British Queen Anne Revival architecture, also known as Domestic Revival,
is a style of building using red brick, white woodwork, and an
eclectic mixture of decorative features, that became popular in the 1870s, both for houses and for larger buildings such as offices, hotels, and town halls. It was popularised by
Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
(1831–1912) and
George Devey
George Devey (1820, London – 1886, Hastings, Sussex) was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was bo ...
(1820–1886).
Beginnings
The Queen Anne Revival was to a large extent anticipated by
George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott and worked with C. E. Kempe. He was in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career and was ...
,
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...
,
Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
,
W. Eden Nesfield,
J. J. Stevenson, and
Philip Webb
Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of common ...
in the 1860s; they had used and mixed together brick pediments and pilasters, fan-lights, ribbed chimneys, Flemish or plain gables, hipped roofs, wrought-iron railings, sash windows, outside shutters, asymmetry and even sunflower decorations.
Features
The Queen Anne Revival style has, as the architectural historian
Mark Girouard
Mark Girouard (7 October 1931 – 16 August 2022) was a British architectural historian. He was an authority on the country house, and Elizabethan and Victorian architecture.
Life and career
Girouard was born on 7 October 1931. He was educ ...
writes,
All of these features can be seen in houses, large or small, of the later part of the Victorian era.
File:Queen Anne-style tile-hung detail.jpg, Red brick and tile-hung detail, "a little genuine Queen Anne"
File:Dutch gable.jpg, "curly pedimented gables
... a little Dutch"
File:Bay windows, wooden balconies of 'Queen Anne' style.jpg, "small window panes, ... bay windows, wooden balconies"
File:Fancy Oriel window in Queen Anne Revival style.jpg, "little fancy oriels"
File:Norman Shaw sunflower panel on his first semis 1877.jpg, "delicate brick panels of sunflowers"
Architects
Norman Shaw
Characteristic features of Shaw's houses, well seen in the
Bedford Park garden suburb in west London alongside the work of other contemporary architects interpreting the Queen Anne Revival style, are red brick, walls hung with tiles,
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s of varying shapes, balconies,
bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...
s,
terracotta
Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
and
rubbed brick decorations,
pediment
Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
s, elaborate chimneys, and
balustrade
A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...
s painted white.
Shaw's eclectic designs freely combined
Arts & Crafts,
Georgian,
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
,
Tudor, and Wren styles.
File:Grims-dyke-main.jpg, Grim's Dyke
Grim's Dyke (sometimes called Graeme's Dyke until late 1891)How, Harry ''The Strand Magazine'', Vol. 2, October 1891, pp. 330–41, reprinted at ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', 20 November 2011 is a house and estate in Harrow Weald, in n ...
, Harrow Weald, 1870–2
File:Richard Norman Shaw (1873) Design for New Zealand Chambers.png, Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
's design for New Zealand Chambers, Leadenhall Street
__NOTOC__
Leadenhall Street () is a street in the City of London. It is about and links Cornhill, London, Cornhill in the west to Aldgate in the east. It was formerly the start of the A11 road (England), A11 road from London to Norwich, but th ...
, 1873
File:The Royal Geographical Society, Kensington.jpg, Lowther Lodge, Kensington Gore
Kensington Gore is the name of a U-shaped thoroughfare on the south side of Hyde Park in the City of Westminster, England. The streets connect the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal College of Art, the Royal Geographical Society, and in Kensin ...
, now Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
, 1873-5
File:Norman Shaw's first semis, picturesque sunflower panel, corbelled bay window, The Avenue, 1878.jpg, Semi-detached
A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...
houses, Bedford Park, 1878
File:1881 Savoy Theatre.jpg, Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy ...
, 1881
File:Richard Norman Shaw 20130408 134.jpg, Allianz Assurance Building, St. James's Street, 1882–3
J. J. Stevenson
In 1871–3, the Scottish architect J. J. Stevenson built his widely-imitated Red House on
Bayswater
Bayswater is an area in the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...
Hill; its name may have been a response to
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...
's
Red House, Bexleyheath
Red House is a significant Arts and Crafts movement, Arts and Crafts building located in Bexleyheath, south-east London, England. Co-designed in 1859 by the architect Philip Webb and the designer William Morris, it was created to serve as a fam ...
. Both inside and out it was an eclectic mix of styles, with furnishings from different continents and centuries. Outside it was brown brick with red brick dressings; dormer windows with
Flemish gables in a flat facade over a cornice; bay windows, and sashes with louvred shutters.
File:The Red House, No 3 Bayswater Hill J. J. Stevenson 1874.jpg, The Red House, Bayswater, J. J. Stevenson, 1874
W. E. Nesfield
W. E. Nesfield worked in partnership with Shaw from 1866 to 1869, helping to develop the Queen Anne Revival style. Together they examined the architecture of the English countryside, sketching Kent and Sussex's half-timbered farmhouses and tile-hung cottages, and then the structure and ornamentation of houses in country towns, with their red brick, sash windows, plasterwork, pargetting, joinery and rubbed or shaped brick. From this and a measure of
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...
's Gothic Revival, they made their "Old English" style. Gradually adding in their exploration of 17th and 18th century classic architecture, they developed their Queen Anne Revival style.
File:Stowford Cottage, nr Crewe.jpg, Cottages at Stowford, near Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...
. W. E. Nesfield, 1865
File:Loughton Hall-geograph.org.uk-1226307.jpg, Loughton Hall, 1878
Other architects
File:Ascott House Wing Geograph-2645403-by-Paul-Shreeve.jpg, Ascott House
Ascott House, sometimes referred to as simply Ascott, is a Grade II* listed building in the Hamlet (place), hamlet of Ascott, Buckinghamshire, Ascott near Wing, Buckinghamshire, Wing in Buckinghamshire, England. It is set in a 32-acre / 13 hect ...
, Aylesbury Vale. George Devey
George Devey (1820, London – 1886, Hastings, Sussex) was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was bo ...
, 1874
File:The Avenue first Bedford Park houses tiled gable over bay window by E. W. Godwin 1876.jpg, Detached house, Bedford Park, London
Bedford Park is a suburban development in Chiswick, London, begun in 1875 under the direction of Jonathan Carr, with many large houses in British Queen Anne Revival style by Norman Shaw and other leading Victorian era architects including Ed ...
. E. W. Godwin, 1876
File:Red brick terrace, Priory Gardens by E. J. May, 1880.jpg, Red brick terrace
Terrace may refer to:
Landforms and construction
* Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river
* Terrace, a street suffix
* Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...
, Bedford Park. Edward John May, 1880
File: The Retreat, Stony Stratford (1892).jpg , Limestone and brick almshouses
An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable organization, charitable public housing, housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the povert ...
in Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford is a market town in Buckinghamshire and a constituent town of Milton Keynes, England. It is located on Watling Street, historically the Roman road from London to Chester. It is also a civil parish with a town council in the Cit ...
, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...
. Swinfen Harris, 1892
Developments
New World Queen Anne Revival architecture
In the New World, Queen Anne Revival was a historicist architectural style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was popular in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries. In Australia, it is also called Federation archit ...
and its derivative the
Shingle style
The shingle style is an American architectural style made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of the Eastlake style in Queen Anne architecture. In the shingle style, Engli ...
are related to the British Queen Anne style but with time became increasingly different from it, and in Girouard's view are "both more adventurous and more exciting."
Reception
Professional
Professional criticism of the style began quickly, with comments such as that in the ''Building News'' of 31 May 1872, likely by the church architect
J. P. Seddon, that it was "mediaeval, but freely treated, with a good deal of impure classical details, introduced after the fashion of the Queen Anne period, now so much and so foolishly imitated". Other
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
architects followed suit, though the younger ones were more accepting;
E. W. Godwin remarked on the "excellence both of the materials and workmanship" of
J. J. Stevenson's Red House. When in 1873 the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
showed off the designs for
George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley (14 March 182721 October 1907) was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott and worked with C. E. Kempe. He was in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career and was ...
's School Board Offices,
Edward Robert Robson & Stevenson's Board Schools, and Shaw's New Zealand Chambers, they were found in Girouard's words "clever, no doubt, but also startling and even shocking".
Amateur
The lay press was more relaxed about the new style; ''The Globe'' of 13 January 1874 called it a natural response to the more assertive Gothic Revival, while ''The Saturday Review'' of 31 July 1875 described its own response as "perfect good humour and equal scepticism", considering the style to be artificially based on an eclectic mix and not at all serious.
References
Further reading
* The primary survey of the movement.
{{Chiswick
British architectural styles
House styles
19th-century architectural styles
Queen Anne Revival architecture in the United Kingdom