What are the key features of a Victorian house? (2024)

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What are the key features of a Victorian 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.”

Features of a Victorian House

The houses usually have two to three stories with steep, gabled roofs and round towers. On the exterior, there are towers, turrets, and dormers, forming complex roof lines as architects sought to create designs that would pull the eye to the top of the house.

Internally, high ceilings and large windows were a feature of Victorian homes, but the rest of the layout became a little bit cramped compared to the previous Georgian designs. With a long and thin footprint, Victorian homes are often one room wide, with a narrow hallway leading off into the different reception rooms.

Victorian houses were generally built in terraces or as detached houses. Building materials were brick or local stone. Bricks were made in factories some distance away, to standard sizes, rather than the earlier practice of digging clay locally and making bricks on site.

The Victorian era is well-known for its enrichment of knowledge in science, expansion of empire and growth of economy, conflict between the science and religion, conflict between aristocracy and democracy etc. All Victorian writers, in some way or other, give expression to this conflicts and consequents.

“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.”

Victorian houses have a Gothic exterior

This kind of exterior typically has coloured brick and stone, as well as wood and iron decoration. The wall style often looks complicated and asymmetrical.

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.

Victorian homes were originally a British architectural style. They originated during the reign of Queen Victoria in 1837 – 1901, which is where the name comes from. This style, although now so iconic in and of itself, actually borrows from many different architectural styles before it.

How would you describe a Victorian house? ›

What Is A Victorian House? A Victorian house is an architectural style that originated in the 19th century Victorian era during the reign of Queen Victoria in Great Britain. Victorian homes are known for their colorful facades, pitched roofs, ornate trim and a broad range of defining architectural features.

Victorian-style décor was all about large, ornate furnishings, patterned wallpaper, and deep, rich colour schemes. Ornaments, mirrors, and art were often used to fill any available space, meaning Victorian properties were warm and homely.

These expedients made it possible to build houses faster, cheaper, and also larger and more elaborate than ever before. Predictably, putting such once-unattainable luxuries within reach of millions quickly resulted in a popular mania for large, ornately decorated houses.

The houses were cheap, most had between two and four rooms – one or two rooms downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs, but Victorian families were big with perhaps four or five children. There was no water, and no toilet. A whole street (sometimes more) would have to share a couple of toilets and a pump.

A Victorian home is generally two to three stories tall, and defined by signature elements such as bay windows, steeply pitched roofs, gables, towers, turrets, asymmetrical design, and wrap-around porches with an abundance of ornamental details.

Generally, most Victorian architecture can be described as dollhouse-like, with curlicue trims, bright colors, and asymmetrical designs. Most Victorian buildings were brick with large interior staircases and windows, balconies, fireplaces in every room, and porches.