It can also be used to mean various styles in middle-class housing, including relaxed versions of
Arts and Crafts architecture.
Description
Edwardian architecture is generally less ornate than high or late
Victorian architecture,[2] apart from a subset – used for major buildings – known as Edwardian Baroque architecture.
The
Victorian Society campaigns to preserve architecture built between 1837 and 1914, and so includes Edwardian as well as Victorian architecture within its remit.[3]
Characteristics
The characteristic features of the Edwardian Baroque style were drawn from two main sources: the architecture of France during the 18th century and that of Sir
Christopher Wren in
England during the 17th—part of the
English Baroque (for this reason Edwardian Baroque is sometimes referred to as "Wrenaissance").
Sir Edwin Lutyens was a major exponent, designing many commercial buildings in what he termed 'the Grand Style' during the later 1910s and 1920s. This period of British architectural history is considered a particularly retrospective one, since it is contemporary with
Art Nouveau.
Typical details of Edwardian Baroque architecture include extensive
rustication, usually more extreme at ground level, often running into and exaggerating the
voussoirs of arched openings (derived from French models); domed corner rooftop pavilions and a central taller tower-like element creating a lively rooftop silhouette; revived
Italian Baroque elements such as exaggerated
keystones, segmental arched
pediments, columns with engaged blocks, attached block-like rustication to window surrounds;
colonnades of (sometimes
paired) columns in the
Ionic order and domed towers modelled closely on Wren's for the
Royal Naval College in
Greenwich. Some Edwardian Baroque buildings include details from other sources, such as the
Dutch gables of
Norman Shaw's
Piccadilly Hotel in
London.
Other characteristics include:
Colour: lighter colours were used; the use of gas and later electric lights caused designers to be less concerned about the need to disguise soot buildup on walls compared to
Victorian era architecture.[2]
Patterns: "Decorative patterns were less complex; both wallpaper and curtain designs were more plain."[2]
Clutter: "There was less clutter than in the
Victorian era. Ornaments were perhaps grouped rather than everywhere."
^Antram, Nicholas; Morrice, Richard (2008). Brighton and Hove. Pevsner Architectural Guides. London: Yale University Press. p. 165.
ISBN978-0-300-12661-7.