Expert Witness: Victorian architecture and what to look for

Queen Victoria’s reign was – until recently – the longest in British history, spanning 64 years, from 1837 to 1901. Over this period, huge social and economic change occurred. Within the world of architecture, the shifts were equally seismic.

The austere beauty of late Georgian Neoclassical architecture was replaced in the 1840s and 50s by a freer Italianate style. The prime example was Victoria’s own Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, built 1846-51. Classical architecture still had its champions in the mid-19^th century, but a new driving force has arrived – in the form of Gothicism. Georgian ‘Gothick’ had been whimsical, but the Victorian approach was far more serious. Through architects such as AWN Pugin and William Burges, Victorian Gothic took its cue from the Medieval religious past, but the style was soon widely adopted for domestic architecture. The pointed Gothic arched was the defining architectural motif of the second half of the 19^th century – and a staple of leading architects such as George Gilbert Scott and GE Street.

Victorian Britain was a dominant world power with global trade links. The Great Exhibition of 1851 showcased design and manufacturing from across the British empire, and the increasing availability of domestic goods meant homes became more object-filled and decorative. Mass-produced wallpapers and ceramic tiles came into common use, while improved glass-making technology allowed windows to contain larger sheets of glass. Porches, barge boards, roof finials and decorative glazing were among the architectural elements celebrated in many Victorian designs. Owen Jones’s influential Grammar of Ornament of 1856 provided a valuable source book for architectural details.

In an eclectic period such as this, the very local could exist alongside the international. In the middle of the 19^th century, architect George Devey was among the first to pioneer a ‘vernacular revival’ of English building traditions. This was the forerunner of the Arts and Crafts movement, led by designer William Morris and his architect-friend Philip Webb, which celebrated craft skills and honesty in construction. The baton was carried on by architects and designers including CFA Voysey, William de Morgan, CR Ashbee, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Edwin Lutyens who applied the Arts and Crafts principles to furniture, ceramics and decorative design as well as architecture.

Places to visit

Sambourne House, London W8 (Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea)
A terraced house with furnished interior, home of Victorian illustrator Richard Linley Sambourne from 1875. Read our piece on it here.

Standen, East Grinstead, Sussex (National Trust)
Philip Webb’s Arts and Crafts masterpiece, filled with objects from Morris & Co and light fittings by WAS Benson.

Tyntesfield, nr Bristol (National Trust)
Rebuilt and fitted out in the 1860s and 70s for the guano magnate William Gibbs. The embodiment of unconstrained mid-Victorian taste. 

Brodsworth Hall, nr Doncaster (English Heritage)
A time capsule of the 1860s, ‘conserved as found’.

David Parr House, Cambridge (David Parr House Trust)
The remarkable home of decorator David Parr who from 1886 filled this ‘ordinary’ terraced house with his top quality decorative design work. Read our piece on it here.

Castell Coch, nr Cardiff (Cadw)
William Burges’ extraordinary and extravagant 1870s Gothic creation for the Marquis of Bute.

Cragside, Morpeth (National Trust)
Wealth, grandeur and Victorian electricity-generation in a spectacular setting. Designed by Richard Norman Shaw and built 1869-1882.

Osborne House, Isle of Wight (English Heritage)
Queen Victoria’s Italianate seaside holiday home, designed by Thomas Cubitt with Prince Albert.

Further reading

Built History: how Britain fell in love with the Victorian terraced house