Architectural styles: a timeline
The essence of English country houses explained. Scroll on for the list of 11 main country house styles.
Overview
This is a quick and broad guide to country house styles and architectural periods. It covers main discernible architectural styles needed to discuss English country houses with confidence.
Historic houses occupy more of our attention or thought than they do our conversation.
We all love a striking building, an unusual building, a quirky decorative detail or a place with a powerful or shocking story in its walls (true or otherwise). Yet while we know our friends and family’s favourite holiday, show, car, etc – we tend not to know their favourite buildings.
This is partly because it’s hard to articulate the allure of a historic house. We lack the language to label what we see, or describe what sets one apart from another. Fear of demonstrating ignorance literally stifles expression and appreciation.
The language of historic houses is dominated by academic, technical writing. It doesn’t need to be. Start here for the clear, unarguable basics that apply to English country house architecture.
The main styles of English country house
The 11 main styles of English country house, and their approximate time periods are:
- Romanesque (c.1050-1200)
- Gothic (c.1090-1550)
- Renaissance; Elizabethan (c.1558-1603)
- Renaissance; Jacobean (c.1603-1625)
- Inigo Jones-style (c. 1600-1690)
- Baroque (c.1666-1740)
- Palladian (c.1715-1780)
- Georgian (c.1714-1830 & early 1900s)
- Neoclassical (c.1750-1914)
- Gothic revival (c.1749-1910)
- Arts and crafts (c.1860-1914)
Use the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ sections to skip through chronological styles. Or navigate to the end to find out why estates and their great country houses eventually failed.
Introduction to country house styles
The very first thing to point out is that this is a messy topic. Here’s why.
Domestic architecture is usually classified mainly:
- by time period, eg ‘Georgian’
- or by style, eg ‘Palladian’ (more later).
There are times when these two types of classification are used synonymously; eg ‘Elizabethian’ can describe a period and a style.
Secondly, most if not all English country houses were designed either as practical buildings (chiefly early examples) or as artistic expressions (chiefly later examples). Overwhelmingly they weren’t designed as academic works.
The implications of this are important because:
- the main time periods don’t always start and end with clean cut points
- the full scope of a thousand years of creative house design can’t always be bucketed into a few delineated styles.
The result? It’s inevitable that people can make different choices with architectural language to describe the same building. It doesn’t necessarily mean that one description is right, and another is wrong.
At its absolute simplest, historic houses in the UK can be broken into three basic staples:
- Romanesque: more-or-less anything built of stone that’s post-Roman but pre-gothic. Very few examples of Romanesque domestic architecture are still standing.
- Gothic: enormous height, arches, tall, narrow windows and panelled decoration. Picture some of England’s great cathedrals, and you get the idea.
- Classical: up to as recently as the 20th century, almost everything post-gothic (excl. Gothic revival) was designed according to Greek and Roman design ideas. For the purpose of this guide, we’ll ignore the unhelpful ‘classical’ designation and look at subsets.
While there are many other ways to credibly read country house architecture; eg by material, by architect, by status type (eg castle, manor, hall, palace etc). Here, we’ll keep to the basics needed to be conversant: domestic architectural styles and the periods they were popularised.
Read on for a rundown of the UK’s main country house styles.
Romanesque
Years seen
1050-1200
Associated periods
Medieval, Saxon
Medieval, Norman
Defining features of Romanesque architecture
This is one of the hardest groups to pin down. In England, Romanesque describes more-or-less anything post-Roman that’s built of stone but is pre-gothic (which is easier to define). The best description of these buildings is “severe classical simplicity”; with later gothic-style buildings showing a more decorative aesthetic.
Saxon period buildings are usually plain in rectangular blocks. Towers are usually square. Walls are typically thinner than Norman ones and windows typically look short and squashed where Norman ones are longer. The corners (or ‘quoins’) may be recognisably built from alternating vertical and horizontal stones.
Norman period buildings of this style are often larger and grander than older Saxon equivalents. While Saxon buildings are usually rectangular, Norman period equivalents are more prone to using cylindrical shapes, circular (or ‘barrel’) arches, and rounded high (or ‘vaulted’) ceilings.
Examples of Romanesque architecture
Intact examples of domestic Romanesque architecture are extremely rare in the UK. A special country house example is Boothby Pagnell Manor House.
A richer, more mercantile example is the so-called Aaron the Jew’s house, Lincoln.
A number of the UK’s oldest castles date from this period; including Hedingham Castle and the Tower of London.
Gothic
Years seen
1090-1550
Associated periods
Medieval; early English up to 1300
Medieval; high and late medieval
Tudor
Defining features of gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is defined by large, tall spaces and the introduction of ample decorative detail. It’s not to be confused with the sensational Gothic Revival style of approximately 1760-1890.
Details in the early period are quite modest; arches become more liberally-used, pointed in shape and/or furrowed for texture. Windows become larger, sometimes strikingly so (in terms of religious architecture, picture famous UK cathedrals like Ely, Exeter and York).
Shallow decorative carvings are seen early in the period, and these give way to deeper carvings (because chisels were increasingly adopted). This early period also popularized features like tall, thin arrow shoots and glass windows, as well as ‘crenelations’ (the zig-zagging square pattern synonymous with castle battlements). Picture ‘walls and towers’-type castles as opposed to earlier motte-and-bailey castles with a single keep focal point.
From approx 1375 we see a trend for even greater amounts of space used for decoration via panels and windows. Extra space for decoration meant less space for structural integrity, so late gothic buildings can be characterised by solid, tall exterior blocks (or ‘buttresses’). These help support the buildings, but also highlight scale and contribute to grandiosity. It’s partly from these vertical exterior buttress blocks that this late sub-style of gothic gets its name; “perpendicular gothic”.
Gothic-style architecture continued in vogue until approximately the end of Henry VIII’s reign. In fact, thanks in part to the dissolution of the monasteries, the Tudor period is the one where the gothic style most abounds in domestic buildings. Brick or timber-built houses are easiest to identify from this era.
Examples of Gothic architecture
An early example of gothic domestic architecture is Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk (approx 1270). Cothay Manor, Somerset (c.1480) is a later example in the “perpendicular” sub-style.
Houses in this style abound into the Tudor period and Sutton Place, Surrey (1525) is an excellent example.
Renaissance; Elizabethan
Years seen
1558-1603
Associated periods
Elizabethan
Defining features of Elizabethan renaissance architecture
Elizabethan domestic architecture is best defined by increasing amounts of renaissance-inspired detail. Renaissance architecture arrived much later to the UK than other parts of Europe, and the traditional view was that these early expressions are ‘wrong’, leading to the idea of a separate ‘Elizabethan’ architectural style.
Three defining features of Elizabethan domestic architecture are symmetry and decorative ‘strapwork’. Strapwork being controlled, regulated arrangements that loosely resemble groups of leather straps and round or square buckles.
Lower down the social scale, Elizabethan houses can be harder to differentiate from Tudor-period counterparts. Here, the identity may be in the layout. These new, more symmetrical Elizabethan great houses popularised ‘E-plan’ and ‘H-plan’ layouts instead of old courtyard-style designs. It’s also common to see porches (otherwise known as ‘frontispieces’), and sometimes these run to the full height of the building.
The large Elizabethan houses also popularised long galleries; often well lit by glass on one side, and fireplaces on the other. These special rooms detracted from great halls as the sole focal point of the house. It’s in the Elizabethan period that we see great halls become an entrance feature, more than a feature for living in. This can sometimes be inferred from the design.
Smaller but wealthy Elizabethan country houses are recognisable as being ‘half-timbered’ (with a ground floor of brick or local hard material), and/or with upper stories projecting beyond lower ones. With these, look hard to distinguish originals from Victorian-era revival imitations. If it looks too precise, it may not be as old as it seems!
Examples of Elizabethan architecture
The grandest ‘prodigy’ Elizabethan-style houses include Burghley House, Cambridgeshire (1587), Longleat House, Wiltshire (1580), and Hardwicke Hall, Derbyshire (1596).
One tier down the social scale, substantial Elizabethan country houses include Chavenage, Gloucestershire (1576), Breamore House (1583), and Fountains Hall, Yorkshire (1604).
Old Hall South Burlingham, Norfolk (late 1500’s) is a perfect example of a small Elizabethan country house.
Renaissance; Jacobean
Years seen
1603–1625
Associated periods
Early Stuart
Defining features of Jacobean renaissance architecture
Overhanging upper levels fall out of favour in Jacobean England, partly on account of being outlawed in London as a fire risk.
Jacobean architecture can be hard to differentiate from the fashionable Elizabethan-style houses as the style became unified. The main difference being the renaissance-style details which can often be increasingly inspired and implemented by flemish craftsmen. Typical Jacobean features include greater use of columns, or ornamental features that replicate columns like ‘pilasters’. We may also see aesthetic details open to the air such as arched arcades or open parapets.
Example of Jacobean architecture
Exemplar Jacobean houses include Blickling Hall, Norfolk (1626) and Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (1611).
Inigo Jones & contemporaries
Years seen
1600- 1690
Associated periods
Stuart era
Restoration era
Defining features of Inigo Jones-style architecture
This style has some strict geometric rules and is more classical than the Jacobean style that preceded it. Houses are often totally symmetrical and based on the proportions of 1st century Roman architecture. Out were huge protruding porches, turrets, E-plan houses and H-plan houses; neat rectangular designs were in.
This is a style that scales down, enabling extremely sophisticated smaller buildings such as Stone Green Hall, Mersham, Kent.
Inigo Jones in particular has been described as ‘the first English architect’. He is credited with popularising a sudden revolution in style that almost literally shook the foundations of convention, and paved the way for the likes of Sir Christoper Wren, Sir Roger Pratt, Hugh May, John Webb, Dr Robert Hooke and then countless 18th century architects.
This style’s respect for classical simplicity quickly evolved, developing into both the enhanced baroque style and the more severe palladian style. However, the taste for ‘correct’ simplicity later returned in a big way as what we now call the ‘Georgian’ style. Georgian buildings, at least on the exterior, can be almost indistinguishable to their earlier counterparts. As a result these Inigo Jones-esque buildings are often bucketed in with ‘Georgian’ without much controversy.
Example of Inigo Jones-style architecture
Significant examples include Eltham Lodge, Kent (1664), Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk (1670), and Uppark House (1690).
Baroque
Years seen
1666-1740
Associated periods
Stuart
Georgian
Defining features of Baroque architecture
In the UK (and England specifically) baroque country house architecture took the classical proportions and simplicity popularised by Inigo Jones and contemporaries, but added exaggerated enhancements. Baroque domestic architecture can often be recognised by the amount of ornamental features combined for the exterior.
Defining features of Baroque architecture
These can include a mixture of:
- grandeur in size and scale
- dramatic contrasts to enhance the grandeur, eg tall and small window contrasts, high but narrow blocks, rounded and angled features.
- exterior cartouches (little three dimensional engravings or pictures) or statues
- columns and pediments
- towers/domes
- a central block that’s enhanced by the design around it.
It’s sometimes appropriate to elaborate or intricate late-baroque houses as ‘rococo’. The style was popularised in France, and there are few examples of entire houses based on rococo principles in the UK (though many baroque house interiors can be described as ‘rococo’).
Architects known for the baroque style in England include Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor.
Example of Baroque architecture
Examples of Baroque-style houses in England include Petworth house, Sussex (1688), Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire (1704), and Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland (1728).
Palladian
Years seen
1715-1780
Associated periods
Georgian period
Defining features of Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture can be easily identified by:
- perfect symmetry
- severe, almost austere lack of features on walls and around windows (with two common exceptions, below)
- feeling more cold and intimidating than baroque or georgian-style buildings
- “corinthian” columns (note – this particular column style is ornate compared to other classic columns, and is decorated at the top by flowers and leaves – sometimes mistaken for feathers.
- liberal use of triangular pediments (triangular blocks) above doors, windows, or framing central blocks.
Three-section windows often feature in Palladian houses too; an arched central window is flanked by two shorter, very narrow rectangular ones.
Palladian architecture takes its name from 16th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio. Palladio’s work looked back to ancient Greek and Roman structures for inspiration, but applied an overarching principle that buildings should adhere to strict mathematical proportions. This dampened the ability to apply some of the more creative principles of Baroque architecture, and this is how we can distinguish the two styles.
Inigo Jones and his contemporaries had previously given nods to some Palladian principles too, but the style as a whole wasn’t fully popularised until some time later. The driving force of Palladian country house architecture in England was Lord Burlington, and Burlington was able to assist and inspire the likes of William Kent and Colin Campbell.
Palladian architecture naturally evolved into Neoclassical, a similar style that’s often less severe on account of taking its lead from classical Greek or Roman styles directly (rather than Palladio’s interpretation of it).
Example of Palladian architecture
Examples of Palladian architecture include:
- Stourhead, Wiltshire (1724)
- Prior Park, Somerset (1743)
- Leith Hill Place, Surrey (c.1760)
- Holkham Hall, Norfolk (1764).
Georgian
Years seen
1714-1830 (& revived early 1900s).
Associated periods
Georgian
Edwardian (if including near-identical ‘revival’ examples)
Defining features of Georgian architecture
Houses in the Georgian style are restrained. Early ones in particular can be near-indistinguishable from earlier Inigo Jones-inspired designs of a generation before.
Representative features include simple rectangular forms, harmonious symmetry, sash windows and central doorways. Chimneys are often pushed away from the middle of the house.
A usually reliable way to tell the difference between Georgian-style houses and earlier Inigo Jones-style houses is to look at the size. While earlier Jones-style buildings can be quite stately, the ‘Georgian’ style came into vogue in the Georgian era for smaller country houses or sophisticated town houses. Larger buildings of the Georgian period often opted for more statement styles such as late Baroque, Palladian or Neoclassical.
Neo-Georgian styles popularly revived in the early 1900s don’t necessarily innovate on the earlier styles, but can actually appear ‘more Georgian’ than the real houses of the time. In this way, they can be easy to pick out.
Examples of Georgian architecture
Good examples include Hanworth Hall, Norfolk (c.1725), Oakley Hall, Hampshire (1795), and Anmer Hall, Norfolk (1802).
Neoclassical
Years seen
1750-1914
Associated periods
Georgian & Regency
Victorian
Edwardian
Defining features of Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical country house architecture naturally evolved from ‘Palladian’, and at a glance can appear very similar. The best way to recognise Neoclassical architecture is to recognise how it differs from Palladian. While Palladian architecture was a strict and rules-based interpretation of classical Greek and Roman buildings (and arguably a revisionist one), Neoclassical is more flexible. It takes inspiration from classical Greek and Roman styles, without trying to faithfully copy them (as the Palladian style does).
Typical neoclassical architectural features can include:
- columns, columns, and more columns
- big scale – think ‘power’ houses
- contrasting separate shapes (eg via wings) to highlight this scale
- elements to break up the harshness, which themselves can include
- exterior friezes (these are bands of shallow-sculpted decoration)
- set-back recesses
- more glass than Palladian buildings; eg more or larger windows.
Later Neoclassical architecture, for example some work by Edwin Lutyens, is transitioning toward what we now call ‘Art Deco’ style. But by the time Art Deco was truly popularised, the age of the country house was over. As a result, that style is more usually reserved for urban projects like restaurants, department stores or municipal buildings (eg Norwich City Hall).
Examples of Neoclassical architecture
Broughton Hall, Yorkshire (1755,1841), Stowe House, Bucks (1774), and Heveningham Hall, Suffolk (1778).
Gothic revival
Years seen
1749-1910
Associated periods
Georgian & Regency
Victorian
Defining features of Gothic revival architecture
While Gothic revival styles are built over a protracted period, they dominated the late-Victorian era and became synonymous with this time. Often the description of a building as “Victorian” building refers to a Gothic/Tudor revival style.
Typical features of Gothic revival architecture can include castle-like features, for example:
- battlements, or square-patterned roof decoration
- towers
- arches
- pointed-arch and/or arrow-slit-style windows.
On smaller houses these features can include:
- carved wooden patterns or embellishments, especially where roofs overhang walls.
- ample triangular-pointed gables (several A-shaped roof-sections)
- sections of white plaster and timber (too well-executed to be original medieval).
Gothic revival architecture is easy to distinguish from original medieval because it is usually more of a fantasy, and the construction too perfect. Gothic revival architecture stemmed from a prevailing romantic view of the medieval period, in contrast to the domineering architecture of sheer power displayed by the neoclassical style.
Examples of Gothic revival architecture
Four examples include:
- Strawberry Hill House, London (1749)
- Stanley Park, Gloucestershire (C.1850)
- Albury Park, Surrey (1852)
- Shadwell Court, Norfolk (1860).
Arts and crafts architecture
Years seen
1860-1914
Associated periods
Victorian
Edwardian
Defining features of Arts and crafts architecture
Arts and crafts buildings can be recognised by:
- more relatable scale than many ‘power’ houses
- a nod to ‘vernacular’ design details (informal or even higgledy-piggledy)
- less adherence to restrained but conventional design than small Georgian houses
- a variety of materials, creating texture
- simple designs enhanced through art, skilled craftsmanship, and natural materials (skilled manual work was a reaction against Victorian industrialisation)
- elaborate brick chimneys not seen since Tudor times.
As with Gothic Revival, influential Arts and crafts architects also took inspiration from the medieval period. The ethos of the style, however, was not compatible with conforming Gothic Revival, and so the outcomes are very distinct.
Examples of Arts and crafts homes abound in North Norfolk and Surrey in particular.
Examples of Arts and crafts architecture
Four textbook examples:
- Munstead Wood, Surrey (1899)
- Goddards, Surrey (1900)
- Overstrand Hall, Norfolk (1901)
- Voewood, Norfolk (1905).
Why did country houses decline?
The end of the country house era
The first world war is generally used as a convenient event to mark the end of great country houses as centres of power, wealth, status and community.
While the Great War turned out to be a particular bloodbath for young officer-heirs, it also coincided with a time of changing working habits as staff sought new and often more sociable work in offices, retail etc.
But in truth, by the first world war, great country estates were living on borrowed time anyway. In the 34 years between 1880-1914, the following events combined to deal a hammer blow to grand country living and new country house architecture with it.
Factors affecting the decline of new country houses included:
- the industrial revolution
- which brought about new jobs, drawing staff out of country estate employment
- which saw power slip from the landed gentry thanks to money and power from manufacturing and business
- a depression in agriculture began to bite in the 1880s and never recovered (food is still much less expensive in real terms than it was at this time)
- Estate Duty, passed in 1894 (effectively an inheritance tax) with a top rate of 8%, rose incrementally through the years to a top rate of 15% by 1907, 20% by 1914, and on and on to 75% by 1946.
But by 1937 the National Trust Act had been passed. This served as an intervention to save our country houses from demolition or dispersal. It’s in part thanks to this that the UK has so many striking properties open for us to get under the skin of and enjoy today.
