Building after the Restoration: Houses
The most notable architect after the Great Fire of London was Sir
Christopher Wren, and his masterpiece is, of course, St. Paul's
Cathedral. He designed, too, most of the city churches. The style
was adopted in various parts of the country by various noblemen for
building great houses. Brick was regarded as too mean a material
for such very grand houses, and stone was used for facing them.
In the houses which Wren built brick was very largely used. He
introduced rubbed bricks, and had them laid with very close joints.
We have some very fine examples of such brickwork in gables of
various forms in the early part of the eighteenth century--the
reign of Queen Anne.
[Illustration: _House at Rainham, Essex, built during the reign
of Queen Anne_]
Designs for houses did not improve in beauty as the eighteenth
century went on. Many of the houses were very substantially built,
and were arranged with an eye to comfort and convenience. The hall,
which had been the centre of the old English home, became smaller
and smaller; the kitchens were placed below the ground-level, and
in towns were often reached by a flight of steps down from the
street to the area, which is still so common in London streets.
The front door of the house became the great ornamental feature of
the building, approached by a flight of steps often protected by
very handsome iron railings. Attached to many of the railings still
are light upright posts for carrying an old-fashioned oil-lamp.
Just a few of these lamp-carriers have extinguishers, which were
for the use of the link-boys, when on dark nights they had safely
lighted the master of the house through the dangers of the streets
to his own front door.
The brickwork of these houses had become very plain, and less and
less stone was used for ornament--a little over the principal
windows, and the boldly cut quoins at the angles of the house. Most
of the windows were merely oblong openings in the blank wall.
The great point aimed at was to get a handsome doorway. Sometimes
a portico was built out, supported by stone pillars having
richly-carved capitals. In other cases a canopy, supported by
half-columns, or by brackets, was placed over the doorway. Stone
was sometimes used for these canopies, but wood was more common.
These wooden canopies and brackets are often very fine pieces of
joinery and wood-carving. The canopy sometimes takes the form of a
kind of big shell, the ornaments and pattern being finely moulded,
and the cornice being deeply and boldly cut. These canopies were
painted, and the tops covered with lead to protect them from the
weather. As you walk along streets of an old town, which has not
been too much modernized, you will be almost sure to see some
specimens of this kind of work.
The thick panelled doors of these houses are often grand pieces
of work, which would rejoice the heart of a joiner who loves his
craft. So many boys now are taught something of joinery at school
that there must be a good many of them who know enough to see the
beauty there is in a good piece of work, even though it may be
quite plain.
Another feature in these doorways is the window over the door,
intended to give light to the hall. We call it the fan-light,
because it was usually made somewhat in the shape of an open fan,
and you will find in fan-lights some very pretty designs cleverly
put together.
About the middle of the eighteenth century stucco came into
fashion. It was easy to handle, and ornamental patterns could be
readily produced. The ornamental stone and woodwork was imitated
in plaster. Like all mere imitations of good work, it soon became
poor, and showed itself to be a sham; but it was very fashionable.
There was such a rage for it that the brickwork of a house was
often covered with a smooth coat of it, and the whole painted
white, or cream colour. Some of the old houses of good sound brick
were covered in this way, and it was often used to cover up very
poor bricks and brickwork. Good plaster-work, no doubt, often
served a purpose in keeping out damp, but it was very formal, and
not very beautiful.
[Illustration: _Doorway from a House in Gt. Ormond Street,
London, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London_]
In the middle of the same century a fancy for Gothic architecture
revived, and many brick buildings were built with pointed arches,
doorways, and windows, with turrets and pinnacles, all covered with
plaster-work and cement, imitating Gothic mouldings and carvings;
but it was only sham Gothic, and not at all satisfactory.
Indeed, we may say that, as the century went on, houses did not
become more beautiful. As the population increased in the town,
streets of houses sprang up, some large, some small, built in
rows and crescents and terraces, in which all the houses were
alike; and very dull and drab and mean-looking many of them have
become. When they were built they were made to look neat, or even
smart, in front, but little care was taken about the appearance
and convenience of their backs. They were not arranged in such a
way that each might have a proper amount of light, and that a free
current of air could pass through them and around them.
In some respects we have improved our houses, but we have much
to learn yet. We have, for instance, yet to see that _all_ our
houses, however small, shall have a proper number of bedrooms,
large, light, and airy--for we spend one-third of our lives in
them. We have also to see that both beauty and fitness shall be
properly considered in building a house. Too often no care is taken
to provide proper places where food and clothing can be kept, and
where that very necessary but unpleasant process of washing and
drying of clothes can be carried on without spoiling the comfort
and health of the household. Every house needs a bathroom of some
sort, as much as a grate; for where dirt is there is disease,
suffering, and death. We are thinking very much in these days about
the absolute need for better housing of the people; indeed, that is
one of the "big problems" which we have to tackle.