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Welwyn Garden City

A Miniature History of the English House

Author:   J. M. Richards

Published: 1938 (first edition, second impression) by The Architectural Press

Format: Hardback 9" by 6" with 172 pages
 

  Cover

This book is illustrated with 76 black and white photographs and 10 plans of houses through the ages, arranged nearly chronologically, the earliest being a priest's cell at Dingle, Ireland dated 700 AD, and the most recent being an a house with a flat roof near Kingston, Surrey, architect E. Maxwell Fry, dated 1937. With each picture comes a paragraph of text. The author explains at the beginning that most of the pictures are taken from Nathaniel Lloyd's "History of the English House". The penultimate picture is of a house at Welwyn Garden City of 1927, architect C. H. James.
 

It should be said right away that most of the illustrations in this book are taken from the late Nathaniel Lloyd's "History of the English House." That, as the standard work on the subject, is not likely to be superseded. Its comprehensiveness, however, and the intensive scholarship its late author brought to its compilation, necessitated a format which militates to some degree against its convenient use as a handbook; and it was the suggestion of the publishers that the immense amount of material contained in the book might be drawn upon for the purpose of making a very much smaller and greatly simplified version which might have its own more popular usefulness.

This book consists therefore of a selected series of illustrations, largely taken from the aforementioned work, to which some brief notes are added to help them tell the history of English domestic architecture. For the chapter and verse that give the history its authority the reader must, of course, refer back to Nathaniel Lloyd.

In one respect the ground covered is a little different from that covered in Nathaniel Lloyd's history: the present work has been continued up to date. The parent work finished with the end of the Regency period, except for a few Early Victorian examples which were included to indicate the trend of the nineteenth century. The author was quite right not to go further, for a definitive history cannot be written until sufficient time has elapsed to allow the subject to fall into its proper perspective. In the case of a simple handbook, however, that is concerned as much with the facts of history as with their causes and significance, to link the past with the present day by emphasizing that which is still within the period of our own memories is one way of making the distant past more real. The most recent history has in any case the greatest importance as it is out of it that our present usage is in process of evolving. Accordingly, equivalent illustrations have been added to those borrowed from Nathaniel Lloyd to cover the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth.

A word should be said about the purpose of this book. A handbook about architecture in such a simple form serves chiefly as an aid to the identification and dating of examples, but the obvious danger of such simplification is that it easily degenerates into a formula. There is little virtue in being able to say: "thin window-bars — that means late Georgian," or "cast-iron balconies — early Victorian." Such guide-book labels need to be given vitality by an understanding of their meaning. In the notes that form the text of this book a definite attempt has been made, while still giving the essential information about the characteristic details of each period, to explain the evolution of the English house not as a series of unaccountable changes in design, but as a series of effects traceable to comprehensible human causes, whether of the nature of changes in habits of living, in fashions of taste, in available materials or in building technique.

In regarding architecture thus as a material manifestation of social life, the documentary value of the continuous tradition seen in the English house can be fully appreciated.

Finally, it should hardly be necessary to say that this little book could not have been compiled without the kind permission of the Trustees of the late Nathaniel Lloyd to use his work as a quarry of illustrations and information.

J. M. R.

Below are some random pages from the book
and also the house in Welwyn Garden City

Synyards, another hall house, shows by contrast with Cothay Manor the differences that local materials and craftsmanship were bringing to architectural style. Somerset is a stone county and its building style was closely allied to that of the builders of earlier mediæval fortifications who imported stone for its strength. In Kent, where stone was lacking, a timber style was evolved based on the tradition of the peasants' huts and barns. The timber frame was filled with wattle and plaster. Synyards had a floor inserted in the late sixteenth century to make two storeys out of the original great hall, which occupied the whole of the recessed centre portion; but the exterior remains little altered. The gable and chimneys are seventeenth century.
 

The great country mansion of the same period as the town house just described was casually designed, with a confusion of roofs, towers and twisted brick chimneys that made houses like Compton Wynyates the model that architects returned to when picturesqueness came to be sought after — see page 61 [see 1870 Cragside, below]. In the sixteenth century Compton Wynyates was encircled by a moat, and these country mansions often retained a considerable amount of military character, though more as a form of heraldic display than from necessity. Cowdray, for example, illustrates a common plan, which consists of a courtyard, into which look the principal rooms, entered by a monumental gateway. The contrast between the architecture of Cowdray and that of Moreton Old Hall, a manor-house of slightly later date, indicates again the differences that local materials and craftsmanship were responsible for. Moreton Old Hall is a fine example of the half-timber work that evolved in regions where stone was not economical to use — particularly in Herefordshire and Cheshire. The timber frame, which rested on a stone base to raise it sufficiently above the ground to preserve the wood, was filled in with lathing and plaster. In other parts of the country brickwork ("brick-nogging") was used as infilling. Gable barge-boards and other details were here richly decorated, but often the only decoration was the geometrical pattern contrived from the timbers themselves.
 

By the end of the sixteenth century ordinary building construction was sufficiently substantial for a number of more homely houses to have survived (very few so-called mediæval cottages are of an earlier date than the middle of the century). This farmhouse has the usual timber-frame construction and a characteristic Kentish moulded brick chimney. The chief differences between the construction of this period and earlier half-timber work is that large rectangular panels filled with plaster have replaced the more closely-spaced timbers of the fifteenth century. Compare this house, for example, with that shown on page 17 [see 1490 Synyards, above].
 

Typical country and town houses of the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the rules for mastery of the new architectural language had been disseminated among builders in all parts. The former shows the white-painted wooden cornice that had superseded the former projecting eaves, the steep pitched roof and dormer windows finished with lead flashings, and the elaborate hooded doorway. It can be seen in the picture that this house, being in a country district, retains on the upper floor the old leaded casement windows, but the lower floor has sash windows, which were introduced during the latter part of the seventeenth century and were by now in common use. The town houses show the enrichment usually concentrated on the door, leaving the plain windows to get their effect by repetition along the street, an effect which is assisted by the practice of lining the reveals of the windows with white plaster, as in the example on the right. In the other example the woodwork of the flat-headed windows is set back only one inch from the Wall surface, a tendency of this period which was stopped by an Act of Parliament of 1709 requiring all windows in London to be set back four and a half inches and to have arched heads.
 

The early nineteenth-century or "Regency" period saw the terrace house reach its greatest simplicity. The whole house was now stuccoed and painted; cornices had been replaced by plain projecting bands; cast iron was replacing wrought iron. The window awnings in this example are a little later in date than the rest of the house. The villa plan illustrated was the prevailing type from the beginning of the nineteenth century for over fifty years.
 

The Victorian period was one of many revivals of past styles, which followed the fashion for research into the antique and was accompanied by a general decline in standards of taste as a result of the break-up of the old order of society in the new industrial age. The interest of the architects after the death of Soane was towards the picturesque, so that, although the "battle of the styles" between Gothic and Classical was very bitter, each school showed the same preference for broken outlines instead of simple masses. The Gothic style was partly inspired by the literary fashion set by Sir Walter Scott, but chiefly by the religious movement for "christianizing" the architecture of churches. Augustus Pugin, who was this school's chief exponent and propagandist, published an influential book, Contrasts, advocating a return to structural design as distinct from the design of façades. He designed the elaborate Gothic composition illustrated. Though its exterior is effective, its interior is inconveniently planned and poorly lighted. Pugin also designed the Gothic detail of the Houses of Parliament.
 

The second phase of the Gothic revival was largely inspired by the writings of John Ruskin. It derived its details from foreign styles, notably from mediæval Italian architecture, which was eulogized by Ruskin in his book Stones of Venice. Architects delighted in mixtures of many materials, and originated such forms of ornament as the red and yellow striped brickwork and the tiled or metal roof crestings that survived for some years among suburban builders. An alternative Gothic style was that of French mediæval architecture, which was made fashionable by the writings of Viollet-le-Duc. Minley Manor is based on the style of a French château of the time of Louis Xl. The Gothic styles of this period were just as much a foreign importation as the Classical, contrasting with the English mediæval revival of the period of Pugin (page 54 [see 1837 Scarisbrick Hall, above]).
 

Cheap transport encouraged the complete breakdown of the old tradition of regional building in local materials. The plan illustrated is of a typical small private house of this period, showing the thick walls, dark passages, and numerous badly-shaped rooms. It can be contrasted with the plan on page 50 [see 1823, above], in which the disposition was both efficient and capable of simple standardization and the window space was as large as the construction methods allowed. The multiplication of rooms in the smaller house is another sign of middle-class aspiration towards the elaborate accommodation of the grand mansion.
 

The smaller house of the mid-Victorian period (see the plan on page 56 [see 1858-62, above]) indicates the individualist tendency that preferred the detached house in imitation of the country manor to the handsome squares and terraces of a century — or even half a century — earlier. Where the continuity of the street remained, the façade was broken up by tiers of bay windows of the favourite angular shape. Materials were a hard grey or red brick, with trimmings of stucco in Gothic or Renaissance style, and high-pitched ornamental roofs. Plate glass is used in the windows in large panes which, though justifiable on practical grounds, combine badly with the diminutive scale and the stylistic detail of the rest of the house.
 

Following the pioneer work of William Morris, Norman Shaw built a number of country houses that returned to the tradition of the English manor-house. These were picturesque in conception and rambling in plan, and employed a great variety of materials, but always according to the traditional rustic usage that was now being appreciated anew. Compare the top picture with Compton Wynyates (page 20 [see 1525, above]). Norman Shaw was the chief originator of the style known as "Queen Anne" (a misnomer, as much of its inspiration was taken from Jacobean and Stuart buildings: the house in the lower picture belongs to its later Renaissance phase).
 

After the Great War a new Georgian revival succeeded the Tudor style of the generation before. It is notable for greater simplicity, aiming at charm and dignity instead of at picturesqueness. The Georgian framework being essentially rational and a logical form for the small house, the period character lies only in the manner of the details and in the proportions. The small house no longer apes the form of the house of grander scale. The example illustrated is from Welwyn, which is also typical of the domestic town planning of the twentieth century. The spread-out garden suburb type of development, which showed itself first in Norman Shaw's Bedford Park already mentioned, came as a reaction from the closely packed horrors the Victorians had made of their towns, but resulted in the loss of the compact unity of the eighteenth-century street.
 

For those who want to study further the subject that has been very briefly summarized in the preceding pages the following is a list of the principal books available, in addition to Nathaniel Lloyd's History of the English House (Architectural Press, 1931) on which the first portion of this book is based. The books are arranged alphabetically according to authors' names after classification under three general headings.

1. GENERAL BACKGROUND

Bayne-Powell, Rosamund. English Country Life in the Eighteenth Century and Eighteenth-Century London Life (John Murray, 1935 and 1937).

Benson, Edwin. Life in a Mediæval City, Illustrated by York in the Fifteenth Century (S.P.C.K., 1920).

Chancellor, E. Beresford. The Eighteenth Century in London: Its Social Life and Arts and Life in Regency and Early Victorian Times (Batsford, 1933).

Coulton, C. G. Social Life in Britain and The Mediæval Village (Cambridge University Press, 1921 and 1925).

Finch, W. C. Life in Rural England (Batsford, 1928).

George, M. Dorothy. England in Transition (Routledge, 1931).

Hartley, Dorothy, and Elliot, Margaret M. Life and Work of the People of England. Two volumes (Batsford, 1931).

Hussey, Christopher. The Picturesque (Putnam, 1927).

Lethaby, W. R. Form in Civilization (Oxford University Press, 1927).

Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilization (Routledge, 1934) and The Culture of Cities (New York, 1938).

Quennell, Marjorie and C. H. B. A History of Everyday Things in England. Four volumes: Vols. 1 and 2, 1066-1799; Vol. 3, 1733-1851; Vol. 4, 1851-1934 (Batsford, 1930-34).

Richardson, A. E. Georgian England (Batsford, 1931).

Salzman, L. F. England in Tudor Times (Batsford, 1926).

Steegmann, John. The Rule of Taste from George I to George IV (Macmillan, 1937).

Trevelyan, G. M. A History of England. Three volumes (Longmans, 1926).

Williams, Ellis A., and Fisher, F. J. A History of English Life, Political and Social (Methuen, 1936).

Young, G. M. (edited by). Early Victorian England. Two volumes (Oxford University Press, 193/L).

2. ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUND (including furniture and decoration)

Andrews, Francis B. The Mediæval Builder and His Methods (Oxford University Press, 1925).

Bauer, Catherine. Modern Housing (New York, 1934).

Belcher, John, and Macartney, Mervyn. Later Renaissance Architecture in England. Two volumes (Batsford, 1901).

Bertram, Anthony. The House a Machine for Living (Black, 1935).

Betjeman, John. Ghastly Good Taste (Chapman and Hall, 1933).

Blomfield, R. E. A Short History of Renaissance Architecture in England (Bell, 1914).

Bolton, Arthur T. The Work of Sir John Soane (Country Life, 1924).

Briggs, M. S. A Short History of the Building Crafts (Oxford University Press, 1925).

Clark, Kennfith. The Gothic Revival (Constable, 1928).

Cotchett, Lucretia Eddy. The Evolution of Furniture (Batsford, 1938).

Eastlake, C. L. History of the Gothic Revival (Longmans, Green and Co., 1872).

Ellwood, G. M. English Furniture and Decoration, 1680-1800 (Batsford, 1933).

Gibberd, Frederick. The Architecture of England from Norman Times to the Present Day (Architectural Press, 1938).

Godfrey, Walter H. The Story of Architecture in England (Batsford, 1931).

Gotch, J. A. Architecture of the Renaissance in England. Two Volumes (Batsford, 1894); Early Renaissance Architecture in England (Batsford, 1901); Inigo Jones (Methuen, 1928).

Howard, Ebenezer. Garden Cities of Tomorrow (Sonnenschein, first published as Tomorrow in 1898, 1902).

Innocent, C. F. The Development of English Building Construction (Cambridge, 1916).

Jourdain, M. English Interiors in Smaller Houses, from the Restoration to the Regency: 1660-1830 (Batsford, 1923).

Lancaster, Osbert. Pillar to Post: the Pocket Lamp of Architecture (John Murray, 1938).

Lenygon, F., and Jourdain, M. English Decoration and Furniture from Tudor Times to the Nineteenth Century. Four volumes: Early Renaissance, 1500-1650; Stuart and Georgian Decoration, 1660-1770; Stuart and Georgian Furniture, 1660-1770; Later Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century, 1750-1820 (Batsford, 1914-24).

Lethaby, W. R. Philip Webb and His Work (Oxford University Press, 1935).

Lloyd, Nathaniel. A History of English Brickwork (H. G. Montgomery, new edition, 1935).

Mackail, J. W. Life of William Morris (Longmans, 1922).

Pevsner, Nikolaus. Pioneers of the Modern Movement (Faber and Faber, 1936).

Richardson, A. E., and Gill, C. Regional Architecture of the West of England (Benn, 1924).

Sharp, Thomas. Town and Countryside (Oxford University Press, 1937).

Stratton, Arthur. The English Interior (Batsford, 1920).

Summerson, John. John Nash: Architect to King George IV (Allen and Unwin, 1935).

Trappes-Lomax, M. Pugin (Sheed and Ward, 1932).

Weaver, Lawrence. Sir Christopher Wren (Country Life, 1923).

Webb, Geoffrey. Wren (Duckworth, 1937).

3. THE ENGLISH HOUSE

GENERAL

Addy, S. O. (revised and enlarged by John Summerson). The Evolution of the English House (Allen and Unwin, 1933).

Batsford, Harry and Fry, Charles. The English Cottage (Batsford, 1938).

Bemis, A. F. The Evolving House. Three volumes (Cambridge, U.S.A., 1933-36).

Boumphrey, Geoffrey. Your House and Mine (Allen and Unwin, 1938).

Gotch, J. A. The Growth of the English House (Batsford, 1928, second edition).

Helm, W. H. Homes of the Past: A Sketch of Domestic Building and Life in England from the Norman to the Georgian Age (New York, 1921).

Jones, Sydney R. English Village Homes (Batsford, 1936).

Oliver, Basil. The Cottages of England (Batsford, 1929).

Powys, A. R. The English House (Benn, 1929).

Tipping, H. Avray. English Homes. Nine volumes (Country Life, 1921).

MEDIÆVAL

Braun, H. The English Castle (Batsford, 1936).

Parker and Turner. Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages (Batsford, 1853).

Thompson, A. Hamilton. Military Architecture in England during the Middle Ages (Frowde, 1912).

TUDOR, JACOBEAN AND GEORGIAN

Bolton, Arthur T. The Architecture of Robert and James Adam. Two volumes (Country Life, 1922).

Field and Bunney. English Domestic Architecture of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Batsford, 1928).

Garner and Stratton. The Domestic Architecture of England during the Tudor Period. Two volumes (Batsford, 1929, new edition).

Gotch, J. A. The English Home from Charles I to George IV (Batsford, 1919).

Green, Mowbray A. The Eighteenth-Century Architecture of Bath (Gregory, 1904).

Ramsey, S. C. Small Houses of the Late Georgian Period. Two volumes (Architectural Press, 1919).

Richardson and Eberlein. The Smaller English House of the Later Renaissance (Batsford, 1925).

LATER NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES

McGrath, Raymond. Twentieth-Century Houses (Faber and Faber, 1924).

Muthesius, von Hermann. Das Englische Haus (Wasmuth, Berlin, 1904-5).

Weaver, Lawrence. Lutyens Houses and Gardens (Country Life, 1921).

Yorke, F. R. S. The Modern House in England (Architectural Press, 1937).

A Selection of BOOKS on
 
ARCHITECTURE & DECORATION
 
Published by THE ARCHITECTURAL PRESS

THE ARCHITECTURE OF ENGLAND FROM NORMAN TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY. By FREDERICK GIBBERD, A.I.A.A. The book describes and illustrates the evolution of English Architecture and also includes notes and pictures on the history and social life of each period-two factors inseparable from the development of architecture. Throughout the book each left-hand page is devoted to a description of the historical, social and architectural character of a particular period, accompanied by explanatory drawings and pictures, while on each right-hand page are illustrations of typical buildings of that period. Thus, by turning over the pages, the evolution of the styles unfolds itself. Size 11½ ins. by 9 ins. 48 pages, including 76 photographs, 120 explanatory diagrams and 50 drawings. 5/-, postage 6d. inland.

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HOUSE: FROM PRIMITIVE TIMES TO THE VICTORIAN PERIOD. By the late NATHANIEL LLOYD, O.B.E., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. This is the most authoritative and most exhaustively illustrated history of the English House which has ever been published — a magnificent record in text, photographs, drawings and plans of dwelling-house development in England and all its details from the earliest times until the middle of the 19th century. Containing nearly 900 illustrations of Plans and Elevations, Entrances, Windows, Chimneys, Interiors, Ceilings, Wall Treatment, Fireplaces, Stairs, Metalwork, etc. The volume contains over 500 pages in aIl, size 12½ ins. by 9 ins., and is attractively bound in cloth. £3 3s., postage 1/- inland.

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE AT A GLANCE. With historical notes by FREDERICK CHATTERTON, F.R.I.B.A., and over 90 pen-and-ink sketches by J. D. M. HARVEY, B.A. The book provides a delightful and simple way for the uninitiated to become acquainted with the different styles of architecture represented in England. Fourth edition. 1/6, postage 3d. inland.

ENGLISH FURNITURE AT A GLANCE. By CHARLES HAYWARD. An elementary study written specially for the amateur and containing all the necessary information for the identification of furniture belonging to the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Over 100 drawings by the author. 3/6, postage 3d. inland.

ENGLISH ROOMS AND THEIR DECORATION AT A GLANCE. By CHARLES HAYWARD. A simple review in pictures of the changes in the design of rooms and their decorative details from 1066 to 1800. In two volumes. Vol. I., 1066-1620; Vol. II., 1621-1800. Over 100 drawings by the author in each volume. 3/6 each volume, postage 3d. inland.

SAILING SHIPS AT A GLANCE. By E. W. HOBBS, A.I.N.A., with an introduction by L. G. CARR LAUGHTON. The story of the sailing ship from the earliest times to the present day. Over 150 drawings by the author. 3/6, postage 4d. inland.

SMALL HOUSES, £500-£2,500. Edited by H. MYLES WRIGHT, M.A., A.R.I.B.A. A collection of seventy-five small houses designed by architects and recently built in this country. Each house is illustrated by exterior views and plans, and a number of interior views are also included. The special features of the site and plan of each house are described, and particulars given of construction, finishes, services and building cost. The majority of the houses illustrated cost well under £2,000. There is also an introduction by the Editor, illustrated with drawings by G. BRIAN HERBERT, A.R.I.B.A. Consisting of 112 pages printed on art paper, and containing 150 half-tone illustrations and 130 plans. Size 11 ins. by 8½ ins., cloth bound. Second impression. 7/ 6.

THE MODERN HOUSE. By F. R. S. YORKE, A.R.I.B.A. The modern architect designs houses that are intended primarily for living in. He does not allow a preconceived idea of the appearance of the façade to interfere with the efficiency of the plan. New materials are at his disposal and he employs new methods of construction. This book outlines the requirements to be met with in the new type of home, and discusses at length its several parts. Sections in the book deal with the Plan, Walls and Windows, the Roof, Experimental Houses, and General Illustrations. This last section contains about 150 pages of photographs, plans, constructional details and technical descriptions of English, American and Continental houses. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Containing, in addition to text, over 530 illustrations. Attractively bound in cloth. Size 10 ins. by 7½ ins. 21/-, postage 6d. inland.

THE MODERN HOUSE IN ENGLAND. By F. R. S. YORKE, A.R.I.B.A. The book opens with an illustrated Introduction in which is described the developments in design and construction of houses from 1908 to the present day. Then follows a series of examples of the recent domestic work carried out by well-known architects, the illustrations being arranged in groups under the materials of which they are built — namely, brick, frame, and concrete. 144 pages, with 350 photographs, plans and drawings. Cloth bound, 15/ -, postage 6d. inland.

THE MODERN FLAT. By F. R. S. YORKE, A.R.I.B.A., and FREDERICK GIBBERD, A.I.A.A. The most comprehensive survey of modern flat buildings in Europe and America yet published. Following 32 pages of fully illustrated Introduction, are 168 pages and exterior and interior views, scale plans, details, diagrams and tabular information about blocks of flats built in recent years by well-known architects in Great Britain and abroad. Size 8¾ ins. by 11¾ ins. 30/-, postage 7d. inland.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION. By HOWARD ROBERTSON, F.R.I.B.A., S.A.D.G. A study of the Theory of Architectural Design written for students, practising architects and the lay public. 180 pages, with over 160 drawings by the author. 10/6, postage 6d. inland.

MODERN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN. By HOWARD ROBERTSON, F.R.I.B.A., S.A.D.G. Forming a companion volume to the author's "Principles of Architectural Composition," but in this case treating in detail aspects of design more especially from the standpoint of the Modern Movement. The book presents a sane and stimulating analysis of many of the current problems in design which are encountered by the practising architect and student. 240 pages with over 100 line drawings and photographs of some of the most interesting modern buildings in Europe and America. Cloth bound, 15/-, postage 6d. inland.

A complete catalogue of publications will be sent on request [written in 1938] to the publishers: the address is 9, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W.1.