Here's the latest in our mini blog series about period properties. This week we are featuring Georgian Properties, which were built between 1714-1830, during the consecutive reigns of Kings George I, George II, George III and George IV.
Georgian properties were built to be spacious, with grand proportions. Many Georgian properties were built in identical rows over three or four storeys. It was common for the owner and their family to occupy the first and second storeys, which had tall ceilings and windows, and their staff would live on the top storeys, which had smaller rooms with lower ceilings and smaller windows. Windows were commonly sash windows. Georgian properties were built around garden squares, as the houses didn’t have their own gardens. A famous architect of the Georgian period was John Nash, who designed the original Buckingham Palace. London boasts many other Georgian properties as does Cheltenham, and the famous royal crescent in Bath is a magnificent Georgian Building.
Georgian buildings were typically symmetrical, and had huge, main doors, framed by white, stucco-rendered pillars. The bottom floor was commonly rendered, and the rest of the building had exposed brickwork. Later in this period, it was common for the entire building to be rendered. The render was commonly painted white or cream. The exterior would be flat and symmetrical with a balanced interior layout.
Another common feature of Georgian properties was a bricked-up window! The reason for this was that there was a window tax levied on homeowners between 1696 and 1851. The more windows a property had, the bigger it was, and therefore the richer the owner was. To reduce the amount they had to pay, many homeowners at the time bricked up some of their windows, and many were left like this after the tax was lifted.
In 1784, a tax on bricks was also brought in at the rate of 4 shillings per 1,000 bricks. This tax was to pay for wars that were being fought in the American colonies. Some people tried to get around this by making bigger bricks so that they would use less, but the government simply changed the rules and stipulated a maximum size for a brick! The tax was finally abolished in 1850, as it was classed as ‘detrimental to industrial development.’
Georgian interior design features included alcoves, columns that were Roman-inspired, and carved statues. Colours such as greens, mauves and pinks were also common, as were the use of swags, ribbons and garlands as decorations. When restoring a Georgian property, you can make use of the traditional features by enhancing high ceilings with bold lighting, niches and alcoves make great storage solutions, and hunting round salvage yards can yield items that will help you maintain the traditional character.
We have worked on the restoration of many such properties over the years and are happy to help if you are thinking of embarking on a project restoring a Georgian property.
