The Victorian Society Book Of The Victorian House

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.

'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

Takes readers through daily life in a Victorian house on a room-by-room basis, providing detailed descriptions of each area's furnishings and decorations while recounting events that may have transpired in the parlor, master bedroom, scullery, sickroom, and more. By the author of A Circle of Sisters. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

The nineteenth century saw huge changes in design and technology, with middle-class homes seeing drastic changes from the time of Queen Victoria's accesion in 1837 to her death in 1901. This book looks at the social history of rooms in the Victorian home and at how, thanks to industrialized mass production, people were empowered to make choices about how to decorate their homes. Numerous exterior and interior styles were available as Victorian architects and designers grappled towards a new decorative language by testing the best from the past. This meant that families could choose to live in an Italianate villa, a semi-detached Gothic or a Queen Anne terraced home. The changes implemented during the Victorian era resulted in a brand of interior design and asthetic still relevant and appreciated today.

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.

Presents photographs and sketches and explanations of life in a particular London house during the 19th century and includes a list of houses and museums which offer displays on aspects of Victorian life.

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 study of Britain's great nineteenth-century houses examines their architects, and the social, technological, and economic conditions that made the massive structures possible