The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998/Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso/E/English_architecture/INFOTEXT

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The main styles in English architecture are:
Saxon, Norman, Early English (of which
Westminster Abbey is an example), Decorated,
Perpendicular (15th century), Tudor (a name
chiefly applied to domestic buildings of
about 1485-1558), Jacobean, Stuart (including
the Renaissance and Queen Anne styles),
Georgian, the Gothic revival of the 19th
century, Modern, and Post-Modern. Notable
architects include Christopher Wren, Inigo
Jones, John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Hawksmoor,
Charles Barry, Edwin Lutyens, Hugh Casson,
Basil Spence, Frederick Gibberd, Denys
Lasdun, and Richard Rogers. Roman period (55
BC-AD 410) Stretches of Hadrian's Wall
remain, and excavations continue to reveal
the forums, basilicas, baths, villas amd
mosaic pavements spread across the country.
Anglo-Saxon period (449-1066) Much of the
architecture of this period, being of timber,
has disappeared. The stone church towers that
remain, such as at Earls Barton, appear to
imitate timber techniques with their `long
and short work' and triangular arches. Norman
period (1066-1189) William the Conqueror
inaugurated an enormous building programme.
He brought the Romanesque style of round
arches, massive cylindrical columns and thick
walls. At Durham Cathedral, the rib vaults
(1093) were an invention of European
importance in the development of the Gothic
style. Gothic architecture Early English
(1189-1307) began with the very French east
end of Canterbury cathedral designed in 1175
by William of Sens, and attained its English
flowering in the cathedrals of Wells,
Lincoln, and Salisbury. A simple elegant
style of lancet windows, deeply carved
mouldings and slender, contrasting shafts of
Purbeck marble. Decorated (1307-77) is
characterized by a growing richness in
carving and a fascination with line. The
double curves of the ogee arch, elaborate
window tracery, and vault ribs woven into
star patterns may be seen in buildings such
as the Lady Chapel at Ely and the Angel Choir
at Lincoln. The gridded and panelled cages of
light of the Perpendicular (1377-1485) style
are a dramatic contrast to the Decorated
period. Lacking the richness and invention of
the 14th century, they convey, however, an
often impressive sense of unity, space and
power. The chancel of Gloucester cathedral is
early Perpendicular whereas Kings College
chapel, Cambridge, is late Perpendicular.
Tudor and Elizabethan period (1485-1603) This
period saw the Perpendicular style interwoven
with growing Renaissance influence. Buildings
develop a concious symmetry elaborated with
continental Pattenbrook details. Hybrid and
exotic works result such as Burghley House
and Hardwick Hall (1591-97). Jacobean
(1603-25) This period showed scarcely more
sophistication. English Renaissance: Stuart
period The provincial scene was
revolutionized by Inigo Jones with the Queens
House, Greenwich 1616 and the Banqueting
House, Whitehall 1619. Strict Palladianism
appeared among the half-timber and turrets of
Jacobean London. With Wren a more mannered
classicism evolved showing French Renaissance
influence, for example St Paul's cathedral
(1675-1710). Under Wren's pupil Hawksmoor and
Vanbrugh theatrical Baroque style emerged, as
in Blenheim Palace 1705-20. Georgian
architecture Lord Burlington, reacting
against the Baroque, inspired a revival of
the pure Palladian style of Inigo Jones.
William Kent, also a Palladian, invented the
picturesque garden as at Rousham,
Oxfordshire. Alongside the great country
houses, an urban architecture evolved of
plain, well-proportioned houses, defining
elegant streets and squares. The second half
of the century mingled Antiquarian and
Neo-Classical influences, exquisitely
balanced in the works of Robert Adam at
Kedleston Hall (1757-70). John Nash carried
Neo-Classicism into the new century. By the
dawn of the Victorian era this had become a
rather bookish Greek Revival, for example the
British Museum (1823-47). 19th century
Throughout the century classic and gothic
engaged with Victorian earnestness in the
`Battle of the Styles': Gothic for the Houses
of Parliament (1840-60), Renaissance for the
Foreign Office (1860-75). Meanwhile, the
great developments in engineering and the
needs of new types of buildings, such as
railway stations, transformed the debate.
Paxton's prefabricated Crystal Palace
(1850-51) was the most remarkable building of
the era. The Arts and Crafts architects,
Philip Webb and Norman Shaw, brought renewal
and simplicity inspired by William Morris.
20th century The early work of Lutyens and
the white rendered houses of Voysey such as
Broadleys, Windermere (1898-99), maintained
the Arts and Crafts spirit of natural
materials and simplicity. Norman Shaw,
however, developed an Imperial Baroque style.
After World War I classicism again dominated,
grandly in Lutyens' New Delhi government
buildings (1912-31). There was often a clean
Scandinavian influence as in the RIBA
building, London (1932-34), which shows
growing Modernist tendencies. Modernism
arrived fully with continental refugees such
as Lubetkin (1901-), the founder of the
Tecton architectural team that designed
London Zoo (1934-38). The strong social
dimension of English 20th-century
architecture is best seen in the New Town
movement. Welwyn Garden City was begun in
1919 and developed after World War II. The
latest of the New Towns, Milton Keynes, was
designated 1967. Recently English architects
have again achieved international
recognition, for example Norman Foster and
Richard Rogers for their High-Tech innovatory
Lloyds Building (1979-84). James Stirling
maintains a Modernist technique and planning
while absorbing historicist and contextural
concerns.