Thearchitecture of England is thearchitecture of the historicKingdom of England up to 1707, and ofEngland since then, but is deemed to include buildings created under English influence or by English architects in other parts of the world, particularly in theEnglish overseas possessions and the laterBritish Empire, which developed into the present-dayCommonwealth of Nations.
Apart fromAnglo-Saxon architecture, the major non-vernacular forms employed in England before 1900 originated elsewhere inwestern Europe, chiefly in France and Italy, while 20th-centuryModernist architecture derived from both European andAmerican influences. Each of these foreign modes became assimilated within English architectural culture and gave rise to local variation and innovation, producing distinctive national forms. Among the most characteristic styles originating in England are thePerpendicular Gothic of the lateMiddle Ages,High Victorian Gothic and theQueen Anne style.[1]
The earliest known examples of architecture in England are themegalithic tombs of theNeolithic, such as those atWayland's Smithy and theWest Kennet Long Barrow.[2] Thesecromlechi are common over much ofAtlantic Europe: present day Spain; Brittany; Great Britain; and Ireland.Radiocarbon dating has shown them to be, as historianJohn Davies says, "the first substantial, permanent constructions of man and that the earliest of them are nearly 1,500 years older than the first of the pyramids of Egypt."[3] The Neolithichenges ofAvebury andStonehenge are two of the largest and most famous megalithic monuments in the world. The structure is an annual calendar, but the reason for the massive size is unknown with any certainty, suggestions include agriculture, ceremonial use and interpreting the cosmos. With other nearby sites, includingSilbury Hill,Beckhampton Avenue, andWest Kennet Avenue, they form aUNESCOWorld Heritage Site calledStonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites.[4]
Numerous examples ofBronze Age andIron Age architecture can be seen in England.Megalithic burial monuments, either individualbarrows (also known, and marked on modern BritishOrdnance Survey maps, as Tumuli,) or occasionallycists covered bycairns, are one form. The other is the defensive earthworks known ashill forts, such asMaiden Castle andCadbury Castle. Archaeological evidence suggests that British Iron Age domestic architecture had a tendency towards circular dwellings, known asroundhouses.
TheRoman period brought the construction of the first large-scale buildings in Britain, but very little survives above ground besides fortifications. These include sections ofHadrian's Wall,Chester city walls and coastal forts such as those atPortchester,Pevensey andBurgh Castle, which have survived through incorporation into latercastles. Other structures still standing include a lighthouse atDover Castle, now part of a church. In most cases, only foundations, floors and the bases of walls attest to the structure of former buildings. Some of these were on a grand scale, such as thepalace at Fishbourne and thethermae at Bath. The more substantial buildings of the Roman period adhered closely to the style of Roman structures elsewhere, although traditional Iron Age building methods remained in general use for humbler dwellings, especially in rural areas.
Architecture of theAnglo-Saxon period exists only in the form of churches, the only structures commonly built in stone apart from fortifications. The earliest examples date from the 7th century, notably atBradwell-on-Sea andEscomb, but the majority from the 10th and 11th centuries. Due to the systematic destruction and replacement of Englishcathedrals andmonasteries by theNormans, no major Anglo-Saxon churches survive; the largest extant example is atBrixworth.
The main material isashlar masonry, sometimes accompanied by details in reused Roman brick. Anglo-Saxon churches are typically high and narrow and consist of anave and a narrowerchancel; these are often accompanied by a west tower. Some featureporticus (projecting chambers) to the west or to the north and south, creating a cruciform plan. Characteristic features includequoins in "long-and-short work" (alternating vertical and horizontal blocks) and small windows with rounded or triangular tops, deeply splayed or in groups of two or three divided by squat columns. The most common form of external decoration islesene strips (thin vertical or horizontal strips of projecting stone), typically combined withblind arcading. Notable examples of this exist atEarls Barton,Bradford-on-Avon andBarton-upon-Humber.
In the 11th century the Normans were among Europe's leading exponents ofRomanesque architecture, a style which had begun to influence English church building before 1066, but became the predominant mode in England with the huge wave of construction that followed theNorman Conquest.[5] The Normans destroyed a large proportion of England's churches and built Romanesque replacements, a process which encompassed all of England's cathedrals. Most of the latter were later partially or wholly rebuilt inGothic style, and although many still preserve substantial Romanesque portions, onlyDurham Cathedral remains a predominantly Romanesque structure (along withSt Alban's andSouthwell, abbey churches in the medieval period). Even Durham displays significant transitional features leading towards the emergence of Gothic.[6] Romanesque churches are characterised by rounded arches,arcades supported by massive cylindricalpiers,groin vaults and low-relief sculptural decoration. Distinctively Norman features include decorative chevron patterns.
In the wake of the invasionWilliam I and his lords built numerous woodenmotte-and-baileycastles to impose their control on the native population. Many were subsequently rebuilt in stone, beginning with theTower of London.There are also a very small number of domestic Norman buildings still standing, for exampleJew's House, Lincoln;manor houses atSaltford andBoothby Pagnall; and fortified manor houses such asOakham Castle.[7]
The major buildings of theLate Middle Ages and the first centuries of theEarly Modern Period were constructed in the predominant late medieval European style ofGothic architecture. Art-historical periodisations areEarly English orFirst Pointed (late 12th–late 13th centuries),Decorated Gothic orSecond Pointed (late 13th–late 14th centuries), andPerpendicular Gothic orThird Pointed (14th–17th centuries).[8][9] The architect and art historianThomas Rickman'sAttempt to Discriminate the Style of Architecture in England, first published in 1812, divided Gothic architecture in the British Isles into three stylistic periods.[10] Rickman identified the period of architecture fromWilliam the Conqueror (r. 1066–87) toHenry II (r. 1154–89) asNorman; fromRichard the Lionheart (r. 1189–99) toEdward I (r. 1272–1307) asEarly English; the reigns ofEdward II (r. 1307–27) andEdward III (r. 1327–77) asDecorated, and fromRichard II (r. 1377–99) toHenry VIII (r. 1509–47) asPerpendicular.[10]
From the 15th century, under theHouse of Tudor, the prevailing Gothic style is commonly known asTudor architecture, being ultimately succeeded byElizabethan architecture andRenaissance architecture underElizabeth I (r. 1558–1603).[11] Rickman excluded from his scheme most new buildings after Henry VIII's reign, calling the style of "additions and rebuilding" in the later 16th and earlier 17th centuries "often much debased".[10] Architect and art historianEdmund Sharpe published in 1851The Seven Periods of English Architecture, in which he identified a pre-GothicTransitional Period (1145–90) after theNorman period, in which pointed arches and round arches were employed together.[12] Focusing on the windows, Sharpe dubbed Rickman's first Gothic style theLancet Period (1190–1245); divided the second into first theGeometrical (1245–1315) and then theCurvilinear (1315–1360); and named the third styleRectilinear (1360–1550).[12]
This last Gothic style was typified by large windows,four-centred arches, straight vertical and horizontal lines in thetracery, and regular arch-topped rectangular panelling.[13][14] Perpendicular was the prevailing style ofLate Gothic architecture in England from the 14th century to the 17th century.[13][14] Perpendicular was unique to the country: no equivalent arose inContinental Europe or elsewhere in theBritish Isles.[13] Of all the Gothicarchitectural styles, Perpendicular was the first to experience a second wave of popularity from the 18th century on inGothic Revival architecture.[13]
Little survives of thevernacular architecture of the medieval period due to the use of perishable materials for the great majority of buildings. Most domestic buildings were built ontimber frames, usually withwattle and daub infill. Roofs were typically covered withthatch; woodenshingles were also employed, and from the 12th centurytile andslate came into use in some areas.[7] Also around the 12th century, thecruck frame was introduced, increasing the size of timber-framed vernacular buildings.[7] Typically, larger houses of this period were based around agreat hall open from floor to roof. One bay at each end was split into two storeys and used for service rooms and private rooms for the owner.[15] Even quite high up the social scale houses were small by modern standards, except for the very wealthy.[16]
Buildings surviving from this period includedmoatedmanor houses of whichIghtham Mote is a notable late medieval example, andWealden hall houses such asAlfriston Clergy House.Tintagel Old Post Office is a 14th-century manor house in a part of the country where stone was the typical building material for better houses.Little Moreton Hall, a large manor house begun in 1504-08 and later extended, is a famous showpiece of decorativehalf-timbering.[17] Near the dangerous Scottish border, thepeel tower was a type oftower house or small castle; in Scotland they were even more common. Thebastle house was a two-storey version, continuing what had been a common form of house for the better-off across the country in the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods.[18]
The Tudor period constitutes a transitional phase, in which the organic continuity and technical innovation of the medieval era gave way to centuries in which architecture was dominated by a succession of attempts to revive earlier styles.
The Perpendicular Gothic style reached its culmination in the reign ofHenry VII and the early years ofHenry VIII, with the construction ofKing's College Chapel, Cambridge andHenry VII's Chapel atWestminster Abbey. However, theReformation brought an effective halt to church-building in England which continued in most parts of the country until the 19th century.
By the time of Henry VII's accession castle-building in England had come to an end and under the Tudors ostentatious unfortified country houses and palaces became widespread, built either in stone or in brick, which first became a common building material in England in this period. Characteristic features of the early Tudor style included imposing gatehouses (a vestige of the castle),flattened pointed arches in the Perpendicular Gothic manner, square-headed windows, decoratively shapedgables and large ornate chimneys. Outstanding surviving examples of early Tudor palatial architecture includeHampton Court Palace andLayer Marney Tower.
Over the course of the 16th centuryClassical features derived from theRenaissance architecture of Italy exerted an increasing influence, initially on surface decoration but in time shaping the entire design of buildings, while the use of medieval features declined. This development gave rise to palatial stone dwellings orprodigy houses such asHardwick Hall andMontacute House.
During the 17th century, the continuing advance of Classical forms overrode the eclecticism of English Renaissance architecture, which gave way to a more uniform style derived from continental models, chiefly from Italy. This entailed a retreat from the structural sophistication of Gothic architecture to forms derived from the more primitive construction methods of Classical antiquity. The style was typified by square or round-headed windows and doors, flat ceilings,colonnades,pilasters,pediments anddomes. Classical architecture in England tended to be relatively plain and simple in comparison with the contemporaneousBaroque architecture of the continent, being influenced above all by thePalladian style of Italy. This was first introduced to England byInigo Jones and typified by hisQueen's House atGreenwich.
TheGreat Fire of London in 1666 forced the reconstruction of much of the city, which was the only part of the country to see a significant amount of church-building between the Reformation and the 19th century. SirChristopher Wren was employed to replace many of the destroyed churches, but his master plan for rebuilding London as a whole was rejected. Wren's churches exemplify the distinctive English approach to church-building in the Classical manner, which largely rejected the domes that typified the continental Baroque and employed a wide range of different forms ofsteeple, experimental efforts to find a substitute for the Gothicspire within a Classical mode. However, a dome featured very prominently in Wren's grandest construction,St Paul's Cathedral, the only English cathedral in any permutation of the Classical tradition.
The later 17th century saw Baroque architecture – a version of Classicism characterised by heavy massing and ostentatiously elaborate decoration – become widespread in England. Grand Baroque-style country houses began to appear in England during the 1690s, exemplified byChatsworth House andCastle Howard. The most significantEnglish Baroque architects after Wren were SirJohn Vanbrugh andNicholas Hawksmoor, who adapted the Baroque style to fit English tastes in houses such asBlenheim Palace,Seaton Delaval Hall andEaston Neston.
The 18th century saw a turn away from Baroque elaboration and a reversion to a more austere approach to Classicism. This shift initially brought a return to the Italian Palladianism that had characterised the earliest manifestations of Classical architecture in England. LaterNeoclassical architecture increasingly idealised ancient Greek forms, which were viewed as representing Classicism in its original "purity", as against Roman forms. Country houses representing this style includeWoburn Abbey andKedleston Hall. This period also saw the emergence of an increasingly planned approach to urban expansion, and the systematic, simultaneous construction of whole streets or squares, or even of entire districts, gave rise to new forms of domestic construction, theterrace and thecrescent, as exemplified inBath and inBloomsbury andMayfair inLondon. Among the notable architects practising in this era wereRobert Adam, SirWilliam Chambers,John Wood andJames Wyatt.
The 19th century saw a fragmentation of English architecture, as Classical forms continued in widespread use but were challenged by a series of distinctively English revivals of other styles, drawing chiefly on Gothic, Renaissance and vernacular traditions but incorporating other elements as well. This ongoing historicism was counterposed by a resumption of technical innovation, which had been largely in abeyance since the Renaissance but was now fuelled by new materials and techniques derived from theIndustrial Revolution, particularly the use of iron andsteel frames, and by the demand for new types of building. The rapid growth and urbanisation of the population entailed an immense amount of new domestic and commercial construction, while the same processes combined with a religious revival to bring about a resumption of widespread church building. Mechanised manufacturing, railways and public utilities required new forms of building, while the new industrial cities invested heavily in grand civic buildings and the huge expansion and diversification of educational, cultural and leisure activities likewise created new demands on architecture.
TheGothic revival was a development which emerged in England and whose influence, except in church building, was largely restricted to the English-speaking world. It had begun on a small scale in the 18th century under the stimulus ofRomanticism, a trend initiated byHorace Walpole's houseStrawberry Hill. However, widespread Gothic construction began only in the 19th century, led by the renewal of church building but spreading to secular construction. Early Gothic revival architecture was whimsical and unsystematic, but in the Victorian era the revival developed an abstract rigour and became a movement driven by cultural, religious and social concerns which extended far beyond architecture, seeing the Gothic style and the medieval way of life as a route to the spiritual regeneration of society. The first great ideologue of this movement wasAugustus Welby Northmore Pugin, who together withCharles Barry designed the newHouses of Parliament, the grandest work of Victorian Gothic architecture.
The Parliament building's Perpendicular style reflects the predominance of the later forms of English Gothic in the early Victorian period, but this later gave way to a preference for plain Early English or French Gothic, and above all to a style derived from the architecture of medieval Italy and theLow Countries. ThisHigh Victorian Gothic was driven chiefly by the writings ofJohn Ruskin, based on his observations of the buildings ofVenice, while its archetypal practitioner was the church architectWilliam Butterfield. It was characterised by heavy massing, sparse use of tracery or sculptural decoration and an emphasis on polychrome patterning created through the use of different colours of brick and stone. The Gothic revival also drove a widespread effort to restore deteriorating medieval churches, a practice which often went beyond restoration to involveextensive reconstruction. The most active exponent of this activity was also the most prolific designer of new Gothic buildings,George Gilbert Scott, whose work is exemplified bySt Pancras Station. Other leading Victorian Gothic architects includedG. E. Street,J. F. Pearson andG. F. Bodley.
The Victorian period saw a revival of interest in English vernacular building traditions, focusing chiefly on domestic architecture and employing features such ashalf-timbering and tile-hanging, whose leading practitioner wasRichard Norman Shaw. This development too was shaped by much wider ideological considerations, strongly influenced byWilliam Morris and theArts and Crafts Movement. While its ethos shared much with the Gothic revival, its preoccupations were less religious and were connected with romantic socialism and a distaste for industrialisation and urban life. On the other hand,British industrial architecture both revived old styles and developed new ones. In the later 19th century vernacular elements mingled with forms drawn from the Renaissance architecture of England and the Low Countries to produce a synthesis dubbed theQueen Anne Style, which in fact bore very little resemblance to the architecture of that reign. While some architects of the period were ideologically committed to a particular manner, a tendency personified by Pugin, others were happy to move between styles. An exemplar of this approach wasAlfred Waterhouse, whose works included buildings in Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance styles and eclectic fusions between them.
The new technology of iron and steel frame construction exerted an influence over many forms of building, although its use was often masked by traditional forms. It was highly prominent in two of the new forms of building that characterised Victorian architecture, railway station train sheds and glasshouses. The greatest exponent of the latter wasJoseph Paxton, architect ofthe Crystal Palace.
In the 18th century a few English architects had emigrated to the colonies, but as theBritish Empire became firmly established in the 19th century many architects at the start of their careers made the decision to emigrate, several chose the United States but most went to Canada, Australia or New Zealand, as opportunities arose to meet the growing demand for buildings in these countries. Normally they adopted the style of architecture fashionable when they left England, though by the latter half of the century, improving transport and communications meant that even quite remote parts of the Empire had access to many publications, such asThe Builder magazine. This enabled colonial architects to stay abreast of current fashion. Thus the influence of English architecture spread across the world. Several prominent 19th century architects produced designs that were executed by architects in the various colonies. For example, Sir George Gilbert Scott designedBombay University & William Butterfield designedSt Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide.
The last great exponent of late Victorian free Renaissance eclecticism wasEdwin Lutyens, and his shift into the Classical mode after 1900 symbolised a wider retreat from the stylistic ferment of the 19th century to a plain and homogenous Classicism based on Georgian exemplars, an approach followed by many architects of the early 20th century, notablyHerbert Baker andReginald Blomfield. This Neo-Georgian manner, while not greatly favoured in later decades by the architectural profession or architecture critics, has remained popular with clients and conservative commentators, notablyCharles, Prince of Wales. Domestic architecture throughout the 20th century and beyond has continued to be strongly influenced by a homogenised version of Victorian vernacular revival styles. Some architects responded to modernism, and economic circumstances, by producing stripped-down versions of traditional styles; the work ofGiles Gilbert Scott illustrates this well.
TheInternational Style (also known as Modernism) emerged as a reaction against the world before the First World War, including historical architectural styles. Stylistically it was functional, drawing upon objects that were designed for a specific purpose such as Oceanliners. It emerged as an idea from continental Europe, but was of interest to some English architects. However it the arrival of emigre architects such as Mendelsohn and Lubetkin that galvanised the position of modern architecture within England.[19]
The bombing of English cities created a housing shortage, in the post war years. To meet this many thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) ofcouncil houses in mock-vernacular style were built, givingworking class people their first experience of privategardens and indoorsanitation. The demand was partly sated through the pre-fabrication of buildings within factories, giving rise to the "Pre-fab" .[20]
The reconstruction that followed theSecond World War had a major impact upon English architecture. The austerity that followed the WWII meant that cost dictated many design decisions, however significant architectural movements emerged. One such movement was the native development of Brutalism. Its look was created though the desire to express how buildings were constructed, for example through the use of exposed concrete. Significant "New Brutalist" buildings were the Economist Building, theHayward Gallery, theBarbican Arts Centre and theRoyal National Theatre.
High-tech architecture emerged as an attempt to revitalise the language of Modernism, it drew inspiration from technology to create new architectural expression . The theorical work ofArchigram provided significant inspiration of the High-tec movement. High-tech architecture is mostly associated with non-domestic buildings, perhaps due to the technological imagery. The two most prominent proponents wereRichard Rogers andNorman Foster. Rogers' most iconic English building is theLloyd's building, situated nearby is Foster's most famous30 St Mary Axe building (nicknamedThe Gherkin). Their respective influence continues into the current century.
Postmodern architecture also emerged as an attempt to enrich Modern architecture. It was especially fashionable in the 1980s, when Modernism had fallen from favour, being associated with the welfare state. Many shopping malls and office complexes for exampleBroadgate used this style. Notable practitioners wereJames Stirling andTerry Farrell, although Farrell returned to modernism in the 1990s. A significant example of postmodernism isRobert Venturi's Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery.
Significant recent buildings, in a variety of styles, include:Will Alsop:Peckham Library,North Greenwich tube station;David Chipperfield:River and Rowing Museum,Hepworth Wakefield;Future Systems:Lord's Media Centre,Selfridges Building, Birmingham;Zaha Hadid,London Aquatics Centre;Ian Simpson:Beetham Tower, Manchester,Beetham Tower, Birmingham.
The principal monuments of the Neolithic Age are megalithic tombs – the earliest surviving examples of architecture in Britain
Another revelation of carbon-14 is that there were fairly numerous communities of agriculturalists in Britain by 4000 BC ... There is a conflict of views concerning the relationship between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic peoples. According to one interpretation, the scanty Mesolithic population was swept aside ... According to another interpretation, the relationship was highly creative, for it was in precisely those areas where the intrusive farmers met the indigenous population that architecture was born. The western extremities of Europe – Spain, Brittany, Britain and Ireland – are dotted with megalithic structures usually known ascromlechi, although it should be remembered that to the archaeologist thecromlech is only one version of such structures. It used to be assumed that the inspiration to build thecromlechi came from the Near East, but through another of the revelations of carbon-14 it has been proved that they are the first substantial, permanent constructions of man and that the earliest of them are nearly 1500 years older than the first of the pyramids of Egypt.
Early to High Gothic and Early English (c.1130–c.1240) Rayonnant Gothic and Decorated Style (c.1240–c.1350) Late Gothic: flamboyant and perpendicular (c.1350–c.1500)
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)First Pointed (Early English) was used from the end of C12 to the end of C13, though most of its characteristics were present in the lower part of the chevet of the Abbey Church of St-Denis, near Paris (c.1135–44). ... Once First Pointed evolved with Geometrical tracery it became known as Middle Pointed. Second-Pointed work of C14 saw an ever-increasing invention in bar-tracery of the Curvilinear, Flowing, and Reticulated types, ... culminating in the Flamboyant style (from c.1375) of the Continent. Second Pointed was relatively short-lived in England, and was superseded by Perp[endicular] (or Third Pointed) from c.1332, although the two styles overlapped for some time.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link){{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link){{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)English idiom from about 1330 to 1640, characterised by large windows, regularity of ornate detailing, and grids of panelling that extend over walls, windows and vaults.
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