Georgian architecture

**Georgian architecture** is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, George III, and George IV—who
 reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830. The
style was revived in the late 19th century in the United States as Colonial Revival architecture and in the early 20th century in Great Britain as **Neo-Georgian architecture**; in both it is also called **Georgian Revival architecture**.
 In the United States the term "Georgian" is generally used to describe
all buildings from the period, regardless of style; in Britain it is
generally restricted to buildings that are "architectural in intention", and have stylistic characteristics that are typical of the period, though that covers a wide range.

## Houses

Versions of revived Palladian architecture dominated English country house architecture. Houses were increasingly placed in grand landscaped
settings, and large houses were generally made wide and relatively
shallow, largely to look more impressive from a distance. The height was
 usually highest in the centre, and the Baroque emphasis on corner
pavilions often found on the continent generally avoided. In grand
houses, an entrance hall led to steps up to a piano nobile or mezzanine
 floor where the main reception rooms were. Typically the basement area
or "rustic", with kitchens, offices and service areas, as well as male
guests with muddy boots, ame some way above ground, and was lit by windows that were high on the
inside, but just above ground level outside. A single block was typical,
 with perhaps a small court for carriages at the front marked off by
railings and a gate, but rarely a stone gatehouse, or side wings around the court.

Windows in all types of buildings were large and regularly placed on a grid; this was partly to minimize window tax,
 which was in force throughout the period in the United Kingdom. Some
windows were subsequently bricked-in. Their height increasingly varied
between the floors, and they increasingly began below waist-height in
the main rooms, making a small balcony
 desirable. Before this the internal plan and function of the rooms can
generally not be deduced from the outside. To open these large windows
the sash window, already developed by the 1670s, became very widespread. Corridor plans became universal inside larger houses.

Internal courtyards became more rare, except beside the stables, and the
 functional parts of the building were placed at the sides, or in
separate buildings nearby hidden by trees. The views to and from the
front and rear of the main block were concentrated on, with the side
approaches usually much less important. The roof was typically invisible
 from the ground, though domes were sometimes visible in grander
buildings. The roofline was generally clear of ornament except for a balustrade or the top of a pediment. Columns or pilasters, often topped by a pediment, were popular for ornament inside and out, and other ornament was generally geometrical or plant-based, rather than using the human figure. Inside ornament was far more generous, and could sometimes be overwhelming. The chimney piece
 continued to be the usual main focus of rooms, and was now given a
classical treatment, and increasingly topped by a painting or a mirror. Plasterwork ceilings, carved wood, and bold schemes of wallpaint formed a backdrop to increasingly rich collections of furniture, paintings, porcelain, mirrors, and objets d'art of all kinds. Wood-panelling, very common since about 1500, fell from favour around the mid-century, and wallpaper included very expensive imports from China.

Smaller houses in the country, such as vicarages, were simple regular
blocks with visible raked roofs, and a central doorway, often the only
ornamented area. Similar houses, often referred to as "villas" became
common around the fringes of the larger cities, especially London,and detached houses in towns remained common, though only the very rich could afford them in central London.

In towns even most better-off people lived in terraced houses, which
typically opened straight onto the street, often with a few steps up to
the door. There was often an open space, protected by iron railings,
dropping down to the basement level, with a discreet entrance down steps
 off the street for servants and deliveries; this is known as the "area". This meant that the ground floor front was now removed and protected
from the street and encouraged the main reception rooms to move there
from the floor above. Where, as often, a new street or set of streets
was developed, the road and pavements were raised up, and the gardens or
 yards behind the houses at a lower level, usually representing the
original one.

Town terraced houses for all social classes remained resolutely tall and
 narrow, each dwelling occupying the whole height of the building. This
contrasted with well-off continental dwellings, which had already begun
to be formed of wide apartments occupying only one or two floors of a
building; such arrangements were only typical in England when housing
groups of batchelors, as in Oxbridge colleges, the lawyers in the Inns of Court or The Albany after it was converted in 1802. In the period in question, only in Edinburgh were working-class purpose-built tenements common, though lodgers were common in other cities. A curving crescent,
 often looking out at gardens or a park, was popular for terraces where
space allowed. In early and central schemes of development, plots were
sold and built on individually, though there was often an attempt to
enforce some uniformity, but as development reached further out schemes were increasingly built as a uniform scheme and then sold.

The late Georgian period saw the birth of the semi-detached house, planned systematically, as a suburban
 compromise between the terraced houses of the city and the detached
"villas" further out, where land was cheaper. There had been occasional
examples in town centres going back to medieval times. Most early
suburban examples are large, and in what are now the outer fringes of
Central London, but were then in areas being built up for the first
time. Blackheath, Chalk Farm and St John's Wood are among the areas contesting being the original home of the semi. Sir John Summerson gave primacy to the Eyre Estate of St John's Wood. A plan for this exists dated 1794, where "the whole development consists of *pairs of semi-detached houses*,
 So far as I know, this is the first recorded scheme of the kind". In
fact the French Wars put an end to this scheme, but when the development
 was finally built it retained the semi-detached form, "a revolution of
striking significance and far-reaching effect".

## References

1. ↑ Musson, 31; Jenkins (2003), xiv
2. ↑ Musson, 73-76; Summerson, 46
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bannister Fletcher, 420
4. ↑ Musson, 51; Bannister Fletcher, 420