Domestic Architecture 1700 to 1960
4 Regency
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The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 saw the beginning of a twenty year long building boom and of a new style of architecture which took its name from the Regency of the Prince of Wales, later George IV, which lasted from 1811-1820. In London large impressive terraces were built by John Nash (1752-1835) the Prince Regent’s leading architect - and subsequently Thomas Cubbitt. Elsewhere, in Brighton, Cheltenham and Leamington Spa, for example, the building of Regency housing was on a scale large enough to give these towns and other genteel spa and seaside places an enduring ‘Regency’ character. As in London, large, handsome terraces remained a popular form of housing for the well-to-do. In basic plan these continued to follow the traditional eighteenth century layout with a basement service area but the Regency period was also notable for the rise of the detached and semi-detached villa. In the context of British domestic architecture the term dated from the 1820s when Nash included picturesque villas in his development of Regent’s Park although separate dwellings had been seen in St John’s Wood as early the 1790s. Builders continued to follow well proven Georgian principles of design and construction - as exemplified by writers such as Nicholson in 1823-5 - but from the early 1800s, house building took several new directions which were to give Regency architecture its own particular identity. |
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| Regency architecture was, above all, typified by the use of stucco in preference to exposed brickwork (above right). Stucco is a general term used for various kinds of cement coating applied to the external wall of a building. Its use dated from around the time of the Building Act of 1774 when various patent stuccos were introduced; they were used sparingly until Nash popularised their use in his fashionable developments in London. Several new formulas for artificial cements’ were developed in the early nineteenth century when the use of stucco rapidly increased as means of imitating stone; all respectable stucco buildings of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century were carefully scored with horizontal and vertical lines to represent stone jointing. The simplicity of a uniform stuccoed facade painted white, cream or buff provided the perfect foil to the use of plain, slightly projecting bands and restrained ornament. For large terraces – like Carlton House Terrace begun by John Nash in 1827 - the Orders were still applied. Their facades continued to be arranged in the grand Roman manner with giant columns and pilasters although the use of smaller accents of ornament came to typify Regency architecture. |
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| Georgian proportions continued to determine window proportions, thin glazing bars still divided sash windows into twelve or more rectangular panes. Doorways continued to be surmounted by fan lights: semi-circular designs were still found but many were now rectangular with delicate vertical muntins which were either arched or angled in imitation of Gothic window tracery. In terraces, the top of the facade was finished in typical Georgian style with an elegant parapet hiding a low roof. These were either pitched at right angles to the front with a central valley or were of mansard construction in which case they were aligned to the ridge and tall enough to contain attic rooms with dormer windows looking out over the parapet. Villas were often given low pitched roofs of gabled or hipped construction with wide projecting eaves. Welsh slate was now the preferred roofing material and formed a striking contrast with the walls when these were of pale coloured stucco. |
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| Some terraces – notably some of those close to the sea front at Brighton – were built with large sweeping bays so that every house had at least a glimpse of the sea and elsewhere the slightly curved ‘bow’ windows became another feature of Regency architecture. Delicate balconies of wrought or cast-iron with curving metal roofs resembling Chinese pagodas became popular at first floor level. French windows, which were really glazed doors, opened on to the balconies or in the case of villas were placed in rear ground floor rooms to provide direct access to the garden. |
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| Regency housing represented a new type of classical architecture which drew on a wider range of sources than ever previously seen. It represented a challenge to the straight jacket of Georgian Palladianism and the first break with classical restraint can be traced to the emergence of the ‘Picturesque’ movement in the 1790s. Through the Picturesque, traditional vernacular English forms, continental styles from Italy, France and Switzerland and more exotic elements such as Indian verandas and domed towers were incorporated in Regency domestic architecture – from Nash’s fantastical Brighton Pavilion of 1815-23 to the cosy cottages of Blaise Hamlet near Bristol which Nash also conceived in about 1810. Then from the early 1800s, through the work of architects such as Robert Smirke (1781-1867), a fashion for Grecian inspired ornament emerged. Greek Revival architecture found its best expression in large public buildings but it also found its way into suburban ‘villa’ development where large detached and semi-detached houses were built with fluted pilasters and ionic capitals supporting pediments and window surrounds and porches dressed with delicately carved Greek inspired motifs. Another strong influence which appeared from the 1820s was the ‘Gothic’ which had first appeared in the mid-eighteenth century. It was a style best suited to the small villa or cottage where a delightfully picturesque effect was achieved by placing doorways and windows in ogee or early Tudor, four pointed arched openings. The windows were filled with delicate Gothic arched glazing bars and leaded lights. These styles were brought together and popularised by writers such as Francis Goodwin and John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843). Loudon’s highly influential ‘Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture’, first published in 1833, contained over 2,000 designs for houses in a variety of ‘romantic’ styles: Grecian, Gothic, Old English, Swiss chalet style and others. For the supporters of Georgian architecture the appearance of these guides marked a turning point in British architecture – the start of a ‘descent into chaos’ - as the conventions of Georgian architecture were swept away. | |
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Double Cottage, Blaise Hamlet, Henbury, Bristol, by John Nash and George Repton, c1810 |
Regency Grecian, Buckingham Vale, Clifton, Bristol, c1840 |
Cottages in the Gothic style from J.C. Loudon,’ Cottage, Farm & Villa Architecture’, 1833 |
except where acknowledged