIC CORINTHIAN
ROMAN
PEDIMENT
CORNICE ^y<^
CORNICE
TRIGLYPH- ENTABLATURE- FRIEZE
METOPE
^ COMPOSITE
IONIC AND
ARCHITRAVE
CORINTHIAN
CAPITAL
SHAFT
PEDESTAL
FOR HEIGHT
TU5CAN DORIC COMPOSITE
construction sprang from two sources: the Greek column and

beam system; and the arch, vault, and dome of the Etruscans.*
They took over from the Greeks the three orders of pillar
* The post and beam system originated with the Egyptians, while the construction
of brick arches (from corbelling) and vaults was known to the Assyrians and
Persians.
12
and beam construction, modified them to suit themselves, and
added two of their own, so that in all they had five orders. In
each order the proportions and details of columns, capitals and
entablatures were all different. In practice however the most
frequently met with are the Tuscan Doric with its sHmmer,
unfluted shaft, and the Corinthian, its capital richly decorated
with an acanthus leaf motif.
But in a manner quite unknown to the Greeks, the Romans
frequently applied their orders to what was basically a pier and
arch structure, thus using them in a purely decorative manner
as well as in the orthodox way.
CORINTHIAN
i=L
^5 (vo (>-o ^
"^ r
IONIC
/=i
c. > ZZ3
ej
^ SPAN- KEY *
ARCH r USCAN
DRELS STONE
PIER
SUPERIMPOSED ORDERS APPLIED

DECORATIVELY TO A ?\EK AND ARCH SYSTEM
I
"
13
I
Masonry set in lime mortar really begins in Britain with the
Romans and another important technical innovation was their
use of concrete, a mixture of stone fragments and lime which
could be made anywhere without the need for skilled labour.
It was and barrel
particularly useful for the construction of cross
vaults, domes, and even walls which were then faced with stone
or brick.
Openings were generally semicircular or square-headed; roofs
low-pitched and covered with tiles which the Romans introduced
to this country together with the knowledge of brick-making.

Embellishment of all kinds was a feature of Roman buildings, and
decorative effects were obtained in numerous ways. Facings on walls
enhanced as well as protected them if made of attractive stone,
marble, brickwork or mosaic. Interior surfaces were stuccoed and
[ adorned with mural paintings framed by painted pilasters. Floors
were of stone, marble, tiles, herringbone brickwork, or tessellated
with mosaic. Statues were placed in wall niches or on roof-lines
or at pediment angles, while there was much rather coarse and
florid carving, thecommonest motifs being acanthus, ox-heads,
and garlands of fruit and flowers. The general feeling was one
of mass rather than space: Roman architecture was heavy and
plastic. At its had a gravity and dignified grandeur
best it
expressive of Roman power; at its worst it was ostentatious and

vulgar. But as Britain was one of the provinces farthest from
Rome its buildings were very much smaller, simpler, and less
grand than those we know existed in Italy. The first towns in
Britain were built by the Romans. Often they were former tribal
centres like Verulamium (St. Albans), which began as a Belgic
settlement and became under Agricola in the first century a
typical Roman town. Most were well sited. Some survived, as
at Chester and York, the great legionary garrisons in the North
others like Verulamium and Silchester (near Reading) were later
abandoned.
The most characteristic buildings were secular, connected with
the administration and with social life. Public buildings were
sometimes constructed with imported marble. They stressed the
political importance of the town as well as its economic function.
Street plans were usually rectihnear, with the building blocks
grouped in the spaces between and separated by footways. An
outer wall was provided with battlements and gateways, and it
14
was surrounded by 2. fosse or ditch. At the main intersection was
the forum, a marketplace-cum-civic centre and the focus of town
1:
life. Rectangular and surrounded by basilicas, temples, baths,
shops and peristyles (colonnades), it affords the earliest example

of town planning: the design of a group of buildings in their
spatial relationship to one another.
FORUM AT MAIN
INTERSECTION
[g] gateways
li^.
RECTILINEAR
STREET PLAN
PLAN OF A ROMANO-BRITISH TOWN

Basilicas were public assembly halls and served as town halls,
law courts and commercial exchanges. Rectangular in plan, they
consisted of a nave with two (sometimes four) aisles separated
by Corinthian colonnades carried right across the nave at both
ends making a complete ambulatory. In one of the short walls
was a semi-circular apse, containing a dais with wallseats or altar,
also screened off by a colonnade from the main body of the hall.
The roof was of timber which covered a coffered timber ceiling,
and the plain exterior usually contrasted with the rich decoration
within. At Silchester the basilica was 230 feet by 60 feet with
15
H
an apse at both ends, and it occupied the west side of a forum
300 feet square.
OVEK
VAULT r\\i
\/ A 1 cD
1 1 -T-
APSE
dDD dOD 0[
^00 000 Pion pi^
o o 000
o o o
NAVE*.
00 o
APSE
000 000
\ /
COLONNADES
R.OMAN BASILICA
Temples dedicated to the pagan gods of Rome were either
rectangular or square. The ce/Ia or chamber was usually raised
on a platform or podium and surrounded by a range of half
columns (Corinthian at the temple of Sulis Minerva, Bath)
^supporting' a cornice and pedimented roof. A flight of steps led
up to a deep portico of freestanding columns and sometimes
there was an apse at the rear. Floors were tessellated, with an
altar or cult object in the centre or on a dais in the apse. Ceilings
were vaulted or of coffered timber. The first stone building of
any size in Britain was Claudius' temple at Colchester (ad 50),
its mound now occupied by the remains of a Norman castle
rising from massive Roman concrete vaults.

Hot baths or thermae played a central part in Roman life, for
in addition to their contribution to health and hygiene, they
acted as clubs or social centres. Similar in principle, they varied
16
/\wM vj/ w m w MJWM^'
Z.
PODIUM PEDIMENT
CELLA
/ 1I-TO
PORTICO
o o rv-<>-^v-^v>>'>^-^^
1 .
:
^.
greatly in sizeand details of planning. The schematized plan

shows one arrangement of the main elements.
The baths at Aquae Sulis (Bath) had an open air swimming
SCHEMATISED PLAN OF THERMAE
1 UNDRESSING ROOM
3 1
2 TEPIDARIUM, WARM
CHAMBER OR LOUNGE
G 5 1- 2
34 SUDATORIA, HOT
AIR ROOMS
56 CALDARIA, HOT
WATER BATHS
7 7 FRI6IDARIUM, COLD
WATER SWIMMING POOL
ALSO OILING e MASSAGE
ROOMS, HYPOCAUSTS,
FURNACES ETC.
17
pool 80 by 40 and 6 feet deep, lined with lead from
feet
the Mendip Hills and surrounded by a roofed pavement with
stone sreps down to the water. Later the pool was covered by a
barrel vault of hollow box-tiles supported on forty-feet columns.
It was provided with a culvert drain.
GROINED CROSS VAULT
BARREL VAULT
Certain chambers wxre heated by means of a hjpocaust or cellar

into which glowing charcoal was pushed from a stoking chamber.
The hot air and gases warmed the cement floor above (raised
on pillars of tiles) and passed through terracotta flue pipes up
the walls to be discharged under the eaves.
HEATED FLOOR.
FLUE
t
2i'
A HYP0CAU5T
Public sport represented another important aspect of hfe and

theatres to accommodate it wêre built close outside the towns.
By the second century Verulamium had one for plays, and for
18
.ARENA
THEATRE
VERULAMIUM
ENTRANCE
STAGE
OPEN TO 5KY
t4 ^ DRESSING AND
PROPERTY ROOMS,
LEAN TO ROOF
circus performances consisting of animal fights and gladiatorial

combats. The auditorium was open to the sky and consisted of
tiers of stone seats enclosing a circular area of eighty feet diameter.
It was often hollowed out of a slope, raised on concrete vaulting
or, as in this instance, excavated, the upcast forming a bank for
the seats. Entrance was by means of vaulted tunnels.
The theatre derived from the Greeks who made a more civi-
lized and less brutal use ofbut the amphitheatre (two semi-
it,
circular theatres brought together) was a Roman invention. Like

its descendant the bull ring, it was essentially for combat,
Roman domestic buildings may be considered under two

heads: town and country. Town houses varied in size. The
medium-sized domus had plain facades with perhaps shops on the
street frontage. Amenities were good for the time. Windows
were of glass but most light came from above a central court.
The front door had a mortice lock, the roof was tiled and the
principal rooms were heated with braziers. Larger houses had
central heating by hypocaust and the luxury of tessellated floors.
Sometimes house plans were L-shaped or of the corridor type
with rooms opening off a passage. Slaves occupied insulae,
storeyed like tenements or barracks.
Romano-British country houses or villas were centres of large
farming estates growing corn for the towns and the army. They
19
were constructed of half timber raised on stone footings, and
when complete must have resembled Tudor buildings of similar
design. Another point of resemblance was the way the courtyard
type had its ranges of rooms along three or four sides of a quad-
rangular court, though opening on to pent-roofed verandas.
MAIN BLOCK
SLAVES' - GRANARIES,
QUARTERS
WALL WITH GATE
ROMAN
OR.
OF BUILDINGS
ANOTHER RANGE
VILLA
^
WORKSHOPS
D
Q
a
D
a
ETC.
The main block consisted of living-rooms, bedrooms and

offices, with a central hall placed opposite the entrance. The side
blocks contained the quarters of the servants and slaves, and the
barns, granaries, threshing floors andworkshops necessary for a
large farm. Some were equipped with a heated corn-drying
villas
floor, an innovation useful in a damp cHmate, and a large walled
farmyard was frequently attached. As with the larger town
houses the best rooms had tessellated floors, patterned or pic-
torial, and were decorated with frescoes and heated by hjpocaust.
A second type of villa was the corridor type. The plan was
simpler with a single range of rooms opening off a colonnaded
veranda; sometimes a pair of side blocks or short wings were
added. A few larger courtyard villas had corridors both inside
and outside the quadrangle, thus combining the two kinds of
Upper storeys are conjectural.
plan, as at Folkestone.
Small which resembled manor houses or farmsteads were
villas
of the columned barn type, with a nave and two aisles divided
20
SOMETIMES
SIDE-BLOCKS
OR WINGS
^ ^,
aa mUOiui
CORR.IDOR. TYPE OF ROMAN VILLA
off by timber posts supporting the roof. Rooms were constructed
inside or built on at the end and floors were of rammed earth.
Being less substantial, however, fewer of these have survived.
At Silchester are remains, unique in this country, of a small
fifth-century Early Christian basilica, probably derived from the
hall or basilica of a private villa and first used as a chapel when,
in 312 under Constantine, Christianity became the state
religion. Such buildings as this were the prototypes of the
basilican church of the Middle Ages.
N
w
EARLY CHRISTIAN
CHUR.CH
o
SILCH ESTER.
The plan was rectangular with a nave and two parallel aisles
separated by colonnades that carried a clerestory range of win-
dows and helped to support the roof. But unlike the basilica
proper, the colonnades were not carried across the building.
21
Though for the greater part of the Roman occupation a firm
and competent rule resulted in internal peace, along the turbu-
lent frontiers the story was different. Towns had stone walls in
the late third century, but the greatest monument to Roman
military power, Hadrian's Wall, goes back to the early second
century. Constructed of concrete faced with stone, it ran from
Tyne to Solway, punctuated at intervals by mile-castles (guard-
posts) and smaller turrets or watchtowers. In the hills to the
south was supported by a network of roads and forts.
it
These forts or castella were not the big fifty-acre legionary

forts such as York and Chester, but smaller ones of two and a
half to five acres, and they occurred at intervals of about five
miles. Similar ones were built elsewhere in the interior at strategic
points of the internal communication system. Basically they were
square or rectangular enclosures with rounded corners and
battlemented ramparts of stone or turf faced with stone. Each
wall was provided with a gateway, angle and interval towers,
and round the outside ran a berm and ditch of V-section. At the
principal intersection stood the principia or headquarters building,
and a shrine. Nearby were the praetorium (commandant's villa),
and granaries with supplies for a year

officers' quarters, stores
or two. Farther away were the long barrack and stable buildings.
At Housesteads (Borcovicium) there was a bath-house outside
the walls that served as a recreation centre.
Other military structures guarding the East Coast or Saxon *
Shore' were walled coast-forts and signal stations. Roads too

had defensible posts a day's journey apart, providing accom-
modation and remounts. Some of these later became market
towns. The usual method of crossing rivers was by flagged
fords but the remains of some bridges exist, as at Chollerford
over the Tyne.
The long colonial interlude of Roman civilization and building
was, however, destined to end with the crumbling of the Empire.
Rome was sacked in 410 and though there was no dramatic
withdrawal of the legions as is sometimes thought, Britain was
gradually left to itself to suffer the Teutonic incursions which
followed. When the Saxons arrived they usually preferred their
own sites to those of the Romans, whose towns and buildings
slowly perished through disuse rather than sudden violence.
22
INTERVAL TOWER GATEWAY ANGLE TOWER
[aap< H i <i u iririnrvTrvTnr|y

j
wu i t ii u rT> virvvVTrj^|^^
GRANARY
REGULAR
STREET
PLAN
W
VIA
PRINCIPALIS
BARRACKS HOSPITAL PRINCIPIA OR H.Q.BUILDING

e STABLES
PRAETORIUM,
COMMANDANT'S HOUSE
BARRACK BLOCK
I4-' WALL
LDiif Jl^ !Jl!ii!l da.
/ -\
EARTH DITCH
ROMAN FORT
MILITARY WAY LINKING F0RT5
VALLUM OR PALLISADED
EARTHWORK OF UPCAST
\
SECTION THROUGH HADRIAN'S WALL

23
LIST OF REPRESENTATIVE BUILDINGS
PREHISTORIC
Neolithic chambered long barrows: Hetty Pegler's Tump, Uley,
Glos; Stoney Littleton, Radstock, Som.
Bronze Age temple Stonehenge, Amesbury, Wilts.
:
Bronze Age hut settlement: Kestor, Chagford, Devon.

Iron Age hill-fort: Maiden Castle, Dorchester, Dorset.
Iron Age fortifications Stanwick, Yorks. :
Iron Age and Romano-British village Chysauster, Trevarrack, Corn-

:
wall.
ROMAN
Town forum, houses, theatre: Verulamium, St. Albans, Herts.
site,
Town with basilica and public baths: Viroconium, Wroxeter,

site
Salop; Calleva Atrebatum, Silchester.
Military base and settlement: Corstopitum, Corbridge, Northumber-
land.
Fort and sections of Hadrian's Wall: Borcovicium, Housesteads,
Northumberland.
Public baths Aquae SuHs, Bath, Som.
:
Villas: Chedworth, Glos; Bignor, Fishbourne and Southwick, Sussex;

Folkestone, Kent.
Coastal fort: Burgh Castle, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk; Richborough,
Kent.
Signal station : Scarborough, Yorks.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
PREHISTORIC
Clark, G. Prehistoric England (fi2iX.siot6. 1940).
:
Hawkes, J. and C. Prehistoric Britain (Chatto & Windus 1947).

:
Thomas, N. A
Guide to Prehistoric Eng/and (B2itsfotd i960).
:
ROMAN
Haverfield, F. J.: The Ro/ân Occupation of Britain (O.U.P. 1924).
Plommer, H. Ancient and C/assica/ Architecture (Longm2Lns 1956).
:
Richmond, I. A.: Roman Britain (Penguin 1955).

Robertson, D. S. Greek and Roman Architecture (C.U.P. 1943).
:
Winbolt, S. E. Britain under the Romans (Penguin 1945).

:
^4
CHAPTER TWO
Romanesque
ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
The Anglo-Saxons gave England its name and laid the founda-
tions of English culture. Even before the collapse of Roman

order bands of Anglo-Saxons from Germania had begun to raid
these shores and later, in the fifth and sixth centuries, they came
to settle. The Saxons were pioneer colonizers in the thickly
forested lowlands, their new villages based on the cultivation of
open fields in separately owned strips grouped into furlongs.
Their society of thanes, free peasants and slaves had a rudi-
mentary organization, and shire and local courts applied the
laws and settled matters of common policy.
With the of the Roman Empire Britain had become
rest
Christian in 312, but the Saxons were pagans and not until
the arrival of St. Augustine from Rome in 597, and the Irish
missionaries from lona, did churches again appear. Differences
between Celtic and Roman Christianity were settled at Whitby
in 664 with England's adherence to Rome, and when villages
were provided with churches - mostly timber but a few of
stone - the pattern of English parishes emerged. English monas-
teries became noted centres of art and learning, and by Bede's
time in the eighth century, Northumbria, one of the several
independent kingdoms of the Heptarchy, enjoyed the rich
civilization which produced the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The Vikings, Saxons in many ways,
seafarers resembling the
were attracted by the plunder, but after the ninth century they too
came Under Alfred, remembered also for his contribution
to settle.
to learning, his lawsand the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle^ Wessex (now
risen to supremacy) engaged the Danes in a great struggle. Though
the Danes failed to conquer England they did succeed in estab-
lishing themselves in the north-east (the Danelaw). In 1016 a 'I
\'-
<
Dane, Cnut, assumed the throne of a unified country.

^5
The impact of the Danes not only helped to unify England into
a singlemonarchy advised by a Witan, but added to the number
of towns which had grown up in the tenth century for reasons
of trade and defence. After the wars the Church too revived
under Dunstan, who also helped to establish a unified system of
laws and central government.
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
Romanesque is the stylistic name given to the architecture of
Western Europe in the period between the break-up of the
Roman Empire and the coming of Gothic towards the end of
the twelfth century. Its two principal sources were the surviving
architecture of Rome, particularly the Christian basilicas, and the
Byzantine of the Eastern Empire. Both Anglo-Saxon
style
and the Anglo-Norman which replaced it after the
architecture
Conquest were local variations of Romanesque.
ANGLO-SAXON ARCHITECTURE
The Saxons were familiar with timber as a constructional
material, as their splendid longships prove. It would be reason-
able to conjecture therefore that the earliest of their buildings
were built of timber like the great hall described in the Beowulf
saga, and indeed this is confirmed by the findings of archaeo-
logists.At Yeavering (Northumberland) an Anglo-Saxon town-
ship of the seventh century had both a stone- wall burh or fortified
enclosure, and a royal palace of timber (built for Edwin of
Northumbria). Throughout the period timber was the chief
material for less important buildings, though all have perished
except the church at Greenstead (Essex), which shows the
upright, spHt-log technique used for wall construction.
But gradually, through contact with the Rhineland, the Saxons
acquired a stone technique. Writers in the eighth century mention
quite large buildings, though the Saxon had a tendency to
exaggerate and surviving examples are certainly small.
The earliest buildings were stone churches erected in the
St. Augustine's
seventh century after the conversion that followed
mission in 597. Under the influence of Rome there was built in
Kent of Roman brick a group of churches with naves, apsidal
26
ROMANESQUE
chancels, narthexesand portkus (porches used as side chapels). A
representative example is St. Pancras at Canterbury.
PORTICUS (SIDE CHAPELS)
APSIDAL
CHANCEL
NARTHEX
BLIND
ARCADING
BRADFORD
ON AVON
CHANCEL
PILASTER STRIPS
SQUARE-ENDED
CHANCEL
ANGLO -5AXON CHURCHES
A north-eastern group was of stone, with long, high, narrow

naves, tall elevations and towers, and square-ended chancels of
Celtic influence. Monkwearmouth is a good example of this
27
second group, with a unique, above-ground groined vault in the
tower porch. (There are several Saxon crypts.) This is the first
time that the square-ended chancel is met with in England, a
feature associated with the Celtic Church which was so active
in the North until the Synod of Whitby in 664, and one that was
adopted for most English Gothic churches after becoming
absorbed into the tradition.
Besides these smaller churches there must have been some
larger ones of the basilica type but the only one extant is at
Brixworth in Northants. This is a simpHfied Early Christian
basilica consisting of nave, aisles, clerestory and apsidal east end.
Again it is constructed of Roman brick with Roman arcades.
The carved ornament of early Saxon churches is sparse but
boldly executed in the manner of the seventh-century high
crosses, and like them it combines Celtic interlacing with Medi-
terranean motifs such as vine and ivy scroll with animals and
figures, as can be seen at Ruthwell and Easby.
From the ninth century until the Conquest (the period of the
supremacy of Wessex and of the Viking invasions), later Saxon
work was influenced by the Carolingian revival. It brought
from the Rhineland, for example, the double cross plan of some
of the major churches now destroyed, and also the helm-shaped
roof. But in general churches continued to be small with elementary
compartment-like plans, though some had porches that became
incipient transepts giving a cruciform effect. The square east end
was now definitely preferred to the apse.
Workmanship continued to be rather rustic and primeval-
looking but was sound enough, as can be seen today. High nave
walls were essayed and it is remarkable what the tenth- and
eleventh-century Saxons were able to achieve in the way of
monumental dignity in spite of the smallness of scale.
Piers were short and stumpy with square capitals. Vaults were
simple, either barrel or groined. Windows were small and round
or triangular headed, with narrow apertures but wide internal
splays to admit the maximum light. Late Saxon belfry windows
often had baluster shafts. There was no glazing and shutters
kept the weather out. Doorways were also round headed and
some in the eleventh century had carved tympana.
Emphasizing the angles of walls or articulating them at inter-
vals were pilaster strips, which may also have served the practical
28
ROMANESQUE
7 ^
INTERNAL
d. SPLAY
QUOIMS quoiNS
FIVE LIGHT BELFRY WINDOW

LONG 6- SHOR.T MEGALITHIC
WOR.K.
LON6 r 5HOR.T mm HELM FORA/i

WORJC - FROAA
RHIN ELAND
LATTICE -mm î^
WORK, BLIND
iC^ ^.
ARCADING
PILASTER.
STRIPS II
50MPTING
ENRICHED TOWETR
EARLS
BA RTONi
ANGLO-SAXON FEATURES
purpose of vertical bonding courses in the rubble or ragstone
walls. Another wall feature was blind arcading. Quoins, either
megalithic or long and short work, strengthened and decorated
the angles. Arches were usually left plain, though a few were
given simple but massive mouldings. By the eleventh century
c 29
western and central towers were common. They were without
buttresses and frequently terminated in the helm form of roof
already mentioned.
There was less carved ornament and it was not as successful.
The total effect of the abstract patterning, however, was often
quite rich, as can be seen from the tower at Earls Barton.
RAMPAf^T,
PA LLISADED TIMBER. TOWER.
E AI^THWOR.K
DITCH
/
A 5AX0M BU HH
Strictly speaking there were no Saxon

castles, for the burh was
essentially thecommunity defence and not the private fortress
of later times. The Saxon thegn lived in a single hall which
served him as a manor house. This must have been made chiefly
of timber, the roof supported by walls and wooden posts.
Windows were small, again for practical reasons, and the com-
munal life of the hall was orientated on the central hearth, the
smoke from which escaped through a louvre in the roof over-
head. The peasants continued to live in huts that were frame-
works of wood turfed or thatched.
THE NORMAN PERIOD

The Conquest of 1066 was assured by the superior military
of the Normans with their developed techniques of fortifi-
skill
cation and cult of cavalry. It introduced a warlike, alien upper
class who inherited much
of the pre-Conquest machinery of
government and co-operation between Church and State but
f^ who, pursuing an energetic policy of centralization, formed
England into an altogether more rigid and efficient feudal state.
All land was held ultimately from the Crown, in return for
mihtary and other services by the barons down to the villeins or
largely unfree peasants - a system that entailed the vigorous
30
ROMANESQUE
economic subjection of humble folk to a few powerful men.
The Domesday Book (1086) was the first human and economic
survey of England but much of value was lost.
Under the manorial system the open fields continued to be
the basis of agriculture - one field lying fallow every year; corn
CUSH lOM
POLYGONAL COMPOUND
SCALLOPED
MOR.MAN PIERS &- CAPITALS
1 s. SANCTUAR.V
Is/AVF CHOIR.
^
SMALLER NJOR.MAN CHURCH
THREE CELL TVPE
being ground at the lord's mill; and the surrounding woods,
commons, and wasteland providing fuel and grazing.
Under the Normans the Church flourished. Lanfranc brought
order and unity, encouraged church building on an immense
scale, and initiated a monastic revival. Wealthy Benedictine
monasteries were not only centres of education and learning,
but played an important part in social and economic life through
their charitable work and the management of their large estates.
31
In II 28 the first Cistercian monastery was founded; this was a
stricter and more ascetic order which colonized the wastes.

French remained the courtly and aristocratic language until the
fourteenth century. Its permanent contribution was to make
English richer and more flexible.
ANGLO-NORMAN ARCHITECTURE
Anglo-Norman was another form of Romanesque architecture,
superior inmany ways to Anglo-Saxon. It began even before the
Conquest, for we know that Edward the Confessor's court was
receptive to Norman ideas and adopted this style for the re-
building of Westminster Abbey in grander, more spacious manner.
Anglo-Norman is a style with breadth and a sense of power
suited to the Norman character. Its blunt, massive forms are
equally expressive of a structural system that seeks stability by
depending upon great masses of solid wall. Aesthetically it is
successful, and it exhibits a unity of design hitherto somewhat
lacking in native work. Technically also it shows an advance on
Anglo-Saxon architecture, for though most of the craftsmen
must have been Saxon, the architects and master-masons were
often brought across from Normandy. Considering that the
population of England at this time was only about two million,
^.^\^f the extent of Anglo-Norman building is a remarkable tribute
both to the vitality of the style and to the energy with which the
Normans pursued their vast programme.
As always in medieval architecture, the pre-eminent building
type was the church. Anglo-Norman parish churches resemble
their Saxon predecessors since they are usually aisle-less and
compartmental in plan (though larger) and originally consisted
of up to four cells with an apsidal end.
Larger churches display a more complex type of plan, generally
cruciform with developed transepts to increase accommodation
and give light and tower abutment. Some are aisled basilicas of
three storeys, a triforium or blindstorey appearing between the
nave arcade and the clerestory, at the level of the aisle roof.
The arcades themselves have round arches resting on massive
cylindrical, polygonal or compound piers. Vaults are either of
the barrel or groined quadripartite types. In some churches the
nave is barrel vaulted with cross vaults over the aisles, as can
3^
ROMANESQUE
WIN DOWS BLIND AR.CADIN6
/f^
OR-N/^MENTED MOULDINGS
-
H+H-
BI LLET CHE VR.ON MAIL HEAD
BEAIC-H EAD TMBATTLED CA BLE
J'XTXIXXL DOU&LE CONE

ORNAMENTED
ARCH ^^ MOU LDINGS
IN THREE /
R.ECE SSED
ORDERS
SHALLOW CARVED
^BUTTRESS TYMPANUM
3?\ "sZ
NOOiC SHAFTS
ANGLO- NORÂÂN FEATUR.E5

be seen in the remarkably little altered eleventh-century interior
of St. John's Chapel in the Tower of London. Larger spans had
timber ceilings, until in the late twelfth century at Durham
Cathedral (that magnificent culmination of Anglo-Norman
effort) theproblem was solved by the construction of the first
ribbed high vault in Europe, abutted by arches concealed under
33
N. TR>AN5 E PT
CROSSING
S. TRANSEPT
DURHAM CATHEDRAL
TR.lFOR.IUM
CLER.ESTOR.Y
OR. BLIND-STOR.EY TO LIGHT NAVE
MAIN ARCADE
N/AVE WITH MASSIVE PIERS
SECTION OF AISLED BASILICAW CHUR-CH

THREE APSE TYPE PERl-APSIDAL AMBULATOR-Y
\ z;^^^-^ CHAPEUS
PARALLEL APSE CHEVET
llth.CENT. MORMAN EAST EMDS

the aisle roofs. Such a high vault was useful because of the
added protection it gave to the church against fire, and it marked
an important step in the transition to the Gothic style by the
way it unified the bays more emphatically. The suggestion that
the ribs were a purely technical device to save stone is discredited
34
ROMANESQUE
by the fact that here the panels of the web are no lighter than in
corresponding groined vaults.
Broad, flat buttresses mark the bay divisions externally but are
not really required for abutment on account of the thickness
and strength of the walls. Openings are roundheaded, some
recessed in 'orders' with nook shafts. Windows are commonly
of one large single light flanked by blind aracading. The towers
of larger churches, mostly rebuilt during the Norman period,
were placed centrally and were squat and massive in appearance.
Some churches had two-tower west facades, a key element in
Romanesque and Gothic that originated at Strasbourg in loi 5 and
was imported here from Normandy. Pyramidal roofs were usual.
Two phases can be distinguished in Anglo-Norman architec-
ture. That of the eleventh century was plain with meagre
decoration, such as simple mouldings and crocket foliage on the
capitals, and favoured a Continental east end either of the
parallel-apse or chevet type. The twelfth-century phase, called
High Romanesque, is characterized by much rich decoration,
notably the boldly executed designs of chevron, cable and beak
head (the latter an interesting motif of Scandinavian origin).
West fronts are elaborate, as at Castle Acre Priory, and doorways
particularly lavishly decorated with scrollwork filled with animals
and figures and perhaps adorned with a carved tympanum, as at
Malmesbury Abbey. Walls are embellished with blind arcading,
often interlaced, and pier capitals enriched with carving.
In High Romanesque can be detected what were to become
three of the favourite elements of Gothic architecture the square
:
east end of the native type, once again reverted to at Southwell

Minster; the double transept which began with the extension at
Canterbury; and the Lady chapel added to the east end to serve
the growing cult of the Virgin Mary.
So far only ecclesiastical buildings have been considered - the
most important type of building in this period since they served
not only as places of worship but as centres of communal life,
and they were often defensible in time of trouble. We must turn
now to the second important building type - the castle - of
which the Normans built the first examples in this country. The
castle is an appropriate embodiment of both Norman militarism
and the social organization of the feudal system which they
imposed on Saxon England.
35
The castle was the private stronghold of the lord or magnate
who held land from the Crown in return for service. It also
acted as the lord's residence or manor house, where he adminis-
tered local government and and dispensed hospitality.
justice
The first Norman England were small 'motte and
castles in
bailey' structures of earth and timber dating from the Conquest
to the mid twelfth century. A classic example of this type can
still be traced at Berkhamsted. Such a castle was relatively easy
to erect with speed and with non-specialist forced labour, but

by the mid twelfth century its materials were being translated
into stonework. The timber tower, the ultimate strongpoint,
became the stone keep or donjon, and the stockaded ramparts a
PALLI5ADES ON TIMBER. TOWER.

EARTH ÂMPAI^TS ULTIMATE STKOMSPOINl
MOTTE
BR.IDGE, MOUND
OR.
PER.HAPS
t>R.AW BRIDGE
FOSSE
WET OR. DR.r
DITCH
MOTTE 6r BAILEY CASTLE! Ilth. & IZth. CENT.
stone curtain wall. Thus the two original elements of defence

are still preserved in the keep and bailey castle, as at Richmond
(Yorks). Some had in addition a square or twin-towered gatehouse
to defend the approach, and stone buildings in the bailey like the
late eleventh-century aisled hall also at Richmond.
Keeps became quite elaborate. At first they were square in
plan, massive and thick walled, and because of their great weight
less often raised on a mound of earth. Sometimes there was a
splayed plinth to protect the base and strengthen it. The usual
practice was to divide the structure vertically into four storeys.
36
ROMANESQUE
The basement ground floor or undercroft was vaulted with stone
and served for storage. Above this the first floor lodged the
garrison, the second served as the great hall and the third con-
tained the private apartments of the lord, such as the solar. The
upper floors were equipped with fireplaces but otherwise cen-
trally placed braziers were used. There were a few small windows.
DONJON
nnnTLr
CR.ENELLAT10NS
ALU R.E
OR.
R.AMPAR.T
WAUK.
GATEHOUSE
MID IZth. CENT.
A double ridged timber roof completed the building, placed

below parapet level to preserve it from exposure and to assist
fire control. The plan was often divided by a lateral cross wall
to strengthen the structure of the keep and to facilitate flooring
and roofing. The vise or solid newel, spiral staircase (which was to
continue as the universal type of staircase throughout the Gothic
period which followed) was a utilitarian feature tucked away in
one of the four angle turrets. Garderobes were set in the thick-
ness of the wall.
Entrance to the keep was at first floor level up a flight of steps
at the sideof the keep, leading to a forebuilding which protected
the castle door. In this way attackers exposed their flank and a
direct assault on the keep was impossible. Some keeps had a
chapel in the upper part of the forebuilding.
37
nnnnn nonnnn
-innnnnnnnnnr
ANGLE TURRET
Q RÎDGETD TIMBER. R.OOF

PARAPET
FEW flIJ
SMAL L
Wl N DOW5
z
S PLAYE D PLINTH S^^^^
POLYGONAL CYLINDi^lCAL
DEEP SPLAYS TO OPENINGS
/ \ GAfcDEIÔBE5 ETC BUILDINGS
IN THICiC WALLS AGAINST WAL
RING
WALL
SPIRAL
STAIR.
SHELL K.EEP
ON MOTTE
is-t. FLOOR. e:mtr.amce
FOR.E BUILDING 12th CENTURY CASTLE KEEPS
The square keep or donjm is by far the most usual twelfth-
century type, but there were some shell keeps (e.g. Windsor
built on a motte) where buildings were placed against a ring
wall. In the later part of the century these began to be superseded
by round keeps (a crusader fashion brought from the Near East)
which were less vulnerable since the angles of the square keep
were eliminated. There are also some polygonal examples.
38
ROMANESQUE
Very few Norman domestic buildings survive, but they
probably resembled the domestic buildings of the twelfth-century
monasteries, with or without aisles. For instance, Boothby
Pagnall is a simple, rectangular, stone manor house consisting of
a common hall with a solar at one end and kitchens at the other,
all raised upon an undercroft. It is probable that added protection
was given by surrounding the hall with a moat or wall.

The type of masonry used at this time continued into the
LOUVR.E
HALL
UMD>ER.CR.O FT
STONE BUILT NOR.MAN/ MANOR. HOUSE
earlier part of the next period. Probably owing to the relative

shortage of skilled stone cutters,it consisted chiefly of roughly
shaped or uncut rubble stones mixed with mortar to produce a

kind of concrete, and was finally faced with well-cut stone.
Arches, mouldings, shafts, ribs and carving were all executed in
cut stone. Herringbone work is an occasional feature of the
eleventh century, both Saxon and Norman.
ANGLO-SAXON
Seventh-century churches: St. Pancras, Canterbury, Kent; Brixworth,
Northants; Monkwearmouth, Jarrow and Escomb, Durham;
crypt at Repton, Derby.
Eighth-century: Offa's Dyke; crypts at Hexham, Northumberland
and Ripon Minster, Yorks.
Ninth-century church Britford, Wilts.
:
39
Tenth-century churches Deerhurst, Glos; Bradford-on- Avon, Wilts.
:
Wing, Bucks; Worth, Sussex; Breamore, Hants; Clapham, Beds;

Earl's Barton and Wittering, Northants.
Eleventh-century churches: Stow, Lines; Bosham and Sompting,
Sussex; Greensted, Essex; foundations of St. Augustine's Abbey,
Canterbury; remains of cathedral at North Elm ham, Norfolk.
ANGLO-NORMAN
Work at the cathedrals of Durham; Winchester; Hereford; Oxford;
Norwich; Chichester; Ely; Gloucester; Peterborough; Rochester;
St. Albans; Southwell; Worcester (crypt).
Abbeys: Tewkesbury, Glos; Waltham, Essex; Malmesbury, Wilts.;

Bury St. Edmunds, Herts.; Furness, Lanes.; Kirkstall, Yorks;
Romsey, Hants.
Priories: Castle Acre, Norfolk; Blyth, Notts; Christchurch, Hants.
Parish churches at Adel and Lastingham, Yorks; St. John the Baptist,
Chester; Kilpeck, Herefs.; Barfreston, Kent; Iffley, Oxon; Mel-
bourne, Derby; Stewkley, Bucks; Studland, Dorset; Elkstone, Glos;
St. Sepulchre and St. Peter, Northampton; Castor, Northants;
Walsoken, Norfolk St. Batholomew the Great, London.

;
Castles: Berkhamsted, Herts.; Restormel and Trematon, Cornwall;

Rochester and Dover, Kent; Orford, Sussex; Keep of the Tower of
London (with the Chapel of St. John) Colchester and Hedingham,
;
Essex; Castle Rising, Norfolk; Carlisle, Cumb.; Richmond, Helm-

sley, Scarborough and Conisbrough, Yorks.
Manor houses at Burton Agnes, Yorks; Boothby Pagnall, Lines;
Aaron the Jew's House and St. Mary's Guild, Lincoln; Merchants'
Houses, Bury St. Edmunds and Southampton; eleventh-century
Scolland's Hall, Richmond Castle, Yorks; twelfth-century halls at
Oakham, Rutland and Bishop's Hall, Hereford.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ROMANESQUE
Hunter: Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Eng/and {C.U.F. 1956).
Blair, P.
Clapham, A. W. English Romanesque Architecture, 2 vols. (O.U.P. 1934)-
:
Clapham, A. W.: Romanesque Architecture in Western Europe (O.U.P.

1936).
Conant, K. J. Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture (Pelican History
:
of Art: Penguin 1959).

Talbot Rice, D.: Oxford History of Art, S71-1J00 (O.U.P. 1952).
Whitelock, D.: Beginnings of English Society (Penguin 1952).
40
ESCOMB CHURCH, CO. DURHAM: A simple, seventh- century
Saxon church; its masonry is constructed of large blocks brought
from a Roman fort. The porch and pointed windows are not
original
DURHAM cathedral: The Anglo-Norman grandeur of
massive pier, round arch, and sparse abstract ornament
CHAPTER THREE
Gothic I
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
At first under the Normans the EngUsh felt themselves a subject
people but by Angevin times (i 1 54-1272), after the loss of John's
French possessions, the two elements fused into a progressive
national development with a distinctively English culture, typi-
fied by the general use of English as the language. But this
consolidation of the nation came only after a struggle between
Church and State that ended in the supremacy of the Crown.
The period was marked by rebellions of the barons against the
despotic power of the king. In Magna Carta (121 5) John was
obliged to subscribe to a definition of national rights and
liberties, the foundation of our constitutional system. Later came
Simon de Montfort's Provisions of Oxford (1258) - significantly
the first official document with a text in English as well as
Latin - and the establishment of the representative principle by

the Parhament of 1265 in Henry Ill's reign. Parallel with these
developments in government were others in law and finance,
and Henry II (who clashed with Becket) was a notable reformer
in both fields as well as a great castle builder.
Trade and industry grew. Organization was into gilds or
unions of merchants or craftsmen for the protection of their
interests and the maintenance of standards. Towns began to
develop at the expense of feudalism as burgesses bargained for
charters, though for the rest manorial obligations were still the
rule. Among the upper classes chivalry fostered noble ideals and
knightly skills.
This was a time of deep and widespread religious conviction.

Church building, monastic reform, the advent of the Cistercians,
the work of the Dominican and Franciscan friars in the towns,
the pilgrimages, the endowments of hospitals and almshouses, all
testify to this. So do the Crusades, fought at any rate partly to

41
keep the Holy Land out of infidel hands, and orders like the
Knights Hospitallers which blended the military and spiritual
impulses of the time.
Intellectual lifeexpanded under the auspices of the Church.
Oxford flourished Cambridge was founded
in the twelfth century,
in the thirteenth. Notable scholars included Roger Bacon (d.
1292), the natural philosopher, and the jurist, Bracton (d. 1298).
Among such men the use of Latin and the universality of the
Roman Catholic Church gave something of an 'internationaF
character to medieval Europe.
Later Plantagenet times (1272-13 99) saw a period of national
expansion during which Edward I completed the conquest of
Wales and essayed that of Scotland. By the beginning of the
Hundred Years War (13 38-145 3) - Crecy was fought in 1346 -
Edward III sought to conquer France and found a commercial
empire stretching from the Low Countries to the south of
France. Partly as a result of this, and ultimately more important,
was the continued growth of early constitutional government. In
1295 a 'ModeP Parliament, representative of the upper classes,
was participating in legislation, and two years later the Confir-
matio Cartarum established its exclusive right of taxation. The
financial needs of Edward III thus strengthened its position,
which was maintained against Richard II. The law became a
common law enforced everywhere.
Economic and social life continued along lines already laid
down. The enterprising middle classes increased as trade pros-
pered, encouraged by the legislation of Edward I and Edward
II. But after the mid fourteenth century, however, high taxes and
food prices, and a labour scarcity resulting from the Black Death
(1349) and the French Wars, precipitated economic and social
changes. Services were commuted to money wages, thus freeing
many peasants from their feudal ties and leading to the break-up
of the manorial system. Statutes of Labourers (13 51) attempted
to prevent this, but only added to the other causes of unrest and
the equahtarianism of the time to produce the abortive Peasant's
Revolt (13 81). The lord's answer to this problem was to enclose
^.% his land for sheep pasture, since England was the chief producer
of wool in Europe from the twelfth to the fifteenth century.
Subsistence farming began to give way to profitable farming for
a market. As there was now less reliance on export the home
42
GOTHIC I
cloth-making industry was stimulated, but among the villagers

it brought much poverty as we know from sombre passages of
the poem Piers Plowman.
Reformers like WyclifFe (d. 1384) and the Lollards anticipated
the Reformation. Middle English literature culminated in
Chaucer, whose Canterbury Tales (1387) mirrored the life of the
time and helped to shape modern English. Drama was born in
the miracle and later the morality plays of Church and gild.
The fifteenth century saw a renewal of the French Wars but
despite Henry V's brilliant victory at Agincourt (141 5) the final
result was the loss of all but Calais.
Enclosures and the development of wool as a cash crop con-
tinued and a substantial woollen industry grew up in East Anglia
and the Cotswolds, as the splendid churches built from its profits
bear witness. But though the towns under their mayors and
corporations were very prosperous, the gilds had already begun
to lose theirmonopoly and power.
The Middle Ages ended with the chaos of the Wars of the
Roses (145 5-85) which resulted from the weak rule of Henry VI
and the selfish, power-seeking ambitions of the great feudal
nobles allied to the houses of York and Lancaster. Their outcome
weakened the old aristocracy, strengthened the middle classes,
and prepared the way for the strong rule of Henry Tudor (1485-
1 5 09) who maintained the peace and promoted trade.
In some ways this last phase pointed forward to the Renais-

sance, as for example in Caxton's introduction of printing in
1476 and Cabot's voyages.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
The sources of the Gothic style were certain great churches of
the lie de France and the later Cistercian abbeys of Burgundy. It
emerged in this country towards the end of the twelfth century
and prevailed for the next three hundred and fifty years. Essen-
tially it was a new synthesis of existing features for the realization
of original technical and aesthetic aims.

First, the pointed arch made possible the construction of
rectangular vaults that were stable, thus doubling the amount of
support for the high vault. At the same time ribs concentrated
the vault thrusts and directed them to particular points. Pointed
arches and ribs together created the Gothic cross vault.
43
Flying buttresses or, more commonly in England, half arches
concealed under the aisle roofs, may be seen conducting the
thrust of the high vault over the aisles to vertical wall buttresses,
which then direct it to the ground. This concentration of thrusts
along certain lines, and the bringing down of the weight of the
building to isolated points, allow the walls to be opened up by
large windows which are such a characteristic feature of this
style.
FLY( NG
mm
BUTT R.E55
00 00
BAY DIVISION
EXTER.NAL1_Y
_ C LE R-ESTOR-Y
PINNACLE CONCEALED
BUTTR.ESS
WALL
BUTTR-E5S
A R.CADE
AISLE NAVE AISLE
The Gothic system may therefore be seen as an organic one,

in achieved not by great masses of masonry as
which stabiHty is
in Romanesque but by a tense balance of opposing forces that is
44
GOTHIC I
both ingenious and logical. In other respects, however, its

principal structures - the great churches - carry on the Roman-
esque tradition of the staggered basilican elevation and cruciform
plan, sometimes with Romanesque eastern transepts.
One transition from Romanesque to Gothic has been noted in
the high vault at Durham, but the first consistently Gothic
buildings in England were the Cistercian abbeys of the north
(Roche, 1 165) and the rebuilding of the choir of Canterbury
Cathedral, also in the late twelfth century.
For general study it is still useful to adopt Rickman's early
nineteenth-century classification of English Gothic into Early
English, Decorated and Perpendicular, corresponding roughly
to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, though it
should always be remembered that the style is really a continuously

evolving one and most buildings are composite.
EARLY ENGLISH (THIRTEENTH CENTURY)

The first flowering of Gothic is noticeably lighter than the
preceding Romanesque. It emphasizes the vertical and its general
lines are clean and one of austere aspiration.
crisp. Its feeling is
Arcades are pointed and slender, the piers formed of clustered
shafts, often detached and of marble, but later merged with the
main column. Capitals are adorned with stylized foliage and
outlines are emphasized with bold mouldings and deep hollows,
some bearing ^dogtooth' decoration. Other ornaments are diaper
patterns and arcading on walls. Vaults are ribbed but relatively
simple in form (e.g. quadripartite); wall buttresses project boldly,
often receding in stages with niches, offsets and gablets. Fenes-
tration is typically in pairs or groups of lancet windows united
by a dripstone. Later the spandrels were pierced to give plate
tracery which in turn developed into geometrical bar tracery.
Roofs are high-pitched and towers finished with a spire of stone
or timber, often with 'broaches' to make the transition from
four-sided tower to octagonal spire.
The keep and bailey castle continued to be built in this period
but the special innovation of the thirteenth century was the
concentric castle, in which the keep had become redundant owing
to the improvement of bailey defences by the addition of mural
towers. The type can be traced back through the Crusades and
D 45
the Turks to the military architecture of Rome. In its latest
form it is an organic system of concentric curtain walls, quad-
rangular or polygonal in plan and carefully exploiting the con-
tours of the site, strengthened at intervals by towers.
At first these towers were square but later polygonal and
W. BARBICAN E. BAR.BICAN
COMWAY 12.83
OUTER.
WAR,D
MOAT
BAR.BIC
BEAUMM^(5 1295
46
GOTHIC I
circular. Though they projected to command the face of the

curtain they were often flush inside. Their bases were given a
batter or spurred to strengthen them. Inside were guard rooms
and apartments.
The principal defensive parts of the concentric castles were
the gatehouses, twin-towered in the twelfth and early thirteenth
centuries but later joined above the gate to make a single massive
structure over a narrow entrance passage, with portcullis and
machicolations (apertures in a corbelled parapet) above. Unlike
the keep they were not entirely defensive, being thrust forward
in a more
aggressive manner. Other features playing a similar
role were posterns and barbicans. Crenellation was further
improved in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: merlons
were narrowed, embrasures and loops multiplied and stone
machicolations evolved from overhanging timber hoarding.
Though the concentric castle is essentially a functional design
its frequent symmetry and geometrical forms often endow it
with a remarkable aesthetic quality, as at Harlech.

Some examples of planned fortified towns of this period still
survive, such as Flint with its chequer-board plan.

The thirteenth-century manor house was still basically a hall
serving as the chief living-room and general dormitory, but
ORIEL WINDOW
K.1TCHEN GREAT HALL

\
1 STAIR.
S
/
PANTRY "
O <
a PARLOUR
iiJ
FIRE
BUTTERY- SOLAR
OVER
r T
^PORCH
I I
47
more rooms began to be added - perhaps a parlour with solar
above at the upper end, and a kitchen, buttery, pantry and
larder at the lower. Licences to crenellate permitted fortification,
such as the tower at Stokesay. Open timber
roofs were still the
rule but glass, hooded wall and chimneys began to
fireplaces
make their appearance instead of shutters and louvres.
DECORATED (FOURTEENTH CENTURY)

This phase of Gothic began with Henry Ill's sumptuous
reconstruction of Westminster Abbey. It is characterized, as its
name suggests, by rich decoration but also by new effects of

light and shade, surface movement, and space, such as the
lantern tower (the octagon) that 'floats' over the crossing at Ely.
The ogee arch is typical in windows and canopies.
Arcades are now wider, piers taller and more slender, with all
lesser shaftsengaged. Vaults are composed in elaborate web-like
patterns by the addition of extra ribs such as tiercerons and
non-structural Hemes with decorative bosses at the intersections.
R.iB>BED VAULT
TIÂNSVERSE AI^CH LI er.me:s
A
tie:r.cetôns IÎDGE DIAGONAL

Buttresses are more varied and usually enriched with ogee forms
and other ornament. Walls are thinner and into them are intro-
duced larger, broader windows with curvilinear bar tracery, a
Gothic invention, making flowing, organic patterns based on
ogee curves, as at Selby Abbey. Their stained glass is more
translucent and freer in design. Roofs are still high-pitched but
the broach spire is replaced by one that is more slender and
graceful, springing from within a parapet and ornamented with
48
GOTHIC I
angle pinnacles, crockets, spirelights and bands of incised

quatrefoil. Towers show a decorative use of angle buttresses and
contrasts between plain and enriched surfaces, as on the west
front of York Minster. Wave-like and ogee mouldings are
broader and shallower than Early English ones and appear for
the first time on the chamfer plane. Decorated ornament is
profuse and flowing, based on the naturalistic foliage of ivy, oak
and vine. Ball flower is a typical motif and niches are common.
From the late fourteenth century the castle declined in import-
ance with the decay of feudalism, the increase in the central
power of the monarchy, the changes in social life and the
development of field armies and gunpowder. In the years between
1350 and 1550 domestic amenities grew at the expense of defences
until in late Tudor times the castle merged with the manor house.
The fourteenth-century quadrangular castle without curtain walls
shows this transition, as at Bolton (Yorks.) and Lumley
(Durham), where residential buildings are compactly disposed
round a courtyard and equipped with angle tower to create a
building that is both fortress and residence. On the Scottish
GUAR.DR.OOM GATEHOUSE
'i M
CHAPEL ,1
GfÊAT HALL
A QUADRANGULAR- CASTLE
BODIAM CASTLE 1335
49
border the pele towers, set in walled courtyards (barmkins),
still preserve the earlier keep and bailey tradition.
In fourteenth-century manor houses like Penshurst Place, often
the country retreats of the new city merchants, the hall remains
the centre, but screens, with minstrels' gallery above, shut out the
and windows are larger with a bay or oriel window at the
offices,
high-table end.The buildings, sometimes including a chapel, are
roofed separately, entered from the outside, and generally
SCREENS NAPEf^r
GR.EAT KITCH N
WITHDRAWING I
I
I

R.OOMS "^
BA^CER.Y
PINING BUTTER, r
R.0OM
COUR.TrAR.D
GATE HOUSE
A LATE GOTHIC MANOR HOUSE

OXBUR.GH HALL 1 4- S Z
arranged round a quadrangular court with a fortified gatehouse

opposite the entrance to the hall. Their total effect is asymmetrical
and picturesque. Like the castles, the manor houses of this period
are often moated.
PERPENDICULAR (FIFTEENTH CENTURY)

Perpendicular is a form of late Gothic architecture peculiar to
England: a kind of national medieval style. It is a rather material-
istic version, its vertical and horizontal emphases giving it a
characteristic squareness of outUne. The earliest Perpendicular
work is actually of the fourteenth century and can be seen in
Gloucester Cathedral choir and the nave of Canterbury rebuilt by
the famous Henry Yevele. The first of these has the broad arched
50
GOTHIC I
EARLY
ENGLISH
GROUPED LANCETS GEOMETRICAL
DECORATED
PERPEND-
ICULAR
\
yn
CURVILINEAR RECTILINEAR
windows with rectilinearnetwork of glazed panels, the 'applied'
vault ribs and the stonework panelling that are typical Perpendicu-
lar features; the second shows the Perpendicular tendency
to
heighten both aisles and nave arcades, often at the expense of the
triforium, to create a two-storeyed building in which the internal

spaces merge and thereby achieve a greater unity.
51
Though arcades are high their arches are now lower and
broader, the mouldings often continuing down the piers since the
almost disappear or are replaced by horizontal moulding.
capitals
Engaged pier shafts almost merge and become like mouldings.
Carrying on the Decorated trend of elaboration, vault ribs multi-
ply further into complicated patterns of non-structural features,
often merely carved on the vault surface. These rich lierne stellar
designs continue, therefore, together with new types developed
GOTHIC P1ER.S
EARtr ENGLISH DECOR.ATED PER.PFNDICULAR-
from them: the fan vault - appearing first in the Severn Valley
- and its variant the pendant vault. All have a flatter curvature
to accord with the lower arches, the broad windows and the stone
panelled walls, so that the whole impression is a remarkably
unified one.
Buttresses are structurally important, on account of the wider
windows and more and
slender piers, they often end in pinnacles.
The t)^pical Perpendicular window has a low arch, transoms,
'gridiron' tracery, and less opaque pictorial glazing. Roofs are low-
pitched, lead being preferred to tiles, and they are often provided
with battlemented parapets, usually panelled or pierced.
The tower is a special late Gothic feature and many were added
during this period of extension. There are even recognizable
regional 'schools' of design like those of Somerset and East
Angha. Most have 'crowns', some are 'lanterns' lighting the cross-
ing (a Romanesque motif), some have an octagonal lantern on
top, and a few continue to support spires of the Decorated type.
Mouldings are shallow, lean, wiry and cut on the chamfer. The
'casement' type is common. Ornament includes the repeated
shallow rectilinear paneUing, framing cusped arches (already
52
GOTHIC I
E. E.
DEC, DOGTOOTH PER. P.
'MMMM
TABLET FLOWER.
PE R.P.
Fl NIIAL-
S
sS
CR.OCK ETS^
PINNACLE
EMENT MOULD
FLYl NG
GABLET
~hNICHE.
u
-OFFSET
:
I
E. E. DEC. PER.P.
BUTTR.ESSES
referred to)and also heraldic emblems, miniature battlements,
Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lis. Generally it is harsher and more
geometrical than Decorated ornament.

Castles and manor houses like Haddon and Great
Hall
Chalfield followed fourteenth-century trends, arranged round
53
J.
5PIR.ELIGHT
FLYING
BUTTRES5
BROACH
ANGLE
BUTTRESSES
i
EARLY ENGLISH DECORATED
PINNACLE
OCTAGON
CROWN -
PERPENDICULAR
GOTHIC TOWEKS t 5PIR.E5
courtyards with the addition of more space, bedrooms and

supplementary offices. In the countryside more small halls appeared
for prosperous wool farmers and merchants whose wealth financed
the rebuilding of parish churches and the erection of town and
H
GOTHIC I
gild halls, markets, inns, schools, colleges, tithe barns, dovecots

and bridges.
Materials variedfrom region to region sandstone in the North
:
and West, limestone along the Jurassic outcrop, brick and flint-
work in East Anglia, and timber framing everywhere that wood
was plentiful and stone scarce.
TIMBER ROOFS
Timber roofs, open from below in unvaulted buildings, are
among the many interesting features of Gothic construction. They
culminate in the elaborate superstructures that were a special
English achievement of the late Middle Ages.
The earliest type was the simple tie-beam designed to prevent
EARLY
TIE-BEAM TYPES
sfDffia LATE
HI i\
COLLAR.
TRUSSED RAFTER ARCH-BRACED
the roof from spreading. Probably the only Norman type of

roof, it was in common use for smaller buildings throughout the
55
Gothic period. There were many variations on the theme, how-
ever. For example, in the Perpendicular phase the low-pitched
roof often rested directly on a sHghtly curved tie-beam.
In the mid thirteenth century new types began to emerge, such
as the trussed rafter with its timbers joined by collars stiffened by
braces, thus giving greater height.Another type was the arch-
braced roof where curved timbers spring from the upper parts of
the walls. But the most splendid medieval timber roofs are the
hammer-beams, usually fifteenth century, though that of West-
minster Hall by Hugh Herland dates from the late fourteenth.
This is a development of earlier types, its curved timbers spring-
ing from brackets projecting from the walls with supplementary
buttresses outside to help divert the thrust earthwards. No longer
need a hall be aisled, for a much wider span is possible by this
ingenious arrangement. The most inventive and decorative ex-
amples are those of the East Anglian churches. Coloured, gilded
and combined with large clerestory windows, they give a
spacious, lantern-like effect. March (Cambs.) has a splendid double
hammer-beam with angels hovering overhead. It is a feature
which often compensates for the prosaic uniformity of some
Perpendicular interiors.
DOUBLE HAMMER-BEAM
Roof covering consisted of stone tiles, tiles, or wood shingles
in the earlier period, with lead later becoming more usual on
roofs of lower pitch.
English medieval architecture is noted for the number of
domestic and administrative buildings which survive from the
great religious establishments and among these the polygonal
chapter houses like Lincoln and York are of outstanding merit
and unique to this country.
A Select Bibliography and List of Representative Buildings will be found
at the end of chapter four.
56
CHAPTER FOUR
Gothic 2
GOTHIC CHURCH PLANS

Gothic church planning reflects very closely the changing needs
of the Middle Ages. Twelfth-century parish churches were aisled
or unaisled, with or without transepts. But as the population
expanded they grew piecemeal by the addition of aisles or the
lengthening of chancels. South porches were common through-
out the period. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries brought
much remodelling that resulted in lighter and more spacious
aisles, and the cruciform transeptal type became less usual until
in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries there was a

reversion to the undivided plan, following the example of the
friars' preaching hall. This was first achieved by carrying forward
the aisles to the length of the chancel, as in certain East Anglian
churches ; then in larger ones by designing aisled halls, as distinct
from basiUcas (e.g. and lastly by unaisled halls as at
Bristol);
King's College Chapel, Cambridge.
The typical English Gothic cathedral has a spread-out, ramify-
ing plan with large transepts, often double. This results in a group
composition that requires a central tower to give it unity. East
ends are square and of two types. One, the south-west episco-
palian (e.g. Salisbury), has a projecting chapel lower than the
choir which combines with the double transepts to create a
grouped composition. The other, the north-east episcopalian (e.g.
York), is an aisled parallelogram with a towering monumental
fagade - the definitive east end of the English cathedral. Chapter
houses are a distinctive national feature and there are many
interesting versions, as at Wells and Westminster. I'll
The great Gothic church affords a good example of how build-

ings express the culture and values of their time, for they are the
embodiment of the religious spirit of the Middle Ages. The plan
expresses the ritual of the Church. There is singleness of purpose
57
N.E EPISCOPALIAN 5.W
<
f LADY f LADY
IchapelI CHAPEL
o o
ALTAK f
r4- ALTAR
6 V P 9
9
PRESBY R
o o <^ E <) o o
O
S
o B
C o 9 Y (^ V
H
O C E. TRANSEPTS
H
O
c <>oOro ooo I
CROSSING
CROSSING
UNAISLED CHANCEL
N. AISLE
O o o o
NAVE CHANCEL
/ o O
/
o o o
/ER 5. AISLE
FT
AISLED HALL
ooooooooo
TOWER
ooooooooo
h.j^ PORCH
PAR.ISH CHURCHES
in the uninterrupted progress of the arcades towards the high
altar, and aspiration in the soaring verticals of piers, buttresses,
pinnacles, and towers. The vast scale of the building evokes the
sublimity of God and the effects of space and light His mystery.
58
GOTHIC 2
Yet despite the grandeur, the medieval sense of the nearness of God
isalso present in the intimacy of carved detail from nature and the
Bible. The spirit of the great church strikes a balance between the
awful seriousness of life and its homeliness, between the austere
beauty of faith and the rich profusion of the world. But in inter-
preting the meaning of architecture along these lines we must
beware of confusing aesthetic values with the personal associa-
tions which we bring to the object of contemplation.
Another expression of the medieval religious spirit was with-
drawal from the world, a recognized ideal that gave rise to
monastic communities either ascetic like the Cistercians, who
farmed in remote places, or scholarly and learned like the more
aristocratic Benedictines, many of whose churches became
cathedrals.
N CHURCH ^N CHAPELS
W-
NAVE IcHOlR CHANCEL+
NIGHT STAIR
CLOISTERS
CHAPTE/^
LAY CLOISTER HOUSE
BROTHERS'
GARTH
QUARTERS
KITCHEN CALE- DORMITORY

FACTORY
DRAIN
FRATER OR
REFECTORY
CISTERCIAN MONASTERY
59
These settlements were of course centred round a great church,
usually sited on the north to give shelter to the conventual
buildings. The processional entrance was in the west end of the
nave to which the public was confined by screens. But there was
another door in the south transept. The chapter house where the
business and discipline of the community were carried on lay off
the east cloister, on the same side as the monks' day room,
with dorter over. The refectory was usually along the south
cloister, away from the church, and was arranged like a secular
hall but equipped with a pulpit or reading desk. Adjacent were
the kitchens and calefactory (warming room for recreation).
The lay brothers' quarters were on the west side of the garth and
one cloister was usually furnished with carrels for study.
Detached from this well-balanced and orderly main group lay
the abbot's lodging, the guesthouse, the infirmary with herb
garden, servants' hall and kitchen, granary, brewhouse, bakery,
almonry, workshop, mill, fishpool and all the other appurten-
ances of a self-contained commiinity, economic as well as spiritual.
MEDIEVAL BUILDING INDUSTRY

The amount of medieval building carried out in relation to the
population of from two to four millions is astonishing and could
only have been possible with a highly organized and competent
industry. Some Romanesque clerics had architectural knowledge,
but by Gothic times there was a complete lay organization and
the architect was the 'master of works', usually a mason like
William of Sens who rebuilt Canterbury. Under him were the
master craftsmen in charge of their various departments. From
the thirteenth century the names of architects began to be record-
ed when their status became recognized. Plans were merely
diagrammatic, since drawing technique was very elementary,
and the tools of their workmen untempered and inferior. The
labour force consisted of large numbers of skilled itinerants whose
wages accounted for two-thirds of the building costs. They in-
cluded rough masons, free masons, carpenters, smiths, plasterers,
glaziers, tilers, paviers, hodmen, clerks, woodmen, sawyers, lime-
workers, miners, and carters; together with impressed labour as
required. At Beaumaris Castle there were four hundred masons,
thirty smiths and carpenters, two hundred carters, and a thousand
60
GOTHIC 2
unskilled labourers. At Durham fifteen hundred tons of masonry

were used in five years. These materials either came from local
quarries and forests or were transported by water, some from
as far away as Caen in Normandy.
TUDOR (early sixteenth CENTURY)

Tudor architecture really the last phase of Gothic. It is
is
essentially Perpendicularwith a few graftings of the new Renais-

sance influence from Italy. The mullioned windows, flattened
four-centred arches of the wide arcades, the piers and vaulting
types are all Perpendicular; though there is a further evolution of
fan vaulting into 'pendant vaulting', where the main vault springs
from pendant voussoirs of the transverse arches and not from the
side walls, so thatappears to be suspended overhead. The vault
it Hi
of Henry VIFs chapel at Westminster is an example of this.

The Renaissance element is chiefly confined to a few super-
decorative forms of Italianate ornament executed by foreign

ficial
craftsmen. Such are Henry VIFs tomb by Torrigiani, the stalls

at King's College, Cambridge, and the amorini and terracotta
roundels with Roman emperors' heads at Hampton Court Palace.
In 1538 Henry VIII broke with Rome and the Reformation
E 61
began. Monastic establishments were dissolved and their
estates sold to eager buyers, merchants who built for themselves
new country houses. The Middle Ages had provided England with
a rich dower of ecclesiastical buildings and now, after the Refor-
mation, the church as the principal architectural type was to give
way to the country mansion which was dominant until the
nineteenth century.
ELABORATE
CH IMNEYS
CLASSICAL
ORNAMENT
m
HAMPTON COURT PALACE 1515
Typical Tudor country houses are of two kinds either on the

:
old quadrangular plan with a gatehouse, or the newer type con-

sisting of a rectangular block to which are attached short, compact
wings and often a projecting central porch. As yet there is no
internal symmetry, but there is a tendency to greater symmetry
in the elevations - no doubt an indirect classical Renaissance in-
fluence. Once more the number of rooms increases with the
62
GOTHIC 2
addition of summer and winter parlours, study, and bedrooms,

though the latter are still 'thoroughfare' rooms. For the first time
*state rooms' appear, like the Great Chamber and the Dining-
Chamber. But the basic arrangement of a great hall with service
rooms at one end and private apartments at the other is still a
medieval conception.
KITCHEN
WING
PAKLOUK
BAR.RINGTON COURT 1515

Mi
The individual features of these houses are also Gothic - for

example, the square-headed windows with mullions and tran-
soms and sharply pitched roofs and gables. Brick was being more
widely used now and bay and oriel windows became more
common. Tall and elaborate chimneys are notable external features 11 s
resulting from the use of coal, functional yet ornamental.
63
Internally there are wall fireplaces with rich overmantels,
linen-
highest ex-
fold panelling, and relief plasterwork that finds
its
pression in the decorative ceilings of the period, replete

with ribs,
vine trails and pendants. All these speak of an improved
standard
of material comfort.
SQUARE
HOOD
MOULD
FOUR
CENTERED
ARCH
nr
Jr-i i' lULli
LINENFOLD PANELLING
As already mentioned, some Tudor houses like Layer Marney
- perhaps
and Coughton Court retained the separate gateway
turrets and battlements - though it was
with octagonal towers,
for display, a status symbol for the carpet knight.
TIMBER FRAMING
Though doubtless in stone districts some of the smaller houses
stone con-
of the Middle Ages and Tudor times were of simple
majority were primitive timber-framed buildings
struction, the
type. These were built in 'bays' or units of
of the ^cruck' or 'crick'
were obtained by spHtting timbers that
sixteen feet. Pairs of crucks
naturally curved, and across two or more of these pairs was
were
placed a ridge pole. The timbers were roughly squared with an
'wattle and daub'
adze and pegged together. Walls were filled with
(hazel or willow twigs woven into hurdles, daubed with clay and
64
king's college chapel, CAMBRIDGE: Perpendicular
windows and fan vaulting unify a great hall church. Note the
Renaissance screen
MORETON OLD HALL! A Tudor timber -framed house in which
the contrast of black and white is vigorously exploited
GOTHIC 2
RIDOE POLE
TIE-BEAM CRUCK
RAFTER.
PURLIN
TIE-BEAM
OVERHANGING
JETTY
BRACKET
AN6LE POST
BRICK OR
/ STONE FOOTING
chopped Straw, and coated with hme plaster). The roof was
thatched with straw or reeds.
Ties were used to prevent the crucks from spreading and by ex-
tending the ties outwards to posts carrying horizontal 'pans',
vertical walls could be raised, giving more height.
From these earlier examples developed the more ambitious
'post and truss' timber-framed houses of the fifteenth and sixteenth
65
centuries, with their rectangular wall-frames supporting proper
roof-trusses.These were the yeomen's houses in the country,
merchants' town houses, exchanges, gild and market halls erected
anywhere that stone was scarce. Timbers were prepared before
being brought to the site and were assembled by being pegged
together on stone footings. Again the spaces were filled with
wattle and daub or, in some later instances, brickwork 'nogging',
often of the herringbone type. Houses were of several storeys,
with earlier examples jettied (i.e. overhanging). The plaster of the
infilling was whitewashed and the frame painted black, thus
producing a decorative pattern of strong contrasts. Occasional
further embellishment was coarse carving on timbers such as
barge-boards. In East Anglia the wood framing was often plaster-
ed over and decorated with moulded designs called 'pargetting'.
EARLY ENGLISH
Work at the cathedrals of Canterbury; Salisbury; Lincoln; Wells;
Worcester; York; Beverley; Ripon; Southwark.
Abbeys: Westminster; Roche, Rievaulx, Fountains and Whitby,
Yorks; Tintern, Men.
Priories Hexham and Tynemouth, Northumb. Finchale, Durham.
: ;
Parish churches: Ketton and Empingham, Rutland; Raunds and

Warmington, Northants Newark on Trent, Notts. Threekingham,
; ;
Lines.; Cherryhinton, Cambs; West Walton and Blakeney, Norfolk;

Chipham and Ockham, Surrey; Abbey Dore, Herefs; Whitchurch
Canonicorum, Dorset; Skelton, Yorks; Darlington and St. Andrew
Auckland, Durham; Haltwhistle, Northumb.; Stone, Kent.
Castles: Beaumaris, Anglesey; Caernarvon and Conway, Caern;
Flint and Ruddlan, Flint; Harlech, Merion. Pembroke, Pembs.;
;
Caerphilly, Glam; Kidwelly, Carm; Chepstow, Mon; Goodrich,

Herefs; Framlingham, Suffolk; Corfe, Dorset; Clifford's Tower and
city walls and gateways, York Pevensey, Sussex.
;
Manor houses: Stokesay and Acton Burnell, Salop; Little Wenham,

Suffolk; Charney-Basset, Berks; Old Soar, Kent.
Merton College, Oxford.
Tithe barns at Bredon, Worcs Coxwell, Berks Glastonbury Abbey.
; ;
Town planning at (New) Winchelsea, Sussex.

DECORATED
Work at the cathedrals of Exeter; Bristol; Lichfield; Lincoln; Ely;
York; Chester; Beverley.
66
GOTHIC 2
Abbeys: Westminster; Selby, Yorks; Tewkesbury, Glos; Tintern,

Mon. Milton, Dorset; Dorchester, Oxon; Malmesbury, Wilts.
;
Parish churches: Winchelsea, Sussex; Patrington, Otley and Skipton,

Yorks.; Holy Trinity, Hull; Heckington, Boston and Grantham,
Lines.; Holy Trinity, Coventry; Yaxley, Hunts; St. Mary, Stamford;
Rushden, Northants.; Ashbourne, Derby; Bloxham and Chipping
Norton, Oxon; Cley, Norfolk; Woolpit, Suffolk; Melverley, Salop;
Ledbury, Herefs Wakefield, Yorks (chantry chapel and bridge).
;
Castles: Bodiam, Sussex; Warwick; Ludlow, Salop; Nunney, Som;

Bolton, Yorks Lumley and Raby, Durham.
;
Manor houses: Penshurst Place, Kent; Haddon Hall, Derby.; Grevel's

House, Chipping Camden, Glos Markenfield and Spofforth, Yorks
;
Maxstoke, Warwicks.
Cruck cottage at Spilsby, Lines.
Tithe barn at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts.
PERPENDICULAR
Work at the cathedrals of Canterbury; Winchester; Manchester;

Gloucester; York; Beverley; Worcester.
Sherborne Abbey, Dorset; King's College Chapel, Cambridge; St.
George's Chapel, Windsor; Great Malvern Priory, Worcs; St. Mary
Redcliffe and St. Stephen, Bristol; Prior's Lodging, Much Wenlock.
Parish churches: Chipping Camden, Northleach and Cirencester,
Glos; Brunton and Wells, Som; Edington, Wilts; Launceston,
Cornwall; Fotheringhay, Northants; Gedney and Louth, Lines.;
St. Nicholas, King's Lynn, Terrington St. Clement, Walpole St.
Peter, S waff ham, Cawston and Sail, Norfolk; St. Peter Mancroft,
Norwich; March, Cambs; Long Melford, Lavenham, Needham
Market, Blythborough and Southwold, Suffolk; Ormskirk and
Hawkshead, Lanes; Thirsk and Giggleswick, Yorks; Gawsworth
and Lower Peover, Cheshire; Holy Trinity, Stratford upon Avon.
Castles: Herstmonceaux, Sussex; Tattershall, Lines.; Warkworth,
Northumb; Raglan, Mon; Dunstanburgh, Northumb.
Manor houses: Great Chalfield, Wilts; Wingfield, Derby; Hoghton
Tower, Lanes; Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk; Cothay and Lytes Cary,
Som.; Bradley, Devon; Cotehele, Cornwall; Ockwells, Berks.
Yeomen's houses: Stoneacre and Synyards, Otham, Kent; Bignor,
Sussex; Giffords Hall and Lavenham Hall, Suffolk; Coggeshall,
Essex.
Houses at Chiddingstone, Kent; Colston's, Bristol.
Cruck cottages at Didbrook, Glos. and Spilsby, Lines.
Eton and Winchester Colleges; Queen's, Camb; Lincoln, Oxford.
67
Hospital and Grammar School, Ewelme, Oxon; Bede House Hos-
pital, Stamford, Lines.
Guildhalls at Norwich, Norfolk and Cirencester, Glos; St. George's
Guildhall, King's Lynn, Norfolk; Guildhall and Merchant Adven-
turer's Hall, York roof of Westminster Hall, London.
;
George Inn, Glastonbury, and George Inn, Norton St. PhiHp, Som.
Poultry Cross, Salisbury.
TUDOR ; a list appears at the end of chapter six.
# GOTHIC
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Atkinson, T. D. : 'Local Style in 'English Architecture (Batsford 947).

Batsford, H. & Fry, C. : Cathedrals of England (Bîtsford i960).
Batsford, H. & Fry, C. : The Greater English Church (Batsford 1944).
Boase, T. Oxford History of Art iioo-i2i(j (O.U.V. 1953).
S. R. : ^
Bond, F.: English Church Architecture, 2 vols. (O.U.P. 191 3).

Brieger, P. H. Oxford History of Art, 1216-iôy (O.U.P. 1957).
:
Brown, R. A.: English Medieval Castles (Batsford 1954).

Cook, G. H.: The English Medieval 'Parish Church (Phoenix 1954).
Cook, G. H. English Monasteries in the Middle Ages (Phoenix 1961).
:
Cox, J. C. &
Ford, C. B. The Parish Churches of England (Bsitsford 1950).
:
Crossley, F. H.: The English Abbey (Batsford 1959).

Crossley, F. H. : English Church Design (Batsford 1948).
Crossley, F. H. English Church Craftsmanship (Batsford 1947).
:
Crossley, F. H. English Church Monuments, iijo-ijjo (Batsford 1921).

:
Evans, J.: Oxford History of Art, ijoy-1461 (O.U.P. 1949).

Harvey, J.: English Cathedrals (B2itsford 1956).
Harvey, J.: English Medieval Architects (Busford 1954).
Harvey, Henry Yevele (Batsford 1946).
J.:
Harvey, England {B2Xîotd 1948).
J.: Gothic
&
Hurhmann, M. Meyer, P. English Cathedrals{Th2imts & Hudson 1950). :
Hutton, G. &
SmithjE. English ParishChurches{Th3.mQs & Hudson 1952).
:
Myers, A. R. England in the Late Middle Ages (Penguin 1952).

:
Rickman, T. : An Attempt to Discriminate Styles of English Architecture,

5th ed. (1848).
Salzman, L. F.: A Documentary History Medieval Buildings, (O.U.P
1952).
Stenton, D. M. English Society in the Early Middle Ages (Penguin 195 1).
:
Thompson, A. Hamilton: Military Architecture in England (O.U.P.

1912).
Toy, S.: Castles of Great Britain (Heinemann 1953).
Webb, G. : Architecture in Britain: The Middle Ages (Penguin 1956-
PeHcan History of Art).
68
CHAPTER FIVE
Renaissance
THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD

The first task of the Tudors was to restore internal peace and
order.The result was strong personal rule that gave little scope for
parliamentary development. Henry VII succeeded in his main
task and was also responsible for reforms in the administration
and agreements in the interests of our now extensive trade with
Flanders and the Mediterranean.
The sixteenth century saw a new critical concern with religious
matters, and a series of reforms known as the Reformation resulted
in the foundation of the Protestant Churches. At first, however, it
was on nationalist grounds (objection to the Pope's power) and for
personal reasons that Henry VIII severed the connection with
Rome in 1534, making himself Supreme Head of the English
Church. He then proceeded to dissolve the monasteries (i 5 36-40)
- many of which had in fact grown lax - seize their wealth, and
disposed of their properties for ready money. After a Counter-
Reformation movement under the Catholic Queen Mary, a
middle-of-the-road settlement was reached under Elizabeth I.
The biblical scholarship of the Reformation, with the challenge
it presented to hitherto unquestioned authority, was one aspect of
the Renaissance, that 'rebirth' of learning which sprang from the

rediscovery of Classical art and literature, aided by the invention
of printing. In the arts there was a 'break-through': scholars,
artists, and universities flourished, and new grammar schools
were founded. Everywhere there was intellectual ferment.

This new independence of thought and the secularization of art
was part of the Classical legacy of Humanism, in which man and
the temporal world were the centre of interest. Man was seen as a
unique individual with infinite capacities for development, both
intellectual and spiritual. Instead of being rejected the physical
world was welcomed as a source of pleasure and delight, and as a
field for scientific inquiry, though despite Copernicus science was
69
Still largely medieval. Leonardo da Vinci - artist, scientist and
engineer - was the typical ûomo umversale\ expressing all

Renaissance characteristics in his own personality.
The great voyages of discovery were attempts to seek new
routes to the East when after the fall of Constantinople (1455)
the old ones came under Turkish control. They were also another
example of Renaissance curiosity. Columbus sailed in 1492;
Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, in
1 5 80; and it was voyages such as these that served the new trading
companies (like the East India Company), and founded overseas

empires.
The whole of the Renaissance movement can in fact be seen as a
reshaping of European culture in its widest sense as it began to
assume modern forms in many of its essentials.
The Tudor period was one of great social change. New men
were rising and there was greater intercourse among all classes
than ever before. Poverty was widespread, among its causes being
unemployment as a result of enclosure, and inflation from the
influx of gold and silver from the Americas - though merchants
benefited from higher prices. Government acts culminated in the
great Poor Law of 1601 and private charity was expressed in
almshouses and schools.
The age of Ehzabeth brought England to a new level of prestige.
The Queen's cautious policy maintained her position abroad and
secured order at home. As the Protestant champion she faced
Catholic Spain, whose sea power she challenged and whose
Armada (1588) she defeated. Patriotism and national self-con-
sciousness were active, while commerce and industry throve as the
centre of gravity of trade shifted westwards, and there was much
capital development to finance them. Above all, the drama of
Marlowe, Shakespeare and Jonson reflected the tremendous rich-
ness and vigour of Elizabethan society and the music of Byrd,
Bull, and Morley was among the finest in Europe.
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE
As we have already seen, the Renaissance was the 'rebirth' of
Classical culture, when the more circumscribed medieval
ways of life and thought were replaced by the rediscovered phil-
osophy and art of ancient Greece and Rome, bringing a new
70
RENAISSANCE
emphasis on Humanism, reason, and objective inquiry. The
movement came to England first through literature, then the
visual arts, and began in Italy in the fifteenth
lastly architecture. It
century, but took over a hundred years to influence architecture
in England, at first making its way tentatively in the decorative
motifs, monuments and church fittings of the Tudor period, and
when it did eventually affect the buildings themselves, coming in-
directly to us through France and the Low Countries.
Before turning to Early Renaissance architecture in England
it is helpful to look at its ultimate source - the Renaissance
architecture of Italy. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

Italian architects took up the elements and principles of Roman
architecture and made out of them a new synthesis, a learned
Classical style that sought to re-create the antique mode in terms
of their own time. Much was based on Vitruvius, the Roman
authority on whose ideas were revived early in the
architecture,
fifteenth century and developed by Alberti, and in the sixteenth
century by Vignola and Palladio.
A distinctive feature of their approach was the way they sought
a theoretical basis for architecture in mathematics and philosophy,
examples of which are their theories of proportion based on
mathematical ratios. In their search for harmony in plan and
elevation they subjected not only the building as a whole to this
intellectual discipline, but also every part of it, so that each
moulding had its proper position, contour and proportion; each
wall, column, pilaster, pier, arch and lintel its exact dimensions
and place. The result was a highly self-conscious style, and
Brunelleschi, Alberti, Bramante, Michelangelo and Palladio all
show this awareness of an intellectual side to their art.
Early Renaissance building in England took place during the
second half of the sixteenth century and the first quarter of the
seventeenth. There was the usual time-lag between what took
place in Italy and the repercussions north of the Alps. The English,
however, did not follow Classical precedent with anything like the
strictness of the Italians. They did not, for example, observe the
correct proportions of the orders nor did they keep the style pure,
so that the result in this country was a hybrid of debased Clas-
sicism and traditional English late-Gothic forms expressed in a
rough symmetry.
71
ELIZABETHAN
Elizabethan is a composite style deriving mainly from:
{a) the continuation of late Gothic and Tudor brick or stone
structures with their triangular gables and straight-headed,
mullioned and transomed bay windows;
(b) the French Renaissance style of the early sixteenth cen-
tury - the style of the Loire valley chateaux from which Italian
Renaissance influence was felt at one remove, as in the Gate of
Virtue at Caius College, Cambridge (1564), with its triumphal
arch motif on the ground floor, three superimposed orders and
a triangular classical pediment.
{c) decoration from the Low Countries, and Germany, such
PORCH
KITCHEN --
DRAWING
ROOM
SERVANTS* DINING
HALL ROOM
MONTACUTE HOUSE 1588

RENAISSANCE
as Flemish strapwork and curved Dutch gables taken from pattern
books, a new medium of communication.
Owing to the poverty of the Crown there was no royal school
to set a fashion and the dominant type is the individualistic
country house of the new nobility. Plans, though varied, moved
towards a greater unity, those of the larger houses continuing
the Tudor shapes i 1 \
i with their emphasis on
I | 1
symmetry. Originally the blocks were only one room thick and
therefore lit from both sides.
Despite WoUaton's central hall and Hard wick's at right angles
to the front, until the end of the sixteenth century the hall was
usually parallel to the main axis, and entered from a screened pas-
sage. The courtyard house declined as the need for defence
diminished, but the gatehouse is often retained as a display feature.
Elevations also show a greater unity and symmetry, opened
up by numerous windows which became a basic element of the
^^h //^^. ^^^=, ^^\
rrTTTTT
1st FLOOR. PLAN
HIGH GREAT
CHAMBER >
DRAWING' BED
R.OOM ROOM I I
room)
I
LONG GALLER.Y rg
5TAIP,S STAIKS
BAY
N._ /
BAY I
HAKDWICK HALL I590
75
>^, '^;d:i>^'^!i^ ^.^
CLASSICAL
ORDERS
OF ODD ^^:
ROPORTION
KIRBY HALL 575 COBHAM HALL 159^

design as at Hard wick Hall (1590). Most typically they are
(whether plain or bay) large, rectangular, mullioned and transomed
windows a simple and dignified type that goes back to an earlier
:
^.
period, though the Early Renaissance usually made them larger
and more uniform. The diamond or square panes are set in lead
canes. The central feature of the fagade is often a two- or three-
storeyed porch or pavilion with perhaps a round-arched door and
superimposed orders, topped by an odd assemblage of decorative
motifs which include strapwork, obelisks, pediment and Gothic
coat of arms. The porch at Kirby Hall, Northants (1575), shows
French inspiration, those of Cobham (1594), Flemish. Roof lines
are characteristically lively and broken with their curved or tri-
angular gables, domed pavilions or turrets and groups of tall
column-like chimneys. This is so even where there are balustraded
parapets of Classical origin, and there is a general contrast with the
rather more sober lower part of the fa9ade. Robert Smithson's
Wollaton (1580), however, has both an elaborate skyline and
*\\
rich Flemish-Classical fagades and is unusually extravagant.
74
RENAISSANCE
Elizabethan interiors show a tendency towards a greater
number of Hving-rooms, and shifts of emphasis in which upper
floor rooms grow in importance and the Great Chamber develops
as the hall dwindles. A feature is the long gallery on the first floor,
often running the whole length of the house, and used to display
pictures and for indoor exercise, music or dancing. Walls are
commonly wainscotted in oak panelling (small panels correspond-
ing to a plank's width), or hung with tapestry. The friezes and
ceilings are plastered in patterns derived from late Gothic vaults.
Fireplaces have coupled columns and herms (debased caryatids)
carrying elaborate overmantels embellished with geometrical
patterns of strap work, inwhich oval and diamond-shaped marbles
and ornamental stones are set like gems. Stone staircases are still
of the winding type but much broader than Gothic ones.
' 1
TRANSOM
MULLION
DOMED TURRET
MULLIONED WINDOW
CRESTING
ST RAP WORK ORNAMENT

75
Ornament in general repeats the same mixture of sources al-
ready noted. Classical motifs such as mouldings, columns, small
obelisks as finials, and statuary rub shoulders with 'Gothic' vault
designs and tangles of Flemish strapwork. Like the style itself,
ELIZABETHAN DOORWAY
Elizabethan ornament is rich, fertile and vigorous at its best, at
its worst coarse, dull and clumsy. But it is always strong and
virile, a fit embodiment of the spirit of Elizabethan England.
^^
w

00 0000000 OOlOO
CLÛ^^^^Ô
a
ELIZABETHAN CHIMNEY-PIECE
76
RENAISSANCE
LANTERN
BLICKLING HALL l<Î^ KOBT. LYMINGE

JACOBEAN
Jacobean is the name given to the development of EHzabethan
architecture in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. It is
quite different from the mature ItaHanism of Inigo Jones, which is

described in the next chapter. Compared with the earUer period a
number of modifications can be observed. The great houses have
a more restrained and less bizarre character which makes them
more Classical in feeling, but they still have enough late medieval
features (such as their windows and turrets) to justify the appella-
tion 'King Jamie's Gothic'. Hatfield House by Robert Lyminge
(1607) is a good example, more typical than splendid Knole.
There is now less pretension and more comfort. Planning
continues the same trends but is more compact, so that some side
blocks are two rooms thick. Facades, more often now of
brick, have greater areas of plain wall since windows are some-
times smaller, though still large. In late Jacobean windows many
lights are replaced by four and these are sometimes crowned with
a triangular or segmental pediment. Skylines are quieter. The hall
now becomes specifically the êntrance' hall and is symmetrically
placed behind the porch, often with a floor of black and white
marble squares. The staircase receives special attention. Probably
F 77
BALUSTRADE
A
m>itiijimiiHiiitMiauiH!mi!iHHiianMiii^^
X A ft
11 IMW/ ;
m
fTTTTf inininKMiu
ffl
i
tmnnirniiiiiiimtliiillKiiffnl (jiitiiiuiiiuurmTf Inniluulff imllurilin iTiiiniiUImmn n^
TEMPLE NEW5AM, LEED5

of sixteenth-century Spanish origin, the usual type is of oak
and is in three flights arranged round an open rectangular or
square well, the landing being on the fourth side. The balusters
and newel posts at the angles are enriched with Flemish-
Italianate carving, including figures or heraldic beasts. Alto-
BAUUSTERS
NEWEL POST
gether it is an impressive feature, though compared with the

elegance and spaciousness of later staircases its proportions are
still a little cramped. Ornament is still very lavish but perhaps less
fantastic.
78
RENAISSANCE
The smaller houses of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I
continued in the Tudor manner; small stone houses in the late
Gothic vernacular, or timber-framed buildings. The latter reached
their peak during this period. In the early seventeenth century the
frame is usually in a single piece so that overhanging storeys are
discontinued, reducing the risk of fire in confined towns. The
timber struts of the frame now become more widely spaced, a
LATE
TIMBER FRAME
WORK
MARKET HALL, LEOMINSTER IG03

feature that may be the result of a greater constructional experi-
ence which was able to make more economical use of the material.
On the other hand, there ismuch deliberate exploitation of the
structural members to make elaborate patterns, and different
preferences can clearly be seen by comparing the rich decoration
of the north-west with that of the south-eastern counties.
There are a number of interesting colleges of this period which
resemble quadrangular, late medieval country houses, with a gate-
house opposite the hall which has the master's lodging at its
upper end, e.g. Trinity College, Cambridge (1604).
Finally, the formal 'Dutch' garden is another fashion from the
Low Countries. The layout of walks and flower-beds bordered
with box and yew hedges is geometrical, and topiary adds a touch
of fantasy.
79
LATE CENTURY
I6th
NORTHERN STONE DISTRICT
TILE
/ HANG/NG
17th CENTURY
SOUTHERN CLAY DISTRICT
COTTAGE BUILDING
VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
A great many cottages and small farmhouses, though much
altered through the from the period of the six-
years, survive
teenth to the early eighteenth century. As the poorer classes were
now generally better off, their dwellings were in consequence
rather more substantial than those of earlier periods though their
constructional systems were of the simplest. They have either
weight-bearing walls or a timber frame. Since materials at hand
80
.'
4 II* l
mi
"Si""'
woLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAM: An cxubcrant Elizabethan

Renaissance design. The Classical influence comes via Flanders
mm
THE queen's house, GREENWICH: The restrained, scholarly

Classicism of an Inigo Jones facade. The colonnades are later
RENAISSANCE
were used there is a close relationship between type and region
and this, together with their informal appearance and their usually
low, horizontal line, keep them in admirable harmony with their
surroundings. Economy of arrangement was, of course, an im-
portant factor in their design, so that windows are small, and
where there is a second storey it is often of the dormer kind since
bedrooms occupy part of the roof space (another reason for this
is that walls are kept dehberately low for strength on account of
insufficient bonding).
Timber frame construction, already described in the section on
Tudor building, is characteristic of the north-west lowlands, the
west midlands and the south-east. Infilling is either of wattle and
daub with a coat of plaster, or brick 'nogging', but an interesting
is the patterned plaster work or pargetting of East
local feature
Anglia which covers up everything, including the timbers of the
frame.
Brick is much of the midlands.
typical of clay districts such as
Roofs are or thatched and sometimes the top half or weather
tiled
gables of the buildings are tile-hung or barge-boarded with over-
lapping planks of elm, and in chalk districts flint, 'knapped' or
squared, appears in a brick framework.
In some parts of the south-west, *cob' (layers of pressed mud
and straw coated with plaster) with rounded corners to prevent
cracking, is used for walls, and roofs are thatched; but in the far
west large, rough, unsquared granite stones and slates are the rule.
Stone districts possess some of the finest examples of vernacular
architecture. Better quality freestone results in a more finished
appearance and there is a tradition of good carving in the histori-
cally prosperous Cotswold country. Here and elsewhere windows
have stone mullions, labels or dripstones. Roof pitches are usually
lower when roofing material is heavy, such as stone slabs.
Such dwellings lacked, of course, the elaboration of larger
houses but the low rooms of those of the more prosperous
franklins and clothiers were made handsomer and warmer by
carved chimney pieces and oak panelling of the type surviving
at East Riddlesden Hall, Keighley.
A. Select Bibliography and lîst of Representative Buildings will he found

at the end of chapter six.
8i
BANQUETING HOUSE, WHITEHALL 1619
CHAPTER SIX
Seventeenth Century
ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

The seventeenth century witnessed a great struggle between the
Stuart kings with their absolutist ideas of 'Divine Right' and their
Catholic sympathies, and a Parliament representing a broadening
squirearchy and the new merchant classes, among whom Puritan
feeling was growing. By the Civil War (1642-51) Cromwell and
the Puritans safeguarded Parhament and the 'liberty of conscience',
though final settlement came with the Revolution of 1688 when
the Bill of Rights confirmed England as a constitutional monarchy
under William and Mary. The end of the century saw the birth
of party politics in the rivalry of Whigs and Tories. As in Tudor
times, local government was the responsibility of Justices of the
Peace who met at Quarter Sessions and the Assizes.
By 1600 most of the earlier enclosures had been effected and
there was even some reversion to corn growing w^hich absorbed
some surplus labourers who now worked for squire or yeoman.
Domestic industries which had replaced the gild system (particu-
larly cloth-making) continued to grow, and regulation passed from
gilds to government. The export trade expanded, despite competi-
82
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
tion from the Dutch and French with whom the country was at
war in the second half of the century, and the commercial interests
of the City grew wdth it. The Bank of England was estabUshed in
1694. The West Indian slave plantations prospered and settle-
ments in New England and Virginia laid the foundations of
modern North America.
Internal movement increased despite the bad roads, but life
for the population of five million was largely rural and only a few
towns like York and Bristol were of any size. They resembled
medieval towns with their narrow streets and overhanging
timber-framed houses - conditions which favoured the Great
Plague (1665) and the Great Fire of London (1666), before the
latter resulted inthe greater use of stone.
Living standards rose steadily, as exemplified by the rebuilding
of many farmhouses and cottages, and the fashion for coffee
houses with their novel contribution to the social life of the
towns, described by Pepys. Forms of social life, however, changed
slowly despite the contrast between the mood of the earlier part
of the century, sober and puritan, with the intellectual tastes of the
Metaphysicals and the moral seriousness of Milton, and that of
the post-Restoration period (1660) which was more exuberant and
indulgent, as reflected in the plays of Wycherley (though it was
equally the time of Dryden's satire).
The came from Holland, grown rich

chief cultural influences
and powerful through her maritime trade, and the France of Louis
XIV and glittering Versailles. EngHsh music reached new heights
in the baroque splendours of PurcelFs music and in the work of
Newton and Boyle. This was the era of science, mathematics
and physical experiment, when the Royal Society was formed.
Wren himself being a founder member. The empirical philosophy
of Locke fostered the liberal politics of the Revolution (1688)
and a more rational and tolerant approach to religion.
INIGO JONES
In the early part of the seventeenth century there came upon
the scene a highly significant figure, Inigo Jones (1573-165 2), the
first English architect in the modern sense; not a master mason but
one who was responsible for the entire design and its execution
throughout. Beginning as a designer of scenery and costumes for
85
court masques, Jones visited Italy twice to study the work of
Palladio. As a result he brought back to this country, at a time
when traditional Jacobean structures were still building, a pure
Italian Renaissance style
of a revolutionary character. In 1615 he
became Surveyor-General of Works to the Crown (i.e. chief
architect), and his two seminal designs were the Queen's House
at Greenwich and the Banqueting House, Whitehall.
1 BALUSTRADE
I
tiiutvHitiiifliitiiiiiiittiiiHitiiHiiiiifitttiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiftiiimiiitiiiiuuiiU
-CORNICE
w~s
JUD, ,33) dnipj^mntjnr^

i
QUEEN'S HOUSE, GREENWICH 1616
i
The Queen's House (16 16) is a villa based on Palladian examples
though rather longer and lower with larger windows better
adapted to conditions of English light. Instead of the more
ramifying Early Renaissance plan it is a compact rectangle
(originally two linked blocks) expressed in plain, dignified, com-
pletely symmetrical facades. The wide windows of many lights
have been banished in favour of smaller, narrower and carefully
proportioned rectangular windows of regular size. The broken
skyline and vertical accents of gables and turrets are replaced by
a strongly marked horizontal line produced by an unbroken
string-course, cornice, and crowning balustrade that shuts off
the roof from view. This horizontality is further emphasized by
the rusticated ground floor which also gives an appearance of
soUdity and strength.* External ornament is used with extreme
restraint. Almost the only features are the moulding of the cor-
* This became the usual way of imparting an impression of grandeur to a house.

In a debased form it is still present in the nineteenth century half-basement with
a short flight of steps to the front entrance.
84
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
nice, the rustication, and the regularly spaced Ionic columns of the
first floor central loggia.
The was planned in accordance with Palladian precept,
interior
with the principal rooms on the first floor ot piano nobile (hence the
loggia). The entrance hall is a mathematically harmonious cube,
and the smaller rooms are in simple ratio to one another. There is
ample accommodation for a staircase of a new and spacious
nobility. The original interior was in deliberately rich contrast to
the severity and discipline of the exterior and introduced a new
note of Italianate magnificence to replace the oak wainscoting and
tapestries. The best surviving Jones interior is the Double Cube
Room at Wilton House (1649), one of a suite of splendid state
rooms with white panelled walls. The panels are large and out-
lined by mouldings, the pictures are incorporated as part of the
design, the ornament, chiefly palms, fruit and flowers, is in high
relief and gilded. The massive overmantel and doorcase with
broken pediment borne on columns are part of the room's
architecture. The height of its double cube proportions is subtly
modified by the coved ceiling.
The Banqueting House (i 6 1 9) is the only part of Jones' design for
Charles Ts great Palace of Whitehall that was actually built, but
it was his most influential work. Again there is the compact
rectangular plan, this time for a large hall of double cube propor-
tions rising two storeys above a basement. The lower storey has
an Ionic order, the upper a Corinthian in front of a channelled
wall. Ornament and interest are derived from the alternating
lower storey window pediments, triangular and segmental, and
the carved frieze of masks and swags at the level of the Corinthian
capitals. The total effect resembles an Italian palace facade with
details from Palladio, though it lacks his Mannerist tension and is
closer in feeling to the earlier High Renaissance calm and serenity
of Bramante and Raphael. Its Portland Stone was to find much
favour with Wren.
Another importation of Jones' was a town-planning concept
without precedent in England at that time. This was the Italian
idea of the square, though the actual lay-out of the ensemble of
the first - Covent Garden dating from the thirties, with its garden
on one side, two sides of uniform brick houses, and the fourth
side the church of St. Paul flanked by two isolated houses - is
possibly derived from Henri IV's scheme for Paris. It was
85
certainly the prototype of much that was to follow in London
and towns over the next two hundred years, as were
in other
Jones' terrace town houses and together their descendants are to
;
be seen at Bath and in the Regent's Park terraces.

The basic type of Jones' town houses is built of brick with stone
dressings and has a tall, with a fenestration
plain, dignified facade
system later copied in Georgian buildings. This has the tallest of
its rectangular windows on the first floor, now the main one, and
the smallest on the top floor. At Covent Garden the houses had
ground-floor loggias. Lindsay House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, with
its rusticated ground floor and giant order of pilasters supporting
an entablature and balustrade, is a particularly impressive specimen.

St. Paul's (Covent Garden) is the earliest surviving Classical
church in England, though it was rebuilt in the eighteenth century.

Its portico with Tuscan columns and pediments is modelled on
sixteenth-century Italian examples, and is the first one with free-

standing columns in northern Europe. Unfortunately Jones' ad-
ditions to old St. Paul's, including his portico of ten fifty-feet
columns, were lost in the Great Fire.
The genius of Inigo Jones was handicapped by the times in
which he lived, for owing to religious and political troubles
culminating in the Civil War, opportunities for building in the
first three-quarters of the seventeenth century were severely cur-
tailed. But remarkable in how many ways Jones was an
it is still
important innovator who succeeded in imposing new standards of

taste and knowledge in English architecture. Though his work
is in a sense derivative, in that it is a conscious attempt to repro-
duce a sixteenth-century Italian style, it comprehends principles as

well as forms and is not meticulously copyist. Without breaking
the conventions, Jones knew how to practise the Renaissance
tradition with vitality and modify its monumentality to suit the
EngHsh temperament and scene.
His influence on domestic architecture was somewhat delayed
because the style of the Queen's House was too new and startling
to be assimilated quickly, and most early seventeenth-century
houses are late Jacobean in style, or under contemporary Dutch
influence, but with more compact planning and a Classical feeling
of repose and grave dignity. Their Palladian detail, however, is as
much due to Jones as to a greater familiarity with Classical forms
from the study of translations of such works as Serlio's.
86
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
But some architects who came after Jones were more directly
influenced by him, so much so as to form a recognizable 'school'.
The classic example of their work was Coleshill House (Berks.) by
Sir Roger Pratt, with Jones as consultant. Typical is John Webb's
Thorpe Hall, near Peterborough (1656), planned as a compact
block in four storeys over a basement. The main feature of the
ffl ffl ffi EB H H a
LIBRARY ANTE DINING

ROOM ROOM
MORNING HALL BED

ROOM ROOM
THOKPE HALL 1656 J.WEBB

87
I<
facade is the fenestration system in which the even rhythm of tall
rectangular windows is relieved of monotony by the introduction

of triangular and segmental pediments to the second floor and the
attic. At Coleshill the windows are also subtly grouped in threes
for a similar reason. Originally they had heavy wooden glazing
bars dividing them into four lights, and they opened as case-
ments since the sash had not yet made its appearance.
Above marked cornice rises a steeply sloping
the strongly
pitched roof broken by dormer windows and massive chimney
stacks, all finely proportioned to the mass of the house below.
Coleshill is finished off with a balustrade.
The is not pretentious and behind it lies the hall, the
entrance
staircase being a three-flight arrangement with pierced panel-
still
ling and carving (not balusters) as was usual in the mid seventeenth
century. At Coleshill, however, baluster staircases* rise up both
walls of the hall to a landing, the Great Parlour lying behind the
hall with the dining-room above, opening off the landing. Bold
but not heavy Classical decoration includes mouldings, swags,
pedimented doors and antique busts in roundels.
Mid seventeenth-century and later interiors generally show the
influence of Jones, their walls having plaster or wood panelling
made of larger panels now that thin sheets could be joined to-
gether. Fireplaces become simpler and more architectural with a
picture frame as part of the chimneypiece.
The of Jones was carried forward well into the later part
style
of the century and its influence can be seen in Trinity College
Library, Cambridge, and the east end of St. Paul's Cathedral, both
by Wren. It also inspired the Palladians of the eighteenth century
who found Baroque too extravagant for their taste and saw in
Jones the purest English exponent of Renaissance architecture.
CHRISTOPHER WREN
The second great name of the seventeenth century is that of
Christopher Wren (163 2-1 72 5), a man of many parts who in ad-
dition to being an artist epitomized of his time
the scientific spirit
and did not speciaUze in architecture until after the Great Fire of
1666 when he was appointed Surveyor-General.
* Later from Italy came a type that was corbelled out from the wall without any
other support. It became common in the eighteenth century.
88
SEVENTEENTH CENTUR'X'
WEST FRONT
5T. PAUL'S ^CATHEDRAL IG75-I7(0
Though as already observed Wren continued the classical

trends of Jones, he also came under the influence of contemporary
French work in his public buildings and Dutch in his domestic
ones. Out of these he produced a version of Classicism that was
original, not only because it inclined to the Baroque, but more
importantly because it was an AngUcized Classicism with a dis-
tinct national character such as had not yet appeared in England.
His structural skill was remarkable, as can be seen from the double
dome of St. Paul's, and this is marked by a masterly use of tradi-
tional materials and by the Portland Stone which he virtually in-
troduced to London and which later became so popular.
Wren's principal work was, of course, St. Paul's Cathedral
(167 5 -1 710). The design shows him embracing ideas from several
sources yet making out of them a great building which bears un-
mistakably the stamp of his originality.
89
The plan combines the central plan of the Renaissance (originat-
ing in Byzantine architecture), as exemplified in St. Peter's, Rome
and the Latin cross of the Middle Ages. The Jones-like east end
of its Italian-palace exterior facades has already received com-

ment. The coupled columns of the imposing west front derive
from Perrault's Louvre, and the flanking towers are Baroque. The
reposeful dome is splendidly Classical but the lantern is not. The
colonnade round the drum is Classical but not the variety of its
alternating niches and loggias. The interior walls and piers have
niches and hollows which endow them with plasticity and some-
thing of the Baroque quality of movement, and there is a com-
plication and flow of space in the way windows are cut into vaults
and saucer domes. In sum, it appears a highly individual blend of
Classical and Baroque elements.
Besides St. Paul's, Wren was responsible for the rebuilding of
over fifty London churches destroyed by the Great Fire. These
city churches were the first to be built since the late Middle Ages
and being post-Reformation were conceived as preaching halls
suitable for Protestant services centred on the sermon.
r Their plans reveal the intellectual basis of Wren's art by their
underlying geometry. They are very varied and cleverly adapted
to the small, awkwardly shaped sites at his disposal, and they
succeed in retaining a remarkable sense of space. Exteriors are
usually plain and boxUke, full of Classical repose, but set off by
one of his highly inventive and elaborate steeples which show
him translating the Gothic spire into the language of Classical
forms. They and many-tiered, beautifully proportioned
are tall
and ingenious both construction and variety of design.

in
Their interiors are large, clean rooms, well lit by big windows
and decorated with white plasterwork and gold leaf. Extra accom-
modation is provided by a gallery. The altar is now a simple
90
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
ST. MAR.Y ST. BR.IDE

LE BOW
STEEPLES
o
ALTAR.
TOWER.
o
TOWER.
1 -L J-
ST. MARTIN LUDGATE ST. AAARY AT HILL
body of the church. The general effect
table, often placed in the
is and logical and therefore classical, but the Baroque
lucid
tendencies already noted in St. Paul's are also present. At St.
91
ST. STEPHEN WALBfÔOK
ALTAR
Stephen, Walbrook, the saucer dome rests on eight arches

supported by twelve sHm columns, an arrangement that leads to a
Baroque confluence of spaces.
r Wren's plan for rebuilding the fire-devastated city indicates
\ that he was capable of making a major contribution to the art
of town planning, envisaging as it does the replacement of the
9*
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
'^medieval network by new, long, wide streets in a rectilinear
arrangement, underpinned by star-shaped 'squares' or ronds-points
with radial streets, an Italian Renaissance motif copied by France
during Louis XIV's reign. The scheme was, however, regrettably
dropped owing to difficulties of land appropriation and perhaps
also because seemed too vast and uncompromising a proposal
it
for English preferences. (A similar opportunity for replanning

the city was missed after the last war, for the same reasons.)
Associated with the architecture of Wren is a fine school of
English craftsmanship which included Tijou, maker of wrought
iron grilles and staircases, Grinling Gibbons, the naturalistic wood
carver, Thornhill, the painter of murals and ceilings in a Baroque
style, and Gibber the sculptor.
The smaller scale domestic architecture of the late seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries was one of the most successful
solutions to the problem of how to combine comfort and moder-
ate size with spaciousness and the dignity of a Classical design.
The type is commonly known as the 'Queen Anne' house, though
in fact it is of Dutch origin, is not confined to England, and was
already established in the eighties before Queen Anne came to the
throne. The earliest example seems to be Eltham Lodge (1663)
by Hugh May, but the type chiefly evolved here under Wren.
There are, of course, local variations but the general character-
istics are as follows. Plans are simple rectangles of Classical
proportions, though sometimes short wings are added. The plain
brick fagades are symmetrical with a pedimented centre and
Classical rectangular windows with thick wooden glazing bars.
Windows are of the sash type, imported from Holland in the
eighties. Doorways, of which there are many kinds, have tri-
angular or rounded pediments or 'shell' canopies, usually sup-
ported by brackets or attached half columns. Roofs are of a steep
pitch, hipped and without gables, and strongly marked off from
the fa9ade by a cornice or eaves-line. Above this there is often an
attic to provide third-storey accommodation without spoiling the
Classical proportions of the elevation by making it too tall. Pro-
jecting dormers, following Jones and Webb, have triangular and
curved pediments. Chimneys are rather large.
The chief ornament to these houses is in the form of stone quoins
and dressings. The windows are framed by architraves of 'long and
short' work and have a carved keystone or scroll at their heads.
93
I
FENTON HOUSE, HAMP5TEAD 1693
A 'QUEEN ANNE' HOUSE
Only in the larger versions were the main rooms on the first
They are large, simple in plan and of dignified proportions,
floor.
well-lit and comfortably panelled. Ceilings are either plain or en-
riched with high relief plasterwork of fruit and flower designs in
the bold naturahstic style of the period. The generous three-flight
17th CENTURY STAIRCASE

94
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Staircasesround an open well often have turned or spiral balus-
ters. Fireplaces are heavy and architectural, the earlier ones
sometimes pedimented.
The total result of such an arrangement of features was an
uncommonly satisfying design: serviceable and functional yet
aesthetically pleasing. It is no wonder that the basic type has
never really gone out of favour.
Town houses of the period may be distinguished from later
Georgian ones by their 'Queen Anne' treatment of doors and
windows and their prominent stone dressings.
SHELL CANOPY
^S \snnzzz27
ARCHI-
TRAVE
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SEGMENTAL PEDIMENT
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BULL'S EYE WINDOW

95
CUSTOM H0U5E, KINGS LYNN

)G5I H.BELL
BELTON HOUSE )<3S9
96
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
TUDOR (15 00-1600)
Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster; Bath Abbey, Som; Nicholas West's
Chapel, Ely, Cambs.
Deal Castle, Kent.
Country houses: Compton Wynyates, Coughton Court, Warw; East
Barsham, Norfolk; Hengrave, Suffolk; Layer Marney Hall, Essex;
Barrington Court, Som; Loseley Park, Surrey; Parham Park, Sussex;
Breamore, Hants; Hampton Court Palace, Middx; Pitchford Hall,
Salop Speke and Rufford, Lanes Bramhall and Little Moreton, Ches
; ;
Sizergh and Levens, Westmorland.

Houses at York; Shrewsbury; Henley-in-Arden, Warw; Merchant's
House, Nantwich, Cheshire. Parish church, Standish, Lanes.
St. John's College, Cambridge.
Guildhalls at Lavenham, Suffolk; Thaxted, Essex; Old Market Hall,
Shrewsbury; Leycester's Hospital, Warwick.
Staples Inn, Holborn; The Feathers, Ludlow.
ELIZABETHAN RENAISSANCE (l 5 50-1600)

Houses: Longleat, Wilts; Montacute, Som; Hardwick and Barl-
borough, Derby; Burton Agnes, Yorks; Burghley and Kirby,
Northants; WoUaton, Nottingham; Chastleton, Oxon.
Caius College, Cambridge; Guildhall, Exeter.
JACOBEAN (1600-162 5)
Country houses: Knole, Kent; Audley End, Essex; Hatfield, Herts;
Raynham and Blickling, Norfolk; Fountains, Temple Newsam and
East Riddlesden, Yorks; Aston, Birmingham; Swakeleys, Middx;
Castle Ashby, Northants; Kingston, Bradford, Wilts.
Colleges: Merton and Wadham, Oxford; Trinity and Clare, Cam-
bridge.
Schools: Charterhouse, London; Market Harborough Grammar
School, Leics.
Market Halls at Leominster and Ledbury, Herefds.
EARLY STUART (i 625-50) - Inigo Jones

Houses: Queen's House, Greenwich; Lindsay House, Lincoln's Inn
Fields Wilton House and Palladian covered bridge, Wilts.
;
Banqueting House, Whitehall.

St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden.
Colleges (transitional from Jacobean) St. John's and Lincoln College

:
Chapel, Oxford.
Vernacular houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at Chid-
dingstone, Kent; Broadway, Glos; Salisbury, Wilts.
97
J
LATE STUART (i 650- 1 700) - Christopher Wren
St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and Wren's churches in the City;
Staunton Harold Chapel, Leics.
Country houses: Ham House, Surrey; Petworth, Sussex; Upton House,
Coombe Abbey, and Honington Hall, Warw; Coleshill and Milton,
Berks; Kingston Lacey, Dorset; Forde Abbey and Tintinhull
House, Som; Lyme Park, Ches; Astley, Chorley, Lanes; Chats-
worth, Derby Thorpe Hall, Northants Belton and Gunby, Lines
; ;
Mompesson House, Salisbury; Medford, Glos; Fenton, Hampstead;

Eltham Lodge and Owletts, Kent; Denham Place, Bucks.
University buildings: Pembroke Chapel and Trinity College Library,
Cambridge; Sheldonian Theatre and The Queen's College Library,
Oxford.
Blue Coat School, Liverpool; Read's School, Corby Glen, Lanes.
Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals, London; College of Matrons,
Salisbury; Morden College, Blackheath, London.
Almshouses at Chipping Norton, Oxon.
Abingdon Town Hall, Berks; Customs House and Duke's Head Inn,
King's Lynn, Norfolk.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
RENAISSANCE
Ashley, M. England in
: the Seventeenth Century (Penguin 1954).
Bindoff, S. T. : Tudor England (Penguin 1950).
Blomfield, R. : A Short History of Renaissance Architecture in England
(Bell 1900).*
Briggs, M. S.: Wren {AWtn & Unwin 1953).
Crossley, F. H. : Timber Building
England: from early times
in to the end
of the seventeenth century (Batsford 195 1).
Dutton, R. The Age of Wren (Batsford 195 1).
:
Esdaile,K. A.: English Church Monuments, ij 10-1840 (Batsford 1946).

Gotch, J. A.: Inigo Jones {Methucn 1928).
Gotch, J. A.: Renaissance Architecture in England (B^Ltsford 1901).*
Harvey, J.: An Introduction to Tudor Architecture (Art & Technics
1949).
Lees-Milne, The Age of Inigo Jones (Batsford 1953).
J. :
Lees-Milne, J. Tudor Renaissance (Batsford 195 1).

:
Mercer, E. B.: Oxford History of Art ijjj~-i62j (O.U.P. 1962).

Oliver, B. Cottages of England in the Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries
:
(1929)*.
Sitwell, S. : British Architects and Craftsmen, 1600-18^0 (Batsford 1949)
* Useful also for chapter seven.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Summerson, J. N.:
Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830 (Pelican History
of Art: Penguin 1953).*
Summerson, J. N.: IFr^w (Collins 1953)-
Whiffen, M. An Introduction to Elitâbethan and ]acohean Architecture
:
(Art &
Technics 1952).
Whiffen, M. Stuart and Georgian Churches (Batsford 1948).*
:
Whinney, M. and Millar, D. Oxford History oj Art 162J-1714 (O.U.P.

:
1957)-
* Useful also for chapter seven.
GUILDHALL, WOR.CESTER 1721
DQ yy Vj ABOVE CORNICE
f^ f
=3=
=^ ^ fL^^?
fn^
su. ^"z^Q
r% r\
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ABINGDON TOWN HALL 1677
99
CHAPTER SEVEN
Eighteenth Century
ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Though scarcely affecting the lives of most people, war with
France provided a backcloth to the century at the beginning, in
:
the middle, and again at the end. Marlborough, Clive and Wolfe
were chief among those captains who secured for England in-
fluence in Europe or, in pursuance of Chatham's aims, commercial
supremacy over her colonial rival France in India and North
America. In the process they founded the British Empire, though
a setback came with the break-away of the American colonies
which declared their independence in 1776 and became the
United States. Sea power played a crucial role in the struggle with
France, and the great victories of Nelson were the brilliant climax
of a whole series of successful naval operations.
At home, under the leadership of Walpole, Chatham and Pitt,
government was really oligarchical. Parliament being dominated
by the great landowning families, both Whig and Tory. The
Shires were also controlled by them and by the squirearchy in
their capacity as J.P.s. Despite the Jacobite risings of 171 5 and
1745 conditions were stable, undisturbed by great political up-
heavals or religious differences. Society was still founded on a
predominantly rural economy in which each had his place, and it
was free of the kind of class war that was to come later.
Throughout the century agrarian innovations such as better
methods of cultivation, new crops, and improved stock-breeding
brought increased yields to feed a rising population. Since only
consolidated holdings of reasonable size were suited to the new
methods there was a revival of enclosure, this time by parliamen-
tary acts. English noblemen were not only connoisseurs of art
but, unlike their French counterparts, improving landlords
interested in the practical aspects of farming.
The Empire and trade continued to expand, sustained by sea
100
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
power and fed by growing industries. The later decades of
Georgian England saw her *take-off' into an industrial society
as a result of revolutionarychanges in production. The smelting
of iron with coke, the use of steam power, the textile inventions,
and the transition from the domestic to the factory system all
brought about a greatly increased output. The most fundamental
change in modern times had begun, though the impact of the
Arkwrights and the Strutts on the face of the country had as yet
made little impression.
Trade and industry together called for an improvement in
transport. In response came first canals and later turnpike roads
with their regular coach and wagon services.
With some exceptions, in the Church as in the universities this
was a time of laxity, when many unspiritual parsons neglected
pastoral care for the hunting field. Against this, however, must
be set the evangelicalism of Wesley and the Methodists, and the
Humanitarian movement with its charity organizations, prison
reform, and anti-slavery activities.
Methodist 'enthusiasm' was not unrelated to the upsurge of
Sentiment and Romanticism in literature and the cult of the
Picturesque. Imagination and Feeling arrived in the later part of
the century to challenge the rule of Reason, and this was in con-
trast to the Classicism of Pope in the early Augustan age, the
common sense of Dr. Johnson, or for that matter the dignity and
serenity of Handel. But the culture of the *polite' classes, as
Reynold's portraits show, was still Classical, leavened by a robust
native element that appears in Fielding and Hogarth.
BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE
The work of Wren extends into the eighteenth century and it is
out of his work, Greenwich Hospital, the most grandiloquent
last
in spirit, that the next stylistic phase in English architecture
emerges. This is the so-called English Baroque, a version of a
style which began in Italy in the early seventeenth century and
later spread across Europe in an exuberant wave.
Baroque is a Classical Renaissance architecture that developed in
a highly original and often un-Classical way, sacrificing rules and
conventions in order to achieve arresting effects of grandeur and
complexity, richness and movement. Typical of its features are
lOI
giant double columns and pilasters, grandiose curves of volutes,
scrolls and even walls, emphatic projections and recessions,
broken pediments and twisted columns. Baroque is sensuous and
emotional in spirit and has none of the intellectual calm of
Classical art. Its exaggeration is theatrical but it is not in any sense
LANTERN
BROKEN
PEDIMENT
/
SCROLL
L J
^^H^
SCROLL PLAN
PEDIMENT CONCAVE
/ CURVE
/
TWISTED
COLUMNS
two-dimensional, for it is at once monumental and superbly

conscious of space. Its forcefulness and ostentation are contrary
to English reticence, but for the short timeit was practised here it
produced some remarkable buildings.

Wren's pupil, Nicholas Hawksmoor (i 661-173 6), continued
where Wren left off, designing for the growing suburbs of London
churches that have the same free inventiveness and grasp of
architectural values, though they seem colder and more forbid-
ding than Wren would have made them. Their plan is original and
102
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
'GOTHIC'
SPIR.E
MOTIF
a a a aa ana
CLASSICAL
ELEMENTS lUMPHAL
USED IN AN ÂRCH MOTIF
UNCLASSICAL
WAY
ST. MAR.Y WOOLNOTH CHRISTCH URCH, SPITALFIELD5

I7IG N.HAWK5M00R. ijz5 N. HAWKSMOOK
they are massively constructed in bold heavy forms, all but one
with imposing and dramatic towers in which Hawksmoor, like
his master, translates an essentially Gothic motif into the Classical
idiom of his day.
John Vanbrugh (i 664-1 726), soldier and dramatist turned
Sir
architect, was the pre-eminent exponent of Baroque in England.
Again his work is characterized by originality, only this time there
is an even greater leaning towards the massive and the portentous.
Huge masses of masonry and cyclopean columns struggle against

103
one another in compositions of tremendous weight and heroic
grandeur. In the rich profusion of forms the Baroque spirit is
everywhere. When compared with Continental work, however,
it is evident that Vanbrugh is still something of a Classicist, for
his work is more static than dynamic and despite a certain Flemish
KITCHEN COURT
GREAT COURT
BLENHEIM PALACE I705 J. VANBRUGH
coarseness of detail he still reUes for his main effect upon broad
architectural grouping and scale, rather than upon profuseness of
detail and movement. For all com-
the diversity of his exterior
by Blenheim Palace and Castle
positions, his plans as represented
Howard have a magnificent unity. Deriving from the Palace of
104
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Versailles or Palladio's villas with wings, they are symmetrical
arrangements with a central corps de logis with massive outstretched
wings, each one of which embraces a smaller court.
Though Vanbrugh's country houses have often been criticised
as inconvenient and lacking in utility, it should be remembered
ELEVATION OF MAIN BLOCK
DINING ROOM SALON
KITCHEN COUKT
GREAT . .
COURT
y
\
STABLE COURT
CASTLE HOWAR.D I702 J.VANBRUGH
that these great houses were designed primarily as ceremonial

buildings and to form background against which their
a suitable
owners could display the art treasures which they had collected
on their tours through Europe. It is by such standards that they
should be judged.
105
PEDIMENT
RUSTICATION
RUSTICATED
COLUMNS
PEDJMENTED GATEWAY
PROJECTING
STONES
RUSTICATED
BAROQUE WINDOW
PALLADIANISM
After the first twenty years of Baroque experiment and in-
novation English architecture settled down in the 1730s to a

more sober period of what became known as Palladianism. This
was a version of Classicism in vogue for country houses (town
houses were little affected), based on the villas built by Palladio
in the Veneto during the sixteenth century. Inigo Jones, it will be
recalled, was the first to hark back to Palladio, but the eighteenth-
106
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
century fashion was much more widespread, involving a number
of architects under the patronage of Lord Burhngton, among
whom were William Kent (i 684-1 778), the designer of the Horse
Guards, Colen Campbell (Mere worth Castle) and Leoni (Lyme
Hall). The movement was considerably influenced by the publi-
cation of a fine edition of Palladio in 171 6, followed by the works
of Jones in 1727. And like Palladio, the BurUngton circle were
guided by the precepts of Vitruvius, the Roman writer on
architecture.
Lord Burlington's house at Chiswick is a transcription of the
VillaRotonda but the usual plan has a central block flanked by
wings, Hke Prior Park by John Wood the elder (1700-54).
Holkham (Kent) and Kedleston (Paine), however, were designed
to have four angle pavilions connected to their corps de logis. All
have the immensely dignified pedimented portico to give an
imposing central accent to the composition.
^2:::^
PAVILION P O RTICO
P RAW HO I R,OON\S
CHAPEL PC R.TICO .LIBf?.ARY
WING Lr-. I ' Wl NG i
SALON
BEDR.OOMS (;aller.y
K.1TCH
W I N/G
EN
r^ DINING
R.OOM
yiSITOR.S'
"Wl NG
HOLKHAM HOU5E 173^ W. IC MT

107
NOR.TH FIÔNT
SALON
COIÎLIDOR COR.R.IDOR.
HALL
PR.I VATE ICITCH EM
G
VVI Kf
rm 5
VVI NO,
\ Ifii 1 1
POR.T1CO
KEDLESTON HALL I7GI
BUILT BY R.ADAM PR-OM A DESIGN BY J. PAINE

OfL\G\NALLY TO HAVE HAD TWO MOk.E PAVILIONS
Compared with their originals, EngHsh Palladian villas are

and more solid and there is greater variety in room shapes
larger
and details. On the whole the style did not produce masterpieces
in this country. Itis aloof, conventional, and at its worst even dull.
But after the excesses of Baroque its restraint and lack of bombast
were more in keeping with eighteenth-century taste and temper.
Certainly its insistence on canons had a most salutary effect on the
ordinary Georgian building tradition, since it firmly established
*rules of proportion' and standards of decency and taste that per-
colated down to the jobbing builder.
The rooms of some of the smaller houses of the period
best
were panelled in pine, now preferred to oak, though both were
io8
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
painted; but the great houses had their plaster walls decorated
with architectural details and mouldings that incorporated the
paintings and stucco reliefs as integral parts of the total scheme.
Some of the state rooms still have walls lined with silk or velvet
damask and ceilings that are elaborately patterned, painted and
gilded. The new Chinese wallpaper came into use, and Roman
statuary was much in evidence both inside and out.
In the early years of the century the formal, symmetrical
garden layout based on Le Notre's work at Versailles, with its
canals, basins, alleys and radiating walks, was preferred. But the
work of London and Wise in this style was soon to give way to a
new conception. Parallel with the evolution of the Palladian
country house there developed the art of landscape gardening,
initiated by Kent and reaching a peak in the designs of Lancelot
'Capability' Brown (1715-83). Prior Park illustrates the mid
eighteenth-century ideal. Sited on a gentle slope, its spreading
wings relate it to a large landscaped park, a formal house in an
informal park or 'English garden' which became a European taste.
The park, however, was really anything but natural. Sweeping
lawns, gentle hills, groves and serpentine lakes were all in fact
very carefully contrived at great labour and expense and furnished

with a romantic sprinkling of temples, mausoleums. Classical
bridges and the like. The aim was a picturesque composition in a
piquant, artificial manner which appealed to the sophisticated
taste of the cognoscenti^ formed by contemplating the fashionable
R.OM AM
PALLADIAN HOUSE MAU50LEUNA
/

G OT H C I K.!-
(TTiYfrv^ ^^]^ PALLADIA N

HER-MIT'S -4:dSX-.
BR.I DGE
CAVE
S E R.P E NTI NE L A IC E
(dam MED 5TR.E am)
109
J
landscapes of Claude and Poussin, painters of heroic or idyllic
Roman Campagna. The material
Classical scenes set mainly in the
means and power of the landed magnates who commissioned these
houses and parks was so great that if an ancient and untidy village
impaired the view it was demolished and rehoused elsewhere, as
at Milton Abbas and Harewood, Yorkshire.
LATER GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE

In the second half of the eighteenth century the Palladian
tradition continued but became less homogeneous. Sir William
Chambers (1726-96) more eclectic style that incorporated
built in a
contemporary French influences. He adapted Palladianism to the
needs of a public building housing the expanding bureaucracy of
the day. In Somerset House he produced for the Admiralty and
Departments of State a design remarkable for its polish and
refined Classicism, though one that remains perhaps too domestic
in scale and lacking in the necessary grandeur.
The outstanding name from the sixties onwards is that of
Robert Adam (1728-92), the most famous of the Adam brothers.
After studying Roman architecture and publishing his drawings of
Diocletian's Palace at Spalato he set to work designing country
houses. His exteriors are modified Palladianism and his bent may
be judged by comparing earlier Palladian work with the slender
grace of the portico at Osterley and the echoing curves and lighter
touch of the south front at Kedleston.
But Adam made himself responsible for the entire scheme and
his most original work was done on the interiors. There he and his
team of artists created what is in effect a new style of decoration,
based upon his imaginative reinterpretation of chiefly Roman
motifs, in an attenuated and lively style executed with great
delicacy and refinement. The heavy stifl&iess and pomposity of
much Palladianism is replaced by a new and subtle chasteness.
The Roman plaster technique of hard stucco which Adam revived
was admirably suited as a medium for his richly varied though
always crisp and elegant ornament. Especially characteristic are
his ceilings, sometimes delicately tinted, with their shallow
curved mouldings and painted panels and medallions. Despite the
fact thathe has been called 'the father of the Classical Revival'
on account of his interest in original Roman sources, there is little
of Roman gravitas in his work and his rhythms are closer to
no
Bi
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
A VENETIAN Wl NDOW
^^^
fT^lt^^^
i
a.
ti
SOUTH FRONT, IC E D LE S TON K.JKOAtsA

Rococo. Though occasionally he is a little saccharine for some
tastes, at his best he is quite incomparable.
Adam's country house plans are usually complex, appropriate
to the aristocratic life they served. Original features are their un-
Palladian employment of curves and effects of spatial movement.
Ill
Both and apses, especially
are exemplified in his use of alcoves
when screened by columns with an entablature open above the
cornice, and in his interior domes and wall niches.
ADAAA'S USE OF ALCOVE, APSE

6 OPEM 5CR.EEN OF COLUMNS
PLAM
His town houses are conventional eighteenth-century houses

except for the original interiors. He was, however, the first major
architect to apply a ^palace fagade' to a London terrace.
Other features popularly associated with the 'Adam' style are

doorways with webbed fanUghts, tall well-proportioned windows
with narrow glazing bars, and elegant white marble fireplaces,
all of which in fact belong to most late Georgian buildings. His
influence did, however, affect a great deal of the art-work pro-
112
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, SUNDERLAND: A plain, wcll-
proportioned eighteenth-century interior reflecting a rational
Christianity
OSTERLEY PARK, MIDDLESEX! Adam's Grecian portico
(approached from the garden by a grand flight of steps). Note
the slender Ionic columns and characteristic ceiling design
THE PROMENADE, CHELTENHAM: The light, clean-cut

elegance of a Regency terrace. The 'palace' treatment of the
facade unifies the terrace and gives it dignity
rl*.
-l^>:
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
duced in the last thirty years of the century, including Sheraton
furniture, Wedgwood pottery, and silverware. Abroad it made
an eventual contribution to the Empire Style.
One of the elements of eighteenth-century culture was the under-
current of Romanticism that flowed with increasing strength
beneath the broad expanse of Classicism and Reason. One aspect
of this was an incipient medieval Revivalism which was to become
a main preoccupation of the next century.
Gothic never quite died out in England, and the vernacular
farmhouses of stone districts like the Cotswolds and the Pennines
are clearly based on the later manifestations of this style. Per-
pendicular work was done at Oxford in the seventeenth century
and there Hawksmoor's quadrangle at All Souls in the early
is
eighteenth. But generally at this time it was commonly regarded

as a barbaric style, as its name suggests, and there were few who,
like Vanbrugh, felt its picturesque and associational appeal.
Though he and gave a suggestion of the medi-
built Blackheath
eval castle to the sombre massing of Blenheim and Seat on
Delaval, it was not until the late eighteenth century that fashion-
able taste followed him and found expression in the romantic
and picturesque *Gothick' fancy of Walpole's Strawberry Hill and
Wyatt's Fonthill. Complete with matching interiors of delicate
plaster fan-vaulting, such dilettante medievalism had little in
common with the seriousness of the Victorian Gothic Revival.
Another offshoot of the Rococo spirit was the fashion for
chinoiserie that produced such oddities as Chambers' pagoda at
Kew, Chippendale's Chinese-style furniture and, eventually, by an

extension of this orientalism, the pavilion at Brighton early in the
next century. This and the taste for porcelain afford a neat
example of the interaction of economics and aesthetics, since both
were made possible by the expansion of overseas trade and in their
turn stimulated the import of tea, china, silk and even the first
wallpapers.
By the late seventeenth century the well-to-do in London were
already living in a standardized type of terrace house that was to
remain fundamentally unchanged throughout the following
century. The English have generally preferred to live in the
country rather than in the town when they could afford to do so,
and town houses were often regarded only as pieds-d-terre by
people who considered their main home a country house in the
"3
Shires. Hence they remained modest and unpretentious for the
most part, unlike the ^hotels* of the French aristocracy in Paris.
Construction is on a simple rectangular
in either brick or stone
plan. The narrow but runs up to four
street frontage is relatively
storeys. Dividing walls are thick to reduce the fire risk and
accommodate the flues. The entrance is placed to one side, ap-
proached by steps, and leads forward to the staircase. Front doors
TO 1st. FLOOR.
SERVANTS BEDS
BEDR-OOM
BED R-OOM
LI BR.AR,Y
S ER.VANTS' ÔON\
i I
A SETR-VAMTS' B E D? S
2F BEDR.OOM
I F DR-AW NO R-OOM
1
&F D1N1M6 R.OOM

B K\ TCH EN
F RONT SER.VANTS^
DOOR. ENTR.ANCE
are large and panelled with semicircular fanhghts to give light to
the hall and are usually pedimented or topped with a semicircular
arch and often flanked by classical columns.
Opening off the hall is a large front room and a large back
room, with two similar rooms on each floor. The principal
feature of the fagade is the fenestration scheme which reaches
back to Itahan Renaissance prototypes. Carefully proportioned
for visual effect, windows are usually shorter on the ground floor
to give an impression of solidity, taller on the first floor for
importance, shorter again above and finally, to check the upward
movement of the eye, very short on the top floor. The result is
114
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
most dignified. Windows are of the sash type with thin wooden
glazing bars, and the repeated pattern of regular sized panes acts
as a unifying feature, relating not only the separate windows of a
house front, but also facade to facade, since all conform to
single
the same proportions. This is one of the reasons for the har-
monious effect which we usually associate with a street of Georgian

houses.
By the late eighteenth century it was frequently the practice to
conceal the sloping slate roof of lower pitch by means of a
parapet above the cornice, and chimneys were made less promi-
A LATE ISth.CETM. TE^R-ACE HOUSE
nent. The general tendency as the century aged was towards

greater simpHcity and refinement, pointing forward to the
elegancies of the early nineteenth-century Regency spas.
Houses like these, arranged in terraces, formed building units
that were both economical and graceful, and in many ways their
replacement by sprawling suburban villas is a matter for regret.
It was Inigo Jones, first in the field in so many ways, who took
the step from straight street to square in his Covent Garden, based
on an Italian piazza, built about 1630. It was not, however, until
the later seventeenth century that the square became popular,
though once established it became one of London's most charac-
teristic features and a great many were built between 1720 and
i860. Their dignified grace and urbanity may be regarded as a
115
fineEnglish achievement in the art of town planning. Though
each was a self-contained compartment, the surrounding houses
were not monotonously identical and there was scope for
attractive variations within the accepted conventions.
Just as the Enghsh love of nature found expression in the
juxtaposition of Palladian country house and landscaped park, so
it did in the central garden introduced into the town square. It
was a Picturesque feature contrasting pleasantly with the formaUty

of the architecture.
Later practitioners continued the square but leavened its use
with new shapes such as the circus, crescent, oval and polygon;
one led into the other, opening them up and breaking down their
former separateness.
WITH
TER.IÂCE
PALACE FACADE TER-IÂCE MOUSES
CI R.CUS
ROYA L CR.E S C E M T GAR.de N

iZ^
BATH
Another later innovation was John Wood's use of the 'palace
facade' to impose unity on the terrace.* In Queen Square, Bath,
he gave the terrace a central portico with pediment and corner
blocks, linking them with a giant order in the Palladian manner.
John Wood the Younger combined both these contemporary
tendencies in the Royal Crescent, Bath, where he designed a
terrace in which a giant Ionic order binds together some thirty
houses into a semi-eUiptical palace facade which looks down on to
an open, gently-sloping sweep of turf that heightens the resem-
blance to a Palladian mansion.
As already noted, Adam introduced the palace-front motif to
London in the Adelphi terrace (now destroyed), and it reappears
in Nash's Regent's Park terraces of the early nineteenth century.
* First used by Edward Shepherd in Grosvenor Square but since destroyed.
ii6
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Not all eighteenth-century architects fit neatly into stylistic
categories of the period.James Gibbs, for example, inclined to
the Baroque in his powerful Radcliffe Library at Oxford but to
a more restrained Palladianism in his Senate House, Cambridge.
Besides the Woods, the work of other 'regionaF designers
such as Carr of York, Smith of Warwick, Harrison of Chester,
and the Bastards of Dorset did much to enhance the Georgian
scene while excellent pattern books ensured decorum among the
small builders.
No summary of town buildings of the eighteenth century would
be complete without some reference to Georgian public building.
The town halls, assemblies and customs houses had all the
virtues of the ordinary domestic architecture. They are full of
'good sense' neat, well-proportioned, serviceable and in perfect
:
harmony with one another. The shops in particular with their

curved or flat patterned window fronts and elegantly lettered
fascias are in agreeable contrast to the strident commercial
assertiveness of some shop fronts today. No century before or
since could integrate a street of diverse buildings in a more
graceful and well mannered way than the eighteenth century.
1767
R.OYAL CR.E5CENT, BATH J.WOOD THE YOUNGEK
A PALACE FR.ONT IMPOSED ON TE.R.R.ACE HOUSES
117
\\\\\\IU[ AmiUJj AU-Tlun

\
"^
--
\i iwnm
A HOUSE Of THE LATE I S th. C E NTU R.Y
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Churches: St. Mary Woolnoth; St. Botolph, Aldersgate; Christchurch,
Spitalfields; St. Martin-in-the-Fields ; St. George, Bloomsbury; St.
George, Hanover Square; St. Mary-le- Strand; St. George-in-the-

East, Poplar;Anne's, Limehouse (all London); St. Philip,
St.
Birmingham; St. Anne, Manchester; Holy Trinity, Sunderland,

Durham; Blandford, Dorset; All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Country houses: Blenheim, Oxon; Castle Howard, Beningbrough
Hall, Bramham Park, Harewood, Nostell Priory, Newby, Serlby and
Sewerby, Yorks; Knowsley, Lanes; Heaton Hall, Manchester;
Kedleston and Melbourne, Derby; Seaton Delaval and Wallington,
Nthmb; Attingham, Shrewsbury; Saltram, Devon; Badminton,
Glos; Prior Park, Bath; Stoneleigh, Warw; Stourhead, Wilts;
ii8
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Plolkham, Norfolk; Peckover House, Wisbech, Cambs; West
Wycombe, Bucks; Mereworth, Kent; Clandon and Hatchlands,
Surrey; Syon and Osterley, Middx; Kenwood and Chiswick House,
London, Easton Neston, Northants; Lyme Hall, Cheshire.
Terraces and squares Bedford, Hanover, Cavendish, Berkeley, Fitzroy
:
and Finsbury, the Adelphi and Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster,

London; Queen Square, The Circus and Royal Crescent, Bath; The
Crescent, Buxton, Derby Queen's Square, Bristol.
;
Town houses at 20 Portman Square, 20 St. James's Square and Port-

land Place, London; York; Ludlow; Winchester; Wisbech;
Shrewsbury; Richmond; York.
The Queen's College, Clarendon Building and Radcliffe Library,
Oxford; Senate House and University Library, Cambridge.
Clubs: Boodle's, Brooks' and White's, St. James's, London.
The Mansion House, Somerset House and Horse Guards, London.
Town Hall, Liverpool; Guildhall, Worcester; Market Hall, Barnard
Casde, Durham; Almshouses, Kirkleatham, Yorks; Mansion House
and Assembly Rooms, York; Mansion House, Doncaster.
Theatres at Bristol and Richmond, Yorks. Iron Bridge, Salop.
Strutt's mill, Belper, Derby; warehouses at Portsmouth Dockyard.
Gothick: Strawberry Hill, Twickenham; Arbury Hall, Warw.
Chinoiserie: The Pagoda, Kew, Surrey; Palladian Bridge, Prior Park.
Follies: MowCop, near Congleton, Ches.; garden temples, etc., at
Stourhead, Bristol; Castle Howard, Yorks.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Downes, K. English Baroque Architecture Zwemmer

: (1966).
Downes, K. Hawksmoor (Zêmmet 1959).
:
Hussey, C. English Country Houses, ijij-60 (Batsford 1955).

:
Hussey, C. English Country Houses, 1 760-1 800 (Batsford 1957).

:
Lees-Milne, J.: The Age of Adam (Batsford 1947).

Plumb, J. H. England in the Eighteenth Century (Penguin 1950).
:
Richardson, A. E. An Introduction to Georgian Architecture (Art

: &
Technics 1949).
Richardson, A. E. Georgian England (BsLtsfor d 193 1).
:
Steegman, J.: The Rule of Taste (Macmillan 1936).

Summerson, J. N. Georgian London (Plei2idQS 1945).
:
Turner, R. James JVyatt (Art

: &
Technics 1952).
Whisder, L. Vanbrugh (L^Ltic 1938).
:
119
i
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nineteenth Century
ENGLAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

In the peak of her prestige,
early nineteenth century Britain, at the
led the world poHtically and industrially. But though she was to
be transformed by unprecedented material advance there was no
dramatic break with the previous century, and superficially the
Regency was still a largely aristocratic, Georgian world.
The French Wars ended with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo
(1815), by which time the changes leading to 'high farming' were
more than half over, a General Enclosure Act being passed in
1 801. The Industrial Revolution was profoundly affecting the
economic and social life of England and the English scene.

Production was rising rapidly, bringing mass-produced manu-
factured goods within the reach of large numbers. New industries
like engineering were being created. The population was in-
creasing - from nine million in 1800 to thirty-six million in 1900.
In the coalfields ugly, unplanned and insanitary towns were
springing up, inhabited by new middle class merchants and
'captains of industry', and by a vast proletariat attracted by the
prospect of work from the dechning domestic industries, the
changing countryside, and the poverty of Ireland. These 'labour-
ing classes' lived in the harsh circumstances which produced first
riots and later Chartism. The main causes of distress were the post-
war slump, an unregulated economy, mechanization, and a
government which believed in latsse^-Jaire - except for the Corn
Laws passed for the agricultural interest and not repealed until
1846 when that of the manufacturers prevailed.
Repression was no cure. Gradually, under the stimulus of
democratic ideals fostered by the French Revolution and Ben-
thamite ideas, and the changing social and economic conditions,
came reform. As a result of modifications to the electoral system
and extensions of the franchise. Parliament passed from the con-
trol of the aristocracy, through middle-class rule to democracy
120
NINETEENTH CENTURY
by the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867 and 1884, while local govern-
ment was reformed by the acts of 1835 and 1888.
Political reform begat social reform. Slavery was abolished
in 1833. The Poor Law of 1834 in the long run ended pauperism,
and a series of factory and education acts did much to improve
the lot of the poorer classes. The setting up of administrative
machinery to implement these enactments was the beginning of
modern bureacracy.
Other sources of relief were the 'self-help' of Trade Unionism
and Co-operation, organizations which gave legitimate expression
to working-class needs and contributed to social stability, as did
was a feature of Victoria's reign (1837-1901). Not
religion. Piety
only did Methodism take strong root but the established church
was invigorated by the Evangelicals and the Oxford Movement.
Also related to the new industrialism were organizational
changes in banking (Bank Charter Act, 1 844), the foundations of
joint stock companies, and the creation of modern communica-
tions- the railways from the thirties, steamships that became the
world's carriers, and the telegraph (1844). Trade went on increas-
ing and captured vast markets in China, India and Africa. Canada,
Australia and New
Zealand were colonized and moved towards
dominion but Ireland with her religious and agrarian
status,
grievances was a persistent source of trouble and ultimately
demanded Home Rule.
The first half of the century was summed up by the Great
Exhibition (i 8 5 1), the symbol of mid- Victorian achievement. Free
from revolution and (except for the Crimean War) enjoying a long
period of peace with greater material power and increased com-
fort, the country assumed a sober self-confidence and belief in
progress that sometimes ran to complacency. It had, however,
its own critics in Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin and Morris, and Liberal-
ism meant more than free trade. It was a philosophy of freedom
and individualism that sympathized with national and liberal
movements everywhere.
After the watershed of the 1860s the character of the period
underwent a change. Before this, Britain was preoccupied with
developing her industrial resources, free trade, and social reform.
Afterwards, in addition to the birth of democracy, there was the
aggressive imperialist expansion of Disraeli (Suez Canal, 1869)
and Salisbury with the 'scramble for Africa', haisseî-faire thinking
121
of the Manchester school was challenged by Protectionists and
Socialists alike. The last decades were marked by industrial
unrest, for though better off than before, the workers' conditions
were still below today's standards. There was a growing
far
interest in politics and an extension of Trade Unionism among
the unskilled. After the *Golden Age' of 1850-70, farming
entered a decline following the import of cheap foodstuffs from
North America and Australia, and though industrial output of
coal, textiles, iron and steel, and the national wealth were greater
than ever, Britain lost ground in relation to the new giants of the
U.S. and Germany, who also began to rival her as a colonial and
naval power and to erect tariff barriers.
Immense progress in technology throughout the century was
paralleled by a phenomenal growth of scientific knowledge rang-
ing from atomic theory to geology and medicine. Darwin's
contributions to biology were outstanding and there was general
acceptance of 'scientific method' and 'evolutionary' ideas.
Romanticism, the rich imaginative world of Keats and Turner,
had flourished in the earlier years of the century, but under
Victoria culture became 'bourgeois'. Painting descended to a
banal Naturalism or Tennysonian Romanticism, but the new form
of the novel rose to great heights in the work of Dickens, the
Brontes, and Hard}^, and the serious spirit of 'social conscience'
was at work. Behind much of the art of the period was an
enthusiasm for Nature inherited from Wordsworth and Constable,
a reaction from the ugliness and artificiality of the new urban-
environment. The nineteenth century also saw the growth of the
popular press with its mass readership, a product of political
emancipation and elementary education.
REGENCY ARCHITECTURE
The Regency style of 1800-30 represents the last phase of
Georgian Classicism, simplified and modified by Adam's influence
in the direction of further elegance and refinement. Some con-
sider it to have been at the cost of robustness - it is certainly
lighter and gayer. Its typical buildings are domestic: the
brick-built terraces of Brighton, Weymouth, Cheltenham and
Leamington, faced with painted stucco, an inexpensive material
for achievixig the effect of a smooth stone surface and of carved
122
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Stone ornamental details. Sometimes a form of terracotta was used
for the latter. Windows are tall and narrow with very thin glazing
bars and their surrounds are plain and clean-cut, a design that
enhances the simplicity of the facades. Curved bays and garden
windows were fashionable features of the time, together with
elegant wrought-iron veranda balconies, some with convex
^Chinese' roofs. Doorways are often round-headed. Roofs are
low-pitched with Italianate projecting eaves. Some are flat.
Decoration is sparing, invariably classical, and prefers 'Grecian*

motifs and Ionic or Doric orders to Corinthian.
[ ?
Uy T
WR.OUGHT- IRONiWOR.K
GfÊCI AN
KEY *
1^5
The dominant figure in Regency architecture was John Nash
(175 2-183 5), whose symmetrical terraces at Regent's Park (1811-
25) with their pediments, side paviUons and giant stucco columns
continue the unified eighteenth-century palace-facade treatment.
He could also build in various exotic styles as required the 'Hindu'
:
of Brighton Pavilion, Gothic or Italianate country houses, and

cottages ornes - for the taste for Revivalism was already established.
Nash's talent also embraced the art of town planning. It was
he who conceived the organic scheme for London's West End,
<>
n
NASH'5 PLAN OF IÊGENTS PAR.K
linking Regent's and St. James's Parks with Regent Street (since
rebuilt in feeble Classic), relating it to Buckingham Palace and
Whitehall, and creating round Regent's Park a new upper class

residential district of noble terrace houses and picturesque land-
scaped park. That he was able to do all this without the auto-
craticpowers of a Napoleon is a tribute to his resourcefulness.
Sir John Soane (175 3-1857) was a contemporary of Nash but
very different and highly original. Reacting from the more
popular Adam, he evolved a personal style that blended Baroque
grandeur of composition with a Grecian severity of detail. His
124
NINETEENTH CENTURY
QQOniQQjOQfiQQQ
prince's STR.EET, LOTHBUR.Y
A REGENCY FACADE I805 J. 50ANE
works are few, but his austerity, crisp line, simplicity of surface
and feeling for cubic relations and space are all to be seen at his
own house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, now the Soane Museum
(1812). These are characteristics which anticipate something of
the twentieth century despite the elements of the antique.
.xa
I8Z5
HOLMWOOD, ICENT DECIMUS BUR.TON
REVIVALISM
The underlying theme of nineteenth-century architecture is
RevivaUsm. Classical revival of the Antique, as distinct from
Renaissance architecture, began in the second half of the
eighteenth century with
the publication of archeological
research Hke Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Athens (1762) in
which Greek and not Roman Doric appeared for the first time
I 125
ST. GEOR.GE'S HALL, LIVER.POOL 1839

H. L. ELMEIS, COMPLETED BY C. R. COCK.ER.ELL
and shocked the Palladians and Adam. There were others besides
'Athenian' Stuart* who paved the way for purist Neo-Greek
(1820-40), a scholarly, academic style expressive of the ideals of
contemporary culture and quite suited to large public buildings
such as Robert Smirke's British Museum (1823). It is not, how-
ever, merely imitative, for behind the British Museum's Ionic
front the grouping of the composition is really Palladian still, and
the triumphal arch at the entrance to Euston Station| was a
Roman motif, not Greek. Successful essays in this manner are
Charles Cockerell's provincial branches of the Bank of England.
By the mid century Neo-Greek had been ousted on the Classical
side by a Neo-Renaissance style chiefly inspired by the High
Renaissance architecture of Rome. Early examples are Sir Charles
Barry's Travellers' Club (1829) and Reform Club (1837). This
''palazzo' style is at once richer and more materialistic, in keeping
with the commercial prosperity of Victorian England. And
though the Classical Revival reached its peak in the 1860s, the
Graeco-Roman tradition staggered wearily on into the first
decades of this century.
The first correct use of Greek Doric in England was his garden temple at Hagley
Park (1758) and Ionic he employed at Lichfield House, St. James's Square, 1763.
fits recent demolition is a good example of official vandalism.
126
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Among the best town houses of the period, however, were
those of a speculative builder of note, Thomas Cubitt, whose
Belgravia (1830-40) gave opportunities to George Basevi.
I z 10
GRANGE PAR.K; HANTS WM. WILHINS
(D O R. I C)
Gothic Revival also began in the late eighteenth century, this

time as the rather frivolous and fanciful 'Gothick'. But with the
more serious cult of the Middle Ages which was part of early
nineteenth-century Romanticism, it became a very different thing.
A. W. N. Pugin (181 2-5 2), the first serious exponent of Gothic
Revival, was a medieval enthusiast, architect and writer who not
only admired the aesthetic and religious values of the Middle
Ages but saw in their structural principles and logical ornament
the true essence of architecture. This was at a time when structure
was of less interest to the average architect than a Classical fagade,
to which had been applied a great deal of heavy and often rather
coarse, obscuring decoration. Pugin himself, however, had a
genuine flair for decorative design, so that he was able to give to
Barry's basically Classical plan and Palladian river front of the new
Houses of Parliament (1836) a national colouring of Perpendicular
detail that is amplified by the aspiring medieval verticality and
romantic asymmetry of the towers and spires.
But generally Pugin and the later Gothicists preferred Early
English, or the Middle Pointed of the Camden Society's ecclesiol-
ogists: 'morally' they were purer. Some were more eclectic or
127
went abroad for inspiration to Italy or France. At its worst much
of their work is crude and inappropriate, but a few architects,
out of a deep understanding of the real nature of Gothic, did
succeed in creating buildings that were in effect contemporary
reinterpretations of the style. Archaeological knowledge and
refinement belong most to the last quarter of the century (e.g.
J. L. Pearson's Truro Cathedral, 1880). The best known Gothicist
is perhaps Sir Gilbert ScottPancras Hotel, 1866), but the most
(St.
original was William Butterfield whose Keble College Chapel,
KEBLE COLLEGE CHAPEL, OXFOR.D IS67

WM. BUTTER. FIELD
Oxford (1870), though employing only the common bricks,

timbers and of the ordinary builder, genuinely recreates
tiles
Gothic without affected antiquarianism and displays a remarkable

individuality in its odd proportions, dramatic outline and textural
ornament. The majority of medievalists, however, did not not
succeed in adapting the Gothic vocabulary to the new needs of
the age and most of their work now strikes one as being in the
same spirit as Pre-Raphaelite protest and similarly fated.
In the 'battle of the styles' both the main traditions had their
supporters, but by the end of the century it was tacitly consented
that Gothic Revival was suitable for ecclesiastical and scholastic

buildings, and a ponderous Neo-Classical for civic buildings and
128
ST. George's hallliverpool: Sumptuous Victorian

Roman Revival.
H
>
\"^
:
ST. PANCRAS station: Gothic Revival. Railway Age
practicality clothed in romantic medievalism
NINETEENTH CENTURY
business premises, while designers of country houses (like Anthony
Salvin) reproduced medieval castles and Tudor, Elizabethan and
Jacobean great houses. It was chiefly a question of association,
since the central aristocratic tradition of the eighteenth century
had come to an end in the confusion of Victorian middle class
historical Romanticism, which was more concerned with pic-
turesqueness than with aesthetics or functional expression.
The most successful buildings of the age were its public
buildings, such as town halls, market halls and exchanges. Many
of them - public libraries, museums, art galleries, infirmaries,
banks, offices, mechanics' institutes, workhouses and prisons -
were virtually new types.Money was not spared on their
elaborate facades and though many had new and flexible plans,
thisfundamental aspect was unfortunately by no means a pre-
occupation of their architects. Outside London the most typical
products survive in the industrial Midlands and particularly in
the towns and cities of the North.
TOWN HALL, ROCHDALE
While the architect per se was studiously busy with styles and
traditional materials, casting his mind nostalgically backwards to a
romanticized past, the engineer, that representative of a new
profession born of nineteenth-century industrial technology, was
I2<
ENGINEERING ARCHITECTURE
experimenting with structures like the great suspension bridges:
Menai (1819) by Thomas Telford and Clifton (1831) by I. K.
Brunei. They welcomed the challenge of the problem posed by
the needs of a new kind of society and new materials.
Cast-iron was used from the beginning of the century* and steel
after 1855. Cast-iron stanchions combined with traditional load-
carrying walls produced some impressive utilitarian industrial
buildings. Telford's St. Katherine's Dock warehouses (1824) and
/^s^n^fsvf^nf^
m m m
m m M
m m m
m
m m
some of the early Pennine and Cotswold textile mills are im-
pressive not only on accoimt of their massive bulk, but because
of the dignified simplicity deriving from their sense of scale and
proportion, and functional integrity. Though the engineer need
not possess the sensibility of the architect, it so happened that
the greatest nineteenth-century engineers were naturally gifted
with a sense of form and designed structures which were not
only practical and efficient but also aesthetically satisfying.
Iron and steel also made possible wide-spanning roof trusses
carrying an envelope of glass. This and the new tendency for
traditional craftsmanship to give way to factory production of
standard parts are both illustrated by Joseph Paxton's Crystal
Palace. Its structural system was independent of weight-bearing
wallsand roofed over a vast space without internal supports,
while cast-iron girders and glass sheets were all prefabricated
its
and assembled on the site. Techniques like these bore fruit in

the great railway termini with their characteristic 'barrel vaults'
A flax mill at Shrewsbury had cast-iron beams in 1777.
130
NINETEENTH CENTURY
of glass Stretching over great volumes of space, supported by
an intricate lattice-work structure of iron members in tension (e.g.
1. K. Brunei's roof of Paddington Station, 1854). The boatstore
at the R.N. Dockyard, Sheerness (1858-60) is an iron-framed

structure whose elevations foreshadow the twentieth century.
Cements too were developed an engineering material in the first
as
half of the nineteenth century; though it was not until the intro-
duction of the technique of reinforcement that concrete could be

fully used in architecture.
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CRYSTAL PALACE, GR-ETAT EXHIBITION IS51
J. PAXTON
CENTRAL STATION. MANCHESTER. I S76

THE R.ED house: 1859 P. WEB B>
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE
Before turning to domestic architecture, mention must be
made of the proselytizing work of John Ruskin and his disciple
William Morris. The former was a protagonist of Gothic whose
precepts often led to absurd imitations of the Doge's Palace, but
who indirectly did useful work in drawing attention to the socio-
logicaland functional aspects of architecture and in reconsidering
the whole question of structure, materials and workmanship.
Morris attempted to apply Ruskin's theories and his insistence on
the basic importance of good design had a salutary effect on the
decorative arts. But he failed to come to terms with the new
technology as Gropius did later at the Bauhaus.
It was for Morris that PhiHp Webb built the Red House,
Bexleyheath (1859), which is a landmark in domestic building,

the forerunner of the 'garden city' house. It has the sturdiness
of late Gothic, pointed arches and a medieval picturesqueness;
but its plain red-brick walls, steep roofs and segmental-headed
sash windows derive from Queen Anne and the vernacular cottage
architecture of the south-east. The craftsmanly feeling for
traditional materials is typical of Webb. Though the immediate
results of the Red House were not spectacular, indirectly, through
popularization and even vulgarization of its ideas, its influence
on succeeding villa architecture was considerable.
132
NINETEENTH CENTURY
The eighteenth-century concept of the villa was a modest
country house, secluded and informal, the merchant's retreat.
By about 1800 it had moved nearer the town, and in small estates
of detached houses it offered an alternative to the terrace town
house. Influenced by the prevailing architectural fashions, its
stylechanged every twenty years or so through the century:

Greek, Italian, Gothic, Queen Anne and Tudor. Finally in the
C LASSICAL*
I230
GOTH I
870
I
133
1930s came the pseudo-modern villa with flat roof and corner
windows, though the basic design altered little. The typical larger
Victorian villa had many rooms making its plan complex and
crowded, and its silhouette was often broken and 'picturesque'.
Terracotta was a typical late Victorian material in abundant use.
Each house had, extravagantly, its own garden to secure a
semi-rural privacy. The semi-detached villa was a cheaper com-
I
promise which used less land and became the standard middle-
class dwelling. One feature was the improved plumbing. The
W.C. was known in Queen Elizabeth's time but was not found in
the houses of the well-to-do until the last years of the eighteenth
00 00
PARLOUR HALL DINING

R.OOts^ IS30
COMPACT &
SYMMETRICAL
LI BR.AR.Y ta K\rc\-\EN
1 S70
HALL
COM FLEX
t
134
NINETEENTH CENTURY
century. By the nineteenth it was a middle-class amenity, together
with lavatory basins and baths by the end of the century. The
working classes had to wait until the twentieth before they could
enjoy what formerly the aristocracy had to do without, though
many, of course, are still waiting for a bath. In middle-class
town housing gas lighting was normal by 1850 and electricity in
use by the 1890s, though gas continued into the new century.
The disgrace of the age was the slum. At first the new industrial
labouring classes were herded into jerry-built terraces of ugly ill-
drained, insanitary boxes, literally back to back or round squalid

dark airless courts. Architects were not interested in social
architecture and its problems, and housing provision was left to
the speculative landlord and jerry-builder, checked only by the

few scanty regulations of a laisseî^-faire economy. Thousands, of
course, were below this level and 'cellar dwellings' without
windows were commonly shared by several families. Both the
Prince Consort and Lord Shaftesbury concerned themselves with
the private improvement of the artisan's dwelling, and there were
the early flats put up by the Peabody Trust, but there was little
change until after Disraeli's housing and health acts of 1 875 which ,
empowered local authorities to enforce building regulations en-

suring safe construction and sanitation, and to begin slum clear-
ance, and, eventually, municipal planning and housing. After this
poorer houses were better built and more commodious,
legislation
and the 'by-law' street of minimum width allowed more air to
135
MODEL DWELLING FOR. AR.TISANS

GRETAT EXHIBITION! |S5|
But there was still much drabness and ugly uniformity

circulate.
which showed too little regard for the quality of human environ-
ment. Someenlightened employers, however, built factory
estates,such as Sir Titus Salt's Saltaire (1853) with mill, church,
chapel, streets of terrace houses and a park. Later came Lever
Brothers' Port Sunlight (1888) and Cadbury's Bournville (1895),
planned as 'garden suburbs' in a freer, more 'picturesque' style,
WORDING CLASS TENEMENT FLATS 18 65
136
NINETEENTH CENTURY
The garden city was an attempt to provide new residential
communities for the growing number of people with middle-class
means but discerning taste whose ideal at that time was a sub-
urban villa and whose progressive aesthetic was that of the arts
and crafts movement, made viable by the development of modern
HOUSE BY C. F. A. VOYS EY 190I
ZOM ES
INDU
p-^ HOUS
I 1 SCHOi
^ PUBLIC BUILdTnG:
[3 OPEN SPACES '^
BOUNDAR.r OF TOWN
LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY 903

137
transportfacilities. The architect again re-entered the field of town
planning, and before long estates of small houses in a traditional

style with gables and small windows, each set in its own tree-
shaded garden, began to appear outside the built-over area of
towns. They differed from earlier Victorian suburbs, not only in
their architectural style but also in the fact that they were designed
as a whole and not piecemeal. The first was Bedford Park, Chis-
wick (1876) with 'Queen Anne' houses by Norman Shaw, but the
full flowering did not come until the early 1900's with Letchworth,
Hampstead and Welwyn. These were the prototypes of the
between-wars suburb and they also influenced the planning and
development of municipal housing estates both at home and abroad
The first modern Town Planning Act dates from 1909.
! I
GARDEN CITY HOUSE, LETCHWOR-TH 190^

Norman Shaw (1831-1912) was one of the most representative
and influential architects of the later nineteenth century. He was
until 1870 a Gothicist, after which followed twenty years of
offices, flats and country houses in a picturesque, eclectic style
owed much to Tudor half- timber, Dutch Renaissance, Queen
that
Anne and vernacular work of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. His final phase was Edwardian Imperial, the bloated and
bombastic decadence of Victorian Classicism. At best Shaw is
lighter and more animated and New Scotland Yard and the
P.S.N, offices, Liverpool, are happier examples of wôrk in brick
and stone.
In retrospect it becomes clear that at the close of the century
certain isolated figures were at work clearing away the rank
growth of imitative period styles preparatory to the cultivation
138
NINETEENTH CENTURY
of a new and more genuine
one. This is evident from the greater
directnessand simpHcity of the work of C. R. Mackintosh in the
Glasgow Art School (1898), with its singular art nouveau interior,
and also from C. F. A. Voysey's domestic designs. As the latter,
however, are an important part of twentieth-century architectural
history, consideration of them is deferred until the next chapter.
By way of postscript, it may be noted that in the country as a
whole vernacular buildings lost most of their regional character
in the nineteenth century, partly as a result of the uniformity of
Victorian culture and partly owing to the general decline in the
practice of using local materials, in the face of competition from
inexpensive brick brought from outside by cheap rail transport.

REGENCY
Country houses: Dinton House, Wilts; Rudding Park, Harrogate;
Eastnor Castle, Herefds.; Belvoir Casde, Leics; Pitshanger Manor,
Ealing (now Public Library) Arlington Court, Devon.
;
Town houses at Brighton and Hove; Hastings; Weymouth; Sidmouth;

Exeter; Cheltenham; Leamington; Clifton; Regent's Park, London.
Royal Pavilion, Brighton; Blaise Hamlet cottages ornes, Bristol.
REVIVALISM
Neo-Greek: British Museum; Triple Arch, Hyde Park Corner, London;
Bank of England branches at Bristol and Manchester; Portico
Library, Manchester; Town Hall, Salford; St. Pancras Church.
Classic Revival: Town Halls at Leeds and Birmingham; St. George's
Hall, Liverpool; National Gallery; CarltonHouse Terrace; New
Scotland Yard; Reform Club; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge;
Foreign Office; Great Eastern Hotel, Harwich, Grand Hotel,
Scarborough; Oxford Museum. Athenaeum, Manchester.
Gothic Revival: Houses of Parliament; Law Courts at London and
Birmingham; Prudential, Holborn; Town Halls at Manchester and
Bradford; Natural History Museum, South Kensington; Truro
Cathedral; Keble College Chapel and University Museum, Oxford;
St. Augustine's, Kilburn; St. Alban's, Holborn; All Saints,
Marylebone; St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington; St. Mark's,
Leamington; Lancing Chapel; All Souls, Ackroyden nr. Halifax.
ENGINEERING ARCHITECTURE
Suspension bridges: Menai, Anglesey; Clifton; Chirk Aqueduct.
Railway stations: King's Cross and St. Pancras, London; Central
Stations at Manchester and Newcastle; Curzon St., Birmingham.
139
Boatstore, R.N. Dockyard, Sheerness, Kent; St. Katharine's Dock
Warehouses, London; Palm House, Kew; VictuaUing Yard,

Plymouth.
Country houses Osborne, I. of W. Knebworth, Herts. Qiveden and
: ; ;
Ascott, Bucks.; Thoresby, Notts.; Harlaxton, Lines.; Scarisbrick,

Lanes.; Bryanston, Dorset.; Red House, Bexleyheath, Kent;
Orchards, Godalming, Surrey. Penryn Castle, Caern.
Classical terraces in Bayswater, Belgravia and Kensington, London.
Gothic villas at Malvern, North Oxford and Manchester.
Early Victorian town development: city centre, Newcastle-upon-
Tyne; Public Buildings, Islington, Liverpool.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ashton, T. S.: The Industrial Revolution {O. I].'?. 1948).

Barman, C. : An Introduction to Railway Architecture (Art & Technics
1950).
Blomfield, R. : Norman Shaw (Batsford 1941).
Boase, T. S. R.: Oxford History of Art 1 800-1 8yo (O.U.P. 1959).
Casson, H. : An Introduction to Victorian Architecture (Art & Technics
1948).
Clark, K.: Gothic Revival (ConstMc 1950).
'
Colvin, H.: A
Biographical Dictionary of English Architects 1 660-1 840
(John Murray 1954).
I
Gloag, J.: Victorian Taste (A. & C. Black 1962).

Goodhart-Rendel, H. S. English Architecture since the Regency (Constable
:
1953)-
Hitchcock, H. R. Architecture, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
:
(Pehcan History of Art: Penguin 1958).

Hussey, C. English Country Houses, 1800-40 (Batsford 1957)-
:
Pilcher, D.: The Regency Style (Batsford 1947).

Reilly, P.: An Introduction to Regency Architecture (Art & Technics
1948).
Summerson, J. N.: John Nash (Allen & Unwin 1949).
Summerson, J. N. John Soane (Art & Technics 1952).
:
Thompson, D. England in the Nineteenth Century (Penguin 1950).

:
Trappes-Lomax, M.: A. W. N. P/<g/// (Sheed & Ward 1932).

Turnor, R.: Nineteenth Century Architecture in Britain (Batsford 1950).
140
CHAPTER NINE
Twentieth Century
ENGLAND IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Before 1914 the better-off classes of Edwardian England basked
in the opulent music of Elgar, enjoying the last phase of a
culture that was essentially nineteenth century. The Boer War
(i 899-1902) was the climax of Imperialism, and one of the issues
of the day was tariff reform, an anti-free trade movement. In

response to Conservative policies such as these came the great
Liberal 'landslide' of the 1906 election.
The Liberal administration supported by the new Labour
M.P.s, backed by strengthened unions and Fabian socialists, intro-
duced a great programme of social and industrial reform. The
State had already begun to extend its concern to secondary educa-
tion in Balfour's act of 1902, but it was Liberal measures like the
Old Age Pensions Act (1908) and the National Insurance Act
(191 1) which laid the foundations of the Welfare State. To pay for
these measures and for a naval building programme to meet the
threat of Germany, the government brought in the 'People's
Budget' (1909) which precipitated a constitutional crisis. The
Lords refused to pass it and had to have their powers curtailed by
the Parliament Act (191 1).
Industry, now organized into larger units, had made some
recovery by 1900 and continued to grow. Agriculture also im-
proved slowly, becoming very important when the war reduced
imports and there was some reversion to corn.
Rivalry with a unified and expansionist Germany exploded in
1 9 14. Britain, allied with her traditional enemy France and later
the U.S.A., witnessed in the four terrible years of trench warfare

on the Western Front the disappearance of the old order and the
emergence of new, more equalitarian societies.
Women's emancipation began in late Victorian times and there
were suffragettes before World War I; as a result of their
K 141
4 ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND
contribution to the war effort the vote was conceded in 191 8,
though not to all adult women until 1928.
Ireland, whose problems the Land Acts of the late nineteenth
century had failed to solve, broke into the Easter Rebellion of 191
and became the Irish Free State in 1921 when a parliament was
granted to Ulster.
The *brave new world' looked forward to after 191 8 was beset
with complications. In 1926 there was a General Strike and
economic contraction culminated in the world crisis of 193 1,
which brought massive unemployment in the thirties. Later there
was some amelioration though this coincided with the rise of the
dictatorships of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
One feature of the period was a housing shortage partly
remedied by the Housing Act (191 9) which encouraged municipal
estates and speculative suburban building, especially in the south-
east, to which there had been a return shift of population. The
impact of the motor car, the aeroplane and mass communications
began to have far-reaching effects on our economy and our social
habits, bringing unity with uniformity. Through developments in
such fields as atomic physics, electronics and man-made fibres,
science and technology have come to dominate our increasingly
complex modern society while the researches of Freud and Jung
have deepened our understanding of man's behaviour.
I
I World War II (1939-45), which the League of Nations was
intended to prevent, was in some sense the continuation of the
struggle against German militarism and imperialism. Once more
Britain was allied with the U.S. and Russia, a communist state
since the Revolution of 191 7. Building was halted but the bUtzed
cities gave opportunities for later reconstruction, already begun
under slum clearance policies. Victory was clouded by the first
atomic bomb explosion at Hiroshima, a turning-point in history.
The post-war Labour administration inaugurated the fully-
fledged Welfare State. By regulation of their economies the
countries of the West have been able to avoid the disastrous
repetition of a slump and with them Britain enjoys a new affluence.
But against social security and material prosperity must be set the
danger of a world largely divided into two economic and ideolog-
ical alignments, each side armed with a 'nuclear capacity', the use
of which would mean the end of man and architecture in Europe
and possibly the world, let alone England. There are also the
142
TWENTIETH CENTURY
problems of the underprivileged countries, where the pressure of
an 'exploding' population on available resources is becoming
acute, and the rise of nationalism among the Afro- Asian peoples.
Industrially, mass production techniques and automation are
being ever more widely applied and there is an increasing recog-
nition of the need for good design which exploits the properties
of material, process, and function.
The climate of literature has changed profoundly since the
publication of T. S. Eliot's Wasteland' in 1922, while in music
*
and the visual arts the last sixty years have been a period of
much experiment, as the variety of Picasso's work testifies and
;
the growth of abstractionism in painting and sculpture has

distinct affinities with modern architecture.
REVIVALISM CONTINUES
In the early part of this century Gothic Revival was still
favoured for churches and 'cultural' buildings, whilst most com-
mercial and civic buildings, office blocks, banks, department
stores, hotels and town halls were designed in some version of
Classicism. At was a pompous, overripe 'Baroque' like
first this
Selfridges (1908), but later a rather more restrained though equally

monumental 'Renaissance' was preferred, of which Sir Edwin
Lutyens' Britannic House ('1926) is a controversial example and
Ralph Knott's London County Hall (19 12) a more successful one.
The architects of buildings like these had by this time adopted the
new system of frame construction referred to later but still
clothed them with facades that belonged to an older system,
though these continued the late nineteenth-century trend towards
larger windows, especially in commerical buildings, since the
steel frame made this easier. Often it is only the street frontage
that is done in stonework with Classical embellishments, the
other sides being left in utilitarian brick.
This fag-end of the Classical Revival style is one link with the
nineteenth century. Another is the new domestic architecture of
C. F. A. Voysey, noted at the end of the last chapter. Voysey

(18 57-1941) was a member of the Arts and Craft movement (i.e.
a disciple of Norman Shaw and Morris), who went some way
towards breaking with the past by discarding definite period styles
K 143
i
for a *free traditionalism' based on old English cottage and farm
house vernacular and the styles of Wren and the eighteenth
century. Working with traditional materials, he introduced a
fresh note of simplicity and naturalness. His plans are informal,
his elevations plain and clean-cut, with bold, bare walls, and small
horizontal windows. Roofs are steep with tall chimneys. The
consequence is an easy, unaffected, vernacular charm without any
specific revival effect. Though Voysey's was not a very positive
contribution to the foundation of an original twentieth-century
style, the honesty and simplification of his designs brought its ad-
vent nearer. It is quite certain, on the other hand, that vast numbers
of middling houses since built in this country owe as much to his

inspiration as to that of Shaw's garden city designs.
Letchworth, Hampstead and Welwyn have already been men-
tioned as twentieth-century examples of garden cities dating from
the first twenty years, but the period between the two world wars
saw the heyday of a type of speculative builder endowed with no
taste or ideals of any kind, who was responsible for an enormous
amount of middle-class suburban development based only very
crudely and imperfectly on garden city lines. Most of these
private estates were debased conceptions, formless sprawls of
semi-detached dwellings in tiny gardens, executed in the mock
half-timber of the popular *pseudo-Tudor' with its applied timber
'framing', the degenerate descendant of Norman Shaw's half-
timber revivals. Where architects were consulted a Neo-Georgian
was often the result, a preferencewhich sometimes led to the
adoption of though it was often
this style for public buildings,
employed in an inflated and un-Georgian manner as in the
Municipal Buildings at Norwich. Municipal housing estates and
some blocks of flats were also a feature of this period, the *cor-
poration' houses being based on the same sources as those of the
private suburb. The first Town Planning Act was passed in 1909.
But to revert to the work of Voysey and others like him, such
promising developments were to be submerged beneath the rising
tide of Edwardian affluence and for the next thirty years Britain
was to disappear from the 'modern movement' (to use a term
which has already become historical). What was to emerge was a
cosmopolitan style - international in its origins - and it is to the
United States, Germany, and France that we must now turn
if we are to understand what later happened in England.
144
TWENTIETH CENTURY
PIONEERS ABROAD
Among the American pioneers were Louis Sullivan and his
pupil, Frank Lloyd Wright. Sullivan erected some of the first
steel* skeleton 'skyscrapers' in the 1890s, eschewing Revivalism
for the honest expression of structure and function. Wright
revolutionized the private house in his 'organic architecture'
where flowing plans, the interweaving of interior and exterior
spaces, and low horizontal lines, later so familiar, first appear.
Wright was also a master of all types of construction, including
ferro-concrete and 'mushroom' construction, taking care always
to design 'in the nature of the materials'.
The first houses made entirely of concrete were the work of
Ferret and Garnier in the first years of this century, for after
1900 concrete rivalled steel and it was the French who were to
make the greatest contribution to its use. But a few years before
1 914 Germany became the chief centre of modern architecture.
There Behrens grasped the imaginative possibilities of industrial

building and investigated the design of machine-made products.
This concern he passed on to his pupil, Walter Gropius, who after
the war became director of the famous Bauhaus school of applied
art and building. Here Gropius studied new methods of con-
struction and manufacture and in his efforts to co-ordinate tech-
nique and good design, not only in a building but in all its
contents, he advised standardization and mass production. His
own work in Germany and later in the United States marks the
fulfilment of a twentieth-century style in its use of glass and steel
in energetic horizontal lines, and in a manner that is at once
severely rational yet 'ethereal' in its lightness and free flow of
space. Mies Van der Rohe is today a similarly influential figure.
Another post-1918 figure is Le Corbusier who has been ex-
tremely influential as architect, town planner, and propagandist
for the movement. Recognizing the functionalism of machine
design, he applied it to architecture, as in his definition 'A house:
is a machine for living in' - but he has been quick to exploit the
surprising new opportunities which engineering developments

have brought about, and his work is a kind of 'romantic
* Steel came after i860 but was not established until the 1890s. Ferro-concrete
was the result of French and German researches in the last part of the nineteenth
century.
functionalism' that is much more imaginative and creative than his
famous dictum suggests. Le Corbusier as ^social philosopher',
preoccupied with the human environment and the contribution
architecture and planning can make to it, exemplifies the sociol-
ogical concern of many modern architects and town planners. His
Marseilles scheme (1947), which envisaged widely spaced 'living
towers' on a *carpet' of open spaces and loosely-knit low build-
ings unified by the tall towers into a fine composition, is the
ideal of 'mixed development', now widely adopted.
These then are some of the outstanding pioneers, who were
the founders of a distinctive modern style and in whose work
and ideas those architects who are conceiving the best modern
buildings today found their inspiration as students in the 1930s.
MODERN ARCHITECTURE
The really modern architecture of this century is not just
'contemporary' architecture. It is a new kind that breaks with the
oast rather than evolves from it. It is theoutcome of new needs,
new materials, new techniques, and a new philosophy of archi-
must not be confused with the modernistic style of the
tecture. It
between- wars factory or cinema - basically conventional buildings
meaninglessly streamlined, jazzed-up with vulgar 'modern'
decorative motifs like the zig-zag, and given a flat roof. As much
as Gothic, it is an independentgenuine and original,
style,
arising out of plan, structure, materials and purpose: the con-

ception of a generation of architects who rejected revivalism of
all kinds as irrelevant to present-day life and who insisted on a
fundamentalist reversion to first principles.
The plan of a modern building is not in any way pre-conceived.
It evolves from the careful but imaginative study of the needs of
its occupants and therefore becomes an expression of the build-
ing's function. Once more the plan is the central task of the
architect and increasingly the human sciences are providing
data for even better designs. Elevations develop organically from
the plan and reflect the inner structure externally. The facade that
masquerades as a load-bearing wall has been condemned as
spurious and wasteful. Economy of means is preferred, not only
on utilitarian grounds but because the absence of superfluity is an
essential of good style in any art, and one notoriously neglected
in architecture by the Victorians. Ornament in the sense of applied
146
TWENTIETH CENTURY
decoration with all its associations of past styles is repudiated, for,
according to the early theorists at any rate, to be functional in
form was to capture the essence of beauty.
This emphasis on functionalism and integrity was undoubtedly
salutary when the foundations of modernism were being laid,
and it was, of course, a natural reaction against slavishly imitative
and totally unfunctional building, but perhaps by itself it was too
uncompromising, too puritanical to be always satisfying. It is
apparent, however, in all the new work of the twentieth century,
not only in established building types but particularly in the
types peculiar to this age: secondary schools, technical colleges,
public authority housing, community centres, airport buildings,
clinics, automated, electrically-powered factories, and all those
structures essential to our compHcated, collectivist society.
Technological progress has brought new materials structural
:
steel, reinforced concrete, alloys of aluminium and other non-
ferrous metals, glass,tiles, laminated woods, wall-boards, plastics,
rubber, asbestos, and asphalt mastics. Properties are now known

exactly, can be precisely calculated, and the effects of stress and
weathering determined, all of which leads to economy of means
and materials - with safety. Prefabrication now implies industrial
mass production. It is applied to all machine-made building
components and is the outcome of modern manufacturing
methods, the demands of the mass market, and the desire for
economy and speed of construction. Pre-cast wall units, beams
and building blocks are now widely used.
REINFORCED (FERRO-) CONCRETE
BEAM LOAD
\ i
TENSILE 5TR.ESS
TAICEN BY
COLUMN STEEL RODS
147
New materials brought new methods of construction. The
most important innovation in building technique has been frame
construction with steel or reinforced concrete instead of the
timbers of the medieval builder. Steel-frame buildings where the
weight of the structure is brought down to isolated points
were appearing in Chicago in the 1890s, and reinforced concrete
construction in France early in the twentieth century, but the
first frame in London was erected in 1904. Earliest
steel
examples hid their frames behind ornate. Classical facades, and
it was left to the avant-garde to admit candidly that the outer
R.EIN FORCING STEEL

R.ODS 6r MESH CONCRETE
COLUMN
WOODEN SHUTTERING
INTO WHICH
CONCR.ETE IS POUR-ETD
STANCHONS STEEL OR. OF UPPER STOR.EYS

R.EINFOR.CED CO NCR.ETE CARRIED BY CANTILEVERS
r^
THIN SCREEN
WALL \
/
Gl RDER/ CANTILEVER
FRAME CONST R.UCTI ONI

14^
TWENTIETH CENTURY
walls were no longer responsible for the structural stability of the
building so thatnew methods of design become possible. Internal
walls could now be treated as partitions and external walls as
thin insulating skins, screening the interior from the weather,
acting in short as 'cladding' or 'curtain-walling', with grids
of factory-made glazed or panelled walling.
I
T5i5ii I
I
FIN5BUR.Y HEALTH CENTR.E: 1938

Frame construction makes for a logical constructional system
with free, flexible, open planning; it economizes on space and
allows larger spans, and lighter, taller structures; it provides an
opportunity to open up the non-structural wall panels in the

search for light, air, and the flow of space.
The massing of modern buildings is often asymmetrical, some-
times even romantically so. All share the emphasis which they
give to the lightness of their frame construction, replacing the
massive soUdity of the past with a new poise. Characteristic too
is their consciousness of space, brought about by the open plan,
transparent walls, projecting roofs and balconies (made possible
by the development of cantilevering), and terraces, all of which
break down the former hard lines of division between compart-
ments and between interior and exterior space.
Flat roofs, made more efficient by the new roofing and insula-
ting materials, have become most usual (except perhaps in domes-
on account of their reposeful lines, the freedom
tic architecture)
they allow to the shape of the plan, and their greater economy
compared with the ridged roof. Service pipes are no longer
excrescences but are properly integrated with the building and
concealed in ducts. Roofs of shallow curves, corrugated or
149
domed, are also now possible with concrete shell-vaults, while
three-dimensional steel 'space frames' are being used for support-
ing roofs instead of the old two-dimensional trusses.
Instead of applying ornament, the modern architect seeks to
bring out the formal quaUties of a building by the use of coloured
paints and glass, contrasting the colour and texture of machine-
made materials such as stainless metals with natural stone, wood,
and patterned brickwork. A typical way in which surface pattern
is obtained is by exploiting the repeated motif of the window
frames of an elevation to produce a grid effect.
A MODEI^N HOUSE
LOCAL STONE
-\ 1 1
CEDAR.
"~
y BOAt^DlNG
"--III E ^
III II i I
-
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USE OP NATUfÂL MATER.IALS

INI MODERN CONSTRUCTION
Finally, the individual building is often better related to its
environment. This can be seen in the layout of some

*mixed development' schemes where buildings of different types
and sizes are carefully disposed on a natural site, in an effort
to create a planned, life-enhancing environment in which man's
primal needs for air, light, sun, foliage, space, silence, freedom,
privacy and beauty are all satisfied. Not only do the blocks of flats,
maisonettes and houses of a mixed development scheme obtain a
good sociological balance, but the designer is able to attain
through them vitaUty, contrast, and architectural coherence.
150
TWENTIETH CENTURY
NINETEEN THIRTY ONWARDS
This then is the background to modern architecture. But

Britain did not re-enter the movement until the 1930s and
there was at first Httle progress against entrenched conserv-
atism. One
of the best of the few buildings of this period,
however, is Peter Jones' department store in Sloane Square
(1936-9). In contrast with the ponderous Edwardian Revivalism
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PETER. J0NE5^ DEPAR.TAAENT STORE
151
of, say, Selfridge's, this is a design which is clearly far more
expressive of present-day needs and values. Maximum floor space
for display and free circulation is by the frank use of steel-
realized
frame construction and, thanks to improved central heating now
available, the external walls have become mere screens of glass
easily cleaned and maintained and allowing unbroken window
space. Facades are articulated by vertical ribs which give pattern
and texture and are excellent examples of 'street architecture', for
there is no viewpoint from which the building can be compre-
hended as an isolated sculptural mass, as frequently happens on
an urban site. Suited also to the city context and the store's func-
tion is its general personality which is both stylish and urbane.
World War II halted developments along these lines and
it was not imtil 1945 that building was resumed, and then under
rigid controls. But the next decade saw the new ideas, the use of
pre-stressed concrete and pre-fabrication more widely applied
than ever before. Notable successes have been the numerous
Hertfordshire and Middlesex schools, and their successors in
Nottinghamshire and elsewhere, establishing a genuine school
vernacular in which it is diflficult not to produce a building that
is free of the worst faults. Aboyne Lodge Infants' School, St.
Albans (1950), illustrates the method (pioneered by Hertfordshire)

of constructing on the modular principle (i.e. in multiples or
subdivisions of a standard dimension), at the same time using a
system of prefabricated structural components mass produced, :
light steel structural members and pre-cast concrete wall-slabs or

panels of mild steel. This makes for economy and rapid assembly,
HER.TFORDSHiR.E SCHOOL 1950
:d =]" [zic:
'
152
TWENTIETH CENTURY
and since units of various sizes and shapes can be composed out
of the same basic elements, allows flexibility in planning and
concessions to the different needs of various schools and site
conditions. The effects of modular design can clearly be seen
in the elevations and plans of these Hertfordshire schools, and
their cheerful, airy character and remarkable lightness and grace
are the outcome of the imaginative handling of the methods
and materials described, together with a feeling for bright colour.
Another work of the fifties, the rubber factory at Brynmawr
(Brecon, 195 1), shows the way the modern architect designs an
SAUCER DOMES OF
SHELL CONCR.ETE
1951
R.UBBEI^ FACTORY, BRYNMAWR.
concrete floor,
(no beams) \
MU5HROOM COMSTRUCTION
OF REINFORCED COMCRETE
155
industrial building only after close study of the manufacturing
processes involved. For example, the interior design here has been
influenced by the need to control dust settlement. Not only is the
design functional but it makes typically contemporary bold use of
its materials, including a relatively recent technique, shell-
concrete, which allows large shallow domes over the main pro-
duction area and introduces curves into the profile to dispel some
of the earlier severity and rigidity.
The South Bank Exhibition of 195 1 was housed in buildings
of unusual structural lightness and originaHty, but its special
value resided in the implications it had for urban design, for it
was a remarkable essay in irregular planning in which relation-
ships of character, scale, and space were all carefully studied.
Among the permanent features of post-war planning are the
'new towns', complete industrial-residential units whose designs
have been influenced by the garden city principle. Some, it is
true, lack visual coherence and proper urban values with adequate
amenities - though the latter has been due to lack of capital, not
of planning foresight. Architecturally, Harlow is on the whole the
most interesting. It is planned in 'clusters' of three 'neighbour-
hoods' round separate centres each neighbourhood is composed
;
of 'housing groups' and provided with some facilities. Its layout

gives an example of mixed development in practice.
Since about 1956, with the relaxation of controls, the amount
of modern building has greatly increased, bringing a further
and ideas. But throughout the post-war
variety of building types
period housing has been almost a public service, some of the best
public authority housing coming out of the Architect's Office of
theLondon County Council, now the world's largest. Of this the
Alton Estate West, Roehampton (1959), will serve as an example.
It is a high-density housing scheme in which two groups of tall,
twelve-storey 'point' blocks of flats and one group of eleven-
storey 'slab' blocks,all of reinforced concrete frame construction
with concrete panels, are disposed over a large wooded site in such a
way as to preserve its attractive park-like appearance. In addition
to these multi-storey blocks are four-storey blocks of maison-
ettes, two- and three-storey houses, single-storey dwellings, and
an old people's club, giving a mixed development that contrasts
with earlier, more repetitive layouts. Practical housing policy
and the English taste for the 'picturesque' have come together
154
TWENTIETH CENTURY
12 STOREY POINT BLOCK. OF FLATS

ALTON ESTATE WEST 1959
to show how far and how successfully public responsibility for

housing can be carried.
Another feature of post-war urban housing has been a re-
interpretation of the once wrongly deplored terrace house, while
rural areas wisely have rarely departed from tradition in character
and building method. The Town and Country Planning Act of
1947 has attempted to avoid the repetition of between- wars
development but it has not effectively checked 'subtopia'.
By the 1950s modern architecture was firmly established as the
genuine contemporary style as representative of the life of this
century as the historic styles were of theirs. Its first phase was an
austere functional one epitomized by the so-called 'white archi-

tecture' of the twenties and thirties, but its authors have sometimes
been criticized since as doctrinaire functionalists and purists, and
155
II
i
theirwork for lack of warmth and humanity. After the experi-
I mentalism of exhibition architecture and the example of some
masters it has become in its maturity more imaginative in its use
of forms (such as sculptural forms), more vigorous, more subtle

and complex, and more enriched by colour and the textures and
evocativeness of natural materials. There is still, however, the
*New Brutalism' with its emphasis on bare engineering and its

direct use of materials that represents a return to puritan essen-
There is also a good deal of very bad building, designed by
tials.
thosewho have taken some characteristics of modern architecture

and turned them into cliches, using them without imagination or
regard for their function or appositeness.
Though modern is now mature and accepted not
architecture
all known. Both architects and industry are at
the answers are yet
present deriving much assistance from the work of the govern-
ment Building Research Station at Gars ton (Herts.), which in-
vestigates building materials and building problems such as the
development of new, quicker, and more economical construction
methods. The *jack block' method is a new and revolutionary
construction system in which the floors are gradually raised in
turn by hydraulic jacks and 'system building' is not just prefab-
rication: it implies a total industrialized building system. Apart
from these technical developments there are always human and
architectural values to be taken into account. Thus high slabs
wrongly handled can result in a forbidding and monotonously
inhuman design, but at the same time they provide opportunities,
in the way they are placed, for stimulating perspectives and fresh
relationships. Similarly, curtain- walling employed automatically
makes for characterless and perfunctory facades; yet it can be
introduced with great subtlety, precision and regard for detail.
One of the chief limitations against which the architect contends
today is the demand for that kind of economy which is not a dis-
cipline but an inhibiting force, the worst result of which is often
poor finish. Arguments of financial stringency or the idea that a
building should last for only a number of years before being re-
American cities, though not invaUd, should never be
placed, as in
made the excuse for parsimony in so important a matter as the
creation of human environment. As Ruskin says in The Seven
'Lamps of Architecture-. *When we build, let us think that we build
for ever.'
156
TWENTIETH CENTURY
PRE-1914
Houses: The Pastures, North Luffenham, Rutland; Heathcote,
Yorks; Nashdom, Taplow, Bucks; Chorleywood, Herts.
Ilkley,
Norwich Union Building; Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly; Selfridges, Oxford
Street; Kodak Building, Kings way; County Hall, Westminster,
Westminster Cathedral, White Chapel Art Gallery, (all London).
Town Hall, Stockport, Ches.
1920s
Cardiff City Hall and Law Courts.
Port of London Authority, Trinity Square; Bush House, Kings way;
Liberty's store, Regent Street; Britannic House, Finsbury Circus
(all London).
1930s
Flats inLawn Road, Hampstead; Kensall House; Highpoint, Highgate;

Sun House, Hampstead (all London) Guildford Cathedral.
;
London University, Bloomsbury; Impington Village College, Cambs.;

High School, Richmond, Yorks; Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.
Peter Jones' Store, Sloane Square; Electricity Showrooms, Regent's
Street; Boots' Factory, Nottingham.
Finsbury Health Centre; Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond
Street; Simpsons', Piccadilly; Royal Masonic Hospital, Ravenscourt
Park (all London).
Civic Centre, Swansea; City Hall, Norwich; De la Warr Pavilion,
Bexhill, Sussex; Arnos Grove underground station, R.LB.A.
building, Portland Place, and Waterloo Bridge, London.
POST- 1 94 5
Infants'and Primary schools in Herts, and Notts. (C.L.A.S.P.).

Secondary schools: Cranford, Middx.; Hunstanton, Norfolk; County
Modern School, Richmond, Yorks; Prendergast School, Catford;
Rutherford School, Marylebone, London; Cranford, Middx.
Comprehensive schools: Mayfield, Putney; Holland Park School;
Bousfield School, South Kensington (all London).
Indian Students' Hostel, Fitzroy Square, London; undergraduates'
lodgings, St. John's College, Oxford; Sidgwick Avenue develop-
ment, Cambridge Universities of Sheffield and Sussex St. Catherine's,
; ;
Oxford; Churchill, Cambridge; Exeter and Essex Universities.

Commonwealth Institute, Kensington.
Coventry Cathedral; St. Paul's, Bow Common, Stepney.
T.U.C. Memorial Building; Royal College of Physicians.
157
Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon; Royal Festival Hall, South Bank.
Rubber factory, Brynmawr, Brecon; seed factory, Witham, Essex;
CIBA laboratories, Duxford, Cambs.
Nuclear power station, Berkeley, Glos; Marchwood power station,
Southampton; London Transport Garage, Stockwell.
Shops: Peter Robinson, Strand; Sanderson's, Berners Street.
Offices: Thorn House, St. Martin's Lane; Castrol House, Marylebone;
Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington; State House, Holborn; New
Zealand House, Hay market; 45-46 Albemarle Street; Economist de-
velopment, St. James's; Vicker's Building, Millbank (all London).
Gatwick Airport (terminal building), Surrey; St. James's Place Flats.
Leofric Hotel, Coventry. Halton Bridge on M6. London Airport,
Heathrow; Nottingham Playhouse.
Salvation Army Citadel, Hendon; Elephant & Rhinoceros Ho., the Zoo,
PLANNED HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

Milton Abbas, Dorset; Saltaire, Shipley, Yorks; Tudhoe Grange.
Spennymoor, Durham; Bedford Park, Chiswick; Port Sunlight,
Birkenhead; Bournville, Birmingham; Millbank Gardens, West-
minster; Wythenshawe, Manchester; Huyton, Liverpool; Quarry
Hill, Leeds; Letchworth, Hampstead and Welwyn Garden Cities.
Post World War II: Rosebery Avenue, Finsbury; Hallfield Estate,
Paddington; Lansbury Estate, Poplar; Ackroyden and Fit2hugh
Estates, Wandsworth; Aegis Grove, Battersea; Churchill Gardens,
Pimlico; Golden Lane, Barbican; Alton Estate, Roehampton;
Regent's Park Development on site of Clarence Sc Munster Squares,
Regent's Park Redevelopment, Bethnal Green cluster blocks,
Loughborough Estate, Brixton; Holford Square, Priory Green and
Spa Green, Finsbury; SPAN Developments, London; Tile Hill
Estate, Coventry; Kirkby, Liverpool; Park Hill, Sheffield.
STUDENTS' HOSTEL
DQ nnoaanaoD
OQQnsQnniiBiBin
158
^
TWENTIETH CENTURY
New Towns (after 1946): Harlow, Hatfield and Stevenage, Herts.;
Peterlee and Newton AyclifFe, Durham; Crawley, Sussex, Corby,
Northants.
Large-scale reconstruction schemes: Barbican, City of London;
Lansbury Estate, Poplar; Elephant and Castle; city centres of
Coventry and Plymouth; Bull Ring, Birmingham.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Banham, R. Guide to Modern Architecture (Architectural Press 1962).

:
Banham, R. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (Architectural

:
Press i960).
Briggs, M. S. : Building Today (O.U.P. 1944).
Bruckmann, M. S. and Lewis, D. L. : New Housing in Great Britain
(Tiranti i960).
Conder, N. : An Introduction to Modern Architecture (Art and Technics
1949).
Dannatt, T. : Modern Architecture in Britain (Batsford 1959).
Fry, Maxwell Fine : Building (Faber & Faber 1 944).
Giedion, S. : Architecture, You and Me {p.\].V.
1958).
Giedion, S.: (Architectural Press 1954).
Gr<?/)///j-
Giedion, S. : Space, Time and Architecture (O.U.F. 1954).

Joedicke, J.: History of Modern Architecture (Architectural Press 1959).
Lambert, S.: New Architecture of "London since 19^0 (B.T.H.A. &
Architectural Association 1963).
Le Corbusier: Towards a New Architecture (Architectural Press 1947).
Le Corbusier: My IFory^ (Architectural Press i960).
McCallum, L Modern Buildings in London (Architectural Press 195 1).
:
Mills, E.D. : The Modern Factory (Architectural Press 195 1).

Pevsner, N. : Pioneers of the Modern Movement (Penguin, i960).
Price, B. : Technical Colleges (B2itsotd 1959).
Rasmussen, S. E. Experiencing Architecture (Ch^pmîn
: & Hall i960).
Richards, J. M. : An Introduction to Modern Architecture (Penguin 1956),
Smith, G. E. Kidder: The New Architecture of Europe (Penguin 1962).
Stephenson, H. and L.: Exterior Design (Studio Books 1963).
Stillman, C. G. and Cleary, R. C. : The Modern School (Architectural
Press 1949).
Wright, F. L. An Autobiography {p2ibQ.t 1945).
:
Yorke, F. R. S. The Modern House in England (AtchitectuTal Press 1957).

:
Yorke, F. R. S. and Gibberd, F.: The Modern F/^/ (Architectural Press

1958) and A Key to Modern Architecture (Blackie 1939).
Yorke, F. R. S. and Whiting, P. The New Small House (Architectural

:
Press 1953).
CHAPTER TEN
The Aesthetics of Architecture

)
'Architecture in general is frozen music' Friedrich von Schel-

ling : Philosophie der Kunst.
Aesthetics is the philosophy of art, and the element of 'art' in

architecture is primarily a matter of formal relationships. A
definition of architecture deriving from the first century Roman
architect, Vitruvius, and offered by Sir Henry Wotton in his
Elements of Architecture (1624), is 'well building', and the three
conditions for this are 'Commoditie, Firmenes and Delight'. The
first of these relates to fitness for purpose, the second to the con-
structional aspect, and the third to that aesthetic quality which
distinguishes architecture from mere building. These conditions
may still be accepted as the three fundamental requirements of
architecture.
A building may be defined as a structure which encloses space
for the exercise of some human activity. It is of course the builder's
task to design structures which fulfil practically the purposes for
which they are intended. But if his work is to be more than
utilitarian and become architecture it must also possess that
abstract, aesthetic quality which resides in a work of art. A
functionally perfect building will not necessarily possess this,
though it may do so incidentally, as can be seen from the number
of bridges, barns, mills and warehouses which succeed aesthetically

as well as functionally. Similarly, not everything that is built with
an aesthetic purpose achieves it.
The principal aim of this book has been to give a brief historical
account, and for this purpose both buildings and architecture are
of equal value. Both record the technical capacity of an age and
provide first-hand evidence of its social life and values. But since
the best work of all ages can be called architecture, it might be
helpful to conclude by considering briefly the aesthetics of our
subject. In any case, the student is then in a better position to
160
TWO SAINTS school: Interesting relationships, varied surfaces
and tent-like roof shape, in a design both rational and imaginative
ALTON ESTATE, roehampton: The acquisition of a large site

by a housing authority makes possible a planned environment
for a whole community. Point blocks as part of a 'mixed
development' appeared first in Sweden
cwuuiMO rmMB
ip^Pii
?/^;L^^l^^-ji
;utti4
THE AESTHETICS OF ARCHITECTURE
evaluate the intrinsic architectural merit of all buildings, past and
present.
The art of the architect is to build aesthetically. Over and above
the objective requirements (to produce a sound and efficient
structure which is an expression of the needs of its users), he
must endeavour to satisfy the aesthetic sense by introducing those
abstract qualities of design already referred to. This he does by
using his sensibility to make a selection from the range of
elements available to him and combine them in a way that best
expresses his ideas and feelings about his theme. There is in-
variably a choice between alternatives - arrangements, forms,
materials - and it is here that the architect is free to exercise his
art.
All artists, whatever their media, express their intellectual and

emotional responses to their subjects by shaping their material
into an image of some kind. They take the raw material of their
experience, select from it, and organize these separate elements
until they have imposed upon them an expressive *order' or
'harmony'. In this sense every genuine work of art is an original
creation. Though historically, in techniques and materials for
example, there is progress, aesthetically there is no such concept -
only different kinds of achievement. This we must always re-
member and be careful therefore always to judge each attempt
in the light of its own intention.
Works of art are not made to comply with any pre-conceived
'rules of design', but if what are unequivocally acknowledged to
be such by the concensus of informed opinion are scrutinized,
they are seen to possess certain abstract qualities which may then
be characterized as 'principles of design'. These in architecture
give rise to specifically 'architectural values'.
As we have seen, harmony is nearly a synonym for design, and
the elements of any composition are ordered by imposing a
'pattern' upon them. To be aesthetically satisfying this pattern
must be endowed with 'unity', i.e. it must contain a dominant
theme or centre of interest (focus or climax) and all parts must be
related to the whole.
The architect does not consider the aesthetic problem as merely
a question of applying ornament to a finished scheme, but begins
at once by arranging his basic elements of plan and mass (not only
in size, but in colour, tone, texture, strength and vigour of design)
L i6i
THORN house: A reinforced concrete frame structure.
1
into a balanced composition, since 'balance' is a part of order. It
need not be asymmetrical composition about an axial line, but
should be free of 'duality' and have a well placed centre of
4 gravity somewhere in the central area. In addition to its dominant
focus the composition will probably have secondary climaxes,
and accentuations or emphases.
It has been observed how the artist creates a pattern out
of the materials of his composition. Pattern implies the repetition
of shapes, forms, lines, or combinations of these, which may be
called 'rhythm'. In architecture rhythm occurs in three-dimensional
forms such as the exterior grouping of blocks, roofs, domes,
towers and chimneys, in the projections and recessions of the eleva-
tions, and in the interior spaces. It also occurs in the alternation
of solids and voids and in two-dimensional surface patterning
(of a fenestration system, for example). Whenever we recog-
nize rhythm to which we instinctively respond, it gives us
pleasure - always providing it is not monotonous.
Monotony is one of the principal faults which can occur in
design. It avoided by introducing into the general harmony

is
a certain variety and relief through the quality of 'contrast', both

in the major dispositions and in the details. The major forms,
however, should be decisive, and despite contrasting elements
there should be no hesitation about them. Thus a building should
be either predominantly horizontal or vertical in its tendency and
not hover indefinitely and irritatingly betwxen the two.
In design, the relations between a part and the whole, or part
and part, are called 'proportion'. Certain relationships or ratios
are aesthetically satisfying for reasons which are not fully under-
stood. Others, on the contrary, are distinctly uncomfortable.
Attempts were made by the Ancients and by Renaissance theorists
to find a mathematical basis for good proportion, but it does not
seem to be susceptible to a purely logical approach. What is
apparent is form is required in large masses, for a
that decision of
shape which obviously neither a square nor a rectangle is
is
disturbing to the spectator. On the other hand this kind of

definition must be handled carefully in details, since it can create
more centres of interest than are deliberately aimed at for the
purpose of accentuation.
'Scale' is used to refer to the size of a building and its relation-
ship to man, the unchanging unit. Thus a large-scale building
i6z
should be 'in scale' (and not 'out of scale') to the human beings
who will use it. The term is sometimes to describe the
also used
relationship between the parts and the whole in a special way, so
that a building which is a small one may yet be described as having
'too much scale' if it is pretentiously designed, or vice versa.
Some kind of ornament to give interest to a surface or form
appears to be a psychological necessity. In architecture it may take
the form of applied, non-structural, decorative motifs ; or a pat-
tern of functional features like windows; or the enlivening
attributes of texture, tone, colour and shadow. If decorative
motifs are used they should not be naturalistic for their purpose is
not illustrative. To harmonize with the abstract composition they

should be stylized or geometrical. They should not be too in-
tricate or over-profuse and they should be applied to forms in
such a way as to emphasize them and not detract from their
essential character.
One cannot consider architecture for long without coming up
against the related terms of 'taste' and 'fashion'. The first implies
discrimination, the second prevailing preferences.Both are variable,
change from time to time by a series of reactions and are dis-
seminated by means of the imitative instinct. But though change-
able, taste should not be regarded as merely frivolous for it
provides a healthy impulse of renewal and checks stagnation. It
is both a useful index of the values of an age and of the sensibility
of an individual.
In general we may expect an architectural design to give us a
sense of stability and integrity and also to convince us of reason-
able economy of means in expression. But in modern buildings
with regard to the first of these requirements, we must make due
allowance for new techniques of construction where solid walls
are replaced by relatively few points of support. In demanding
integrity we need not insist, as some extremists have done, on
absolute truthfulness in expressing the inner construction ex-
ternally, since much good Classical architecture does not always
conform to this standard. (But a building should offer some accept-
able reason why it should not so express itself.) The same applies
to whether the elevation should express the plan (it is often ass-
erted that the important plan elements should be thus articulat-
ed), or whether a building should express its purpose in its
design. Economy of means is, of course, an attribute of all good

style.
163
Finally, when all these principles have been considered in
problem remains of relating
respect of the individual building, the
it to and to its environment, whether natural or man-
its site
^1 made in the form of other buildings. The dominant requirement
is a harmonious composition and the same basic principles apply.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
GENERAL
Allsop, B.: Arf and
the Nature of Architecture (Pitman 1952).
Allsop, B. : General History of Architecture (Pitman 1962).
Briggs, M. S.: Architecture {0. 15. V. 1947).
Briggs, M. S.: Concise Encyclopaedia of Architecture (Dent 1959).
Briggs, M. S. : The Architect in History (O.U.P, 1927).
Davey, N. Building in Britain (Evans 1964)
:
Davey, N. History of Building Materials (Phoenix 1961).

:
Dutton, R. The English Garden (B2Ltsford 1950).

:
Button, R. The English Interior (B2itsotd 1949).

:
Edwards, A. T. Style and Composition in Architecture (Tiranti 1945).

:
Fleming, J., Honour, H., & Pevsner, N. The Penguin Dictionary of :
Architecture (Penguin 1966).

Fletcher, B. History of Architecture (Athlone Press 1961) (revised by
:
R. A. Cordingly).
Gardner, A. H. An Outline of English Architecture (Batsford 1949).
:
Gibberd, F. The Architecture of England {Atchito-ctutdl Press 1953).

:
Gloag, J.: English Furniture {A. &c C. Black 1952).

Gloag, J.: English Tradition in Architecture (A. & C. Black 1963).
Godfrey, W. H. The Story of Architecture in England, 2 vols. (Batsford
:
1928-31).
Hamlin, T. Architecture an Art for All Men (O.U.P. 1947).
:
Hoskins, W. G. The Making of the English Landscape (Hodder &

:
Stoughton 1955).
Illustrated Regional Guides of the Ministry of Works.
Jenkins, F. Architect and Patron (Durham University Publications:
:
O.U.P. 1961).
Kidson P. & Murrary P.
, History of English, : A
rchitecture (Harrap 1962). A
Korn, A.: History Builds a Town (Lund Humphries 1953).
Le Corbusier: Towards New Architecture (Rodker 1927).
Le Corbusier: The City of Tomorrow and its Planning (Rodker 1929).
Lethaby, W. R. Architecture: An Introduction to the History and Theory
:
of the Art of Building (O.U.P. 3rd edition 1955) and Torm in Civili-
sation (O.U.P 1958).
Mumford, L. The City in History (Penguin 1966).
:
164
Muschenheim, W. : The 'Elements of the Art of Architecture (Thomas &
Hudson 1956).
Patrick, M. and Tree, M. : Career in Architecture (Museum Press 1961).
Pevsner, N. of 'England Series (Penguin 195 1, etc.).
: 'Buildings
Pevsner, N. An
Outline of European Architecture (Penguin 7th ed. 1963).
:
Richardson, A. E. and Corfiato, H. O. The Art of Architecture (E.U.P. :
1938).
Statham, H. H. History of Architecture (Batsford 1950).
: ^
Tubbs, R. The Englishman builds (Penguin 1945).
:
Ware, O, and Batty, B. Short Dictionary of Architecture (Allen: A &

Unwin 1953).
Waterhouse, P. L. and Cordingly, R. A.: The Story of Architecture
(Batsford 1950).
Williams-Ellis, C. and A.: The 'Pleasures of Architecture (Cape 1954).
THE ENGLISH HOUSE

Addy, S. O. : The Evolution of the English House (Allen Unwin 1933). &
Barley, M. W. The : English Farmhouse and Cottage (Routledge Kegan &
Paul 1 961).
Barley,M. W.: The House and the Home (Vista Books 1963).
Barr, A.W. C. Public Authority Housing (fi2itsiotdi 1958).
:
Boumphrey, G. Your House and Mine (Allen & Unwin 1938).:
Braun, H. The Story of the English House (Batsford 1940).

:
Button, R. The English Country House (Batsford 1949).

:
Gloag, J.: The Englishman's Castle {^ytt & Spottiswoode 1949).

Gotch, J. A.: The Growth of the English House (Batsford 1928).
Hole, C. English Home Eife (Batsford 1947).
:
Hussey, C. English Country Houses ly 1^-1840^ 3 vols. (Country Life

:
1955-7)-
Jones, S. R. English Village Ho/^^j (Batsford 1948).
:
Lloyd, N. A
History of the English House (Architectural Press 193 1).
:
Pidgeon, M. and Crosby, T. An Antholog)j <?/ Ho/zj-^j (Batsford i960). :
Turnor, R. : The Smaller English House ij 00-19 ^9 (Batsford 1952).

TOWN PLANNING
Briggs, M. S.: Town and Country Planning {KW.tn & Unwin 1948).
Cullen, G. : To;^;/j-f^^^ (Architectural Press 1962).
Gibberd, F. Town D^j/g/? (Architectural Press 1953).
:
Hiorns, F. R. Town Building in History (Harrap i960).

:
Howard, E. Garden : Cities of Tomorrow (Faber 1946).

Jellicoe, G. A.: Motopia {Studiio 1961).
Nairn, Ian: O/z/r^^^ (Architectural Press 1955).
Nairn, Ian: Counter Attack (Architectural Press 1957).
Sharp, T. Anatomy of the Village (Penguin 1946).
:
Sharp, T.: English Panorama (Architectural Press 1950).
165
4 THE HISTORICAL STYLES OF

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE
- 43 Prehistoric
45- 450 Roman
450-1066 Anglo-Saxon
Romanesque 450-1190
1066-1190 Anglo-Norman }
1190-1290 Early English
1290-1375 Decorated Gothic 1 190-1485
1375-1485 Perpendicular I
1485-1558 Tudor
1558-1603 Elizabethan
1
1603-1625 Jacobean Renaissance 15 58-1702
1625-1702 Stuart I
1695-1725 Baroque
I 720-1 760 Palladian
I Georgian 1702-183 7
1760-1800 Adam
1810-1837 Regency
1837-1901 Victorian
1901-1910 Edwardian
These dates give a convenient classification though to some extent the styles
overlap the periods. The term 'Palladian' is also applied to the work of Inigo
Jones in the seventeenth century. 'Queen Anne'' strictly describes the domestic
architecture of Queen Anne's reign, 1702-14; but it can be used more loosely
to include work of the last fifteen years of the seventeenth century, or alternatively
to signify 'ecrrly Georgian*.
166
MAINLY PRE 19th CENT.
DISTRIBUTION
GEOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
MAP OF HAS C0NTRI3UTED TO A
VARIETY OF LOCAL STYLES
LOCAL
BUILDING
MATERIALS
CAEN STONE
FRr>^^ woRM*.NDy /
[WfTE R TRAN S POB.T !Vi PORTANTI/
r^rn V4AeJ> AJÎENT ROCKS : GRANITES HARD SA^NX^STONES

i
-^\ JURASSIC UWÊSrOMEo : OOUTGS YIELD EXCELUENT
tl n OMALK- : WEATHERS poCR-UV BUT CONTAINS fLINT USED
^ SOAAE lA/NPOPTANT QJJARR.1E3.
167
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Abutment solid masonry resisting : lateral pressure.
Acanthus conventionalized leaf in : Classical decoration.
Aesthetics: philosophy of art; Aesthetic: relation to the perception
of beauty.
Aisle lower division of a church or basilica parallel to the higher nave,
:
choir, or transept,from which it is divided by pillars.

Alure passage behind a parapet.
:
Ambulatory: aisle round an apse or circular building or across the

east end of a church.
Amorini figures of cupids. :
Amphitheatre an oval or elliptical building with an arena surrounded

:
by tiers of seats.
Apse : semicircular or polygonal end of a church or side chapel.
Arcade sequence of arches on columns or pillars.
:
Architrave bottom member of an entablature. :
Attic low storey above a main cornice.

:
Auditorium part of a building occupied by an audience.

:
Bailey external wall or internal court of a castle.

:
Balustrade row of balusters supporting a coping.

:
Barbican: outwork or detached feature protecting the approach to

a castle.
Barge-boarding inclined boards, often ornamented, : fixed beneath the
eaves of a gable.
Barrel- vault arched stone covering running the length of a building
:
and unbroken by cross-vaults.

Basilica hall or church with aisles and a nave higher than the aisles.
:
Batter slight inward inclination of a wall from the base upwards.

:
Bay vertical unit of a wall or fa9ade; also compartment of a nave.

:
Berm ledge between ditch and parapet base in fortification.

:
Blind Storey triforium. :
Boss keystone at the intersection of vault ribs.

:
Broach: half-pyramid of masonry used to join an octagonal spire to

a square tower.
Burh Anglo-Saxon
: fortified place, a town.
Buttress : projecting vertical mass of masonry resisting an outward
thrust or stiffening a wall. Flying Buttress: an arched prop of
masonry resisting the lateral pressure of a wall.
Calefactory : warming room in a monastery.
Canopy: roof-like projection over a window or door.
i68
GLOSSARY
Cantilever: projecting beam held down at the wall end by the super-
incumbent weight or in some other way.
Capital moulded or carved top of a column.
:
Carrel small bay or enclosure for study.

:
Caryatid sculptured figure used as a support.

:
Castellum small Roman : fort of about five acres.

Cella : central portion of a Roman temple.
Chamfer : bevelled edge.
Chancel eastern part of a church reserved for clergy and choir.
:
Channelling grooving on a surface. :
Chapter House: where the governing body of a monastery or

cathedral meet.
Choir portion of a church set aside for clergy and choir, divided off
:
from the rest by a screen.

Cladding thin external wall covering (bearing no load) over a hidden
:
structure of steel or reinforced concrete.

Clerestory upper part of a nave with windows above the aisle roof.
:
Chevet : formed by an apse surrounded

eastern termination of a church
by an aisle off which chapels open.
Cloister: covered walk in a monastery or college, usually arranged
round the sides of a square grass plot or 'garth'.
Cob mixture of clay and chopped straw formerly used for walling
:
in Devon and Dorset.

Coffering panels sunk deeply into the surface of a ceiling.
:
Coping capping on top of a wall.

:
Corbel: projecting stone bracket. Corbelling: a series of corbels

extending progressively further forward, one above the other.
Cornice: projecting upper portion of an entablature or any projecting
top course.
Corps de Logis principal block at the centre of a great Renaissance
:
house with spreading symmetrical wings.

Cottage Ome sophisticated Regency cottage deliberately designed to
:
appear picturesque and quaint.

Cove broad concave moulding between a ceiling and a wall.
:
Crenellation battlements. :
Crocket curved, leaf-like ornament in Gothic architecture.

:
Cruciform cross-shaped. :
Crucks (Cricks): curved timbers used in primitive timber-framed

construction.
Culvert underground channel.
:
Curtain Wall: wall between two towers or bastions in fortification.

In modern architecture Curtain Walling is another term for
'cladding'.
169
GLOSSARY
Cusp point between the small arcs of trefoil and quatrefoil tracery.
:
Dais platform at the end of a hall.

:
Diaper geometrical or floral surface pattern.

:
Dome: convex roof, approximately hemispherical. A Saucer Dome

has a flat curve.
Domus Roman town : house.
Donjon: castle keep.
Doorcase wooden framework into which a door fits.
:
Dorter sleeping quarters of a monastery.

:
Dressings blocks of smooth stone used as quoins or frames for doors

:
or windows.
Dripstone projecting moulding to throw ofl" rainwater from openings.
:
Drum circular or polygonal structure on which a dome is raised.

:
Eclectic of a style selecting elements from a variety of sources.

:
Embrasure open portion of a battlement. :
Entablature horizontal top part of a Classical order. It consists of

:
architrave, frieze, and cornice, and is supported by columns.

Fa9ade face or front of a building.
:
Fanlight oblong or semicircular light over a door.

:
Fenestration arrangement of windows in a fagade. :
Finial ornamental top part of a spire or pinnacle.

:
Fluting vertical channelling on the shaft of a column.

:
Footings projecting courses at the base of a wall.

:
Forebuilding structure protecting the entrance to a keep. :
Forum central open space in a Roman town, surrounded by public

:
buildings.
Fosse : wet or dry ditch or moat, the upcast forming
a rampart.
Frame Construction: timber-frame construction; now historically,
construction where loads are carried entirely by stanchions and
girders of steel or reinforced concrete.
Frater refectory of a monastery.
:
Frieze middle member of an entablature or, in a room, space between

:
top of the panelling and the cornice or ceiling.

Gable vertical, triangular portion of a wall at the end of a ridged
:
roof. Cablet : little gable on a buttress.

Gallery another name for the tribune.
:
Garden City: planned settlement combining town and country in

accordance with the ideas of Ebenezer Howard.
Garderobe privy in the wall of a castle. :
Greek Cross cross with all four arms of equal : length.

Groin edge formed by intersecting vaults.
:
Herm quadrangular
: pillar broadening upwards and surmounted by
a head or bust.
170
THE R.N. BOATSTORE, SHEERNESSi Engineering architecture.
A mid-Victorian iron-framed building anticipating the 20th century
LATE 1 9TH-CENTURYMASS housing: Though this represented

a physical improvement in its day, its harsh monotony
makes a striking contrast with the housing scheme in Plate 17
U.-W
ip- jq
..,^. . , ,:-y-^
.
^y^
Tzr^ .;<-*;
HSEt-c"
NORNEY grange: A housc of C. F. A. Voysey exempiitying the

free traditionalism of his 'Arts and Crafts' style
COVENTRY NEW TOWN: Modem vernacular. The 'village green'
effect is in the English tradition of the Picturesque
GLOSSARY
Hotel large French town house.

:
Hypocaust: chamber below ground level heated by hot air from a

furnace. Roman system of heating a building or important room.
Insula : Roman tenement-like living block.
Jamb : vertical part of the masonry of a door or window.
Jetty : overhanging storey.
Keep : inner tower of a casde, usually the principal one.
Label see dripstone.
:
Lancet tall narrow window with a sharply pointed head.

:
Lantern: small structure, open or glazed, crowning a dome or roof.

Latin Cross cross with one of the four arms elongated.
:
Lierne : decorative rib in a Gothic vault wliich does not spring from
the wâll or touch the central boss.
Light division of
: a window.
Locutorium room : in a monastery where conversation was permitted
for certain purposes.
Loggia covered : gallery behind an open arcade or colonnade.
Loop : 'arrow-slit' in fortification.
Louvre : ventilator in a roof or wall, usually slatted.
Machicolations floor openings in a stone parapet. :
Maisonette one storey of a small two-storey house accommodating

:
two families, one above the other.

Mausoleum ma2:nificent tomb. :
Megalithic made of large stones. :
Merlon soHd portion of a battlement.

:
Metope panel between triglyphs.

:
Module: measure of proportion by which the parts of a Classical

building are regulated; in modern practice a convenient unit upon
which all the dimensions of a building and its components are based
for economy and ease of construction.
Motte mound on which the wooden tower of an
: early Norman castle
was built.
Moulding continuous ornamental : lines of grooving or projections.
Mullion vertical division between lights of a window.
:
Narthex porch in front of the nave and aisles of a church.

:
Nave : church west of the chancel arch or cros-

central division of a
with or without side aisles.
sing,
Niche ornamental recess in a wall.
:
Nogging brickwork in a timber frame. :
Obelisk : tall, tapering, square shaft.

Offset : sloping ledge on a buttress at the recession of a stage.
Ogee: arch of double curvature; first convex, then concave.
Order in Classical architecture,
: a column (consisting of base, shaft.
171
GLOSSARY
and capital) with the entablature it supports. In medieval archi-

tecture, a ring of voussoirs in an arch.
Oriel: window projecting from a wall surface by corbelling.
Overdoor : small pediment over a door.
Pargetting exterior plasterwork, usually patterned.
:
Pavilion: projection feature at the end of a Classical fagade or orna-

mental building.
Pediment triangular end of the moderately pitched roof of a Classical
:
building, above the top of the entablature or cornice. A similar

form used over door or window openings, sometimes segmental.
Pele Tower border keep, usually sixteenth century.
:
Pent-roofed with a lean-to roof. :
Peristyle colonnade round a building or courtyard.

:
Piano Nobile: principal floor of a large house raised one storey

above ground level.
Piazza: formal open space or square surrounded by buildings in a
town.
Pier soHd support of a pair of arches of an arcade.
:
Pilaster: rectangular column usually engaged with the wall but

projecting from it.
Pinnacle tapering termination of
: a vertical form.
Pitch inclination of a roof.
:
Plinth: projecting base of a building or column.

Podium platform on which a building is raised or lowest stage of a
:
column pedestal.
Portcullis : vertically sliding grid designed to obstruct a castle en-
trance.
Portico: roofed space, open on at least one side, and enclosed by a
range of columns supporting the roof.
Porticus north or south porch of a Saxon church.
:
Postern: concealed exit from a castle; a sally-port.

Prefabrication manufacture of components beforehand for assembly
:
on site.
Presbytery eastern part of the chancel beyond the choir.

:
^ Quatrefoil: circular or square opening having four 'foils' separated by

'cusps'. A
Quoins corner stones at the angle of
:
Trefoil has three foils.
a building.
Refectory: communal dining-hall.
Reinforced Concrete (ferro-concrete) concrete, the tensile strength :
of which has been greatly increased by embedding it in steel rods

and mesh.
Respond half-pillar attached to a wall and supporting an arch.
:
Rib stone arch on

: the groin or surface of a vault.
I
GLOSSARY
Roundel : decorative disc or medallion.
Rustication stonework of large freestone blocks (rough or smooth)
:
with recessed joints.

Solar medieval chamber on an upper floor.
:
Spandrel triangular space between the curve of an arch and a rect-

:
angle enclosing it.
Springers lower stones of an arch or vault.

:
Spur: projecting stonework at the base of an angle designed to

protect it.
Strapwork ornament composed of interlacing bands or straps.

:
String-course: projecting horizontal band along a wall.

Stucco plaster applied to a wall or ceiling surface usually moulded
: ;
decoratively when used internally or smoothed and painted ex-

ternally.
Swag festoon of fruit, flowers, and foliage.
:
Terracotta burnt-clay product harder than brick.

:
Tessellated of flooring made of mosaic. Tesserae cubes of mosaic.

: :
Tierceron rib of a Gothic vault inserted between the transverse and

:
diagonal ribs.
Tile Hanging overlapping tiles hung vertically. :
Tracery: intersecting bars of moulded stone forming patterns in

Gothic windows.
Transept either arm of the tranverse part of a cruciform church.
:
Transom horizontal division between the hghts of a window.

:
Tribune corridor above the aisles with open arches to the nave side.
:
Triforium space formed between the aisle roof and the aisle vault.
:
Triglyph vertical grooved member of a Doric frieze.

:
Tympanum space between the lintel and an arch above.

:
Undercroft vaulted basement. :
Vallum: rampart.
Vault arched covering of stone.
:
Vernacular Architecture: building in the native provincial idiom

unaffected by fashionable or learned taste.
Villa: Roman country house; recently a detached suburban house.
Volute: scroll.
Voussoir wedge-shaped block forming part of an arch.
:
Waggon roof: an arched braced roof lined with boarding.

Wainscoting covering of walls with boards of wood.:
Wattle and Daub vertical covering of interlacing twigs (or 'wattles')

:
plastered with clay (or *daub').

Weather-boarding: exterior covering of overlapping, horizontal
boards.
Web : panel of a vault.
173
INDEX
Abingdon Town Hall, 99 Campbell, Colen, 107
Adam, Robert, no, 116, 112, 124, Canterbury Cathedral, 45, 50
126 St. Pancras, 27
11
Adelphi terrace, 116 Castle Acre Priory, 3 5
Alberti, Leone Battista, 71 Castle Howard, 104-5
All Souls College, Oxford, 113 Central Station, Manchester, 131
Alton Estate West, Roehampton, Chambers, William, no, 113
154-5 Cheltenham, 122
Chester, 14, 22
Barrington Court, 63
Chollerford, 22
Barry, Charles, 127-8
Chysauster, iron age village, 1
Basevi, George, 127
Cistercians, 59-60
Bath, 16-17, 86j ii<^
Clifton suspension bridge, Bristol,
Prior Park, 107, 109
130
Queen Square, 116
Cobham Hall, 74
Royal Crescent, 1 1 6- 1
Cockerell, Charles, 127
Bauhaus, 145
Colchester, 16
Beaumaris Castle, 46
Coleshill House, 87-8
Behrens, Peter, 145
Conway Castle, 46
Belton House, 96
Cubitt,Thomas, 127
Benedictines, 59-60
Customs house. King's Lynn, 96
Berkhamsted Castle, 36
Birmingham Town Hall, 126 Diocletian's Palace, Spalato, no
Blenheim Palace, 104, 113 Durham Cathedral, 33-4, 45, 61
BlickHng Hall, 77
Bodiam Castle, 49 Earl's Barton church, 29, 30
Bolton Castle, 49 Ely Cathedral, 48

Boothby Pagnall manor house, 39 Flint Castle, 47
Bournville, 136 Folkestone, Roman villa, 20
Bradford-on-Avon church, 27 Fonthill, 113
Bramante, Donato, 71, 85
Brighton, 122 Garnier, Tony, 145
Pavilion, 124 Garston, Building Research Sta-
Bristol Cathedral, 57 tion, 156
Brixworth church, 28 Glasgow Art School, 139
Brown, Lancelot 'Capability', 109 Gloucester Cathedral, 50
Brunei, Isambard K., 130-1 Greenstead church, 26
Brunelleschi, Filippo, 71 Gropius, Walter, 145
Brynmawr, rubber factor}^, 1 5 3
Guildhall, Worcester, 99
Burgundy, 43
Hadrian's Wall, 22-3
Burlington, Lord, 107
Hardwick Hall, 73-4
Butterfield, WiUiam, 128
Harlow, 154
Cambridge, Caius College, 72 Hatfield House, 77
King's College Chapel, 57, 61 Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 102-3, 113
u Trinity College, 79 Herland, Hugh, 56
Trinity College Library, 88 Hertfordshire schools, 1 5 2-3
Camden Society, 128 Holkham House, 107
174
INDEX
Holmwood, 125 Lindsay House, 86
Housesteads, Roman fort, 22 New Scotland Yard, 1 3 8
Paddington Station, 131
He de France, 43
Peter Jones' store, 151
Jones, Inigo, 77, 83-9, 93, 106, Queen's House, Greenwich,
84, 86
Reform Club, 127
Keble College Chapel, Oxford,
Regent's Park, 86, 116, 124
128
Red House, Bexleyheath,
Kedelston Hall, 107-8, no
132
Kent, William, 107, 109
St. Bride's, Fleet Street, 91
King's College Chapel, Cam-
St. John's Chapel, Tower of
bridge, 57, 61
London, 33
King's Lynn, Custom House, 96
St. Katherine's dock, ware-
Kirby Hall, 74
houses, 130
Knott, Ralph, 143
St. Martin Ludgate, 91
Leamington, 122 St. Mary at Hill, 91
Le Corbusier, 145-6 St. Mary le Bow, 91
Le Notre, Andre 109 St. Mary Woolnoth, 103
Leoni, Giacomo, 107 St. Pancras Hotel, 128
Letch worth Garden City, 137-8, St. Paul's Cathedral, 88-91
144 St. Paul's, Covent Garden,
Liverpool, St. George's Hall, 126 85-6
Loire valley, 72 St. Stephen Walbrook, 92
London Selfridge's store, 143, 152
Banqueting House, White- Soane Museum, 125
hall, 82, 84-5 Somerset House, no
Bedford Park, Chiswick, 138 South Bank Exhibition, 154
Belgravia, 127 Traveller's Club, 127
Blackheath, 113 Westminster Abbey, 48, 57
British Museum, 126 Westminster Hall, 56
Buckingham Palace, 124 London and Wise, 109
Chiswick House, 107 Lumley Castle, 49
Christchurch, Spitalfields, 103 Lutyens, Edwin, 143
County Hall, 143 Lyme Hall, 107
Covent Garden, 85-6, 115 Lyminge, Robert, 77
Crystal Palace, 130-1
Eltham Lodge, 93 Mackintosh, Charles R., 139
Euston Arch, 127 Maiden Castle, hill fort, 1
Fenton House, Hampstead, Malmesbury Abbey, 3 5

94 Manchester, Central Station, 1 3
Greenwich Hospital, 10 March church, 56

Hampstead garden suburb, May, Hugh, 93
138, 144 Mereworth Castle, 107
Hampton Court Palace, 61-2 Michelangelo, 71
Henry VII's chapel, West- Middlesex schools, 152
minster, 61 Menai suspension bridge, 150
Houses of Parliament, 128 Monkwearmouth church, 27
175
INDEX
Montacute House, 72 Smirke, Robert, 126
Morris, William, 152, 45 Smithson, Robert, 74
Soane, John, 124
Nash, John, 116, 124 Spalato, Diocletian's Palace, no
Norwich, MunicipalBuildings, 144 Stokesay Castle, 48
Nottinghamshire schools, 1 5 2 Stonehenge, 9
Osterley Park, no Strasbourg Cathedral, 3 5
Oxburgh Hall, 50 Strawberry Hill, 1 1

Oxford, All Souls College, 1 1 Sullivan, Louis, 145
Keble College chapel, 128
Telford,Thomas, 150
Paine, James, 107 Temple Newsam, 78
Palladio, Andrea, 71, 106-7 Thorpe Hall, 87
Paxton, Joseph, 130-1 Trinity College, Cambridge, 79
Pearson, John L., 128 Trinity College Library, Cam-
Penshurst Place, 50 bridge, 88
Perrault, Claude, 90 Truro Cathedral, 128
Perret, Auguste, 145
Vanbrugh, John, 103-5, 113
Port SunHght, 136
Versailles, Palace of, 104, 109
Pratt, Roger, 87
Verulamium (St. Albans), 14, 18
Pre-Raphaelites, 128
Vignola, Giacomo, 71
Prince's Street, Lothbury, 125
Villa Rotonda, 107
Prior Park, 107, 109
Vitruvius, 71, 107, 160
Pugin, Augustus W., 127-8
Voysey, Charles F. A., 137, 139,
Raphael, 85 143-4
Red House, Bexleyheath, 152
Rhineland, 26, 28 Walpole, Robert, 1 1
Richmond Castle, 36 Webb, John, 87, 93
Rickman, Thomas, 45 Webb, Phihp, 132
R.N. Boatstore, Sheerness, 151 Wells Cathedral, 57
Roche Abbey, 45 Welwyn Garden City, 138, 144
Ruskin, John, 132, 156 Wilton House, 8 5
Windsor Castle, 38
St. George's Hall, Liverpool, 126 Wollaton Hall, 73-4
St. Pancras, Canterbury, 27 Wood, John, 107, 116
St. Peter's, Rome, 90 Wood, John the Younger, 16-17 1
Salisbur}^ Cathedral, 57 Worcester, Guildhall, 99

Saltaire, Shipley, 136 Wotton, Henry, 160
Salvin, Anthony, 129 Wren, Christopher, 88-90, 92-3,
Scott, Gilbert, 128 101-2, 144
Seaton Delaval, 1 1 Wright, Frank Lloyd, 145
Selby Abbey, 48 Wyatt, James, 1 1
Serlio, Sebastiano, 86
Shaw, Norman, 138, 143-4 Yeavering, Saxon township, 26
Sheerness, R.N. boatstore, 151 Yevele, Henry, 50
Silch ester, 14-15, 21 York, 14, 22
Skara Brae, 9 York Minster, 49, 57
7.
176
i
I
I
i^
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RYOF

_LLLJ. IMIl IIIII III liiiiiniiHiiiniiHniHnimir i

[i: ^':^*>:^... ^m^

is a concise survey of architectural

of terms, and there is a short

For this second edition the text has

MAR li DATE DUE

nop. lllus.. map. 23cm. *^ '^^^ ^^^^^^^^^

Includes bibliographies. ^^'^Lcmmk

1. Architecture Englan<lHist, I. Title. IT. Title: Archltec-

T.lhrrv nf r!nnirr^si .5,

DAVID McKAY COMPANY INC

First published 1963

Second edition copyright 1966 T. W. West

As part of the post-war renaissance of the arts there has un-

houses, which it visits in numbers far exceeding those of the

the growth of understanding.

course in the History of Architecture, such as those now forming

CHAPTER ONE PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN 9

CHAPTER TWO ROMANESQUE 25

CHAPTER THREE GOTHIC I 4I

CHAPTER FIVE RENAISSANCE 69

Jacobean: staircases - smaller houses - colleges - gardens

CHAPTER SIX SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 82

CHAPTER SEVEN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 100

CHAPTER EIGHT NINETEENTH CENTURY 120

ipjo Onwards: the thirties -post-war building - prefabrication

DOVER CASTLE frontispiece

ESCOMB CHURCH, CO. DURHAM facing page 40

king's college chapel, CAMBRIDGE 64

WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAM 80

THE queen's HOUSE, GREENWICH 81

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, SUNDERLAND 112

OSTERLEY PARK, MIDDLESEX II3

THE PROMENADE, CHELTENHAM II5

ST. George's hall, Liverpool 128

ST.PANCRAS STATION, LONDON 129

COVENTRY NEW TOWN 145

TWO SAINTS SCHOOL, LONDON 160

ALTON ESTATE, ROEHAMPTON 160

Thanks are due to the following for the use of photographs

Chamberlin Powell & Bon (photo John Maltby Ltd.) (facing

A. F. Kersting (frontispiece and facing pp. 41, 64, 65, 81)

London County Council (facing p. 160)

Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum - Crown copyright

Prehistoric and Koman

ARCHITECTURE IN PREHISTORIC BRITAIN

continued to serve as the standard dwelUng of the Briton

I RON AGE HILL FORT

THE ROMAN OCCUPATION

VOLUTE ABACUS \ ACANTHUS

DOR.IC IONIC CORINTHIAN

TU5CAN DORIC COMPOSITE

construction sprang from two sources: the Greek column and

SUPERIMPOSED ORDERS APPLIED