Page 10 - Copshaholm Curriculum Book_2015

The Victorian Home

In 1837, the eighteen-year-old Princess Victoria became Queen of England. The
ornate style of architecture and decoration that was popular during her reign (from 1837
to 1901) has been called “Victorian.”

The house and rooms that you will see throughout this section of the curriculum are
not meant to document one particular building (i.e. Copshaholm), but rather to represent
several phases of Victorian style. The rooms that are detailed in this curriculum are
from a rather grand lifestyle, at least from an upper-middle class home. It must be
remembered that there would have been many homes much grander and many homes
much poorer during the Victorian era, just as there are today.

There were many distinct style trends in Victorian
architecture. Some of the main ones were Queen
Anne Revival, Romanesque Revival, Italianate,
Stick (or Eastlake), Second Empire and Carpenter
Gothic. Architects of the time often combined two or
three styles in one house, creating the fanciful and
totally original houses that some critics have referred
to as from “the dark ages of architecture” or the period
of the “collapse of taste.”

The house at the right combines the simple,
straightforward lines of the Italianate style with such
Second Empire features as a mansard roof and
dormer windows. The window that projects to the left
of the house on the lower floor is called a bay window.
It directs more light into a room because of its three
sides. The arched window over the front door is
known as a fanlight. It helps bring more light into the
typically long and dark entrance hallway.