Edwardian Architecture London

Modern or traditional?

There are various issues to consider when choosing your home and what kind of space is most suitable for your needs. Older properties offer generous proportions, but if they have not been modernised can lack in facilities such as up to date central heating, double glazing and built-in storage.

Modern properties, on the other hand, tend to be smaller, may have lower ceilings, which makes them easier to heat, but can make you feel cramped. Depending on the property, modern houses can be unique and have the latest technology and energy saving features. This is also true of refurbished older buildings.

One of the latest trend in city centers has been the conversion of old industrial buildings into Lofts, mixing the old with the new. This brings together the generous proportions and the character of the more traditional properties with the latest comfort and technology of the 21st century.

The most popular architectural styles in London are:

Traditional

Georgian (c.1720 - 1820)

As an architectural style, 'Georgian' refers to the period 1780-1820. As a period, it covers the years between 1714 and 1820.

Georgian architecture is classical in the majority of the exteriors, influenced by Roman Architecture. The interiors were more elaborate with a wide colour palette. In this period, walls in fashionable houses were paneled from floor to ceiling and divided horizontally into three parts to represent the classical proportions of the column. Walls would have been painted in a single colour, although a darker shade might have been used to emphasise details such as the skirting and door (stronger colours were expensive). Plasterwork reached a height of delicacy and elegance. Ceilings were divided into segments defined by moldings around the ceiling rose with details highlighted in white against delicate muted tones. The colours most used were light blue, lavender, pink and pea green - never primary colours. Fixtures and fittings were also used to introduce colour.

Main Features:

• Generous proportions with high ceilings
• External doors with 6 panels and a fanlight
• Flat or shallow roof partially hidden behind a parapet
• Stucco-faced external ground floor
• Yellow bricks replaced red (it gave a more stone-like appearance)
• Marble or stone fireplace shelf supported by pilasters
• Niches shaped like scallop shells for ornaments
• Plain openings, with deep double-hung sash windows
• Doors and windows have entablatures, pediments, consoles and either pilasters or columns
• Wallpaper using wood blocks, stenciling or flocking
• Greater use of pine and fir, and less of oak
• Wrought and cast iron balustrades on staircases in one sweeping curve only rising to the first floor (higher floors being served by a secondary staircase)
• Colours of outside ironwork blue or steel blue, doors green or blue, windows dark brown in plain paint or grained
• Plasterwork with smaller compartments arranged around the sides of ceilings leaving large compartments round, square or octagonal in the centre.

Victorian (c.1830 - 1901)

Victorian architecture was made up of several styles, the main ones being Italianate or Renaissance and Queen Anne or Medieval.

In reaction to the classical style of the previous century, the Victorian age saw a return to traditional British styles in building, Tudor and mock-Gothic being the most popular. Enormous houses were built looking more like great cathedrals rather than houses.