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STYLES OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE
Below is a brief description of the
main styles of English architecture from Saxon in 700 AD, through to Neo-Classical
in the 1850's.
700 to 1060 A.D.
SAXON.
Saxon architecture is very simple often crude. Door and window spaces are
small with triangular or semi-circular headings and little or no ornamentation.
There are very few complete Saxon churches but many with remains of Saxon
work.
1060 to 1190 A.D.
NORMAN or ROMANESQUE.
Massive and ponderous in character with great cylindrical pillars, semi-circular
arches, immensely thick walls and narrow, deeply splayed windows. The
round-headed windows and doorways are sometimes lavishly decorated.
1186 to 1280 A.D.
EARLY ENGLISH.
The simplest form of Gothic architecture. Light and graceful in style
with pointed arches. Windows are lancet-headed, long and narrow, often
grouped in pairs, triplets, fives and sometimes in sevens. Decorative
circles are frequently introduced between the heads of the grouped windows.
Mouldings are boldly cut. Pillars, more slender, are circular, octagonal
or surrounded with detached shafts.
1272 to 1380 A.D.
DECORATED.
Has developed into an elaborate, flowing style giving
the impression of spaciousness and height. Windows are larger though less
elongated and contain two to seven lights with geometrical or curvilinear tracery
above them. Columns are longer and more slender with capitals decorated
with richly sculptured foliage.
1380 to 1550 A.D.
PERPENDICULAR.
The beauty of this style is created by the use of vertical, straight lines.
The great windows are divided into rectangles by stone mullions which are
carried right up into the head and the tracery is simplified. Arches are lower
and flatter. The arched doorways are enclosed with a square headed hood, often
with a simple decoration such as a shield or quatrefoil. Elaborate fan-tracery
embellishes roofs and vaults.
1500 to 1625 A.D.
TRANSITIONAL.
The rebirth of Greek and Roman ideas of architecture during the early renaissance
aroused an awareness of the Classical tradition that gradually surplanted
Mediaeval preferences and techniques in building construction. Elizabethan
and Jacobean structures introduce classical ideas, mainly in their detail
and schemes of ornamentation - but largely in a debased form - that owes much
to French or Dutch influence.
1625 to 1730 A.D.
CLASSICAL.
Inigo Jones was our earliest native architect to base his designs on a study
of the exact rules of classical proportion (as interpreted by Palladio). The
style was furthered by Sir Christopher Wren, but those who succeeded him had
less regard for its strict rules. The term Baroque is applied to the Classical
buildings that trend to robustness of proportion and a freedom of formal arrangement.
Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawkesmoor were its chief exponents.
1730 to 1850 A.D.
NEO-CLASSICAL.
A return to Palladian principles is the main characteristic of buildings
in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century. William Kent, working
for Lord Burlington, and Robert Adam are the architects most closely identified
with the movement. Georgian London and Bath typify contemporary architectural
taste. During the Regency, architecture, in continuation of the Georgian
tradition, especially in domestic building, assumed a greater degree of elegance
and grace. The most famous architect of the age was Nash, whose terraces
round Regent's Park are laid out in the grand manner. Less remarkable
terraces are to be seen in Cheltenham and Brighton.
