A to Z of Period Properties

[MdB]

Adhesive: Substance to temporarily connect together to items. Time of failure of joint is directly related to whether or not your head is underneath said item at the time.

(B is next week isn't it?)

 

[Moo]

Adze.

 

[DaveBrigg]

ARTHUR
One of the few Grade II listed buildings that it is possible to be on first-name terms with. Also unusual in that the top half can rotate 360 degrees, rather like a post mill. built in 1962 in Cornwall to receive a signal from Telstar, and now open to the paying public.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I will try to redeem myself.

ANTA: a square pilaster, usually at the corner of a building. The ablative IN ANTIS is used to describe a portico terminating on each side with such a pilaster. Thus Hexastyle in antis means a portico with six round columns flanked by pilasters, the number of round columns being indicated by the prefix: distyle (2); tetrastyle (4); hexastyle (6) etc. Needless to say there are no terms for a portico with an odd number of columns, as this would have been considered an abomination. Porticoes with odd numbers of columns or pilasters are occasionally encountered however. It normally indicates that the buildings they adorn were erected by uneducated tradesmen or speculative builders, although these days one can never be quite sure that an architect who should have known better was not involved. A example can be found in the otherwise excellent Bedford Square, probably the best preserved 18thC square in London. The problem often arises, as it did in Bedford Square, when trying to fit a classical facade onto a row of relatively narrow terraced houses.

 

[Flyfisher]

ARTHUR
and now open to the paying public.

Indeed it is. We visited a few years ago and even though I'd heard of Goonhilly ages ago, I was surprised to learn was once the world's largest satellite receiving station. Seems that Cornwall has a venerable communications history going back to the first trans-atlantic submarine cables.

 

[JoceAndChris]

ASHLEY, LAURA: Once famous for the floral frock, 80% of Laura Ashley's sales are now from homewares.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2802999/Not-just-a-pretty-dress.html Whilst you men are busy wielding your 'ammers and shouting B@ll@cks we ladies are figuring out new and ever-more ingenious schemes to invite Laura and Cath (see KIDSTON,CATH) into our homes. Laura Ashley is the reason why many women have learned to use a drill, and I wonder if there's any period property in the land that doesn't bear witness to her endless waterfall of pretty accessories, wallpapers, fabrics and furniture. The success of the brand is fairly surprising when you consider the inflated costs of the sub-standard products - and is maybe accounted for by a universal desire to escape into a world of bygone innocent charm, or splendid decadence, as the mood takes - for example, two of this season's collections are called "Norfolk" and "Petit Palais". Here's Norfolk's puzzling description: "Our new, modern country interior borrows touches of urban elegance to create a calm, confidant home you'll just love relaxing in", hmmm, a bit of everything there then, and here's Petit Palais ""This season we have reinvented our graceful, French salon theme. Champagne tones and pretty accessories reflect all that is elegant in interiors today". In fact what they've done here is steal a popular pattern from Farrow and Ball and undercut them by about 70%- which probably explains their popularity; it's affordable (in sale time) posh trash that's best treated with caution.

 

[biffvernon]

Ancient Monument: Penners

 

[Cloudscape]

I wonder if there's any period property in the land that doesn't bear witness to her endless waterfall of pretty accessories, wallpapers, fabrics and furniture.

This one! :lol:

The ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT was an aesthetic movement occurring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. Inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and a romantic idealization of a craftsperson taking pride in their personal handiwork, it was at its height between approximately 1880 and 1910. It was a reformist movement that influenced architecture, decorative arts, cabinet making, crafts, and garden designs.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ANTI-SCRAPE (see also SPAB)

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded in 1877 by William Morris and his close friend the architect Philip Webb. There was a growing concern in from the mid nineteenth century about the over-enthusiastic restoration work carried out on medieval buildings. Churches were particularly vulnerable. While staying at Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire during the summer of 1876, Morris was shocked to discover the extent of restoration work being carried out on Burford Church. A threat to Tewkesbury Abbey the following year spurred him on to found the society. It was affectionately known as Anti-scrape because that was what it did – it tried to regulate architects and builders from scraping away at accumulated layers of alterations etc to produce a sanitised version of historic buildings.

Text pinched from here: http://gimson.leicester.gov.uk/gimsonpage/gimson-and-the-arts--crafts-movement/spab-or-anti-scrape

 

[Nigel Watts]

William Morris's manifesto for SPAB remains challenging even today. Prince Charles resigned as Patron over its interpretation. Every PPUKer should have read it.

http://www.spab.org.uk/what-is-spab/the-manifesto/

I am not clear if this is the original unexpurgated version however...

 

[DaveBrigg]

ART NOUVEAU or ART DECO?

Hands up who has ever got these two mixed up

A very simple summary of differences is given below.

Art Nouveau - Most popular from 1890 to 1905
Art Deco - Most popular from 1925 to early 1940's

Art Nouveau - Lots of free flowing lines, stylized plant and flower designs, swirling curves
Art Deco - Lots of geometric based designs, using straight lines, angles and regular curves.
View attachment 1
Art Nouveau - Inspired partly by William Morris, as a reaction against a Victorian Gothic Revival and mass produced goods with little aesthetic appeal.
Art Deco - inspired partly by Ancient Egypt and Aztec designs, but also looking to the future and used for skyscrapers, railway buildings, streamlined cars and factories.

Art Nouveau - Very popular in continental Europe, especially Belgium and France
Art Deco - Very popular in USA, especially Miami, but Art Deco buildings can be found in many countries, such as Brazil, Cuba and India.

Art Nouveau - Charles Rennie Mackintosh a major architect and designer, based in Glasgow.
Art Deco - Giles Gilbert Scott a major architect and designer, with works such as Battersea Power Station and Liverpool cathedral.

Art Nouveau properties - Pitched roofs, sometimes stained glass, relatively rare.
Art Deco properties - Flat roofs, windows often steel framed, relatively more common.

Both styles influenced the complete interior design of buildings, from Art Nouveau's Tiffany Lampshades to Art Deco cutlery and light fittings.

 

[DaveBrigg]

Art Nouveau shop, Nottingham
View attachment 1

Art Deco House

 

[Nigel Watts]

APSIDAL CHANCEL: East end (liturgically) of a church forming a semicircle in plan. Much more common in French gothic than English, where square endings are more usual. Westminster Abbey is a rare English exception. Expression used in Betjeman's Poem South London Sketch, 1944:

From Bermondsey to Wandsworth
So many churches are,
Some with apsidal chancels,
Some perpendicular
And schools by E.R. Robson
In the style of Norman Shaw
Where blue-serged adolescence learn'd
To model and to draw

 

[DaveBrigg]

ANTHEMION
(with thanks to Gareth)
The anthemion is an ancient Greek design consisting of a number of radiating petals sometimes referred to as the honeysuckle or lotus palmette. The Greek anthemion is a version of a very widespread ancient decorative design derived from earlier Egyptian, Assyrian, and Aegean versions. Later, it was used by both the Greeks and Romans to decorate a wide variety of objects as well as the roof lines and columns of buildings.

The anthemion motif was a popular architectural element during the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. The design was used singly on antefixes—the ornamental blocks concealing tile-ends at the edges of a roof—or as a running ornament on friezes.

Time to move on to B

 

[Nigel Watts]

I had always assumed that the Anthemion was the honeysuckle component and the other part was a stylised acanthus, but it seems I have been getting it wrong; Anthemion refers to the whole design, although the separate components can be described as Anthemion (the honeysuckle bit) and Palmette. Sometimes one sees the Palmette depicted with spikey leaves, looking very acanthus like.

 

[essexbearhunter]

It doesn't help that, done properly, the correct relationship between the abacus and architrave necessarily involves the base of the column or pilaster projecting further than it otherwise would beyond the face of the building, which - if you're building a hundred of these monstrosities - means that you're occupying floor space on the pavement which you have to buy from the owner of the highway if your houses are backing the pavement.

You could always opt for another "A"...and go ASTYLAR which, in its more subtle form, uses the proportions and spacings that are derived from the columns in a classical building with columns...but does not use the columns.

The Commonwealth/Restoration period with Inigo Jones at its core, produced Queens House**, Greenwich, Coleshill in Berkshire and Clarendon House (amongst many others) as examples of classically inspired astylar minimalism (externally, at least). The lesser-known Cobthorne in Oundle, is a further, more compact example. http://flickr.com/photos/20987962@N03/3763123692

** excluding Webb's projecting bay on South Front added in 1660)

 

[DaveBrigg]

BUTTRESS
A structure built against a wall to support it. At its simplest it could be a brick pillar, but many cathedrals have flying buttresses which join piers several feet away from the building. Buttesses are sometimes added to a building afterwards to prevent a wall from bowing, or may be integral to the building design. Walls are sometimes pushed outwards (laterally) at the top by the force exerted by the roof, and the buttress counteracts this force.
Below, a building with its gable wall supported by three buttresses to prevent it sliding down the hill.
View attachment 1

Below, a flying buttress at Lincoln Cathedral

 

[Nigel Watts]

The Commonwealth/Restoration period with Inigo Jones at its core

Inigo Jones died in 1652 so cannot really be described as Commonwealth/Restoration. He was a great favorite of Charles I, for whom he put on elaborate masques and built the banqueting house in Whitehall.

 

[essexbearhunter]

Inigo Jones died in 1652 so cannot really be described as Commonwealth/Restoration.

My use of the word "core" was totally intentional and in line with the views expressed by Timothy Mowl & Brian Earnshaw in 'Architecture without Kings - The Rise of puritan classicism under Cromwell' . Quoting from the opening of page 25:

To open an account of architecture in the Interregnum with Inigo Jones, the arch palace-provider to the old order, will seem perverse, but it will impress the real continuity within a period of apparent cultural division. Jones not only went on designing after the end of the Civil War, but be also evolved.....For those with the wit to change with the times the Interregnum was a liberation in architectural forms. In the brief twenty-two years between 1638 and 1660, the basic humane order of classicism, the orderly relationship of functional parts behind the show of columns and entablatures, was released and became standard.

This idea is also supported by the earlier work of Oliver Hill and John Cornforth when, in 'English Country Houses: CAROLINE 1625-1685' on page30, discussing Eltham Lodge (1664 by Hugh May) they state

In its design May was therefore picking up the threads of the earlier Jonesian innovation

Jones also advised and heavily influenced Sir Roger Pratt who designed Clarendon House in Piccadilly (1665), Kingston Lacy in Dorset and was heavily involved in Coleshill for his cousin Sir George Pratt. - I say "involved" because Mowl & Earnshaw re-establish the involvement of Jones directly in the project by re-examining the source materials used by Gunther and Avray Tipping.

Any search for the sources of stylistic moderation in this period must accept that Jones's personal pilgrimage of taste was central....Where Jones directed the English followed

(page 71)

For the next three reigns the subdued astylar classicism of Ramsbury Manor, Lyndon Hall, Uppark Clarendon House would be the norm

(page 102)

I , therefore, hold that Jones's work and influence remained a key part long after his death.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Jones's work and influence remained a key part long after his death.

Of that there is no dispute.

I am not familiar with the Mowl & Earnshaw work - I will look it up. I have always doubted that anything of much interest architecturally came from the Commonwealth period, but I am prepared to relook at the evidence.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Jones was influential, of course, but it does beg the question as to why his buildings look so uncharacteristic of the 17th Century. If he had been closely followed, surely there should be more buildings in his style?

I think the truth is that he was not closely followed, except in a few limited cases. By European standards English architecture was very backward. The baroque was already in full swing in Italy and France and Palladio, whom Jones so admired, had worked a century previously. The aristocracy returning from France saw Versailles as their model, not the villas of the Veneto (Petworth, Boughton) and the dutch influence was arguably much stronger than that of Jones. Then of course we got the English Baroque of Wren, Vanburgh, Hawkesmore, Archer etc. It is only with Burlington and Colin Campbell and the Whig reaction to the baroque in the early 18th C that the Jonesian style came into its own.

In short, Jones has been talked up too much by art historians, perticularly those of the Hegelian school, typified by Pevsner, for whom everthing has to fit the teleological narative. Under this school of thinking early Lutyens is to be admired because his free arts and crafts style provides a link from the gothic revivial to the modern movement, but his later work is to be ahored as an evolutionary dead end. These views now seem hopelessly old fashioned, but many of us in our 50s will have accepted them as gospel when we learned our art history.