DOI Heft:
No. 42 (September, 1896)
DOI Artikel:The revival of english domestic architecture, [5], the work of Messrs. George and Peto
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0223
The Revival of English Domestic Architecture
years, by dint of hiding its costly beauties, the One of the most successful houses—Shiplake
thing grew less intolerable; yet it was fidgety and Court, Henley-on-Thames—is familiar to fre-
harsh in its contour, hardly less in relation to its quenters of the stream of pleasure. The size of The
surroundings than are the preposterous little villas Studio page does not admit any adequate view of
which one sees often enough amid most charming the whole frontage, but those who wish to refer to
scenery from any of the northern railway lines of it will find drawings by the architect, reproduced
France. These perky maisonettes look no more in the Building News of May 3ij 1889. To study
out of place than the huge compilations in red, this house, even in the drawings, is in itself a liberal
black and yellow bricks, with gritty carved capitals architectural education. The first impression is
and shiny granite columns in the very-Victorian that it must have grown and developed in accord-
Gothic style of the sixties and seventies, that here ance with its inmates' tastes and needs, although
and there intrude upon exquisite scenery. (I believe) it grew only in the architects' brains,
The mansions of Messrs. George & Peto are and was built straight away from the working draw-
as far removed from the sham Classic as the sham ings. It seems as if generations might have passed
Gothic. For their progenitors one has not to turn between its first stone and the final touch. Here
to old Greece, nor to Lombardy, but to England, is a stately oriel casement, with an arcaded porch
and "merrie England" at that. The typically (page 206), opening on a terrace with balustrades
English half-timbered .farmhouses, the Elizabethan and flights of wide steps leading to the river-bank
mansions, the almshouses
of pious founders, and .the
palaces of our own kings,
present an immense variety
of styles and differ in essen-
tial features, but all the
same they are British by
birth, and have fallen har-
moniously into our English
landscape. Such cottages,
or halls, appear hardly more
intrusive than the great
elms and oaks against which
they are so often seen.
They do not seem to have
been built with the one
object of being picturesque,
but to have become so by
force of circumstances. In
short, they look like con-
temporary portraits of their
owners, well-dressed and
superbly at ease ; not like
supers or amateur actors
wearing gorgeous finery with
a nervous sense that it is
unaccustomed and uncom-
fortable attire.
Among the few modern ar-
chitects who have succeeded,
not once but dozens of times,
in the difficult task of rival-
ling these " stately homes
of England," Messrs. Ernest
George & Peto are easily
first. BALL-ROOM OF A COUNTRY HOUSE MESSRS. ERNEST GEORGE AND PETO, ARCHITECTS
X
years, by dint of hiding its costly beauties, the One of the most successful houses—Shiplake
thing grew less intolerable; yet it was fidgety and Court, Henley-on-Thames—is familiar to fre-
harsh in its contour, hardly less in relation to its quenters of the stream of pleasure. The size of The
surroundings than are the preposterous little villas Studio page does not admit any adequate view of
which one sees often enough amid most charming the whole frontage, but those who wish to refer to
scenery from any of the northern railway lines of it will find drawings by the architect, reproduced
France. These perky maisonettes look no more in the Building News of May 3ij 1889. To study
out of place than the huge compilations in red, this house, even in the drawings, is in itself a liberal
black and yellow bricks, with gritty carved capitals architectural education. The first impression is
and shiny granite columns in the very-Victorian that it must have grown and developed in accord-
Gothic style of the sixties and seventies, that here ance with its inmates' tastes and needs, although
and there intrude upon exquisite scenery. (I believe) it grew only in the architects' brains,
The mansions of Messrs. George & Peto are and was built straight away from the working draw-
as far removed from the sham Classic as the sham ings. It seems as if generations might have passed
Gothic. For their progenitors one has not to turn between its first stone and the final touch. Here
to old Greece, nor to Lombardy, but to England, is a stately oriel casement, with an arcaded porch
and "merrie England" at that. The typically (page 206), opening on a terrace with balustrades
English half-timbered .farmhouses, the Elizabethan and flights of wide steps leading to the river-bank
mansions, the almshouses
of pious founders, and .the
palaces of our own kings,
present an immense variety
of styles and differ in essen-
tial features, but all the
same they are British by
birth, and have fallen har-
moniously into our English
landscape. Such cottages,
or halls, appear hardly more
intrusive than the great
elms and oaks against which
they are so often seen.
They do not seem to have
been built with the one
object of being picturesque,
but to have become so by
force of circumstances. In
short, they look like con-
temporary portraits of their
owners, well-dressed and
superbly at ease ; not like
supers or amateur actors
wearing gorgeous finery with
a nervous sense that it is
unaccustomed and uncom-
fortable attire.
Among the few modern ar-
chitects who have succeeded,
not once but dozens of times,
in the difficult task of rival-
ling these " stately homes
of England," Messrs. Ernest
George & Peto are easily
first. BALL-ROOM OF A COUNTRY HOUSE MESSRS. ERNEST GEORGE AND PETO, ARCHITECTS
X