Have you ever wondered what era your period home was built in?
Georgian properties
Georgian properties where constructed predominantly within the period 1714 to 1830. However there is also a ‘late Georgian’ period between 1830 to 1837.
Properties built in this period, have a grand proportions built with space and light as prominent features. Georgian properties tend to be so big and spacious as when they were constructed it was common place for the owners and their families to live within the property with their staff living on the upper floors. With this in mind when you look at a Georgian property you may notice that the upper floors typically have smaller rooms and windows.
Kitchens were also always on the lower ground floor, away from the main house, as this was the servants’ domain.
There is a strange characteristic to many Georgian properties (although not all). Sometimes there is a bricked up window. The reason why id because of the window tax that was in place between 1969 and 185, the more windows a home had, the bigger it was and the richer the owner. To avoid paying higher taxes, many homeowners bricked up some of their windows to reduce the rate of tax they had to pay. Rather than reinstate the windows after the tax was lifted, many owners decided to leave the windows as they were.
What are the main characteristics of a Georgian property?
- Three or four storey townhouses
- Large sash windows on the first two floors and smaller windows on the top storeys
- Symmetrical flat exterior
- Large spacious and light rooms particularly to the bottom 2 storeys and smaller darker rooms to the top storeys.
- In earlier Georgian designs, the ground floor was rendered and the rest of the exterior was exposed brickwork, while in the later Regency style, houses were rendered from top to bottom.
- Render painted white or cream
- Built around garden squares, as the houses did not have their own garden
Victorian properties
The Victorian period sits under the rule of Queen Victoria I between the years of 1837 to 1901.
The majority of homes built within the Victorian period were in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and houses therefore became less grand as a result. Therefore one of the most typical Victorian type of property common across the UK is terraced housing on narrow streets and back to back’s as large amounts of housing was required in a short time frame. These are commonly found near to old factory sites.
Building of ‘back-to-backs’ became illegal in the late-19th century, due to poor sanitation amongst other issues.
What are the main characteristics of a Victorian property?
- High ceilings
- 2 up 2 down design layouts
- Coloured brickwork
- High pitched roof
- Ornate gable trim
- Geometric tiled hallways
- A brickwork porch
- Narrow hallway
- Stained glass windows
- Bay windows
- Fireplace in every room
Edwardian properties
The Edwardian period from 1901 to 1910 was short and heavily influenced by The Arts and Crafts Movement.
Edwardian houses were more spacious and light, with bigger hallways and more windows.
Edwardian properties tend to have a front garden and are set back from the pavement.
A lot of properties built within the Edwardian era are identified by ornate decorative details such as stained glass.
What are the main characteristics of an Edwardian property?
- Houses built in a straight line
- Red brickwork
- Porch with wooden frames
- Mock-Tudor cladding and timbers at the top of the house
- Wide hallway
- Parquet wood floors
- Wider, brighter rooms
- Stained glass
- Simple internal decorative features