[Illustration: PLATE VI.
From Belcher and MaCartney, _Later Renaissance Architecture in
England_, By permission of B. T. Batsford.
FIG. 16.--THE EARL OF BURLINGTON'S VILLA, CHISWICK. EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY.
From the same source as above.
FIG. 17.--HOUSES IN CAVENDISH SQUARE, LONDON. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]
Perhaps in one respect the greatest change which has been made in the
English house is the adoption of "flats"; commenced some time in the
'fifties in Ashley Gardens, Westminster, they have spread throughout
London. In consequence of the great value of the sites on which they are
sometimes built, to which must be added the cost of the houses pulled
down to make way for them, the question of expense in material and rich
decoration has not always been worth considering, so that frontages in
stone, with the classic orders brought in with many varieties of design,
have given the character of a palace to a structure in which none of the
rooms exceeds the modest height of 10 ft. The increasing demand for
these, however, shows that they meet, so far as their accommodation and
comfort are concerned, the wants and tastes of the upper and middle
classes. In some of the London streets, where shops occupy the ground
floor, a far finer type of house has been erected than that which could
have been afforded for the shopkeeper's residence above, as in old
times, so that London promises in time to become a city of palaces. The
same change in the aspects of its streets has long been evident in
Paris, but there is one feature in the latter city which has never yet
found its way into London, much to the surprise of French visitors, viz.
the _porte-cochere_, through which the occupants of the house can in wet
weather drive and be landed in a covered hall or vestibule. This
requires, of course, a small court at the back, so small that one
wonders sometimes how it is possible for the carriage to turn round in
it. The _porte-cochere_ also, from its dimensions, is a feature of more
importance than the ordinary street doorway, even when a portico of some
kind is added; on the other hand, the strict regulations in Paris as
regards the projection of cornices and other decorative accessories
gives to the stranger the appearance of monotony in their design, which
certainly cannot be said of the houses in flats lately built in London.
Within recent years an old English feature, known as the bow-window, has
been introduced into Paris, the primary object of which does not seem
yet to have been thoroughly understood by the French architect. An
English bow-window, by its slight projection in front of the main wall,
increases greatly the amount of light entering the room, and it is
generally placed between solid piers of stone or brick. The French
architects, however, project their piers on immense corbels, and then
sink their windows with deep external reveals, so that no benefit
accrues to the room, so far as the increased light is concerned. In
Paris, since 1900, there has been a tendency to introduce a style of
design in French houses which is known as "l'art nouveau," a style which
commenced in furniture as a reaction against the revival of the Empire
and Louis XIV. and XVI. periods, and was then extended to house fronts;
this style has unfortunately spread through the various towns in France
and apparently to Germany, again as a reaction against the formal
classic style of the latter half of the 19th century. It is probable
that in Italy and Spain "l'art nouveau" may meet with the same success,
and for the same reasons, so that in the latter country it will be a
revival, with modifications, of the well-known Churrigueresque style,
the most debased Rococo style which has ever existed. In England it has
never met with any response. (R. P. S.)