DOI issue:
No. 35 (February, 1896)
DOI article:The revival of English domestic architecture, [1] The work of Mr. Norman Shaw
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0042
The Revival of English Domestic Architecture
living British tongue, the spoken language of our im-
mediate ancestors, and rearranged it with a quality
of style exactly as certain writers have re-infused
literature in like manner. Indeed the parallel be-
tween the compositions in bricks and mortar and
the revival of style in idiomatic writing, might be
carried a long way, without over-straining the
simile.
As many contemporary critics claimed, the
style, whether called Free Classic (as Mr. William
Young endeavoured to re-christen it) or " Stuart "
(as others attempted to name it), was eminently
British in its source and in its expression It
aimed for picturesque utility and comely comfort.
It did not disdain a " But-and-Ben " cottage, nor
was it unequal to the palace of a millionaire. To
turn over the pages of Mr. Norman Shaw's Sketches
for Cottages, published in 1878, is to realise how
completely he had mastered its capabilities. There,
from the modest one-story cot to the village shop,
the small mission church, or the roadside hostel,
you find designs for unpretentious but beautiful
buildings, employing simple materials in frank and
unaffected manner. Of course his imitators bur-
lesqued his work, they crowded detail upon detail,
and lost the breadth of treatment which was Mr.
Norman Shaw's final excellence. The jerry-builder
especially did his best to ruin the new fashion, and
with hideous perversion tried, but in vain, to make
the style unbearable.
It is amusing as an instance of a well-meaning
attempt to chronicle events of recent date without
due material, to read a very interesting article on
Queen Anne's or Free Classic, which was pub-
lished in a Philadelphia!! magazine (Lippincott's) in
1885. Arguing from inadequate facts (true as far
as they went, but ignoring many of equal importance),
we find its author ascribing the whole movement to
the Education Act of 1870, and the consequent
Board Schools. Indeed, he not merely fathers the
Queen Anne style entirely upon these, but endea-
vours to prove that many features which distinguish
the planning of modern domestic homes owe their
origin to the system of ventilation and heating
adopted in these buildings. He goes on to show
that American suburban architecture has been
THE MORNING-ROOM, SWAN HOUSE, CHELSEA R. NORMAN SHAW, R.A., ARCHITECT
29
living British tongue, the spoken language of our im-
mediate ancestors, and rearranged it with a quality
of style exactly as certain writers have re-infused
literature in like manner. Indeed the parallel be-
tween the compositions in bricks and mortar and
the revival of style in idiomatic writing, might be
carried a long way, without over-straining the
simile.
As many contemporary critics claimed, the
style, whether called Free Classic (as Mr. William
Young endeavoured to re-christen it) or " Stuart "
(as others attempted to name it), was eminently
British in its source and in its expression It
aimed for picturesque utility and comely comfort.
It did not disdain a " But-and-Ben " cottage, nor
was it unequal to the palace of a millionaire. To
turn over the pages of Mr. Norman Shaw's Sketches
for Cottages, published in 1878, is to realise how
completely he had mastered its capabilities. There,
from the modest one-story cot to the village shop,
the small mission church, or the roadside hostel,
you find designs for unpretentious but beautiful
buildings, employing simple materials in frank and
unaffected manner. Of course his imitators bur-
lesqued his work, they crowded detail upon detail,
and lost the breadth of treatment which was Mr.
Norman Shaw's final excellence. The jerry-builder
especially did his best to ruin the new fashion, and
with hideous perversion tried, but in vain, to make
the style unbearable.
It is amusing as an instance of a well-meaning
attempt to chronicle events of recent date without
due material, to read a very interesting article on
Queen Anne's or Free Classic, which was pub-
lished in a Philadelphia!! magazine (Lippincott's) in
1885. Arguing from inadequate facts (true as far
as they went, but ignoring many of equal importance),
we find its author ascribing the whole movement to
the Education Act of 1870, and the consequent
Board Schools. Indeed, he not merely fathers the
Queen Anne style entirely upon these, but endea-
vours to prove that many features which distinguish
the planning of modern domestic homes owe their
origin to the system of ventilation and heating
adopted in these buildings. He goes on to show
that American suburban architecture has been
THE MORNING-ROOM, SWAN HOUSE, CHELSEA R. NORMAN SHAW, R.A., ARCHITECT
29