Maria Grace has very kindly allowed me to share her wonderful article on Townhouses. I find them fascinating as I hope you do too.
Make Yourself at Home in a Georgian Town House
by
Maria Grace
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| Terrace Homes facing the street in Ashbourn |
Terrace houses dominated the London
landscape during the Regency. Almost the entire London population, rich
and poor alike, lived in a version of the terrace house. The term
terrace was borrowed from garden terraces and described streets of
houses with uniform fronts that present a single elevation to the
street.
The design of these houses varied little
regardless of their location. Though the exterior facades might feature
local stone or brick, stucco or fancy ornamentation, the essential
structures remained uniform.
Although primarily designed as
residences, Georgian terraces built along main urban thoroughfares often
incorporated ground-floor shops with residences in the upper stories.
History of Terrace Houses
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| Historic Town home |
The Great Fire of London in 1666 brought
about the first of a series of Building Acts (1667, 1707, 1709 and
1774). These acts established building requirements intended to reduce
the risk of fire spreading. Although they pertained to London
architecture specifically, they influenced building style in many other
cities.
The initial 1667 Act required brick or
stone to be used for all external and party walls, eliminating the
typical timber fronts of the Tudor and early Stuart houses. The 1707 Act
eliminated thick timber cornices. The 1709 Act required window frames
be set back behind the building line. The 1774 Act required the use of
stone or brick, specified street width, the size and layout of the
houses, floor to ceiling heights and controlled decoration on facades
even more rigidly. It also divided terrace houses into four classes.
At the bottom of the scale, fourth rate
houses, were those built in large numbers by speculative developers from
the late eighteenth century in response to industrial development in
towns like Liverpool and Manchester. These houses were often built
back-to-back in tiny yards pressed behind street frontages, standing in yards and courts, apart from easy street access. They
were worth less than £150 per year in rent and occupied less than 350
square feet of land, often standing only three stories instead of
four.
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| First, Second and Fourth rate Town Homes |
In stark contrast, some of the
wealthiest people in the country occupied palatial, first rate terraced
houses in prestigious locales like Belgrave Square and Carlton House
Terrace.
First rate houses faced streets and
lanes, were worth over £850 per year in ground rent and occupied over
900 square feet of ground space. Keep in mind, these houses usually had
four stories, plus a basement so they were frequently more than 4500
square feet on the inside.
Second rate houses faced streets,
notable lanes, and the River Thames. They were worth between £350 and
£850 in ground rent and had an exterior foot print of 500-900 square
feet.
Third rate houses faced principal streets, rented for £150-£300 and occupied 350-500 square feet ground space.
Terrace House Design
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| Floor plan of very large Belgravian town home, from The Gentleman's House. |
Whatever the size of the terrace house,
the general floor plan was consistent. Each floor would have one room
at the back and one at the front with a passage and staircase at one
side. The rooms were sometimes divided into smaller units, in some
cases separated by folding doors that could create a larger open space
when the occasion called for it.This approach to creating larger rooms
was shunned in the country where manor houses did not have the same
building restrictions, but considered good planning in the city.
Basements
All except the poorest houses had
basements where most of the service rooms would be located. Primary
access to these rooms would be through an open area in front with steps
leading down to it. The open area would give light to the kitchen
windows and might open onto storage vaults under the pavement. Small
wells around the house allowed for windows to light other subterranean
rooms including back staircases and household offices.
A warren of offices might be housed in the basement. These rooms might include
- the scullery-a small room for washing and storing dishes and kitchen equipment)
- pantry and larder for food storage
- butler's pantry and quarters
- safe, and cleaning-room for the silver
- housekeeper's-office;
- still-room for drying and preparing foods and herbs for storage, medicinal formulations, soap, ect
- servants'-hall where servants might eat and socialize
- a wine-cellar
- closet for beer;
- laundry and housemaid's-closet for linen storage
- quarters for housekeeper, cook and possibly men-servants
- vaults for coals and dust
Even in the largest of houses not all
these rooms might be present and if present, they could be very small,
packed tightly into the limited basement space.
A lift, also called a dumbwaiter, might
be employed to bring food and other items up from the basement to the
principle floors of the house. The lift could be located in a back stair
well rather than opening directly into a room of the house.
Ground Floor
The best rooms in a townhouse were on
the ground and first floor and faced the back of the house, away from
the dirt and noise of the street. These included drawing rooms, parlors
and dining rooms.
Drawing rooms were a place near the
front door for accessibility in greeting visitors. The women of the
house and their female guests would also use the drawing room as a place
to retreat after dinner, so they would be near the dining room as well.
Drawing rooms were often the most elaborately decorated room in the
house and usually very feminine in style.
The more modestly appointed parlor was a
private room for the family’s enjoyment.This room might be on either
the ground or first floor.
In large houses, the ground floor might
also house an entrance hall, cloak-room, storage closet, and library or
office. These would be more likely to face the street side of the house
since guests would not spend time in those rooms.
The First Floor
The first floor contained large rooms
for entertaining. These rooms might be used for card playing, parlor
games and dancing. Large or folding doors might connect smaller rooms so
that they could be opened to create larger spaces. Principle bedrooms
might also occupy this floor, usually located in the front (street side)
of the house.
Furnishings and other decor on this
floor would be the most elaborate and expensive in the house, positioned
to impress visitors.
The Second Floor
The more modest second floor featured
secondary bedrooms for children, or perhaps a lodgers or guests. The
rooms on this floor would be more simply decorated than those on lower
floors. Older and perhaps unwanted furniture would often find its way
into the upper stories. Bathing rooms, closets and linen storage rooms
for both cleaned and soiled lines might also be located on this floor.
The Attic
The rooms on the highest floor were
reserved for servants, who often used beds that were let down from the
wall like murphy beds. Nursery suites and storage rooms might also be
located here. These rooms were cheaply painted and furnished with little
or no decoration.
Outbuildings
Large town homes could also include
outbuildings behind the house. Stables and carriage houses might also
feature quarters for coachmen and grooms for the horses.Third and fourth
rate terrace homes were unlike to have outbuildings.
Even though there was a great deal of
similarity between the terraced homes, the differences were important
reflections of the wealth and status of the occupants of these home.
References
Characteristics of the Georgian Town House
The Ideal House
Kerr, Robert.
The Gentleman's House (1871, 3ed.)
Lane, Maggie.
Jane Austen and Food. Hambledon (1995)
Le Faye, Deirdre.
Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels. Harry N. Abrams (2002)
London Architecture
Parissien, Steven.
Regency Style. Phaidon Press Limited (2000)
Sabor, Peter (editor).
The Cambridge Edition of the Juvenilia. Cambridge University Press (2006)
Spencer-Churchill, Henrietta.
Classic Georgian Style. Collins & Brown (1997)
Summerson, John.
Georgian London. Yale University Press (2003)
Town Houses
Yorke, Trevor.
Georgian & Regency Houses Explained. Countryside Books (2007)
Yorke, Trevor.
Regency House Styles. Countryside Books (2013)
~~~~~~~~~~~
Maria Grace is the author of
Darcy's Decision, The Future Mrs. Darcy and
All the Appearance of Goodness and
Twelfth Night at Longbourn.
Click here to find her books on Amazon. For more on her writing and other
Random Bits of Fascination, visit her
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