Victorian Housebuilding

The Victorian suburbs that are such familiar elements of the British townscape were once building sites where armies of anonymous workmen converged to cover open land with streets of modest but comfortable houses. Despite their large scale and uniform appearance, most developments were built a few houses at a time by small firms operating on the narrowest of profit margins. Everyone on the building site had his place in the hierarchy of trades and the sequence of work, and each craftsman guarded his own tools and trade secrets, his only means of surviving in work that was dirty, strenuous and sometimes downright dangerous. In this lively investigation of the nineteenth-century building industry, Kit Wedd celebrates the achievement of the men who, plot by plot, translated surveyors' drawings and piles of bricks into streets of dwellings that are as desirable today as when they first appeared.

Drawings, floor plans, elevations, specifications, and vintage cost estimates depict 20 distinctive Victorian structures, from cottages to mansions. Includes more than 580 black-and-white illustrations, reproduced from a rare 1869 catalog.

This ambitious survey covers all aspects of the period in which English society acquired its modern shape -- industrial rather than agricultural, urban rather than rural, democratic in its institutions, and middle class rather than aristocratic in the control of political power. For this revised edition the footnotes and bibliography have been fully updated, and the entire text has been reset in a larger and more attractive format. An ideal introduction to the subject, it masters a huge amount of material through its clear structure, sensible judgements and approachable style.

Dismissed by planners in the 1950s as fit only for demolition and replacement with tower blocks, Queen's Park is now one of London's most vibrant and thriving communities: culturally diverse, with a vigorous campaigning spirit as well as being home to world-renowned actors, writers and musicians. This is its story From ancient Britain to the current day, defiant suffragettes to neo-Nazi arsonists, and First World War fighter aces to the Windrush generation, Queen's Park: A History is a meticulously researched book that brings the past to life. Uncover mysteries, scandals, horrors and heroes – and discover how a London community ebbed and flowed to take the shape it has today.

When this book was first published in 1982, despite considerable research on 19th Century towns in Britain and America, there had been little attempt to search for links between these empirical studies and to relate them more to more general theories of 19th Century urban development. The book provides an integrated series of chapters which discuss trends and research problems in the study of 19th Century cities. It will be of value to researchers in urban geography, social history and historical geography.

'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.

Revised & Expanded Edition. Codes, Permits, and Inspections. before you Build.