Victorian House Style

Typical terrace of Victorian houses. Note the doors are close but early Victorian terraces had the front doors set wide apart

Victorian House Style
1837-1901

What to look for

The Victorian period lasted a long while and not surprisingly included a number of variations in the “style.” In the early days there was a heavy Georgian influence but architects also looked towards Gothic and Classical architectural styles.
Towards the middle of the period there was a move to design in a classical Italianate style, but still Gothic influence remained.
Towards the end, as the new Edwardian era approached there was a Queen Anne revival, but also you could find Arts and Crafts or mock-Tudor styles as well.Victorian house builders used a wide variety of regional materials but gradually bricks became the material of choice and with that brickworks sprung up in every district in the country,

Early Victorian

Georgian style remains evident
High brick faced houses
Painted stucco to emulate stone.
Shallow slate covered roofs
Low parapet walls, hide roof from street level
Windows and doors arranged symmetrically
Often classical Italianate features, such as string courses, arches, and cornerstones.
Sash windows with multiple panes.
Single storey rear additions for extra bedrooms
Some grander townhouses still had basement kitchens,
Grandiose front steps leading to the main entrance.

Early Victorian terrace with the front doors set apart.Later they were set out in pairs.

Mid Victorian

Italianate styles compete with increasing Gothic classical influences (see inset)
Georgian style hidden parapet roofs disappear
Slate roofs with decorative terracotta ridge tiles, and finials
Exposed brick or stone walls instead of white stuccoed frontages.
Façades feature contrasting colours of brickwork, with string course bands and arches of mainly red or yellow brick.
Large bay windows tart to appear, initially on ground floor, with two storey common from the 1870s.
Sash windows now just have one or two larger panes
Door and window surrounds become more elaborate
Manufactured stone lintels and sills start to replace brick arches and sills.
Full basements largely disappear
Semi-basements, particularly in town houses were common by 1870,
From around 1875 damp proof courses were added
Suspended timber ground floors present
Grand flight of steps to front door
Extensions to the rear provide extra bedrooms.
Outdoor WCs are provided in most houses,
Internal bathrooms appear in more expensive properties.

Late Victorian

Around the 1890’s lower cost suburban houses were influenced by a revival of the Queen Anne style
House faces had red brick with white stone dressings or white painted joinery.
In this period builders turned to Arts and Crafts styles with tile-hanging white painted roughcast and pebbledash fronts, and large overhanging gables over large square bay windows.
Layout of the house is wider with square hallways
Ostentatious wooden porches featured coloured glass in front doors
Black half-timbered ‘mock-Tudor’ gables are common
Upper sashes contain multiple panes, but wider casements were becoming popular also some cast iron with leaded lights.
Small coloured blue or red panes were popular in fanlights and windows
The pitch of the roofs became steeper pitch and manufactured clay tiles were fashionable
Most houses now featured internal WCs and bathrooms

Ornamental stonework and striped, multi-coloured brickwork

Visit AN victorian HOUSE FOR YOURSELF

victorian sudely house

Sudley House is tucked away in leafy suburbs, Sudley is the only house of a Victorian merchant that still has its original pictures, including works by Millais, Turner and Rossetti, and with beautiful period furniture, carpets and wallpaper it doesn't feel like a regular gallery. There is also a childhood room, a small world room and a costume room, which often house temporary displays, and tearooms. Admission is free
Mossley Hill Road | Aigburth, Liverpool L18 8BX, England
Sudley House

Victorian -The Boathouse

The Boathouse is in Laugharne, Wales, and where the poet Dylan Thomas lived with his family between 1949 and 1953, the last four years of his life. It was in this house that he wrote many major pieces. The house is set in a cliff overlooking the Tâf Estuary.
The Boathouse is now owned by the Carmarthenshire County Council and serves as a museum. It is open to the public for most of the year. It is a 10 minute walk from the centre of Laugharne along Dylan’s Walk, passing the Writing Shed which can be viewed from the pathway.
Dylan Thomas Boathouse, Dylan's Walk, Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, SA33 4S

victorian leighton house museum

Leighton House Museum is the former home of the Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). The only purpose-built studio-house open to the public in the United Kingdom, it is one of the most remarkable buildings of the nineteenth century, containing a fascinatingcollection of paintings and sculpture by Leighton and his contemporaries.

Victorian - Cragside

Discover the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. It is crammed full of ingenious gadgets – most of them still working. The gardens are incredible. One of the largest rock gardens in Europe leads down to the Iron Bridge, which in turn leads to the formal garden.
Cragside

Sash bay window but bay is only on ground floor

Painted stucco to emulate stone.

Built in 1870 this is a good example of classical Italianate style

Victorian
Italianate v Gothic

By the time we reach the mid-Victorian period, house builders and designers were moving away from the Georgian emphasis on symmetry and had turned their attention to Gothic or neo classist Italianate styles. Inevitably, house designers and builders merged these styles and by the mid 19TH century you could see mixtures of Italianate and Gothic on many streets
GOTHIC FEATURES
Inspired by the architecture of medieval churches you can find buildings of this period with pointed arches over the doors and windows, pointed gable walls, carved or moulded bargeboards and sometimes stained glass.
Roofs were steep and slate covered and can sometimes be seen with small towers reminiscent of churches with the occasional gargoyle. Gothic columns surround bay windows and front porches. Brickwork was often in contrasting colours.
ITALIANATE FEATURES
Loosely based on the design of Roman villas, the roofs were shallower hipped with big overhanging eaves supported on brackets. Windows–often paired-were built within brick built brick arches. The bay windows had Roman columns. The brickwork was far more flamboyant and had contrasting brick features and bands of red and yellow.