Victorian Architecture | Style, Characteristics & Examples - Lesson | Study.com (2024)

FAQs

What is Victorian architecture characterized by? ›

Unlike the modular builds of the modern era, Victorian-style architecture features elaborate roof lines, towers, and turrets. “Victorian homes often have steeply pitched roofs with multiple gables facing in different directions,” Scheck says.

Victorian architecture consists of many different styles. However, certain features were often present across many styles, such as steep roofs, painted brick, bay windows, and asymmetrical design.

Victorian homes often have steep, imposing rooflines with many gables facing in different directions. The Second Empire Victorian style has a flat-topped Mansard roof with windows in the side to allow for maximum space inside the house.

“Recognizable characteristics are steep, tiled roofs, painted brick, bay windows, and asymmetrical design,” Dadswell says. “Wooden floorboards, plaster cornicing, sweeping staircases, wooden sash windows, and tiled entrance hallways would have been incorporated into most Victorian homes.”

Its principles, especially honesty of expression, were first laid down in The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841) by Augustus Pugin (1812–52). Much Victorian design consisted of adapting the decorative details and rich colour combinations of Italian, and especially Venetian, Gothic.

Victorian buildings often feature high ceilings and large windows, which create that bright and spacious feel that is highly sought after in homes today, yet their unique character features make them stand out from a new build style of home.

During the early Victorian decades, voluminous skirts held up with crinolines, and then hoop skirts, were the focal point of the silhouette. To enhance the style without distracting from it, hats were modest in size and design, straw and fabric bonnets being the popular choice.

Victorian House Design

These intricate collections of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal wood elements create complex patterns that offer one-of-a-kind facades on many Victorian homes. Vibrant siding and trim colors, such as blue, green, pink, and yellow, make these historic houses stand out even more.

Unlike the Victorian architectural designs, contemporary designs are not narrow and usually only go up to two stories. The roofs slope is much more gentle giving the a more box-like look. Architects no longer add towers and turrets into their design as much as they used to in the Victorian era.

Internally Victorian homes have high ceilings and large windows and layout within a long and thin footprint much smaller than Georgian homes. Victorian homes are typically one room wide, with a narrow hallway leading off into the different rooms, two up, two down with just two rooms on each floor.

What type of walls do Victorian houses have? ›

Solid brick walls: Many Victorian houses have walls made of solid brick, which provides good insulation and durability. Cavity walls: Some Victorian houses have cavity walls, which are constructed with two layers of brick with a gap in between.

Historical Perspective of the Victorian Period: The period is known for economic progress, poverty and exploitation. The gap between the rich and the poor grew wide and with drive for material and commercial success there appeared a kind of a moral decay in the society.

Queen Victoria was crowned on the 28^th June 1837 in Westminster Abbey. More than a million people died between 1845 and 1849 in the Irish Potato Famine. Queen Victoria gave birth to Prince Leopold and used chloroform to assist with the birth. Prince Albert, Victoria's husband, died of Typhoid at the age of 42 in 1861.

What were typical Victorian values? Typical Victorian values included charity, sexual propriety, and charity. Moreover, Victorian family roles were patriarchal and served to maintain the authority of fathers over the entire household.

Always executed in brick or stone, High Victorian Gothic buildings are distinguished by the use of polychrome bands of decorative masonry. Stone quoins, pressed brick, and terra cotta panels were commonly used. Windows and doors were accented with brick or stone trim, often in contrasting colors.

Victorian interior design can be characterized by its unique ornamentation. Decorative wallpapers, tapestries, ornate rugs, curved furniture, and vibrant colors are all representative of the era.