Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1his book examines the publications that contributed to the making o small-
to medium-sized Victorian houses and their details. Pattern books o house
designs and interior and exterior detailing, manuals, price books, trade catalogues
and journals, were useul sources o inormation or the architectural and
building trades and the public alike, and played an important role in the
transmission o taste and practical advice.
Supplementing the body o knowledge already available on the history o
building publications, the book does not seek to provide an exhaustive list o
all titles issued, but using selected examples, to construct a picture o the types
o publications, their development and use. A discussion o publications relat-
ing to Victorian housing necessarily involves looking at works well prior to
18!7, as their roots go back into the eighteenth century and early nineteenth
century. 1he distinction between the Victorian period and what went beore
is urther blurred and complicated by the act that some early nineteenth-
century writers works were republished well into the Victorian period.
1he book begins by briey considering the building and publishing worlds,
to show how changes which took place in the Victorian period impacted on
housebuilding and its literature. 1he chapters ollowing the Introduction look
at selected publications in more detail, Chapters ! and ! covering pattern books
and manuals, and Chapter !, trade catalogues and journals. While designs or
whole houses are covered mainly in Chapter !, and house details in Chapter
!, there is inevitably some overlap in cases where books, journals and trade
catalogues cover both total designs and details. I have divided chapters accord-
ing to publication types as the most straightorward means o presenting mate-
rial.
1he strong visual emphasis o this book is intended to provide a vivid pic-
torial history supporting the text, in a sense, a pattern book o pattern books.
1he value o such a book, which points in the direction o all kinds o sources,
is as a resource or a wide range o interested readers, Victorian home-own-
ers and scholars in a number o elds.
1his Page Intentionally Let Blank
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First, I would like to thank 1he Arts and Humanities Research Board and 1he
University o Wales Institute, Cardi or enabling me to complete this work.
Special thanks also go to 1im Coward, Katherine Reeve, Sarah Richards, Nigel
Whiteley, and 1he William De Morgan Foundation (}on Catleugh) or their
help and support. I would like to thank my colleagues, Glyn }ones, Martin
Gaughan, Steve Gill, }enny Godrey, Gill St }ohn Griths, Arwen 1homas,
and in particular, Kevin Edge and Megan Ngoumtsa. 1hanks are also due to
V A Picture Library (Martin Durrant and Rachel Lloyd), RIBA Library
(Robert Elwall), Cyartha Castle Art Gallery and Museum (Claire Dovey-
Evans), and in particular, Stephen Astley at Sir }ohn Soanes Museum, Sylvia
Harris at 1he Architectural Resource Centre, Cardi University, and
Matthew Williams at Cardi Castle. Others have helped greatly, notably,
Christopher Christie, }udy Cligman, Nancy Sheiry Glaister, Lesley Gray, Sue
Hunt, Alex }ackson-Long, Chris }ames, David Long, }oyce and Ken Long,
Ben Piper, Alison Yates and in particular, 1om Piper.
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Architectural Resource Centre, Cardi University, !8, !0, !, 0, 60, 61, 6!,
6!, 100
Cyartha Castle Museum and Art Gallery, !!
David Long, 88, 8
}udy Cligman, , 10
Nancy Sheiry Glaister, !, !, 0
National 1rust 8!
RIBA Library Photographs Collection, 7
1rustees o Sir }ohn Soanes Museum, !!, !6, !, !0, !1, 1, 1!!
V A Picture Library, !1, 6, 10!, 1!7, 1!!
1his Page Intentionally Let Blank
1he year o Queen Victorias accession to the throne saw the publication
o a range o new and reissued works, some o which demonstrated the
continuum between needs and interests o the early Victorian period and the
years prior to it, and others which highlighted issues which became promi-
nent Victorian concerns.
Peter Frederick Robinsons penultimate book, -
, and Peter Nicholsons nal work, -
- - were both published in 18!7. Reissues
in 18!7 o earlier works by these authors also dominated architectural publi-
cations or that year. Nicholson and Robinson were among the most signi-
cant and prolic writers on architecture and building o the early nineteenth
century and, although they are technically speaking pre-Victorian, their
inuence, partly through the many later editions o their works, lasted well
into the Victorian period, Robinsons pattern books o cottages and villa designs
still inuenced housebuilders in the 180s and even 1860s, whilst Nicholsons
practical manuals on a wide range o subjects, particularly carpentry and join-
ery, dominated building practice through the rst hal o the nineteenth cen-
tury. Other books published in 18!7 included A.W.N. Pugins -
--, one o a number o books by Pugin which set the oundations
or rules on correct Gothic style, and C.}. Richardsons --, which
provided a basis or accurate Elizabethan and }acobean architecture. }ames
Collis - 18!7, was the rst pattern
book to be mainly devoted to terraced housing,
1
looking orward to the
Victorian era o suburban housebuilding or the masses. Charles Hoods
- -, 18!7, in its sixth edition by 188,
highlighted domestic heating, which became a much-debated issue among
proessionals and the public throughout the Victorian period.
In 18!7, a number o elements important or housebuilding in the rest o
the Victorian period were in place. Key sources or those about to build the
pattern book, manual and price book and which were to be important or
building and decoration or the rest o the century, were established by then,
but new types o publications were also developing ast, namely, the archi-
tectural magazine and the trade catalogue, which ultimately replaced many
earlier orms o advice. Also by 18!7 the basis o all techniques o illustration
used in the nineteenth century were present, and organizational and tech-
nological change in the publishing trade was about to transorm the scale and
ace o book production. 1he architectural and building world, too, was in 18!7
in a transitional phase, becoming thereater increasingly specialized and diver-
sied, with new orces such as mechanization and transportation impacting
on established ways o doing things. 1he speculative builder, the availability
o a large workorce o cheap, skilled and unskilled labour, and o cheap
machine-made building requisites, were o vital importance or the building and
ornamental detailing o small- to medium-sized Victorian houses. Such
changes were reected across the range o publications dealt with in this book.
Publications or the year 101 included Barry Parker and Raymond Unwins
important book . Style had come ull circle since
18!7, rom the cottages o Robinson, via E.W. Neseld and others, to the Arts
and Crats ideal o C.A. Voysey, M.H. Baillie Scott and Parker and Unwin.
1he population o England and Wales rose rom approximately nine million
in 1801, to 16 million in 18!1, to !6 million by 111, and the numbers o houses
built rose rom 1.6 million in 1801, to three million in 18!1 to 7.6 million by
111.
!
Peaks o building activity occurred in the late 1860s, mid to late 1870s
and around 100, with small booms in the 18!0s, 18!0s and early 180s.
!
Architecture became more ormalized into a proession in the 18!0s with
the oundation o 1he Institute o British Architects, 18!! (Royal Institute o
British Architects, 18!7) and the Architectural Association, 18!7. 1he
number o architects rose to !8!! in 1861 and to 688 in 1881, ollowed by a
proportionally smaller rise by 101. Quantity surveying and civil engineering
also emerged as distinct spheres o activity, with proportionally similar advances
in members, to 6!1! and 11,0! (includes mining engineers), respectively, by
101.
!
Architects became less involved in housebuilding and materials
manuacture, these unctions separating o with their own specialists. Old
systems o calculating work as it proceeded, and the client making separate
contracts with various trades, were increasingly controlled, either by using
estimates and contracts where large houses were concerned, or, in the case o
speculative building with no specic client, through building legislation, bye-
laws, restrictive covenants and credit terms or speculative building.
1homas
Cubitt was largely responsible or developing the modern speculative build-
ing rm rom 181, where he employed all trades, oremen and nancial sta,
and manuactured his own materials and components at his works, by 18!8,
he employed 1000 men.
6
Cubitt built many houses in London, notably high-
quality housing in Bloomsbury and Belgravia, and smaller houses in Barnsbury.
A very ew years ago Willesden was a quiet, retired, thoroughly rural village, a
avourite haunt o the holiday-maker, summer rambler, botanist, and sketcher
1he builder has invaded the once-tranquil meadows. (1horne 1876).
7
Suburbia was essentially a product o the period 1811!, a response to
demand or houses out o increasingly crowded cities. In 18!, S.H. Brookes
said in the preace o -- :
An Englishmen when he rst travels on the Continent particularly remarks
on the comparatively small number o suburban villas which are seen in the
vicinity o even the largest towns, and which orm such a delightul eature in
the landscape scenery o England. Par eminence, England becomes the coun-
try o suburban villas.
By 1881 W.S. Clarke listed 8 suburbs o London. 1he demand or small sub-
urban houses or workers prompted a new type o builder, the superior arti-
san,
8
to become involved in housebuilding in the so-called artisan suburbs o
the 1870s and beyond. 1he origins o this class o building lie in the estates
--
- -
o houses built by the semi-philanthropic Artisans and Labourers General
Dwellings Company, ounded 1867 by William Austin, who was illiterate, and
started his working lie on a arm scaring birds or 1d a day.
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1he High Victorian eclecticism o the 1860s was characterized by inuences
rom the Continent expanding the range o styles, a new conscious ree use
and mixing o styles (which had roots in the 18!0s), and a growing concern
16
about the direction o architectural style generally. Charles Gray, Charles Ham-
bridge and George 1ruett (Figure 11) exempliy the eclectic approach to house
style in London in the 1860s.
17
Much housing, however, was built in a classical style, top architects did not
tend to get involved in the small- to medium-sized housebuilding scene
18
and
builders may have preerred to use a style they were amiliar with rather than
risk building in a ashionable style such as Gothic, which might be hard to sell.
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- - --
-
- -
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-
-
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1he 1870s and beyond sees the move towards the Queen Anne and Arts
and Crats styles, in reaction to eclecticism and the diminishing size o coun-
try houses. Architects like R.N. Shaw adopted a smaller scale Old English ver-
nacular style, and became involved in the designing o small Queen Anne style
houses as models or suburban housing at Bedord Park, London. Builders
rapidly adopted the Queen Anne style and also the Arts and Crats look that
ollowed in the 180s, as is evident in Muswell Hill, London, where the big
builders o the area ollowed ashion, moving rom Queen Anne or houses
in the 180s to Arts and Crats by 10!
1
(Figures 1! and 1).
A similar stylistic path could be seen in the suburbs o many Victorian towns
and cities. For example, Alderley Edge, Manchester had villas o the 180s built
in the Rural Italian style, and even a Swiss villa, Gothic villas o the 1860s and
Queen Anne houses o the 1870s and 1880s. 1orquay suburbs have many villas
in the Rural Italian style, with some Elizabethan and Georgian examples. 1he
Park, Nottingham, begun by P.F. Robinson in the 18!0s and completed by 1. Hine
in the 180s onwards, shows the move rom Georgian terraces and cottage ornes
to Rural Italian, Gothic and French Renaissance combinations (Figures 1618).
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- - - -- -
-
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Cardi, built up rom the 180s, has Robinson-style 1udor cottages, Rural
Italian villas, and Queen Anne houses but the predominant style used is
Gothic Revival, inuenced by Burges, architect at Cardi Castle and nearby Castell
Coch (Figure 1).
1he uses o publications ranged rom ideas and advice or the middle
classes, to essential reading or those involved in building, regarding building
legislation, construction techniques and price guidance. Some builders might
pay an architect or his assistant or a plan or two, but many designed or
themselves, and at the lower end o the market especially, there was oten no
architect involved and so pattern books would have come in useul, to add to
the builders own experience. Advice, designs and so on, where taken rom books,
was not always the most up to date inormation available, as builders would have
continued to use their old books, or example Nicholson. 1his helps explain con-
servatism in design, particularly at the lower end o the housebuilding market,
with Georgian being used into the 1880s.
!0
Books were certainly intended to be
used, either to inspire or to be copied, and oten advertised tried-and-tested built
designs. Builders could add instant architectural eect with a detail, such as an
Italianate campanile, a Gothic doorway, a 1udor, Elizabethan or Dutch gable,
a French-style roo, all o which eatures could be taken rom a pattern book and
adapted to suit the circumstances. As S.H. Brookes remarked in the preace o
his book, -- in 18!:
1he eorts o architects in all ages have hitherto been generally directed to
public buildings, and to the mansions o noblemen, and those who may be con-
sidered as composing the middling orders o society have been or the most part
let to become their own architects. Hence the tardiness with which the improve-
ments made in the accommodation, arrangement, and exterior beauty o the
mansions o the wealthy have ound their way to the dwellings o the middling
classes. It is thereore one o the chie objects o the present work, to point out
by appropriate designs, how the residence o the man o wealth, and the dwellings
o a more humble grade, may in a degree, be equalised as ar as regards essen-
tial comort, convenience and beauty. A series o published designs cannot but
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prove o great benet, not only to the experienced, but also to the amateur archi-
tect In rural architecture, particularly, the only means o accomplishing that
end, is the study o published designs, or no local builder can be supposed to
have had either leisure or opportunity to inspect the dierent improvements
which have gradually or immediately taken place in his own country, or which
may be the result o oreign talent. Without recourse to a book o designs, the
builder must in his own plans be necessarily tame and uniorm, his edices will
but be a copy o each other.
!1
Names and proessions o subscribers in the case o early books, and details
o ownership o individual copies give an insight into readership. I proo o
the importance o publications were needed, in some cases there are very pre-
cise details about the impact o books, as in the case o Robert Kerrs Bear-
wood, designed or }ohn Walter, the owner o -, who switched
architects and employed Kerr, upon reading Kerrs book.
!!
Builders, architects,
tradesmen and the public liked to have, and ound useul, the various sorts o
written material that were published or the dierent audiences, as is clear rom
the number and long-running nature o many publications.
1he role o publications in the production o houses between 18!7 and 101
was not surprising, given that the Victorian period was the age o books.
!!
W.}. Lotie in , 1876, one o Macmillans Art at Home
series o books, spoke o their added ornamental value, next to pictures, I am
inclined to place books a well-lled bookcase is{ one o the best ornaments
o any sitting-room. He even recommended certain periods o bindings to suit
the style o interior decoration, thus,
1here is also a very ne old English style, much sought ater, and harmonis-
ing very well with Queen Anne urniture and decorations.
!!
American writer, }ulia McNair Wright, whose popular book,
, 187, has an entire chapter devoted to 1he Literature o the Home,
said A Home without books is like a garden without owers, like a orest with-
out birds or sunshine, like a house without urniture.
!
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- -
1 }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, !7!.
! Stean Muthesius, - -, Yale University Press,
New Haven and London, 18!, 17.
! Stean Muthesius, - -, Yale University Press,
New Haven and London, 18!, !0.
! 1. R. Gourvish, and Alan ODay, ,
Macmillan, Basingstoke, 10, !0.
Stean Muthesius, - -, Yale University Press,
New Haven and London, 18!, !7.
6 Christopher G. Powell, - -
- , Methuen, London and New York, 18!, !!.
7 }ames 1horne, - , 1876, reprinted
Adams and Bart, Bath, 170, 67.
8 }ohn Summerson, -, 1hames and Hudson,
London, 10, !!!.
-- , 1he Artisans and General Properties
Company Ltd, 167, 6.
10 C.G. Powell, - - -
, Methuen, London and New York, 18!, !1.
11 H.}. Dyos, , Leicester University Press, 177, 1!!.
1! C.G. Powell, - -
- , Methuen, London and New York, 18!, 68.
1! E. Dobson, - -
-, Virtue, London, !th edition 1868, !!1.
1! See Stean Muthesius, - -, Yale University Press,
New Haven and London, 18!.
1 }ones, Edward and Christopher Woodward,
, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, 18!, 67.
16 }. Mordaunt Crook, , }ohn Murray, 187, chapter !.
17 }ohn Summerson, -, 1hames and Hudson,
London, 10, !!!.
18 }ohn Summerson, -, 1hames and Hudson,
London, 10, !1.
1 Helen C. Long, -, Manchester University Press,
Manchester, 1!, 81!.
!0 }ohn Summerson, -, 1hames and Hudson,
London, 10, !1.
!1 S.H. Brookes, -- , Kelly,
London, 18!, iii.
!! }. Franklin, - - - ,
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 181, 1!!.
!! Asa Briggs, -, Penguin Books, London, 10, !17.
!! W.}. Lotie, , Macmillan, London, 1876, 80.
! }. McNair Wright, , }.C. McCurdy, Philadelphia,
187, !16.
!6 P. Langord, ,
Oxord University Press, Oxord,1!, 1.
!7 W.}. Lotie, , Macmillan, London, 1876, 7.
!8 R. Ensor, , Oxord University Press, Oxord, 1!, !!8.
! R. Ensor, , Oxord University Press, Oxord, 1!, 1.
!0 N. Whittock, -, 18!!, !1.
!1 Asa Briggs, -, Penguin Books, London, 10, !06.
!! , Chicago, 170, !67.
!! C. Booth, , Macmillan, Lon-
don 10! edition, second series, !, !!!.
!! }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, 8.
! Eileen Harris, - - - ,
Cambridge University Press, 10, .
!6 Eileen Harris, - - - ,
Cambridge University Press, 10, 6.
!7 N. Whittock, -, 18!!, !0.
!8 Eileen Harris, - - - ,
Cambridge University Press, 10, .
! P. Atterbury and C. Wainwright, eds, --, Yale
University Press and VA, 1!, 17.
!0 Blackie, Agnes A.C., , Blackie Son
Limited, London and Glasgow, .
!1 See Hector Bolitho, - , 1!!.
!! See Simon Nowell Smith, - -- , 18.
!! A.F. Mumby and I. Norrie, - -, }onathan Cape,
London, 17! edition, !7!.
!! Gavin Bridson and Georey Wakeman,
, 1he Plough Press, Oxord and 1he Bookpress Ltd,
Williamsburg, Virginia, 18!, 87.
! N. Whittock, -, 18!!, !1.
!6 }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, !1.
!7 Ruth Richardson and Robert 1horne, --
, 1he Builder Group and Hutton and Rostron, in
association with Institute o Historical Research, University o
London, 1!, !0.
!8 1.C.Hansard, -
-- , Baldwin, Craddock and }oy, 18!, 88.
! }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, !!.
0 1.C. Hansard, -
-- , Baldwin, Craddock and }oy, 18!, 88.
1 W.}. Lotie, , Macmillan, London, 1876, 7!.
! Gavin Bridson and Georey Wakeman,
, 1he Plough Press, Oxord and 1he Bookpress Ltd, Williamsburg,
Virginia, 18!, 16.
! Ruth Richardson and Robert 1horne, --
, 1he Builder Group and Hutton and Rostron, in association
with Institute o Historical Research, University o London, 1!, !!.
1his Page Intentionally Let Blank
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Eighteenth-century building activity inspired a urry o books, including new
types introduced to cater or specic needs. Books available on building and
decoration included architectural treatises, notably Isaac Wares
, 1767 and William Chambers - ,
17, much reprinted, with additions by other authors, or example }oseph
Gwilt, through to 186!. 1here were two types o pattern book,
1
rstly those by
well-known architects o their executed designs, such as }ames Gibbs
, 17!8 (see Figure !6).
1he second, much larger group o pattern books, written by building crats-
men or architects, contained untried, ideal patterns, sometimes copied rom other
books. Such books were intended to be used, or example, in rural areas instead
o using an architect, and their designs were indeed widely copied. 1wo popular
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and inuential writers in this eld were Batty Langley and William Halpenny,
who each wrote about !0 books related to architecture and building. William Hal-
pennys books, including -, 17!, which gave sugges-
tions or cheap houses, - ,
17!, and -- --, 170, spread Palladian and roco-
co motis all over the country. His rst book, , 17!!, which
was reissued over the next !0 years, was an early book on the orders, to be o
practical use in providing workmen with a system or calculating proportions, as
this is a great Labour and Hindrance to those who are well acquainted with
Arithmetick, and to those who are not ready and expert at it (Figure !7). 1he
rst major treatise on the orders ollowed, namely, }ames Gibbs -
- 17!!.
!
Pattern books were oten portable books or the practical use o the builder,
or example Batty Langleys - 17!1, and its many subsequent
editions to 1808. Langleys practical approach is clear in
- - - -- 17!0, published through to 1770, thus:
1he study o architecture is really delightul in all its process, its practice is evi-
dently o the greatest importance to articers in general, and its rules so easy,
as to be acquired at leisure 1imes, when the Business o Days is over, by way
o diversion.
Its !00 engraved designs or gates, doors, windows, chimney pieces, pavements,
bookcases, ceilings, and ironwork provided a wide choice or builders and aided
customers in conveying their preerences to the workman (Figure !8). Such
designs ollowed ashion but showed cratsmen how to adapt classical orders
and ornamental parts to any building or piece o urniture. Langleys patterns
were widely copied in London and elsewhere,
!
and undermined regional variety
in architecture.
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Aside rom designs or carpenters in pattern books such as those mentioned,
the rst manual to cover geometry and construction thoroughly was Francis
Prices, - - , 17!!, sixth edition 1768.
!
His book led to urther carpentry manuals rom the 170s by Abraham Swan
and William Pain, whose popular works were also reproduced in the USA.
Pains - , 178 revised by S.H. Brooks in 18601,
and published by Weale, was typical o the way Georgian manuals were re-
used in the Victorian period. Pains - -
---, 1786, was more o a pattern book than a manual, consisting o plans,
elevations and sections, designs or doors, chimneypieces and ceilings with
their proper embellishments in the most modern taste, his books made
accessible and popularized the Adam style. Above all, the book aimed to be
o practical use, stating in the preace the aim to demonstrate:
in the most easy and practical method, all the principal rules o architecture,
rom the grand plan to the ornamental nish this work will be universally
useul to all carpenters bricklayers, masons, joiners, plasterers and others their
proper ornaments or practice drawn up to hal size to which are added scales
or enlarging or lessening at pleasure.
A practical pattern book o house designs, well used in the USA and in
Britain, was }ohn Crundens
-- -- - - -
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-- , 1767, with
seven urther editions to 181 and still in use in the nineteenth century. Crun-
den, a landscape gardener, architect, surveyor, and manuacturer o articial
stone, aimed his book at the middle classes, among the !!! subscribers there
were ! subscribers connected with the arts o building and decoration, only
eight peers, and no architects.
1his period o time, as has been suggested, saw stylistic variety in house design,
in reaction to the long period o domination o the Classical style. Architectur-
al pattern books were a major vehicle or transmitting ideas about style to the
public and architectural proessions. 1he pattern book continued throughout
the early Victorian period, and the variety o orms it took widened with new
printing and illustration techniques and expanding markets or books. In this
period we see pattern books o a single architects designs, compilations o var-
ious named designers work, pattern books o untried designs, or a combination
o untried and built, the combination pattern book/manual/encyclopaedia, and
books on correct historical architectural detailing.
Villa and cottage books thrived in the 18!0s and 18!0s, or example,
- - -
, etc. 18!8, reprinted 18, the last o three books by Robert Lugar. Lugar
was widely known as a designer o cottage ornes and Nash-style castellated
Gothic mansions. It ollowed the standard ormat with a short introduction,
!! hand-coloured aquatints and etchings o built designs in Birmingham,
Liverpool and elsewhere, in a wide range o styles and sizes including Gothic
houses, an Indian villa and a 1urkish summer house (Figure !!). Like other
pattern book writers, Lugar was designing or new wealthy industrialists, this
book is dedicated to William Crawshay, owner o the Cyartha ironworks o
Merthyr 1ydl, which by the 18!0s was the worlds largest iron-producing
company. 1he book illustrates Cyartha Castle, built in 18!! high in the hills
overlooking the works, Lugars castellated style, with its chunky, coarse detail-
ing and loose planning, according to Henry-Russell Hitchcock looks orward
to the Victorian period. It cost L!0,000 to build which drew criticisms rom
Crawshays ather: Is it wise to build on so large a scale No man can say
what it will cost to nish, urnish and maintain. But Crawshay boasted that
Cyartha Castle eclipsed all other residences in Merthyr a thousand times,
with a lake larger than 0 sh-pools, vast hot houses, and an ingenious ice-
house or keeping game and meat in perect condition.
8
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As mentioned in the Introduction, one o the most important pattern book
authors was Peter Frederick Robinson, a ounder member o Institute o British
Architects and one o its rst vice-presidents. A prolic designer o cottages
and villas, his main contribution to the debate about style in the early nine-
teenth century was through his pattern books. He introduced the Swiss chalet,
and in particular, his Old English/1udor designs were copied or adapted by
builders and architects over the ollowing decades. Indeed the inuence o the
1udor style ran through to the Vernacular revival and Arts and Crats styles
o the late nineteenth century, and beyond to twentieth century interwar hous-
ing. 1he rst o Robinsons six books, - --
-, 18!! (Figure !!), published in 1! parts, was, accord-
ing to }ohn Archer, the rst collection o designs in the Old English style,
which, Robinson stated in the preace:
has been o late years altogether neglected. 1he high pointed Gable, and
enriched chimney stack, the ornamental barge board, and mullioned window,
the ivy-mantled porch, and lean-to roo, have given place to the spruce square
built house and tiled roo, assuming the ashion o our modern tradesmens
- - --
- -- --
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villas, with sashed windows and central door, ormality even extending to the
outbuildings. 1he great change which eatures o this class have produced with-
in the last twenty years is the subject o much regret With a view to restore
a style peculiar perhaps to this country, these designs are now presented to the
Public, many o them have been erected and the attempt has been to unite econ-
omy with elegance.
Sales o the book proved very extensive, and it ran to a th edition in 180,
with the 18!6 edition stating that as many o the plates were newly worn out,
they have been redrawn at considerable expense. Robinsons books were, as
mentioned earlier, remarkable also or their lithographs printed by Hullmandel,
the mediums constant improvement alluded to in the 18!6 edition, thus, the
art o lithography has considerably improved since the publication o the orig-
inal work. Each design in the book was represented by several illustrations,
pen and ink-style lithographs o ront and side elevations, plans, and scenic
view in chalk-style lithography, oten drawn by Harding (Figure !).
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Robinsons -- - 18!7, ourth edition 18!, con-
tained the largest range o styles to be so ar published by 18!7, with 16 designs
in the Swiss, Greek, Castellated, Elizabethan, Palladian, Norman, 1uscan styles,
exotic styles were omitted as not being appropriate or the British climate
(Figures !6!8). 1he Swiss chalet was introduced to Robinson on travels on
the Continent in 1816, and much imitated by most subsequent pattern book
- - --
- -- --
-
--
- -- -
writers o the 18!0s. Vivian was an important client (Figure !), Robinsons
other books also show designs or him, a baili s cottage and a seaside villa
Oystermouth, and even a whole book devoted to the design o Vivians Sin-
gleton Hall, entitled - 18!7. Other titles
by Robinson included -- - 18!0, with designs in the
Old English, Italian, Swiss and Rustic styles to show the humbler shed may
be erected with some regard to eect. -
-- - -- -- -
18!0, ourth edition 18!7, with its picturesque view
o a street o houses o contrasting styles, inspired }oseph Paxton and }ohn
Robertsons houses at Edensor in Derbyshire, a perect compendium o all
the prettiest styles o cottage architecture rom the sturdy Norman to the
sprightly Italian, according to - in 18!!.
Designing along similar lines to Robinson was 1homas Frederick Hunt who
wrote the rst detailed study o 1udor architecture, entitled -
- 18!0, reprinted 18!1. In contrast
to Robinsons highly picturesque eects, Hunt depicted his Old English hous-
es and their settings very dierently in his books, -
- - - -- -
- - -- 18!, and other editions to 18!1,
and in its sequel, -- -- -- - --
- - - - - , 18!7.
Hunt declared in the preace o -- -- that there would be:
no actitious eect obtained by the broken, unequal, or painters line, the indi-
vidual orms are represented with the sharpness o recent nishing, and the small
portions o vegetation which appear on some o the roos are only such as a ew
months would produce.
He added, a small portion o ornamental work, tasteully disposed is capa-
ble o producing very considerable eect (Figure !0).
A key source or the Rural Italian vernacular style, so popular with house-
builders all over Britain, was Charles Parkers -, published in 16
monthly parts, rom 18!! to 18!1, second edition 18!8, it ollowed Hunts
- o 18!7, and occasional designs in the style included
- - --
- - - -
-- -- - -
- - - ---
-- -
- -
in even earlier books such as Papworths --. Parkers book, based
on sketches o buildings done in Italy, had ! lithographed plates o actual
buildings, their plans and details, rom around Rome and Florence (Figure
!1). His books useulness to housebuilders lay in showing how the Italian
style could be adapted or use in Britain:
1hroughout the whole country, and especially near Rome and Florence, there
exist a great number o habitations 1he peculiar object thereore o the work
will be to delineate the exterior o these buildings, with their surrounding scenery,
modiying the interior to the wants and manners o this country. Although on
the Continent collections have been made and published they are general-
ly conned to palaces, and pass by or omit the humbler class o dwelling.
O the three types o villas in ancient Roman times Urbana, Rustica, and
Fructuaria Parker chose Villa Rustica as his model.
Features such as the tower, its peculiar orm is so identied with Italian
scenery, that without it we scarcely recognise the landscape as complete, and
the low, projecting roo, proved very popular as they were easily copied by villa
builders and lent instant style to even a small house. At the top end o the scale,
1homas Cubitt owned a copy o Parkers book and it perhaps inuenced the
design o Osborne House (Figure !!).
--
- - - } - -
- - - - -
On the question o architectural style that was such a central debate o the
time, at this point many pattern book writers appear to have been happy to
be able to provide clients with a wide range o ready-made options to choose
rom, as originality was not thought necessary and yet it was elt that a general
set o rules could not be applied in all situations.
10
1here was however an increasing interest in historical accuracy in style. One
o the principle gures in this respect and a keen supporter o the Elizabethan
style was Henry Shaw, who published - ,
18!!, sold in parts, s each, with many plates drawn and engraved by him-
sel. It was a book mainly about details o external and internal ornament rom
houses such as Blickling Hall, Norolk, with some interiors o rooms, a sub-
ject rarely entered into (Figures !! and !!). 1he intention was:
by a selection o some o the more interesting specimens o architectural detail,
the true source is pointed out rom which inormation may be derived a col-
lection o genuine examples must prove a useul guide in making a restoration
o an ancient edice, where it is absolutely necessary to ollow out the minut-
est details with care and accuracy.
1he book was important in establishing and popularizing the Elizabethan style
as an alternative to the Neoclassical style, Elizabethan architecture has estab-
lished well-ounded claims to public notice, and it is no longer necessary to
apologize or a zealous attachment to the pursuit o its characteristic eatures
the style, with all its exuberance and variety o detail, has been adopted
with success in the designs o several considerable mansions recently erect-
ed, such as Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, which displayed correct adherence to
propriety o design.
11
Gothic was given its theoretical underpinning most ervently by A.W.N.
Pugin. His ather, A.C. Pugin, was responsible or establishing historical accu-
racy in the Gothic style, and his book, - -
- - , 18!1,
was very inuential among domestic architects o the day. Augustus Welby
Northmore Pugin pressed or adherence to the Early English and Decorated
Gothic as a national style, arguing in - -
- - --
- - -
- - --
-
--
- -
, 18!1, that Swiss cottages were only suitable in Switzerland and
Renaissance architecture in Italy. It was in his principles, such as truth and
honesty o construction, that his inuence ultimately lay. He eected this
inuence in part through his commitment to cheap, mass-produced publica-
tions aimed at a mass audience, specically students and middle-class enthu-
siasts, by the use o cloth bindings and embossed designs. In his books such
as -
, 18!, - --, 18!7 (Figure !), and --
18!6 his use o cloth bindings, with the title page stuck on the ront in lieu
o expensive gold blocking, meant he could sell such books at 1!s each, com-
pared to Henry Shaws - which cost two guineas.
1!
A new interest in suburban housing appeared in books at this time. Very
much a working book o designs, -- - -
- , came out in 18!1, writ-
ten by Edward William 1rendall, a London architect. With its plain litho-
graphed outline illustrations o houses in the classical style, it was a pattern
book aimed at instructing builders rather than impressing clients, and, most
importantly, was the rst book dedicated to smaller house designs or the grow-
ing suburban environs o large cities and towns. Books by Plaw and Laing,
already mentioned, had hitherto included occasional designs, but the subject
had not been ocused on until now. }.C. Loudons manual/pattern book,
, 18!8, second edition 180, which gave
examples o gardens or the our rates o house, the ourth type being the
- - --
- - -- -
- -
typical garden o a small suburban house, rst used the term suburban in
the title o a book.
1!
Costing !0s, 1he called it 1he most
complete work on villa gardening that has ever appeared in our language
(Figure !6).
1!
}ohn Claudius Loudon stands out as a prolic writer o magazines and books
on architecture and gardens. His most well-known book,
, 18!!, costing L! !s, was a landmark in
nineteenth-century architectural and building publications, containing over
!000 wood engravings, and spread over more than 1000 pages, the book incor-
porated patterns or house types rom villas to arms and cottages, in the by now
standard range o ashionable styles to suit all tastes, including Grecian, 1udor,
Swiss and Italian (Figures !7!). 1he was more than just a pat-
tern book o architectural exterior styles and plans. It was a complete guide to
house and garden style, with practical advice on the decoration, tting up, and
urnishing o the interior as well as the exterior treatment. It incorporated con-
tributions rom 0 specialists, E.B. Lamb, Charles Parker, P.F Robinson, 1.F.
Hunt and 1.}. Ricauti and sold at such an unprecedentedly low price, as must
insure, to the names and talents o our contributors, an extensive circulation.
Loudon popularized the contents o books, aimed at men o wealth, rather
than builders or amateurs, or example, , by reproducing their work in his books.
1he actual production o the book was a huge eort, with never more than
our hours sleep and drinking strong coee to keep ourselves awake.
1
It made
use o the potential o wood engraving, reproducing text and pictures together
which gave a completely dierent ormat and appearance rom other books
--
- - - - - -
-
on the market at the same time. It helped him to meet his aim o producing
his book as cheaply as possible, as part o his wider aims to bring good design
to a mass audience and argue or art and design as a standard part o the
education curriculum. Loudons was extremely popular as a pat-
tern book or builders and the public alike, running to 1! editions or impres-
sions over the next !0 years, and is arguably one o the most inuential
publications on design in the nineteenth century, - declaring No sin-
gle work has ever eected so much good.
16
It was very successul in North Amer-
ica also, where it inuenced A.}. Downing in his books, such as
-- 180. Much o its mass appeal was due to its practical, instruc-
tive approach, emphasizing tness, convenience and comort and domestic ideals
o the time. 1his approach was vital in the ormation o attitudes to design in
the Victorian period, and in his ideas on the beauty o truth, he was ollowing
a similar path to Pugin,while at the same time accepting eclecticism in design.
Alongside those authors, such as Pugin, Shaw and Parker, who champi-
oned particular styles, the pattern book o designs where all styles were por-
trayed without bias to meet the builders needs, or clients personal
preerences, continued to be produced. Francis Goodwins -
-- -- - -, 18!!!,
L! 1!s, is a typical example. Goodwin had a large architectural practice in the
Midlands and was ready to build in any style, though was known better or
Gothic designs (Figures 01).
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- -
-
-
-- -
- -
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-- -
- -- -
- - -
- - -
- -- - - -
- -
- - -
--
- - - - -
- -
- } -
- -
- -
Reissued as in 18!, and with a supplement, as
, also 18!, this work was popular and was still being reprinted in
180. It drew some criticisms, however, in Loudons ,
in 18!!, thus,
In some published designs or villas, Parkers, or example, the ascination o
the landscape prevents a critical examination o the building, and the general
character and keeping are such as would render any structure pleasing. 1here
is no danger o this kind, however, to be apprehended rom the landscapes in
Mr. Goodwins book, these, in almost every case, detract rom the eect o the
building, rather than add to it. What are more especially oensive in our eyes
are the trees, many o which are like nothing in the vegetable kingdom, in
Plate !, there is a tree, the orm o which sets at deance even the uncouth
shapes o the trees o Australia.
17
As already noted, the rst book devoted mainly to terraced houses, -
, came out in 18!7. Its author was }. Collis, District
Surveyor or Lee, Charlton and Kidbrooke or !6 years. 1he subject o the
terraced house had cropped up only as isolated examples in books prior to this,
and had generally been relegated to price books and some builders manuals.
It was similar to 1rendalls book in its practical outline drawings, and
contained 1 Neoclassical designs or acades o houses and other buildings
(Figures ! and !).
- - --
- - - - } - - - - - - - }
- -- - -
- -
- -
1he growth o the suburban villa, already highlighted by writers such as
Loudon, was also acknowledged in S.H. Brookes --
, 18!:
An Englishmen when he rst travels on the Continent particularly remarks
on the comparatively small number o suburban villas which are seen in the
vicinity o even the largest towns, and which orm such a delightul eature in
the landscape scenery o England. Par eminence, England becomes the coun-
try o suburban villas.
Brookes book was a pattern book or builders and clients, ull o details on con-
struction to help builders, as well as the usual array o styles Swiss, Gothic,
Elizabethan, classical or villas and cottages, apparently largely unexecuted.
But Brookes is an author who signals a change in eel towards later years.
18
1he
--
- - - -
-
-- - -
style o depiction is dierent rom Goodwin or Robinson, gone is the coloured
aquatint or chalk-style picturesque lithograph, to be replaced by simple, out-
line steel engraving and hard, machine ruled lines, strong perspective and min-
imal scenery and the orms are Victorian in eel (Figures ! and ). Brookes
also always wrote or technical publishers such as Kelly and Atchley and his
books have a down-to-earth avour about them. As an author whose books
were published until the end o the Victorian period, his books reected the
changing priorities towards catering or the small builder, and new modes o
depicting buildings.
Nineteenth-century stylistic variety reached new heights in the 18!0s
with the !7 designs in Richard Browns -
- - - -
-- -- - ---
-, 18!!. 1ravels
on the Continent in the 18!0s (as with many other writers mentioned) inspired
the largest number o styles to date, including a Venetian summer residence, a
Flemish-style chateau, a Chinese casino, and other dwellings in the Florentine,
Swiss, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Persian, Morisco-Spanish, and Plantagenet
styles. 1hat such designs were in demand is shown by the publication o a sec-
ond edition in 18!, but it was not so much the more exotic total designs which
would have been copied but rather, their details (Figure 6).
1
1he book covered
- - --
- -
architectural theory and practice as well as style, along with landscape garden-
ing, and as such was more than simply a villa pattern book or practical manual.
Books by }ohn Ruskin, a man to whom England owes measureless gratitude
in matters o art,
!0
which proved seminal or High Victorian Gothic, came out
in the late 18!0s and early 180s. His ideas contained in -
, 18! (see back cover), and - on smooth
ush surace decoration, tracery, dierent coloured materials, truth, repetition
o orms massiveness, and so on were inspired by Italian medieval architecture.
1his ltered through to housebuilding in the orm o polychrome decoration,
created by bands o contrasting coloured brick or stone, now economically
possible ollowing the repeal o the Brick 1ax in 180, which became widely used
on house ronts until the end o the century. 1he bay window, approved o by
Ruskin, was also a ubiquitous eature o mid to late Victorian houses.
Pattern books o the 180s and 1860s were varied, some were books o patterns
or villas along conventional villa book lines, while others appealed more
directly to builders. 1here was also a new emphasis on house planning which
led to publications addressing this aspect o the house. 1he way houses were
depicted became more straightorward, discarding landscape views and con-
--
-- - - - - -
- - - - - - -
centrating on details o style and layout. Much more inormation was given on
specications, prices, specic brands o product, and so on. Chromolithography
was used in architectural pattern books in this period or the rst time, and those
using colour by 1arbuck and Blackburne (see below), were published by Hag-
ger o London, but printed in Leipzig and Dresden by A.H. Payne who had
set up there in the 18!0s. Pattern books ocused on the middle-class villa, and
many now included designs or small terraced and semi-detached houses as
well. Interest in the cottage had by now shited to one which was more phil-
anthropic, under pressure rom industrialization, rom early books like }ohn
Halls or the Society or Improving the Condition o the Working Classes, to
those o Henry Roberts in the 1860s (Figure 7) and }ohn Birch in the 1870s.
A good example o very much a working pattern book/manual o instruc-
tion primarily or builders is Edward Lance 1arbuck (editor), -
- ---
- - - -
- - - --- -
-- - - , 188. It is a roughly assem-
bled compilation o articles on details o construction, site, drainage, and build-
ing law, alternating with a range o plans and elevations by 1arbuck, S.H.
Brookes and Gardiner and Son, many o which were combination block and
hand coloured, and clearly done by dierent hands. With the numerous build-
ing societies being set up at the time, and the Freehold movement o the 18!0s
and 180s, 1arbucks intention was to lay beore our readers a Handbook o
Building, a reerence to which will be o use to the initiated as well as those
- - --
- - - -
--
- -- - } -
about to purchase plots o ground or to build houses. Designs ranged across
all sizes o house rom the cottage o the labourer to the residence o the
Esquire, but what is signicant are the designs or small suburban houses
(Figures 8 and ). Designs, presented without comment on styles other
than labels attached, were generally Italianate o some sort, with a ew
Gothic, Elizabethan or detached dwellings, with even a pair o castellated
Gothic semi-detached villas. An architect and surveyor, 1arbuck clearly
wrote or the practical man, writing also
, 187, - 187, th edition
18!, and contributing regularly to and -.
- - --
-- - }
Weales compilation o 187, -- - - -
-- - - -, was
even more disjointed, comprising designs ranging over a 0-year period, early
nineteenth-century villa book aquatints o detached country houses by C.A.
Busby, architect o Kemp 1own and Brunswick 1own, Brighton, and
Edmund Aiken, sit alongside contemporary simple outline illustrations o
designs by 1homas 1atlock and others or suburban villas and terraces built
--
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-
-- -
- -
- - -
- -
in London and the south-east o England (Figures 606!). Like 1arbucks book,
the majority o designs in Weales book were in an Italianate style, with a ew
Gothic designs. A compilation rom sources so diverse in time, type o dwelling
and method o depiction, suggests the basic conservatism o the housebuild-
ing industry in that such a range would be considered relevant to building needs.
1ypical o the mid 180s is -- - -- --,
by Samuel Hemming. 1he book has semi-detached and detached house
designs, adaptable to the terraced type, costing between L!00 and L000.
!1
A
narrower and more expensive market was sought by Charles Wickes with his
, published in two series rom 18 to 186!.
Prices ranged rom L11! or a two reception room, ve bedroom and bath-
roomed, Gothic-style house. 1he cheaper houses in Wickes book were in the
Old English style, with Italianate, }acobethan, and polychromatic ashionable
French Gothic and renaissance reserved or more elaborate designs (Figures
6!66). It ollowed the traditional pattern book ormat, with no introduction
except a list o plates, but prices, materials, brands or ttings and their sources
were given in very precise detail, and plans, sections and elevations were drawn
rom every angle, so prospective clients could imagine each house in detail. For
- - --
-- - -
- -
example, an Italianate villa costing L!7 with our reception rooms, seven
bedrooms and a balcony, had a marble or Minton encaustic tiled oor, along
with Bieleeld or }ackson papier mche decorations to the sum o L80. 1he
emphasis given to new materials and technologies, such as the bathroom, and
up-to-date conservatory construction according to Paxtons system, reects the
developments in manuacturing and services by 186!.
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- }
-
-- - -
- -
--- -
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-
Published in the same year as Wickes, but catering or other end o the
market, was S.H. Brookes - -
- - - , specically aimed at the young builder,
or Weales 1echnical Series, costing !s 6d. Basically a manual, rather than a pat-
tern book, it nevertheless gave elevations and plans o a classical-style, semi-
detached house, giving the reader an uncomplicated example to ollow. It was
this straightorward approach which led to this books enduring popularity (see
page 67). 1here was a ood o books, particularly in the second hal o the 1860s,
which coincided with the contemporary building boom. Other cheap books
included }.W. Bogues - , 186, a small practical guide o !8
pages, with designs and costs, with a section on handy hints on internal arrange-
ments, by R.S. Burn. Robert Scott Burn was a prolic writer on a very wide range
o subjects rom ornamental drawing or students (Figure 67), carpentry, and
conservatories, to steam engines and protable pig keeping between the 180s
and 180s. His books on architecture and building included
- , a small thoroughly practical book written in 186!, with ideas
taken rom the work o A.}. Downing, and and -
Costs were kept down using simple line diagrams rather than expensive illus-
trations. It was a book intended or house investors, house proprietors, men o
practice and students o architecture on style and giving a wide variety o plans
ranging rom the simplest cottage to the more pretentious country villa
and town mansion. His book aimed to give not just a series o plans but using
the same plan, oering alternative arrangements or doors, windows and re-
places, a need much elt in practical literature. Heating was also dealt with,
reecting the contemporary interest in the services o the house.
!!
- - --
- - - - - -- - }
Robert Kerr, originally rom Aberdeen, became a ounder member and rst Pres-
ident o Architectural Association in 18!7 at the age o !!, and later, Proessor o
the Arts o Construction at Kings College London. His landmark book,
- - -, 186!, retitled in 1871 as - -
- -- - -
- - -, contained !0 litho-
graphed ground plans, many were taken rom and -,
and included several by Kerr himsel. Kerr described the history o styles used or
the gentlemans house, the nineteenth century Opening with that Palladianism
which had long been the vernacular o Europe, it introduced very soon the as-
tidious Greek, became involved more slowly, but even still more surely, in the
romantic Gothic, spared a liberal portion o attention or the dainty Elizabethan,
and gave still greater attention to the eminently serviceable Non-Palladian Ital-
ian, all the while openly avowing more or less the novel but striking doctrine o
Eclecticism, that all are equally good in their way.
!!
1he plan o the larger house
had, Kerr explained, ollowed a similar path, Under the general reedom o
thought which prevailed at the commencement o the century the practice o
the Palladian plan was becoming irksome At the same time there was arising
that singular competition o contrary ideas which, in due course, has ripened
into a direct antagonism, in all arts and letters alike, between Classicism and Goth-
icism o style. He continued that: its present practice is an Eclecticism which
adopts the Palladian and other Italian models on the one hand, and the Eliza-
bethan and pure Medieval on the other, quite indiscriminately and interchange-
ably. Robert Kerr indicated the eclectic approach to style in his day, In what Style
o Architecture shall you build your house A universal question these days,in
England i not elsewhere 1he architect will generally put this query to his client
at the outset o their intercourse,and i the client be inexperienced in such
matters, he may be somewhat astonished to discover what it is he is invited
to decide upon he is expected to make a choice rom among hal-a-dozen
prevailing styles, all more or less antagonistic to each other, all having their respec-
tive adherents and opponents.
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Kerrs book also covered rooms o the house, and details such as the bay
window. His 1! principles o planning in a gentlemans house, however small
were, privacy, comort, convenience, spaciousness, compactness, light and air,
salubrity, aspect and prospect, cheerulness, elegance, importance, and orna-
mentation.
!
Chapter titles, such as How to employ a builder, How to employ
an architect, How to build inexpensively, How to deal with exterior design,
show its useul and comprehensive qualities, similar to Loudons .
Edward Lushington Blackburne, architect o many churches, and Diosce-
san surveyor to Norwich, edited -
, in 1867, reprinted in 186 (Figure 6). It contained a selection o
designs, some built or houses in a range o styles and was primarily a picture
book. Descriptions such as Anglo-Italian, Italianized Gothic, 1udor-
Gothic and German demonstrate well the eclecticism o the day and the
inclusion o a wider range o continental inuences, led by architects such as
William Burges. All the villa designs were coloured using three-colour tint
rather than ull chromolithography (Figures 707!). In contrast to the villa
--
-
- - --
-- --
designs, and more orward-looking, were the uncoloured designs by Shaw and
Lockingtons designs or cottages and small terraced houses in Portland cement
concrete (Figure 7!).
Brothers George Ashdown and William }ames Audsley, well known or their
books on ornament, such as - -
, 188!, a practical guide or architects and decorators, with
!6 chromolithographed plates, published ,
in 1868. In contrast to Blackburnes range o styles, this book avoured Goth-
ic and related styles. Quoting rom Pugin, Ruskin and G.G. Scott, this book
outlined the choice between national styles, rst revived by Pugin, and domes-
tic Italian, arguing that It is to be desired that one style o architecture should
be adopted by us in the present day, but we cannot hope to see that desirable
end attained, so long as individual taste and ancy are allowed to rule in mat-
ters o architecture. 1he book made the case or Gothic as the most suitable
and tractable style, while Elizabethan, either in its hal-timbered, or palatial
orm, though not so beautiul, was also approved o. Even the domestic Ital-
ian style, which was too well known to require any description, it was admit-
ted that, as a style or villa buildings, it has its advantages (Figures 7! and 7).
--
Around the same time, Blackies brought out a large, expensively produced
volume, a copy o which was owned by Robert Kerr, entitled
, - --
. 1he book aimed to ll a perceived need or more books o designs
or distinct classes o middle-class houses, as opposed to country houses or
small, cheap houses, both o which were well provided or. 1he book was also
a response to continual demand or designs by top British architects whose
alleged indierence to advantages, private and public, that are calculated to
accrue rom the dissemination o representations and written particulars o exe-
cuted designs, has been contrasted with the readiness o Continental architects
to publish elaborate monographies o their chie productions.
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- -
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-
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- 7 - - -- - - -
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Generally dismissing past works as collections o untested designs, with a sin-
gle plan and pictorial view, or representations historical structures and details, this
book went into much greater detail than other pattern books mentioned, show-
ing each design in ull and the considerable diversity in internal arrangements,
in the structural treatment o materials, and in decorative character, or style and
ornamental detail. 1his book was intended to be a source o inspiration and guide
to prevent costs overrunning, rather than a copy book.
!7
1here were !1 houses
o moderate dimensions, or erected at a cost ranging rom L00 to L!00, but
including some examples o more expensive character illustrated, all built in the
previous !0 years by 1 dierent architects including Banks and Barry, Henry Dar-
bishire, David Cousins, Ewan Christian, Speakman and Charlesworth, Edward
Walters, and E.B. Lamb. Examples were rom London, the Midlands, the North
and Scotland (Figures 767 and Figure 11).
1wo books came out in 1870 which showed the continuing popularity o the
Elizabethan and }acobean styles. One o these was 1homas Morris, -
-, not a book o patterns, but a social and architectural sketch o
the suburban house, with the ideal shown in the rontispiece. It was a pop-
ular subject, treated in a popular style,
!8
and covered a wide range o topics
rom suburban society, to the cost o land, and gave average prices or styles
o architecture, thus, an unornamented Italian parsonage at L1100, would cost
L1!001600 i done using rich Gothic detail, and L1700 with 1udor/Elizabethan
detailing. Beaumanor Hall, Leicestershire, by his old tutor William Railton,
cost L10,000 by comparison.
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-
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-
--
A popular book in Britain and in the USA was - --
-- - - -
1870, by C.}. Richardson (Figure 81) A ormer pupil o Sir }ohn
Soane, and one o the evening masters o the Head Government School o
Design, Somerset House. - -- was a less extravagant book than
his earlier works, such as -, 18!7!0, costing L! s or
colour and gilt illustration. Its 00 wood engravings o dwellings and garden
buildings in a range o styles, included one cottage adapted rom Vine Cot-
tage at Blaise Hamlet by }ohn Nash (Figures 8!8!). 1he name o the book
changed with the second edition in 1871, to a more modern sounding title,
-- -, and ran to a th edition in 188, appearing in New
York in 187! as - -. Other books aimed
at a popular market included by I. Marvel, 1871,
a small, practical manual aimed at the amateur builder, with advice on repay-
ing loans and how to employ an architect to draw up specications or L!0
and design a ront elevation or a guinea (Figure 8!).
In the late 180s and early 1860s, Eden W. Neseld and Richard Norman
Shaw, pupils o Gothic Revivalist, Edmund Street, ollowing Pugins lead, had
published books o sketches o historical architecture done in France, Italy and
Germany (Figures 887). Shaw and Neseld rebelled against their Gothic past
a ew years later, turning instead to sources like Dutch and English seventeenth
century domestic architecture or inspiration. 1he Queen Anne style or town
housing, characterized by an eclectic mix o red brick, sash windows, and Dutch
gables, was the result. }.}. Stevensons Red House o 1871 was Londons rst
example o Queen Anne. In country housebuilding, there was a change ol-
lowing the agricultural depression o the 1870s to building smaller, less costly
houses.
!
What emerged instead was the Old English style o Neseld and Shaw,
using pargetting and hal-timbering. 1his picturesque cottage style had links
back to the cottage style o P.F. Robinson and others, Neseld and Shaw were
also taught by }.D. Harding who did illustrations or Robinsons books.
!0
A new
- - --
- -
-
consensus emerged, in contrast to previous decades, and the designs o lead-
ing architects or smaller houses at Bedord Park, or example, were copied and
adapted by younger architects and builders (Figures 88 and 8).
1he part played by publications, and in particular, by journals, in this trans-
mission o the Queen Anne style is also very signicant. 1he numbers o pat-
tern books seem to slow in this period but there are some signicant books.
Shaw, in collaboration with architect-trained W.H. Lascelles, who patented a
precast concrete slab system in 187, published a pattern book o designs,
- - - - -
- --, 1878 (Figure 0). Lascelles houses were illus-
trated in a popular manual, Shirley Foster Murphys -
, 188!, which had 16 contributors dealing with the topic
o healthy houses (Figure 1).
--
-- -
- - - } -
- - -
- - --
- -
--
-- - - --
- - -
-- -
-
-
-
- - - -
-- -
- - -
- - --
-
- -
-
- -
- -
1homas Cutler, Vice President o the Architectural Association, and a well-
known designer o small country houses, wrote a pattern book o hal-
timbered and brick Shaw-style designs in 1886 (Figure !).
1he case or the Queen Anne style was made in - by
}.}. Stevenson, published in 1880. Looking at the question again o in what
style shall we build, and taking each style in turn, the book argued that
although Gothic was more exible or houses than classic and had in late years
the ull tide o enthusiasm, eloquence and ashion in its avour,
!!
it was
impractical when it came to grates and gasoliers, and the problem o blinds
and curtains or pointed windows. He also described the French style, which
with its tall roos was lately very ashionable, as producing a good deal o
show or the money,
!!
and on the Scotch style, commonly used or country
houses in the previous !0!0 years, as all mustard and no bee ,
!!
although
he praised the plain style o Scottish house. 1he average housebuilder had not
used Gothic much because according to Stevenson, he did not understand it,
and because he would not risk building Gothic houses or sale,
!
which
Stevenson considered was an astute assessment o the market. Builders had
instead continued using debased classical styles, especially Italianate (Figure
!). Stevenson avoured using a style which was a true and national style,
reecting the vernacular o workmen, based in the classic styles o the past
!00 years, and yet expressing characteristic modern accurate mechanical
nish.
!6
1he best solution to the problem o style was thereore perceived to
be the recent ashion or so-called Queen Anne, which was a builders
style, which combined cut brick and moulded terracotta, with curved and
classic details, and Gothic-inspired at wall suraces (Figure !). Stevenson
recommended the style personally to readers in his own house, the style adapts
itsel to every modern necessity and convenience I made no attempt to
ollow a particular style, the style grew naturally.
!7
Following established
- - --
- - - --
- - -
- -
- - -
--
- -- - -
- - -
--
- -
- -- - -
practice was the key to success or speculative housebuilding and the style
proved very popular,
the London builder is adopting its eatures, with more chance o success than
in Gothic, since it is the natural outcome o London materials and modes o
work.
!8
1he second volume dealt with ashionable issues such as house planning and
services, with a section on, or example, electric bells and speaking tubes.
Stevenson ollowed Kerrs ideas on planning, with a list o ten characteristics,
but there was a move away rom compartmentalization to multiariousness,
and a more modern simplied open house plan with ewer corridors, stair-
cases and steps, such changes were underpinned by changing ideals in society
generally by the late nineteenth century.
!
1he move to Queen Anne was also clear in cheap books or workmen,
Brookes popular - o 1860 mentioned earlier, was in its
seventh edition in 186. A comparison o the 1860 edition with the 186 edi-
tion reveals the broad sweep o change which had occurred while the text,
plans and back elevation are unchanged, the dramatic change in architectur-
al ashions and the manner o depiction resulted in the change in the style o
rontispiece o the ront o the house rom Italianate to Queen Anne, and tight
shading to pen-and-ink style (Figures and 6).
1he growing number o building and architectural journals increasingly
took over the role o the architectural pattern book, especially in the nal ew
decades o the century. But the turn o the century and beyond sees a urry
o books about the small to medium house and its interior, and a number o
- - --
- --- -
-
--
- - -
- -
books about cottages, which can here be only mentioned very briey. Barry
Parker and Raymond Unwin in , 101, stressed
convenience and workability as the rst consideration in designing a house.
In contrast to the standard house plan, which was too divided up and cramped,
and there are wasted rooms that are never used, Would it not be ar better to
reduce the number o rooms, keeping such rooms as we do retain, large enough
to be healthy, comortable, and habitable 1his book also commented on over
decoration, stating that the average armhouse has an artistic value ar beyond
that o ninety-nine out o every hundred drawing-rooms in the kingdom.
!0
Parker and Unwins ideas can be traced back to Pugin and Morris, but they
applied Arts and Crats ideals to small houses, rather than middle-class houses.
Maurice B. Adams , 10!, a pattern book o
designs, which included his cottage designs at Bedord Park and Port Sun-
light, and others by Shaw, Neseld, Lutyens and Voysey, commented on the
improvements in cottages o all kinds in the previous decade or so and drew
attention to the evolution o the weekend cottage,
!1
a reection o wider
changes in society towards a less ormal liestyle. 1he same year, the seminal
work - - - by Hermann Muthesius was published in Berlin,
giving the rst historical account o later Victorian British architecture and
discussing in great detail the houses built by modern British architects such
as Baillie Scott, C.R. Mackintosh and W.R. Lethaby.
- - --
1 Eileen Harris, - - - ,
Cambridge University Press, 10, !!.
! }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, !.
! see Dan Cruikshank and Peter Wyld, --, Butter-
worth Architecture, revised and reprinted edition, 10.
! David 1. Yeomans, Early Carpenters Manuals 1!18!0,
- - volume !, 186, 18.
}ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, 11.
6 }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, !.
7 }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, 1!.
8 Iris Roderick 1homas, --, Rainbow Print
(Wales) Ltd, 1, !!.
Charles Parker, -, }ames Carpenter, London 18!!!1,
preace.
10 }ohn Archer, - -
, 1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, 10!.
11 Henry Shaw, - , 18!!, 1.
1! Paul Atterbury and Clive Wainwright, eds, --,
Yale University Press, New Haven and London, in association with
1he Victoria and Albert Museum, 1!, 16!.
1! }ohn Archer, - - ,
1he MI1 Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 18, 81! and !8.
1! }ane Loudon, -, }ohn Murray, London, 18!!, !!!.
1 , 18!!, Cornmarket Reprints, London 17!,
introduced by Ben Weinreb, n.p.
16 }ane Loudon, -, }ohn Murray, London, 18!!, !!!.
17 , 18!!, 1!!.
18 Henry-Russell Hitchcock, , 1he
Architectural Press, London: Yale University Press, New Haven, 1!,
!!.
1 Henry-Russell Hitchcock, , 1he
Architectural Press, London: Yale University Press, New Haven, 1!,
!!.
!0 Hermann Muthesius, - -, BSP Proessional Books,
Oxord, 187, 1!.
!1 For a detailed analysis, see Henry-Russell Hitchcock,
, 1he Architectural Press, London: Yale University
Press, New Haven, 1!, !!8!0.
!! Robert Scott Burn, - , }ohn G. Murdoch,
London, 186!, iii.
!! Robert Kerr, - -, }ohn Murray, London, 1871, !.
!! Robert, Kerr, - -, }ohn Murray, London, 1871, !!1.
! Robert Kerr, - -, }ohn Murray, London, 1871, 67.
!6 W.}. and G.A. Audsley, , Mackenzie,
London, 186, 1!!.
!7 Blackies , Blackie, London, 1868, vii-viii.
!8 - in 1 Morris - -, 1870, v.
! Roger Dixon and Stean Muthesius, , 1hames
and Hudson, London, 178, 0.
!0 Gillian Darley, - -, 1he Architectural Press Ltd, Lon-
don 17, 11!.
!1 Priscilla Wrightson , - -, B. Weinreb Architectural
Books Ltd., London, 177, 8.
!! }.}. Stevenson, - , Macmillan, London, 1880, 1!!.
!! }.}. Stevenson, - , Macmillan, London, 1880, !!0.
!! }.}. Stevenson, - , Macmillan, London, 1880, !77.
! }.}. Stevenson, - , Macmillan, London, 1880, !!8.
!6 }.}. Stevenson, - , Macmillan, London, 1880, 1!0.
--
!7 }.}. Stevenson, - , Macmillan, London, 1880, !!8.
!8 }.}. Stevenson, - , Macmillan, London, 1880, 1.
! see }ohn Burnett, - - , Methuen and
Co Ltd, London, 180, 1!.
!0 Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, , Long-
mans, London, 101, !.
!1 Maurice B. Adams, , B.1. Batsord, Lon-
don, 10!, preace.
- -
-
For external and internal detailing, builders, architects, and clients could look
to some o the architectural pattern books already mentioned. Some o the
writers o architectural pattern books also wrote separately on interior ttings.
1hese books similarly reected the prevailing attitudes to style. Builders also
consulted general builders manuals which will be discussed later.
1here were also books o patterns or individual eatures or trades, such as cast
iron and urniture. Some examples rom this type o publication are given
below. 1he origins o pattern books o design lie in textile model books o the
early sixteenth century, and in the rst comprehensive illustrated treatise on
architecture by Sebastiano Serlio, published in six books between 1!7 and
11, which included patterns or ceilings and woodwork.
1
Later architectural
writers already mentioned, such as Adam and Pain, included designs or all
kinds o ttings and details, or example, ceilings, replaces and anlights, in
their works. Early books o patterns devoted to individual trades included
Walter Gedde, - -
-- -, 16116 (reprinted in the nineteenth cen-
tury by Henry Shaw), which had 180 designs or leaded windows, }ohn
Carwithen, - - -
- - -- , 17!, a collection o !! designs, each
showing a design and its eect -, and }ohn Crunden,
- , 176, consisting o !0 designs or Goth-
ic, Mosaic, and Ornamental Frets, and !0 designs or anlights.
Early ironwork pattern books included those by }ean 1ijou (16!) and }ean
Berain (1700), and Isaac Ware was the rst to claim that cast iron is very serv-
iceable to the builder and a vast expense is saved in many cases in using it.
!
Builders, ounders and so on, wishing to work with cast iron, a material which
was so important or the insides and outsides o Victorian houses, looked to two
pattern books on cast iron in particular in the early Victorian period written by
antiquarians, L.N. Cottingham, - , 18!!,
reprinted in 18!0, was the rst nineteenth-century book to satisy a need or such
patterns,
!
aiming to remove in some measure the severe and painul regret that
has long been elt by ingenious workmen, or the want o a collection o good
ornaments to select rom, at a price within the compass o their limited means.
Cottingham covered every class o building rom the palace to the social villa
o the retired citizen, with 8! designs and patterns by the most eminent artists
as may be a guide to artisans and tradesmen{ in orming correct and taste-
ul compositions, or example, }ohn Nash, and also based on his personal muse-
um collection. Designs included stoves and enders or drawing rooms,
serviceable to ladies and gentlemen to select rom, and equally so the urnish-
ing ironmonger. Cottinghams designs were much copied by ounders and
appear all over Britain, and as ar aeld as America and Australia (Figure 7).
!
1he other inuential early Victorian pattern book o designs or staircases, rail-
ings, etc. was - , by Henry Shaw, 18!6, con-
taining 0 designs by Shaw and prominent architects such as Sidney Smirke.
Many o these books were aimed specically at the trade or workmen to
copy. W.F. Pococks -- -, 1811, 18!!, 18!7, contained
detailed designs o doors, windows, chimney-pieces, cornices and other
nishings or every room in the house, according to the methods o the best
workmen in London. Designs, oten reproduced ull scale, were specically
intended to help country workmen on how to best ollow the prevailing ash-
ions. 1he book also addressed Gentlemen whose situation prevents their
having the aid o an architect, may with condence proceed in the nishing
o{ their houses according to the designs here shown. Similarly, E.W. 1ren-
dalls - --, 18!!, 1!s, was aimed at all persons con-
nected with the practical parts o the building, with lithographed plates o
olding doors, French windows, staircases, chimney-pieces, and cornices or
rooms and staircases and other mouldings drawn to ull size, it was useul
or carpenters and builders according to which
added that as this book published details in the classical or modern style,
equivalent books on the Gothic and Elizabethan styles would be useul.
Books to aid the builder in measuring o building works (beore quantity sur-
veying), and price books with up-to-date prices or labour and materials to
protect workmen,
1!
had been introduced in the eighteenth century. I. }.
1aylors - rst appeared in 1776, and Laxtons price books
began in 18!6. Price books expanded in size over the years to cater or increas-
ingly diversied trades and new materials and products, as can be seen rom
a comparison o Richard Elsams - ,
Kelly, 18!1 edition, and H. Laxtons - , 71st edition, 1888,
- - -
- - -
Elsam covered the work o carpenters and joiners, sawyers, bricklayers and
masons, plasterers, slaters, plumbers, painters, glaziers and smiths, Laxtons
book o 1888 added blind manuacturer, gilder and paperhanger, sanitary work,
bell-hanger, gas tter and electrical work, ironmonger, engineer, to the list,
with the conventional trades themselves subdivided into dierent specialisms.
Rapidly changing ashions meant that styles, prices and other inormation con-
tained in such publications could not remain accurate, and price books were
rom the 1870s increasingly superseded by the trade catalogue. 1he rst book
o specications was Alred Bartholomews (later briey editor o )
- , an essay on the decline o excellence
in the structure and in the science o modern English buildings, 18!0. 1he
work was intended to give exact descriptions
which are requisite or the contracting or and manipulation o buildings
more than twenty years ago, I began this description o technical literature, I
ound prevalent in it a coarse style o vagueness, which let ample room upon
a thousand points or Builders to exercise imagination as to the intentions o
the writers o it.
1!
1he eighteenth-century builders manuals o Price, Pain and so on men-
tioned in Chapter !, were transormed by Peter Nicholson who set a new stan-
dard, look and tone or building manuals in the nineteenth century. He wrote
!! books over a period rom 178! to 18!7, whose content ranged widely, rom
urniture as we have already seen, to carpentry and architecture. Nicholsons
books were very popular, - , 17!, was in its thirteenth
edition by 187. His main contribution lay in his new high standard o detailed
scientic and technical writing, essential in an age o rising importance o the
--
-- -
- -
-
-
engineer and new types o buildings, methods o construction and materials.
In particular, his contributions in the elds o roo construction and hand rail-
ing (or which the Society o Arts awarded him its gold medal in 181!), and
the inclusion o instruction on doors and their hinges, and windows and
shutters, served to set his books apart rom earlier works.
1
His most well-known work, -
, 18!!, republished through to 1861 (Figures 106110), aimed to teach
the art o building to the proessional and the untaught, and was explained
in a consciously straightorward way. 1he book contained a series o designs
in the modern style, or the various ranks o society, and boasted a much
greater variety o subjects than any similar work and many things entire-
ly new or example, in the design o roos, several modes are brought or-
ward or the rst time. Nicholson stressed the importance o geometry,
1he execution o the design o the architect is generally let to the skill o the
workmen i he be not practically acquainted with the geometrical construc-
tion o the object to be executed, he is not only unt or the undertaking, but,
at every step that he takes, he will maniest his ignorance and inability, and even-
tually overwhelm himsel with conusion and disgrace.
- - -
- -- - -
- -
1he many dierent revised and retitled versions o Nicholsons work in later
years can be attributed to his ailed monthly journal
, which lasted only ve issues, obliging him to sell the rights
o earlier work. One o the main writers who revised Nicholson was 1homas
1redgold, who published , in 1861,
and , rom 18! to 187. 1red-
golds own work, - , rst published 18!0,
became a standard work or the second hal o the century, to be republished,
with many editions in the 1880s, through to 11. 1redgold, also wrote a book
on warming and ventilation in 18!!. His work shows how building books were
beginning to branch out into diverse trades and engineering.
16
--
- -
-
- -
1redgolds - was part o an cheap technical
series aimed at a mass market, Weales
series, which won a prize medal at the 186! International Exhibition. In 1868,
its titles included , - -, and
several standard works by architect Edward Dobson, including -
, 18!, in its sixteenth edition in 1!!, and
- - -, 180, in its ourth edition in 1!6 (Fig-
ure ). 1owards the end o the century (and increasingly ater 100) there were
many other aordable manuals brought out, partly or entirely aimed at the
emerging do-it-yoursel amateur carpenter market (Figure 11!).
Plasterers, masons and related trades were oten grouped together, as in F.
Reinnels -- - -- - ---, rst published 18!!,
perhaps a reection o the extent o overlapping o trades especially outside Lon-
don. Larger and more elaborate volumes appear, catering or the needs o run-
ning up suburban houses, or example, -- - --
- , Hagger, 186!, edited by E.L. Blackburne and
assisted by eminent architects and builders. With many ull-page illustrations
o scrolled brackets and cornice and ceiling mouldings, its Italianate detailing
was widely copied. Robert Scott Burns (editor), -
- , 18687!, was written a
decade later along similar lines (Figures 11!116). It was a large volume:
Within the last ew years and original, bold, and comprehensive practice has
been opened up in Britain, as well as on the Continent o Europe and in Amer-
ica, in the various branches o the building Arts, with resh adaptations o mate-
rials and with ingenious appliances. A work thereore which shall present these
most recent improvements has now become an obvious necessity to the prop-
er instruction o the modern mechanic recent architectural adaptations and
structural novelties, in terracotta and articial stone work important, little
availed o, yet cheap and eective sources o architectural ornamentation make
it the most comprehensive and exhaustive treatise to be issued.
He wrote a companion volume, , 18687!.
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-- -
-
- -
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- -
Finally, in 187, a weighty guide exclusively dedicated to the plaster trade
covering the history and current practice and trade o plastering, William Mil-
lars - , appeared (Figure 117).
1o mention a ew other trades, early nineteenth-century writers on interi-
or decoration included Nathaniel Whittock, -
- , 18!7, notable or some coloured lithographs representing
woods, whereby the eect o colour and polish obtained by rst painting the
lithograph with bright watercolours and then covering with a solution o gum
arabic used as varnish. At roughly the same time, D.R. Hay, house painter
o Edinburgh, published - -
- - - --, 18!8, sixth edition
--
--
- -
- - -
- - - -
18!7, with coloured plates, which was reviewed in :
One o the characteristics o the present age is, the union o science and practice
in our tradesmen and manuacturers every young architect, builder, or other per-
son connected with houses or urniture may gain much{ rom Mr Hays book.
17
1he rm o H.W. A. Arrowsmith were well established on ashionable New
Bond Street, and were decorators to Queen Victoria, in 18!0 they published a man-
ual/pattern book, - - , still in print !0 years
later, which had many hand-coloured plates o room schemes in styles o the 18!0s
and 18!0s, or example, Elizabethan, Greek and Roman revival, and modern
French. 1hey commented that in contemporary practice Gothic and Elizabethan
were requently intermixed, and we see the dierent styles o Gothic mingled
together, and orming an indescribable mass. A later, cheaper and more purely
practical manual with ew pictures was E.A. Davidsons, -
, 1876, which remained a standard text ater 100. Ater 100 the
market was inundated with small manuals aimed at house painters appeared on
various aspects o housepainting, and in particular, stencilling, and painters books
o business and specications, or example Cassells work handbooks.
- - -
- -
--
-
- - -
- - -
--
- -- - -
- -
Issues surrounding heating, plumbing and ventilation attracted great
attention in the periodical and non-periodical press throughout the Victorian
period, with interests shiting rom solving problems o heating houses, to plumb-
ing and lighting. In addition to the attention paid to these issues in architec-
tural books already mentioned, there were also many individual treatises on these
subjects or the trade, in addition to examples already cited by 1redgold and
Richardson, key authors also included Charles Hood (18!7), N. Arnott (18),
Frederick Edwards (1868), 1. Pridgin 1eale (188!) and Douglas Galton (188!).
1he standard text on plumbing, published as the public became alerted to the
subject when the Prince o Wales nearly died rom typhoid, was S.S. Hellyers
--, 1877, th edition 18! (Figure 118).
- - -
- - -
1he interest in sanitation and hygiene was associated with aesthetic move-
ment lightweight, moveable urniture and urnishings. Shirley Foster Murphy,
vice-president o Royal Sanitary Institute, edited -
, 188!, with sections on architecture, internal decoration, light-
ing, warming and ventilation, drainage and house cleaning, among others, writ-
ten by 16 experts, including Douglas Galton and Robert W. Edis (Figure 11).
1he International Health Exhibition o 188! raised the prole o this sub-
ject, and issued a number o handbooks by specialists, or example, Edis
, 188!. Demand or the latest inormation in
a rapidly changing situation led to G. Lister Sutclie (editor), -
- -, 188, to make rapidly available
all the most advanced practical inormation, with contributions rom 17 experts,
including Robert Kerr. Sutclie was the second architect at Brentham Gar-
den Suburb, begun 101, and contributed designs or 100 houses there and
elsewhere.
18
New inventions resulted in new trades, each with their specic
publications, such as R. Hammonds -, 180,
and F.C. Allsopps , 18.
1he nal quarter o the nineteenth century saw particular expansion in manu-
als on home decoration aimed at householders, particularly women, rather than
--
- - -
the building trades. Inormation on this subject was previously ound in pat-
tern books, such as Loudons.
Early precursors to later popular manuals on home urnishing,
- } } , sixth edition 18!!.
1he author recommended I London be the domicile o the persons who read
this, I should advise then to avoid the ollowing neighbourhoods, and gave a
long list including, any o the small tenements about the lower end o Sloane
Street, any o the streets between 1ottenham Court Road and Gower Street,
the streets leading rom Euston Square to Hampstead, and all Bayswater.
1he best houses o an average kind in London the author judged to include
Paddington, Kensington, parts o Islington, Kentish 1own, Hackney, Brixton
and Clapham. Readers were advised that:
RA1S and MICE, heavy 1AXES o all kinds, the want o convenient CLOSE1S,
indierent FLOORING, a KI1CHEN below, and dingy loose PAPERING come
under the head o nuisances, that ought to be shunned either wholly or in great
part.
1
Aimed at the middle classes with servants, was Mrs Beetons amous
- , 1861, costing 7s 6d, which had rst appeared in
18 in monthly parts in her husbands magazine, -- -
. 1he second biggest seller ater the Holy Bible, it sold nearly two
million copies by 1868, and in the 1870s, its publishers, Ward Lock, were run-
ning o !0,000 in an edition.
!0
Other manuals o domestic economy includ-
ed -, rst published 18 (Figure 1!1), - -
, by William }ones, c.1860, and
- - } , by
}.H. Walsh, rst published 18 (Figure 1!!).
Walshs book was a comprehensive manual on cookery, all aspects o the
home, including buying and renting a house, building and planning, warm-
ing, ventilating and lighting, nishing and urnishing. Walsh commented that
architects and builders bills are so oten sore subjects in amilies, explain-
ing how it was common practice or architects to deliberately run up extra costs
on a L1000 house, because at their ee o / o the total cost, payment o L0
was too little or all the work involved in drawing up plans and superintend-
ing building work, though Walsh elt this was a very lame apology.
!1
Furni-
ture prices were given by Walsh or urnishing a range o houses according to
price lists o W.S. Burton, Oxord Street and Messrs Atkinson Co, West-
minster. A house with our bedrooms and three servants bedrooms, with an
income o L100, would total L1701 s 1d, a L70-income house with three
reception rooms and three bedrooms with servants could have urniture cost-
ing L670 18s 6d, a L!0-income house with two reception-roomed house with
two main bedrooms, a servants bedrooms and a childrens room would cost
L1! 1!s 10d to urnish, while an income o L10 could not aord a whole
house in London but in the countryside, urniture expenditure or a two bed-
roomed house with kitchen and parlour would total L6! 16s 8d.
!!
A trend towards multi-volumed comprehensive guides to the home, which
accelerated ater 100, began with Cassells -, our vol-
umes, 1868, which gave advice on choosing a home, its urnishing, decorat-
ing, running, the care o the children, the garden and home entertainment
(Figure 1!!). Beeton capitalized on the demand or publications with a series
o cheap guides on a range o subjects, including gardening. Gardening books
- - -
- -- -
- - - -
- -
- -- ---
-
and journals rst became popular in the eighteenth century, or example, }ohn
Abercrombies - , in its eighteenth edition in 180.
Among the most popular authors were }ane Loudon with books such as -
, 18!1, which ran to nine editions and sold
!0,000 copies,
!!
and Shirley Hibberd with - - - -,
186, which had early examples o chromolithographed plates.
One o the most inuential books specically on home decoration and ur-
nishing was architect Charles Eastlakes - - -, 1867, which
cost 18s and was compiled rom his articles in the . Eastlake
and Mrs Beeton were the two best-known books o the 1860s.
!!
1his book played
a huge role in popularizing a version o Pugins Gothic o the 18!0s or the mid-
dle classes, with an emphasis on rectilinearity, cratsmanship and painted deco-
ration, which was also publicized by Bruce 1albert (Figure 1!). It also contained
chomolithographed plates o designs or wallpapers, and tiled and parquetry oors
by the well-known manuacturers, Maw Co, and H.}. Arrowsmith. It ran to
our editions in Britain and to six editions in the USA, and became so amiliar
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-
- }
-
- - -
--- -
- -
that interiors done out in this style were said to have been Eastlaked. He went
on to write a history o the Gothic revival in 187!, at the point o major change
in architectural style.
!
1he Aesthetic movement sparked a new interest among a wide public,
particularly the middle classes, in interior decoration and urnishing.
Responding to the general interest in artistic taste, between 1876 and 1878
Macmillan issued the cheap Art at Home series, which included Lady Barker,
, 1878, and Mrs Orrinsmiths ,
1877 at !s 6d each (Figure 1!6). Mrs Loties , 1878 was:
not intended or people who can aord to employ skilled decorators, nor yet
or those who can give costly entertainments. It merely contains a ew practical
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suggestions or inexperienced housekeepers o small income, who do not wish
to make limited means an excuse or disorder and ugliness.
!6
R.W. Edis was president o the Architectural Association and designer o
houses in London. Drawn rom a series o lectures to the Society o Arts in
1880, his book, - --, 1881, aimed to show
what can be done to improve the general dreariness o an ordinary 1own House,
by a little thought and a conscientious regard or use and comort, combined
with artistic design, arrangement and moderate expense.
In particular, he emphasized integrated and economic, well-made schemes,
where design was used to eliminate dust traps in bedrooms and nurseries
!7
(Figure 1!6).
, 188!, by the well-known writer, Mrs Haweis, was
ollowed by her book, --, comprising descriptions o well-known
artistic houses, which appeared originally in the , 18801, and includ-
ing houses belonging to Sir Frederick Leighton, William Burges, and }.}.
Stevenson (Figure 1!8). Her position was clear:
Without holding up any particular style as proper or imitation it is serv-
iceable to show that every style has a beauty and interest o its own No
house, no picture, no piece o music, is interesting or instructive which is a servile
copy o something else.
O Burges house at Melbury Road, London, she commented:
Mr Burges is perhaps our best authority on mediaeval architecture and decoration,
and his own house is built on mediaeval precedent, even to the thirteenth century
round tower which marks it, and it is a orcible protest against ashionable gloom.
!8
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- -
- -- -
--
Mrs Panton was one o the most popular authors o the 1880s and 180s
in the eld o home decoration. She wrote !! books, including some novels,
notably - -, 188, - -, 180, and --
, 186. Her most well-known work was
- --, 1887, which was in its eleventh
edition ten years later:
I have oten been struck with amazement at discovering how ew really prac-
tical guides there are that even proess to help newly married girls past those
rst shoals and quicksands that so oten wreck the little vessel.
!
As in the case o other popular books on the home such as American }ulia
McNair Wrights , 187, the text is made more accessible
and readable as advice was given through imaginary situations involving
ctitious characters, in this case, Edwin and Angelina.
It covered questions o house choosing and house management and ur-
nishing rom garrett to basement (Figure 1!), and covering topics such as
servants, babies, and childrens education.
Penge and Dulwich are dreary and damp the higher parts o Sydenham are
to be preerred those who do not mind the north side o London, Finchley,
Bush Hill Park and Eneld are all worthy o consideration.
!0
It is clear that these books had a ready market, as Mrs Panton points out, very
rich people can place themselves unreservedly in the hands o a proessional
decorator, an option not possible or her readers. 1his book was based on arti-
cles written by her in - magazine, and or which she had
thousands o correspondents. She was a pioneer in this eld:
From my correspondence I have evolved quite a new proession, which I
commend to any lady I go to peoples houses and advise them about their
decorations, and tell them the best places to go or dierent things, I buy things
or country ladies we have now started a society or the employment o ladies
who will either decorate a house entirely, make the chair-covers and curtains I
recommend, or work at ladies houses at dressmaking and upholstering.
!1
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Her books gave very specic advice on brandnames o goods and where
to get them, or example, Smee, 1reloar, and Maples. Amateur work, do-it-
yoursel, crochet, embroidery, etc., promoted by Mrs Panton and others, was
a ashionable idea among the middle classes and prompted books entirely
devoted to it, such as Beetons - , c.180s
(Figure 1!1).
Publishers increasingly catered or a working-class market, with books such
as Cassells -, 187 edition, and Sylvias -.
- - , 187, costing 1s, had an interesting section on
denitions o six dierent types o dwellings rom palace to cottage, or
example, a villa should stand in its own grounds, or be accessible on three
o its our sides and will contain rom ten to twenty rooms, the book
comments that the term villa is used indiscriminately but that No house ...
should be called a villa unless it has a good garden.
!!
Sylvias
, published by a manuacturer, }.W. Shaw, Cheetham,
Manchester, with Branches in every part o the 1own, dealt with day-to-day
- - -
- - - - - -
-
- - --
subjects like cottage gardening and needlework, holiday excursions, materni-
ty, inancy and childhood, washing day, cooking and urnishing. Cassell con-
tinued to produced economical multi-volumed sets ater 100. As mentioned
in the Introduction, Gresham Publishing, an oshoot o Blackie Son,
published the six volumed , 10, whose author was Mrs
Humphreys, or Madge o , as she was more popularly known.
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-
-- - --
o the century. such as , 187!, and
- - -
, 187, taking on the role
o the pattern book o earlier in the century (Figures 16016!). 1he journal
compiled a book, available ree to businesses, listing hundreds o buyers o
cabinet goods and urnishing materials compiled rom readers testimonials,
so that advertisers will see that their advertisements really reach the
leading buyers. Ater 100 these journals reect a new trend, principles o
simplicity, naturalness, honesty, good decent solid workmanship o handmade
objects, championed by Ruskin, had ormed the basis o the new artistic ideals
o William Morris and the new Arts and Crats movement, and its wider
exposure at the Arts and Crats exhibitions rom 1888.
Catering or other specic branches o the trades were journals such as
- -, ounded 1880, price 1d, aimed at painters,
plumbers, gas tters, brass and wire workers, builders, carpenters and cabinet-
makers, and and -
, started two years earlier. Builders merchants had their
own magazine rom 187, - which included ,
costing 7s per year. Ernest Benn had great success in the eld o technical and
trade journals, turning around the ortunes o the sold
to Benn, and buying a small rival paper, . Other specialist journals
in this eld included - - was established
in 18, as a weekly magazine costing 6d. In the early 1880s, it was a cheaply
produced paper, comprising largely world iron trade news and many advertise-
ments o all kinds, rom lawnmowers and light xtures, to heavy engineering and
machine tools. Exporting and the Empire were prominent themes among the
advertisements (Figures 16! and 16).
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- -
- -- - - - -
- --- - -- -- -
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--
- -
- -
-
- -
- - -
--
-, !, 0, 11111!,
11!
Burn, Robert Scott !, 818!
818!
-
!
-
- 81
, 116, 117, 118
Cardi
Carpenters !
Carpentry 81
manuals !!
Cassells
- 80,
6
- 1!
Cassell, }ohn 1!
Ceiling enrichments 7!
Chambers,William !1
- !1
Cheap Wood Company, 1he 10!
Chippendale, 1homas 7
Chromolithography 1617, !!, !,
100
Clarke, W.S. !
Coadestone 8
Collis, }ames 1, !!0
-
1, !!0
Continental inuences 6
Copper plate engraving 1!1!
Cornice designs 108, 116
Cottage orne 7
Cottingham, L.N. 717!
-
717!
Crunden, }ohn !!
!!
Cubitt,1homas !, !
Curtain arrangements 8, 118
Cutler, 1homas 6, 66, 7
Cyartha Castle !6
Davidson, E.A. 8!
-
8!
Day, Lewis F. 1!
Decorators 8!
Doorways 10!
Downing, A.}. !7, !
Dresser, Christopher 776
- - 776
Eastlake, Charles 0!
- - -
0!
Edis, R.W. !
Eighteenth century architectural books
111!
Elizabethan style !!,
Elsam, Richard 7778
-
7778
Engraving 1!
Estates o houses !
-, 110
Fanlights 8
Fences 7!
Firegrates 100, 11!
Fireplaces 7!, 0
Floor tiles 106
Foundations 88
Fountain design 10
Freake, Charles !
Freizes 116
Furniture 7!7!, 117
Gandy, }.M. !!
Garden design !!6
Gardening 0, 1
Gate lodge design !0
Gates 101
Gibbs, }ames !1
!1
- -
!!
Goodwin, Francis !7
- !7!
Gothic
interior scheme !1
Revival
Revivalist Edmund Street 61
Gray, Charles 6
Great Exhibition o 181: 8
Grecian mouldings 80
Grecian villa !0, !, 8
Halpenny, William !!
-
!!
-
!!
!!
--
-- !!
Hambridge, Charles 6
Hand colouring 1!
--
Harding, }.D. 16, !8, 61
Haweis, Mrs !
!
Hay, D.R. 8!
Hellyer, S.S. 1!, 87
Hibberd, Shirley 0
- - -
- 0
Hine, 1homas 8
Home manuals 886
Hood, Charles 1
-
- 1
Hope, 1homas 7!7!
-
7!7!
Houses, numbers o !, !
Hullmandel, C.}. 1, 16, !8
Hunt, 1homas Frederick !1
-
!1
- 11!,
11!
Illustrations
cost o 11
techniques 1!18
Institute o British Architects,
oundation o !
Interior
decoration, rst use o term
7!7!
ttings 7!
International Health Exhibition o
188!: 88
Ironwork 717!, 100
Italian
lodge !, 7
villa 6!
Italianate style 7, !7, !7, 6, 81
}acobean style 6,
}apanese inuence 776, 117
}ones, Owen 1617
16
}ournals 11011!
Kellys price book 76, 77
Kendall, Henry 7
Kerr, Robert 0, 1
1! principles o planning !
- -
- 0
Laing, David !!
Langley, Batty !!
- !!
-
- - --
!!
Lascelles, W.H. 6!
- -
- 6!
Laxton, William 77
Library, design or !0
Lithography 116
Lotie, W.}. 10, 11
10
London !!, 6, 1!, !!, !, !6, 61, 67,
8, !, !
Loudon, }ane 0
-
0
Loudon, }ohn Claudius !!6, !8, !0,
7!, 7!7!, 111
!, 7!, 111
!6, !7, !,
7!, 7!
!!6
Louis XIV style 7!
Lugar, Robert !6
!6
Macarlanes
catalogue 100
designs 101, 10!
premises 101
Magazine publishing 10110
circulation 1!
Mantel-piece shelves !
Manuals, publishers o 1!
Marvel, I. 61
61
Millar, William 8!
- 8!
Mintons 100
Moorish urniture 117
Morris, 1homas , 60
- -
Morris, William 116
Moulding machine !
Murphy, Shirley Foster !, 6!, 6, 88
Nash, }ohn !, 61, 7!
Neoclassicism 7!7!
Neseld, Eden W. 61
-
6!
Nicholson, Peter 1, 7880
-
- -
1
- 787
- 7
Norman !, !1
Nottingham 8,
Numbers 1rade 1!, 7!
Optimus valve closet 87
Ornament, Victorian 776
Ornaments 8
Osbourne House !!, !!
Pain, William 1!, !!
Panton, Mrs !
Paperhangings 10
Papier mche designs 8
Papworth, }.B. !
-- !
Parker and Unwin !
!, 6
Parker, Barry 6
Parker, Charles !1!!
- !1!!
Parsonages
Periodical publishing 1!
Plaster moulding 86
Plastering 8!
Plaw, }ohn !!, !!
- !!
Plumbing 87
Pocock, W.F. 7!
-- - 7!
Population in Victorian Britain !
Price books 7678
Price, Francis !!
Priestly and Weale 1!
Print runs 1!, 80
Publication titles, increase in demand
or 11
Pugin, A.C. !!, 7!, 10
-
- !!
7!
Pugin, A.W.N. 1, !!!, !, 61, 7!
- -- 1,
!
1617
!
- -
1!, !!
Queen Anne houses 8, 616!, 6, 67,
7
Reading and writing, growth o 11
Ready-made components, availability
o !
Renaissance style 117
Repository o the Arts 10
Richardson, C.}. 1, 6!
-- 1
- -- 61
Robinson, Peter Frederick 1, 8, !7, !8,
!1
-- -
!
-
1
!7
Room schemes !
Roumieu Gough, Charles and Hugh
6
Ruling machines 1!
Rural Italianate houses 6, 8, !1
Ruskin, }ohn !!, 116
-
!!
- !!
Samuel Hemming !7!8
-- - --
-- !7!8
Sanitation and hygiene 88
Scotch Baronial !
Scotch house design 6
Semi-detached houses 7, 11
Seneelder, Alois 1
Services o the house !, 88
Shaw, Henry 1617, !!, !!, 6!, 6!,
7!
-
!!
1617
-
7!
Shaw, Richard Norman 61
Sheraton,1homas 7!
7!
Small house design 11!, 11
Soane, }ohn 1
Spicer, }ohn !
Stained glass design 17
Stevenson, }.}. 667
- 6
String courses 10!
Subscription 1!
--
Suburban
houses
design or garden !6
small !, !
villa, growth o !!0
Suburbia, beginning o !
Suburbs, early Victorian
Sutclie, G. Lister 88
-
- - 88
Swags and panels 10!
Swiss
chalet !7, !1, !!, !
villa 8, !0, !
Sylvias Home Help Series 6
1albert, Bruce }. 7!
-
7
- 7
1arbuck, Edward Lance !!!
-
!!!
1aylor, I. }. 1!1!
1erracotta 10!
1homson, Alexander 8
1orquay 8
1rade catalogue or the building trades
710
1rades, increase in new !
1ravel, eect on style !1!!
1redgold, 1homas 8081
-
8081
1rendall, Edward William !!6, 7!
- -- 7!
-- -
- !!6
1ruett, George 6, 7, 8
1udor architecture !7, !1
1udor style , 6, !7, !
Unwin, Raymond 6
Verandahs 7!
Victorian eclecticism 6
Victorian interiors, orming the look o
7!7!
Villa and cottage books !!, !6
Walsh, }.H. 8
- 8
Ware, Isaac !1
!1
Weale 1!, !!, !6
-- - -
- -- !6
Wedgewood 7
Whittock, Nathanial 8!
- - 8!
Wickes, C. !7!
Window
gardening 1
guards 7!
Windows 11!
Wood engraving 1
Woodworking machines !
Wright, }ulia McNair 10
10
Wyke, }ohn 7
Young and Marten 17, 10!, 106, 107
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