introduction

Themes > Arts > Decorative arts > Generalities > Introduction

The 1800s saw a series of revolutions in architecture and interior design. The High Victorian style of the mid-19th century was superseded by the decorative ideas of the Aesthetic Movement by 1880. The craft element then evolved into the Arts and Crafts approach, with its sparse, rather bleak style. And then the pendulum swung back, with style and decoration permeating furniture and décor around 1900. Art Nouveau influences showed in much of the design detail, though in continental Europe the swirling shapes appeared more forcefully.

So the houses of 1830-1914 showed many and varied decorative styles - medieval, Jacobean, Stuart, Adam, and Louis XVI revivals were mixed with Morris, Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau fashions. And Japanese, Moorish and Indian styles also played their part.

The names given to the different periods and the dates they cover differ between the UK and the USA.

In the UK these are:

	From	To
Georgian	1714	1810
Regency	1810	1830
Gothic Revival	c1750	1900s
Neoclassical	1750s	1830s
Greek Revival	c1819	1840s
Arts and Crafts	1880s	1914
Art Nouveau	1890s	1920s
Victorian	c1830	1900
Edwardian	1900	1918

In the USA they are:

	From	To
Post Colonial/Federal	c1790	1815
Romanesque Revival	1870s	1880s
Gothic Revival	c1825	c1870
Chicago School	c1884	1909
Greek Revival	1798	c1860
Art Nouveau	1880s	1917

Just as today, few builders will have built houses in a pure style, and few people who lived in them will have decorated and furnished them with a clear vision; instead builders created houses of an eclectic style embodying old and fashionable elements, and they will have been decorated similarly. Bought-in components like doors, stained glass, fireplaces and plaster mouldings will have tended to be in the newest styles, while the general brickwork remained little changed from 1850 to 1950.

Homes in this period were:

detached houses, with no other connected houses
semi-attached houses, today called 'semi-detached', with one other connected house
terraced houses, with two other connected houses, one on each side
mansion flats (apartments)

It was not until late in the century that mansion flats became fashionable, and the more modest versions common. In the 1840s, Henry Roberts had designed blocks of 'model' flats (apartments) for labourers in London.

In viewing these houses today, we must remember that although some 25% of today's London houses are Victorian, those that have survived are the better ones; the poor quality buildings have been demolished.