Editing Georgian architecture (section)

==Types of buildings==

===Houses===
[[File:WestoverPlantationSEGL.jpg|thumb|right|[[Westover Plantation]] – Georgian country house on a James River plantation in Virginia]]

Versions of revived [[Palladian architecture]] dominated [[English country house]] architecture. Houses were increasingly placed in grand landscaped settings, and large houses were generally made wide and relatively shallow, largely to look more impressive from a distance. The height was usually highest in the centre, and the Baroque emphasis on corner pavilions often found on the continent generally avoided. In grand houses, an entrance hall led to steps up to a ''[[piano nobile]]'' or [[mezzanine]] floor where the main reception rooms were. Typically the basement area or "rustic", with kitchens, offices and service areas, as well as male guests with muddy boots,<ref>Musson, 31; Jenkins (2003), xiv</ref> came some way above ground, and was lit by windows that were high on the inside, but just above ground level outside. A single block was typical, with perhaps a small court for carriages at the front marked off by railings and a gate, but rarely a stone [[gatehouse]], or side wings around the court.

Windows in all types of buildings were large and regularly placed on a grid; this was partly to minimize [[window tax]], which was in force throughout the period in Great Britain. Some windows were subsequently bricked-in. Their height increasingly varied between the floors, and they increasingly began below waist-height in the main rooms, making a small [[balcony]] desirable. Before this the internal plan and function of the rooms can generally not be deduced from the outside. To open these large windows the [[sash window]], already developed by the 1670s, became very widespread.<ref>Musson, 73–76; Summerson, 46</ref> [[Hall|Corridor]] plans became universal inside larger houses.<ref>Bannister Fletcher, 420</ref>

Internal courtyards became more rare, except beside the stables, and the functional parts of the building were placed at the sides, or in separate buildings nearby hidden by trees. The views to and from the front and rear of the main block were concentrated on, with the side approaches usually much less important. The roof was typically invisible from the ground, though domes were sometimes visible in grander buildings. The [[roofline]] was generally clear of ornament except for a [[balustrade]] or the top of a [[pediment]].<ref>Musson, 51; Bannister Fletcher, 420</ref> Columns or [[pilaster]]s, often topped by a pediment, were popular for ornament inside and out,<ref>Bannister Fletcher, 420</ref> and other ornament was generally geometrical or plant-based, rather than using the human figure. 
[[File:Syon House 2.jpg|thumb|left|Grand [[Neoclassical architecture|Neoclassical]] interior by [[Robert Adam]], [[Syon House]], London]]

Inside ornament was far more generous, and could sometimes be overwhelming.<ref>Jenkins (2003), xv; Musson, 31</ref> The [[chimneypiece]] continued to be the usual main focus of rooms, and was now given a classical treatment, and increasingly topped by a painting or a mirror.<ref>Musson, 84–87</ref> [[Plasterwork]] ceilings,<ref>Musson, 113–116</ref> carved wood, and bold schemes of wallpaint formed a backdrop to increasingly rich collections of furniture, paintings, [[porcelain]], mirrors, and [[objets d'art]] of all kinds.<ref>Jenkins (2003), xv</ref> Wood-panelling, very common since about 1500, fell from favour around the mid-century, and [[wallpaper]] included very expensive imports from China.<ref>Musson, 101–106</ref>

Smaller houses in the country, such as vicarages, were simple regular blocks with visible raked roofs, and a central doorway, often the only ornamented area. Similar houses, often referred to as "villas" became common around the fringes of the larger cities, especially London,<ref>Summerson, 266–269</ref> and detached houses in towns remained common, though only the very rich could afford them in central London.

In towns even most better-off people lived in terraced houses, which typically opened straight onto the street, often with a few steps up to the door. There was often an open space, protected by iron railings, dropping down to the basement level, with a discreet entrance down steps off the street for servants and deliveries; this is known as the [[Area (architecture)|"area"]].<ref>Summerson, 44–45</ref> This meant that the ground floor front was now removed and protected from the street and encouraged the main reception rooms to move there from the floor above. Often, when a new street or set of streets was developed, the road and pavements were raised up, and the gardens or [[backyard|yards]] behind the houses remained at a lower level, usually representing the original one.<ref>Summerson, 44–45</ref>
[[File:Baggot Street Lower 2.jpg|thumb|Georgian townhouses on [[Baggot Street]], Dublin]]
Town terraced houses for all social classes remained resolutely tall and narrow, each dwelling occupying the whole height of the building. This contrasted with well-off continental dwellings, which had already begun to be formed of wide apartments occupying only one or two floors of a building; such arrangements were only typical in England when housing groups of batchelors, as in [[Oxbridge]] colleges, the lawyers in the [[Inns of Court]] or the [[Albany (London)|Albany]] after it was converted in 1802.<ref>Summerson, 45</ref> In the period in question, only in [[Edinburgh]] were working-class purpose-built [[tenement]]s common, though lodgers were common in other cities. A curving [[Crescent (architecture)|crescent]], often looking out at gardens or a park, was popular for terraces where space allowed. In early and central schemes of development, plots were sold and built on individually, though there was often an attempt to enforce some uniformity,<ref>Summerson, 73–86</ref> but as development reached further out schemes were increasingly built as a uniform scheme and then sold.<ref>Summerson, 147–191</ref>

The late Georgian period saw the birth of the [[semi-detached]] house, planned systematically, as a [[suburb]]an compromise between the terraced houses of the city and the detached "villas" further out, where land was cheaper. There had been occasional examples in town centres going back to medieval times. Most early suburban examples are large, and in what are now the outer fringes of Central London, but were then in areas being built up for the first time. [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]], [[Chalk Farm]] and [[St John's Wood]] are among the areas contesting being the original home of the semi.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1454,00.html correspondence in The Guardian]</ref> Sir [[John Summerson]] gave primacy to the Eyre Estate of St John's Wood. A plan for this exists dated 1794, where "the whole development consists of ''pairs of semi-detached houses'', So far as I know, this is the first recorded scheme of the kind". In fact the French Wars put an end to this scheme, but when the development was finally built it retained the semi-detached form, "a revolution of striking significance and far-reaching effect".<ref>Summerson, 159–160</ref>

===Churches===
[[File:St Martin-in-the-Fields, July 2011.jpg|thumb|[[St Martin-in-the-Fields]], London (1720), [[James Gibbs]]]]
[[File:The courtyard of Somerset House, Strand, London - geograph.org.uk - 1601172.jpg|thumb|Courtyard of [[Somerset House]], from the North Wing entrance. Built for government offices.]]
Until the [[Church Building Act 1818]], the period saw relatively few churches built in Britain, which was already well-supplied,<ref>Summerson, 57–72, 206–224; Jenkins (1999), xxii</ref> although in the later years of the period the demand for [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Non-conformist]] and Roman Catholic places of worship greatly increased.<ref>Summerson, 222–224</ref> Anglican churches that were built were designed internally to allow maximum audibility, and visibility, for [[preaching]], so the main [[nave]] was generally wider and shorter than in medieval plans, and often there were no side-aisles. Galleries were common in new churches. Especially in country parishes, the external appearance generally retained the familiar signifiers of a Gothic church, with a tower or spire, a large west front with one or more doors, and very large windows along the nave, but all with any ornament drawn from the classical vocabulary. Where funds permitted, a classical temple portico with columns and a pediment might be used at the west front. Interior decoration was generally chaste; however, walls often became lined with plaques and monuments to the more prosperous members of the congregation.<ref>Jenkins (1999), xx–xxii</ref>

In the colonies new churches were certainly required, and generally repeated similar formulae. British Non-conformist churches were often more classical in mood, and tended not to feel the need for a tower or steeple.

The archetypal Georgian church is [[St Martin-in-the-Fields]] in London (1720), by Gibbs, who boldly added to the classical temple façade at the west end a large steeple on top of a tower, set back slightly from the main frontage. This formula shocked purists and foreigners, but became accepted and was very widely emulated, at home and in the colonies,<ref>Summerson, 64–70</ref> for example at [[St Andrew's Church, Chennai]] in India. And in Dublin, the extremely similar [[St. George's Church, Dublin]].

The 1818 Act allocated some public money for new churches required to reflect changes in population, and a commission to allocate it. Building of [[Commissioners' church]]es gathered pace in the 1820s, and continued until the 1850s. The early churches, falling into the Georgian period, show a high proportion of [[Gothic Revival]] buildings, along with the classically inspired.<ref>Summerson, 212–221</ref>

===Public buildings===
Public buildings generally varied between the extremes of plain boxes with grid windows and Italian Late Renaissance palaces, depending on budget. [[Somerset House]] in London, designed by [[Sir William Chambers]] in 1776 for government offices, was as magnificent as any country house, though never quite finished, as funds ran out.<ref>Summerson, 115–120</ref> Barracks and other less prestigious buildings could be as functional as the mills and factories that were growing increasingly large by the end of the period. But as the period came to an end many commercial projects were becoming sufficiently large, and well-funded, to become "architectural in intention", rather than having their design left to the lesser class of "surveyors".<ref>Summerson, 47, 252–262, 252 quoted</ref>