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    Regency House Styles
    Regency House Styles
    Regency House Styles
    Ebook138 pages59 minutes

    Regency House Styles

    By Trevor Yorke

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    About this ebook

    The word 'REGENCY', although strictly covering the decade from 1811 when George III fell ill until his death in 1820, is used to refer to the latter years of the 18th century up until 1837, when Queen Victoria came to the throne. The era saw a good deal of change. The industrial revolution marked the end of working at home and the spread of factories; there were rapid developments in transport and trade as well as groundbreaking legislation, including the abolition of slavery. These changes created an unprecedented demand for new houses, especially from a newly wealthy middle class. Using his own drawings and full colour photographs, Trevor Yorke explains the background and describes the architecture, features and fittings that have made the houses of the Regency period so distinctive. He also introduces the notable architects of the day, including John Nash who created Regent Street and designs for enlarging Buckingham Palace; Sir John Soame who built Dulwich Picture Gallery; and Henry Holland who built Carlton House for the Prince Regent, Woburn Abbey and Althorp and laid out parts of Knightsbridge. Also included is a list of country houses and urban streets to visit and a glossary of terms.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCountryside Books
    Release dateApr 25, 2013
    ISBN9781846748509
    Regency House Styles
    Author

    Trevor Yorke

    Trevor Yorke is a professional author and artist who has studied and written about various aspects of England's architectural and industrial heritage. He has produced many illustrated books that introduce the reader to these topics and writes articles and reviews for various magazines. He lives in the UK.

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      Book preview

      Regency House Styles - Trevor Yorke

      parts.

      FIG 1.1: White stuccoed terraces from Brighton, the most notable of Regency resorts.

      1 T HE R EGENCY P ERIOD

      Definition and Origins

      The Prince Regent

      For my generation, it is hard to write a book about the Regency period without conjuring up images of Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of the Prince Regent in T.V.’s Blackadder III. His self-centred, dim-witted and unpopular character which made such a mockery of late Georgian life was based upon some elements of truth. The actor was probably relieved to learn, however, that an accurate representation of the Prince Regent’s size was not required for the role since the Prince of Wales weighed nearly 18 stone by the time he was thirty years old and developed a 50-inch waist during his reign as king.

      Unfortunately, over-eating was the least of his problems. As the eldest son of George III, the young prince, influenced by radical friends, quickly gained a reputation for being extravagant with money, leading a disreputable life of excessive drinking and gambling and for having a string of mistresses, one of whom he even secretly married. By 1795 he had amassed a personal debt of around £50 million in today’s money and, as part of a deal to pay it off, Parliament and his father, the king, forced him to marry his cousin, Princess Caroline of Brunswick.

      Their relationship was a disaster and after only one year together, they lived separately, both having affairs. In 1814 Caroline left England and not until her husband became king six years later, did she return in order to assert her rights as Queen Consort. On the day of the coronation, though, she fell mysteriously ill and died shortly afterwards.

      Despite their unhappy union, they did manage to have a child, Princess Charlotte, who unlike her father became a popular figure and carried the hopes of a nation disillusioned with the prince. There was much anticipation when she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and was expecting a child.

      However, tragedy struck at the birth when both mother and child died. This plunged the country into weeks of mourning and deprived the Prince of Wales of a legitimate heir. The press made much of this fact, encouraging his unmarried brothers to do their duty, an idea seized upon by Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn. He promptly removed his mistress and married the sister of Prince Leopold who produced a daughter, the future Queen Victoria.

      FIG 1.2: The Prince Regent, later George IV, was a driving force behind new architectural styles, initiating the redevelopment of large parts of central London. He was also credited with changing the face of fashion. He began to wear his hair loose, after a government tax was put on wig powder; promoted the wearing of dark colours and loose trousers (as they best disguised his weight); and embraced the fashion for high collars and neck cloths as they hid his double chin!

      The Prince of Wales’ relationship with his father was equally strained. Despite the country’s growing affection for George III, his bouts of madness were of grave concern. The first notable occurrence in 1788 resulted in Parliament introducing a Regency Bill, only for the king to recover before it could be passed. (This crisis was the subject of the play and film The Madness of King George). In 1810, when his condition deteriorated once again upon the death of his youngest daughter, Parliament had no choice but to reintroduce the bill and the Prince of Wales became Prince Regent on 5th February 1811. After nine years of the Regency, the king finally passed away and the prince was crowned George IV, reigning for a further ten years until his death in 1830.

      Contemporary obituaries made much of his poor character, inappropriate expenditure and lack of popularity. His humorous and intelligent nature was let down by drinking and laziness. There was one area, however, in which many commentators thought he had merit and that was as a gentleman of taste and a connoisseur of the arts. He not only established fashions in clothing and personal appearance but also promoted numerous building projects in an architectural style that has since become distinctive of the Regency period.

      Although the Prince Regent’s governance of the country during his father’s final illness lasted less than ten years, the term ‘Regency’ has been more generally applied to the first three decades of the 19th century. This is mainly because there were key changes in society and fashions which marked out this late Georgian period from its early and mid phases. In architecture, though, the term ‘Regency’ encompasses an even larger timescale. The style and form of building championed by the Prince have their origins in the 1780s, and the distinctive form of terrace developed during this period was still being erected in the 1840s. Therefore, although this book will concentrate on houses built from around 1800 through to the 1830s, there will be examples of those Regency styles introduced in the decades before and some which were a late flowering.

      War and Revolution

      Despite the impression of the Regency period being one of frivolity, elegance and leisure, the country actually spent most of this time at war, or recovering from its aftermath. Defeat in the American War of Independence in 1783 had a devastating effect on George III and resulted in the raising of taxes to pay for the expense of running a campaign so far from home. Of greater influence, however, were periods of warfare which began only a decade later with France. The first phase is referred to as the French Revolutionary Wars (1793–1802), with the resumption of the conflict being known as the Napoleonic

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