For any house-proud owner of a Victorian property this book represents a unique and invaluable resource. Packed with information about Victorian architectural ideas, it includes a wealth of practical advice about the maintenance and conservation of Victorian homes. Part One provides a concise overview of the development of the Victorian house, the wide range of architectural styles that came in and out of fashion over the period, and the lifestyles of the original owners the houses were designed to accommodate. Throughout, the emphasis is on family houses of various sizes rather than the great houses of the aristocracy, which are discussed only in relation to their influence on contemporary builders and architects. Part Two discusses structures and materials, covering brickwork, stone, renders and stuccos, roofs, woodwork, windows and doors, ironwork, and conservatories. In each case there is comprehensive advice on symptoms of trouble, techniques for preservation and restoration, and the correct choice of materials. Part Three covers services—fireplaces and chimneys, lighting, kitchens and bathrooms—all subjects requiring particular sensitivity to achieve a satisfactory compromise between preserving the spirit of the original building and meeting modern standards of comfort and convenience. Part Four examines all aspects of interior decoration, including plasterwork, decorative tiles, paint colors and finishes, wall coverings, curtains and blinds, and floor coverings. The book is completed by lists of further reading, places to visit, and useful addresses, including those of specialist suppliers and contractors, and sources of more detailed information and advice.

The Victorian Society Book of the Victorian House covers every facet of building and decoration—from roofs, brickwork, and chimneys to paint effects, curtains, and floor coverings. It abounds with information on the development of Victorian domestic architecture, building methods, and materials, and offers a wealth of practical and authoritative advice on restoration, maintenance, and preservation. Throughout, the emphasis is on family houses of various sizes and styles, with particular emphasis on finding ways in which period authenticity can be combined with modern standards and convenience of lifestyle. Kit Wedd is a former deputy director of Britain’s Victorian Society. She currently works as a freelance editor and writer specializing in the conservation of historic buildings and interiors.

A rich selection from diaries, letters, advice books, magazines, and paintings creates a rooms-by-room portrait of Victorian life--from childbirth in the master bedroom to separate gender domains in the drawing room and parlor.

'Victorian Houses' presents the architectural detailing of the time in the context of the era - providing a comprehensive understanding of its architecture and design. Pattern books played a vital role in the dissemination of taste between architect, builder and client in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. By focusing on the contribution of the pattern book to the architecture of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the various trends of the time are documented. The types of publications and other sources of taste available at different points over this period reflected social and economic factors, such as the changing demand or changes in organisation of manufacturing and retail. * Gain a comprehensive understanding of Victorian architecture from an experienced author * 160 pages of illustrations and an accessible writing style make this an excellent reference source * Discover invaluable information on the role of architectural pattern books in victorian design

The English country house reached its apotheosis in the nineteenth century. Designed by the most eminent architects of the age, the houses were bigger, more elaborate and more lavishly furnished than ever before, becoming a byword throughout the world for luxury, technological innovation and convenience of plan. Michael Hall's new survey draws on the Country Life archive to present the most complete visual record yet published of the Victorian country house. Chronologically arranged to span the decades from the 1830s to the 1890s, the houses range from the High Gothic of Tyntesfield to Ferdinand Rothschild's flamboyantly French Waddesdon Manor and Philip Webb's Arts and Crafts interiors at Standen. Victorian houses have suffered more from sales and demolitions than houses from any other period. The Country Life images are the only record of great houses such as Wrest Park, Thoresby Hall and Hewell Grange in their heyday. Houses that have survived with their interiors intact but are little known to the public are also featured, such as Flintham Hall and the Earl of Harrowby's Sandon Hall. Here, too, are spectacular colour photographs of some of the most celebrated houses of the period, from A. W. N. Pugin's Scarisbrick Hall to J. D. Crace's astonishing interiors at Longleat. With over 150 superb photographs and a commentary by one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, this book provides an excellent overview of a major period in British architectural history. Michael Hall is an architectural historian and the Editor of Apollo magazine. A former Architectural Editor and Deputy Editor of Country Life, he is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a trustee of Emery Walker's Arts and Crafts house and Chairman of the Victorian Society's activities committee. His books include The English Country House: From the Archives of Country Life, also published by Aurum.

Twenty-nine meticulously rendered, ready-to-color illustrations portray the many distinctive styles of actual Victorian-era homes, including a seaside cottage in the "stick style"; an Italianate San Francisco residence of the 1880s; the unusual Octagon House in Ottawa, Illinois (1856); a Moorish-styled urban residence in Baltimore (1886), and the elegant "Vinland," a Newport, Rhode Island, residence (1882–1884).

A.W.N. Pugin transformed the Gothic Revival from an architectural style into an international movement. He decorated and furnished the Houses of Parliament, creating one of the icons of modern British identity in the process. His church designs were vastly influential, and although he was staunchly Roman Catholic, he did much to set the aesthetic tone of modern Anglicanism. The house he designed for himself at Ramsgate transformed the Victorian Gothic villa, demonstrating the ways a thoroughly modern house could draw integral lessons from the Middle Ages. And although his whole ideal was woven around a conception of English identity, his influence was international. Architects in the United States, northern Europe, and across the British Empire followed his lead, drawing from elements of his aesthetic and ideals, and in doing so, altered the look and feel of the nineteenth-century city. Despite the popularity of Pugin’s work, this is the first single-volume overview of his architecture to be published since 1971. It summarises much new scholarship and provides a good introduction to his career as well as new insight for those who might already be familiar with it.

TRAVEL BACK IN TIME WITH THE BBC'S RUTH GOODMAN We know what life was like for Victoria and Albert. But what was it like for a commoner - like you or me? How did it feel to cook with coal and wash with tea leaves? Drink beer for breakfast and clean your teeth with cuttlefish? Catch the omnibus to work and do the laundry in your corset? How to be a Victorian is a radical new approach to history; a journey back in time more personal than anything before, illuminating the overlapping worlds of health, sex, fashion, food, school, work and play. Surviving everyday life came down to the gritty details, the small necessities and tricks of living and this book will show you how. ______________________ 'Goodman skilfully creates a portrait of daily Victorian life with accessible, compelling, and deeply sensory prose' Erin Entrada Kelly 'We're lucky to have such a knowledgeable cicerone as Ruth Goodman . . . Revelatory' Alexandra Kimball 'Goodman's research is impeccable . . . taking the reader through an average day and presenting the oddities of life without condescension' Patricia Hagen

A middle class home, circa 1850, of the sort that many people live in today, is the focus of Judith Flanders' book. The Victorian age is both recent and unimaginably distant. In the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation in the world, people carried slops up and down stairs; buried meat in fresh earth to prevent mould forming; wrung sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. This drudgery was routinely performed by the parents of people still living, but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Running water, stoves, flush lavatories - even lavatory paper - arrived slowly throughout the century; and most were luxuries available only to the prosperous.