Georgian architecture
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Georgian architecture at Royal Crescent, Bath. Notice the contrast between the architectural style of the public front and the private rear of this famous terrace |
Georgian architecture is the name given in
English-speaking countries to the classic
architectural styles current between about
1720 and
1840, named after the four
British monarchs named George. It succeeded the
English Baroque of Sir
Christopher Wren, Sir
John Vanbrugh and
Nicholas Hawksmoor. Among the first architects to promote the change in direction from baroque were
Colen Campbell and the engravings in
Vitruvius Britannicus,
Lord Burlington and his protegé
William Kent,
Thomas Archer and the
Venetian Giacomo Leoni, who passed his career in England.
The styles that resulted fall within the broad categories of
Palladian— and its whimsical alternatives,
Gothic and
Chinoiserie that were the English-speaking world's equivalent of European
Rococo styles— and, from the mid-1760s, the range of
Neoclassical modes associated with the British architects
Robert Adam, James Gibbs, Sir
William Chambers,
James Wyatt,
Henry Holland and Sir
John Soane.
Greek Revival was added to the design repertory, after about
1800.
See also:
Adam style,
Georgian Dublin.
Georgian architecture is characterised by its sense of proportion and balance; simple mathematical ratios were used to determine for example, the height of a window in relation to its width or the shape of a room as a double cube. "Regular" was a term of approval, implying symmetry and adherence to classical rules: the lack of symmetry, where Georgian additions were added to earlier structures, was deeply felt as a flaw. Regularity of housefronts along a street was a desirable feature of Georgian town planning. Georgian designs usually include one or more of the
orders of architecture and other elements derived from ancient Rome or Greece.
In the
American colonies, the neo-Palladian style is associated with '
colonial Georgian' and the neo-classical styles broadly with '
Federal' building styles.
Unlike earlier styles, which were disseminated among craftsmen through the direct experience of the apprenticeship system, Georgian architecture was also disseminated to builders through the new medium of inexpensive suites of
engravings. From the mid-18th century, Georgian styles were assimilated into an architectural vernacular that became part and parcel of the training of every carpenter and plasterer, from Edinburgh to Maryland.
After about 1840 Georgian conventions were slowly abandoned as a number of
Revival styles, including
Gothic revival, enlarged the design repertoire. In the United States this style fell out of favour after the revolution, due to its association with the colonial regime, later the
Colonial Revival style would return to these designs. In Canada the
United Empire Loyalists embraced Georgian architecture as a sign of their fealty to Britain, and the Georgian style was dominant in that country for most of the first half of the 19th century.
*
John Nash (architect)*
Robert Adam*
Victorian architecture* Howard Colvin,
A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 3rd ed. 1995.
* John Cornforth,
Early Georgian Interiors, (Paul Mellon Centre) 2005.
*James Stevens Curl,
Georgian Architecture.
*
Christopher Hussey,
Early Georgian Houses, 1715-1760,
Mid-Georgian Houses, 1760-1800,
Late Georgian House, 1800-1840. Reissued in paperback, Antique Collectors Club, 1986.
* Frank Jenkins,
Architect and Patron 1961.
* Barrington Kaye,
The Development of the Architectural Profession in Britain 1960.
* Sir
John Summerson,
Georgian London, (1945). Revised edition, edited by Howard Colvin, 2003.
* Sir John Summerson,
Architecture in Britain 1530-1830 (series: Pelican History of Art) Reissued in paperback 1970
