© NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES / RUPERT TRUMAN

ATHOME
WITH

THEGEO
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 2014 marks the tercentenary of George I ascending the
British throne. As a trio of exhibitions on the Georgians
open, Sue Herdman goes in search of their fashionable houses
and asks what these buildings tell us about their lives
What did the Georgians do for us? Well, they columned marble hall being lit from above to
gave us popular culture as we know it today. suggest the open courtyard of a Roman villa.
They transformed our cities and towns. They Florence Court in Northern Ireland was built
created a mass print information highway, and seven bays wide and three stories high, with
oversaw the ongoing of the Agrarian and the riotous Rococo plasterwork interiors. Closer
start of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout to London, Horace Walpole acquired the
the reigns of the four kings called George we Thameside Chopped Straw Hall in Twicken-
gained a better transport system, by canal and ham in 1747, and created his highly eccentric
road. By 1830 it was possible to belt out of town Gothic fantasy, Strawberry Hill House. In 1823
in the Georgian equivalent of an Aston Martin came George IV’s remodelled Royal Pavilion in
– a sporty carriage called a phaeton – for a Brighton, with its turrets and onion domes,
weekend visit to a destination 100 miles away. cusped arches and minarets, and interiors a mix
Leisure time increased. A wealthy, commercial of Indian, Chinese and Regency.
middle class emerged. Travel and tourism grew. If Palladian was the starting point for the era,
The Grand Tour, the gap year of its day (if a it was Burlington and his protégé, Kent, who
highly refined one), exposed nobility to the were to champion the look. Like others, they
beauty of classicism and antiquity. Against this had visited Italy and been influenced by the
backdrop of the Enlightenment, of new ideas, style of the 16th-century architect Andrea
the Georgians looked outwards, while at home Palladio. ‘A prime example of their work is
they orchestrated 116 years of electrifying Chiswick House in west London,’ says Bryant.
change and progress. ‘It’s a geometric marvel, a perfect piece of
For contemporary architects, builders, architectural mathematics. The rooms are a
speculators and designers, the period brought variety of shapes. The house has flow; one could
untold opportunities and a new language in promenade from one space to another.’ Why
architecture. Among the busy tastemakers were promenade? ‘Because, along with so much
the architect brothers Robert and James Adam; else, entertaining at home was changing,’ says
Sir John Soane; John Nash; the patron architect Karen Limper-Herz, co-curator of the British
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington; and Library’s ‘Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and
designers such as the polymath William Kent. the Making of Modern Britain’. Interiors now
The latter is to be the focus of the V&A’s 2014 required circuits for guests to stroll, emulating
spring exhibition ‘William Kent: Designing the progressions familiar in royal residences,
Georgian Britain’. Within the show, curator and providing the chance to view their host’s
Julius Bryant reveals, ‘we will assert that there tastefully chosen decor.
was a rejection of the style of the old court’. The That taste ensured these new properties
Baroque was the look of yesteryear. The future were true show homes. ‘As the Georgians
was about the elegant, pure proportions of the traded and travelled overseas, so they were
Palladian (c. 1714–60); the ordered Adam or exposed to the ways of countries such as India
Neoclassical (c. 1760–90); and, later, the visually and China,’ says Limper-Herz. ‘Looks such as
rich Regency (c. 1790–1830). chinoiserie and the “Hindoo” became high
Extraordinary and beautiful buildings fashion.’ Imports brought luxury goods; rituals
emerged. There was the Neoclassical ‘temple such as taking tea began to punctuate the daily
to the arts’, Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, its schedule of those who could afford it. But it
Above: the south
front of Kedleston
Hall, Derbyshire

ORGIANS
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12/11/2013 16:45
 wasn’t enough to just take tea: the ritual had
BRIGHTON: COURTESY ROYAL PAVILION & MUSEUMS, BRIGHTON & HOVE. EPERGNE: COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S PICTURE LIBRARY. STRAWBERRY HILL: © 2010 MARTIN CHARLES

to happen in a beautiful room, lit by the huge

windows that were now in demand as the fash-
ion called for the inside to meet the out. As mass
printing grew, early magazines could provide
the latest on exteriors and interiors, as did
volumes such as The Works in Architecture of
Robert and James Adam, Esquires (1778). Readers
pored over the pages, shared information and
discussed topics such as the use of colour.
At the Palladian Dumfries House in
Ayrshire, the work of the Adam brothers, the
original palette (still to be seen, as with so much
else in this great survivor) was, as curator
Charlotte Rostek describes, an ‘explosion of
warmth’. Typically for the time, the hall was
a pale stone hue, ‘but turn left or right into
the rooms on the circuit,’ says Rostek, ‘and
guests were enveloped by spaces of pink, blue
and yellow.’ As technology advanced, such a
palette became available to more than just the
rich. Pigments came down in price, explains
Steven Parissien, director of Compton Verney
in Warwickshire, and author of The Georgian
House: ‘If Lord Burlington could have his
Prussian Blue, you could now find a cheaper
version. A “Prussian Lite”, if you like.’
Compton Verney, as with so many country
seats, had started as one style (Baroque), but
then had a sleek update, being ‘Georgianised’
by Robert Adam. ‘Society was keen to keep up
with the Joneses,’ says Parissien. ‘There was
a rash of “how to” books produced for the
average builder and house-owner, among them
Rudolph Ackermann’s Repository of Arts (1809–
29). This was a bit like The World of Interiors
today – very aspirational. People were anxious
to display good taste, and didn’t want to get
it wrong. Your choice of candlestick alone
could say so much about you. It was a popular
domestic status symbol, epitomising the taste
and craftsmanship of the period.’ As with
the advent of cheaper paint pigments, techno-
logical advances were helping eager taste-
seekers access more for their house beautiful.
By 1840 knotted or pile carpets were being
made by machines capable of copying the
complex patterns of pricey Oriental originals.

Top: eastern front of the

Royal Pavilion, Brighton;
above: Strawberry Hill
House; right: the Bute
epergne, 1756, made
by Thomas Heming,
designed by William
Kent; far right: Royal
Pavilion music room

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 Fine wallpapers and reliable lighting were now

NO. 1: © BATH PRESERVATION TRUST. TABLE: © VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. CHISWICK: © ENGLISH HERITAGE
also on the market.
With phenomenal wealth being gleaned, in
part, through Britain’s standing as a superpower
(colonies were being won, and lost; trade was
busy; the sugar plantations of the Indies shored
up the walls of many a grand estate), the elite
continued to fill their homes with the very
best. At Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, where the
majority of wealth came from mining, exquisite
Chinese wallpaper decorated with birds,
flowers and foliage was chosen by Thomas
Chippendale, the great cabinet-maker and
interior designer, who also provided the out-
standing chinoiserie furniture. Among the
treasures on view to visitors today is a miniature
time capsule: a doll’s house version of the
priory, said to have been the work of Chippen-
dale and the architect James Paine, made while
both were still in their teens.
The decoration and embellishment of
Nostell was a well-considered tour de force. In
Bath, things were different. Speed was of the
essence, as the city’s status as a fashionable spa
took off. ‘There was a need to accommodate
vast numbers of temporary visitors in appropri-
ate style,’ explains Victoria Barwell, curator at
the elegant town house, No. 1 Royal Crescent.
‘Here, John Wood the Younger’s design for the
Royal Crescent was the high point for Palladian-
ism in Bath.’ While the interiors of No. 1 – and
similar houses in Bath – appear to be refined,
they are in fact quite modest. ‘The properties
had to be constantly redecorated for the
changing residents,’ explains Barwell, ‘so
although the plasterwork at No. 1 is very fine,
it’s also simple and the ceilings are plain,
making them easier to repaint.’
The houses in Bath, as elsewhere, had to be
big enough for entertaining. Evening soirées
and card games were popular. The dining room
had ‘arrived’ as a designated, important room.
‘But the main influence on layout in terrace
houses all over Britain was the limited space,’
says Barwell. ‘The footprint was small, and
expansion could only be upwards. Typically, the
service quarters and kitchen would be
in the basement. The ground floor housed
Top: No. 1 Royal
Crescent, Bath; above:
No. 1 Royal Crescent’s
gentleman’s retreat;
left: console table
designed for Chiswick
House, c. 1727–32;
far left: Chiswick
House gallery

Art Quarterly Winter 2013 45

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 tion. The rooms act as a series of apartments.
NOSTELL AND WIMPOLE: © NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES / ANDREAS VON EINSIEDEL. CRUICKSHANK: © MARK SCOTT. CHAIR: © DEVONSHIRE COLLECTION, CHATSWORTH, REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION CHATSWORTH SETTLEMENT TRUSTEES

They are flexible, able to take multiple occu-

pation. The ground and first floors were always
finer in detail than the upper. Money was spent
where it was going to be seen. Circumstances
also had an impact on the look. People had to
stay one step ahead of the tax man, who seemed
to tax anything desirable, including windows.
So, a tax on wallpaper? Then we will stencil
our walls. Another on the number of bricks
used? Then bigger – and fewer – bricks would
be put in place.’
From the humble to the utterly lavish,
from their exteriors to the interior layouts, the
Georgians took the myriad influences available,
established new styles, new tastes and created
buildings of outstanding appeal. The determi-
nant was proportion. As Robert Morris, English
Palladianism’s first published theorist, wrote
in 1751: ‘Proportion is the first Principle, and
proper Appropriation of the parts constitute
Symmetry and Harmony.’ That symmetry and
harmony once moved Nancy Mitford to offer to
chain herself naked to the railings of Georgian
Bloomsbury, in order to prevent the demolition
main living areas. The withdrawing room, for period, which happily culminated ‘in buildings men at work there. No wonder. ‘This was
entertaining, was located on the first floor. This of exemplary beauty’, according to architectural a period of crossover from the old world to
level, in Palladian principles, was the piano historian and broadcaster Dan Cruickshank. the new,’ says Cruickshank. ‘The houses of
nobile, holding the largest rooms and the high- ‘That beauty goes across all types of houses. the “new world” now provided comfort, con-
est ceilings. The best bedroom would also be on With incredible vigour that excites and amazes, venience and beauty, all married together in
the first floor, while above were bedrooms for even the most modest houses exercised an a seemingly effortless but exciting way.’ The
children and servants. Classical order and sym- expert grasp of the classical language. My own Georgians had given us the ideal on which our
metry influenced every element of the interior, home in Spitalfields is an erudite adaptation of homes are based today.
from the cornicing to the proportions of each the ideas of Rome to a little street in London. z ‘Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Mak-
room and their relationship with each other.’ The mystery is: how did these speculators and ing of Modern Britain’, British Library, London,
The rapid growth of Bath was a prime builders pull that adaptation off so well? The to 11 March. www.bl.uk, £4.50 National Art
example of the feverish speculation of the product at the end was not only beautiful, but Pass (£9 standard); ‘William Kent: Designing
usable. They were built so quickly, and so Georgian Britain’, V&A, London, 22 March – 13
cheaply, yet have proved to be so durable. July 2014. www.vam.ac.uk, £4 National Art Pass
There might be a veneer of good bricks, but (£8 standard); ‘The First Georgians: Art and
behind lie bad. Yet, the softer a building is, the Monarchy: 1714–60’, The Queen’s Gallery,
more it can move, accommodating – as London, 11 April – 12 October 2014.
Lo
the houses here had to – the blasts www.royalcollection.org.uk,
of the area being bombed in the £9.75 standard
Second World War. As for the
layout, even smaller houses Sue Herdman is the former
have a design that echoes those editor of the National Trust
grander properties, places that magazine. She writes on antiques,
allow for ease architecture and art for a range
of circula- of specialist publications
Top: state bed
chamber at Nostell
Priory, Yorkshire;
above: interior of Dan
Cruickshank’s house
in Spitalfields, London;
right: armchair,
c. 1733–40, designed
for Devonshire House;
far right: the library at
Wimpole Hall, Royston

46 Winter 2013 Art Quarterly

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 wimpole

Art Quarterly Winter 2013 47

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 An overview of the Petersfield. www.nationaltrust.org.
uk/uppark
Strawberry Hill
Horace Walpole created this
East Midlands
Kedleston Hall
UK’s best Georgian Free with National Art Pass Gothic confection and called it This Neoclassical mansion was
his ‘plaything house’. Recently built in the 1760s by acclaimed
houses, palaces, (£8.80 standard)
restored, it is the UK’s finest architect Robert Adam for the
halls and estates example of Georgian Gothic revival Curzon family, who remain in
London architecture. Reopens 1 April 2014. residence today.

BY Chiswick House
A neo-Palladian masterpiece, built
Twickenham.
www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk
Derby. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/
kedleston-hall

GEORGE!
in 1729 by Richard Boyle, the 3rd £4.20 National Art Pass Free with National Art Pass
Earl of Burlington, to showcase his (£8.40 standard) (£9.90 standard)
art collection. The gardens recently
received a £12 million restoration. Pickford’s House Museum
Chiswick W4. www.chgt.org.uk Central Southern A museum dedicated to Georgian
South West Free with National Art Pass Moggerhanger Park life now occupies this house,
No. 1 Royal Crescent (£5.90 standard) Sir John Soane designed the designed by Palladian architect
Recently reopened after a major house in 1792 as a country retreat Joseph Pickford.
refurbishment, this grand town Kew Palace for Godfrey Thornton, the Derby. www.derbymuseums.org/
house offers an in-depth view of The smallest and most private Governor of the Bank of England. pickfords-house
domestic life in 18th-century Bath. of English royal residences, it was It is set within 33 acres, originally Free to all
Bath. no1royalcrescent.org.uk a favourite of King George III. landscaped by Humphry Repton.
Free with National Art Pass Closed until spring 2014. Moggerhanger. Normanby Hall Country Park
(£8.50 standard) Richmond. www.hrp.org.uk www.moggerhangerpark.com Formerly home to the Sheffield
Free to all once admission to £3.75 National Art Pass family, Dukes of Buckingham and
Beckford’s Tower and Museum Kew Gardens has been obtained: (£5 standard) the original owners of Buckingham
Built for the writer and eccentric £7.25 National Art Pass Palace, this Regency mansion is set
William Beckford in the 1820s, (£14.50 standard) in 300 acres of mature parkland.
this spectacular landmark houses East Anglia Normanby.
Beckford’s impressive collection Marble Hill House Ickworth House, Park and www.northlincs.gov.uk/normanby
of paintings and furniture. Set within 66 acres of riverside Gardens Free with National Art Pass
Bath. beckfordstower.org.uk parkland, Marble Hill is a Palladian An impressive Italianate villa built (£5.60 standard)
Free with National Art Pass villa built for Henrietta Howard, between 1795 and 1829 for the
(£4 standard) mistress of George II. The grand Hervey family. It houses their art
interior has been restored and and furniture collections, alongside West Midlands
Georgian House includes a collection of early displays of life ‘below stairs’. Soho House
A 1790s time capsule that suggests Georgian paintings. Bury St Edmunds. Matthew Boulton – one of the
how the house would have looked Twickenham. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ickworth UK’s leading industrialists in
when it was built for the wealthy www.english-heritage.org.uk Free with National Art Pass the 18th century – entertained
plantation owner and sugar Free with National Art Pass (£15 standard) pioneering scientists and inventors
merchant John Pinney. (£5.70 standard) at Soho House, including founders
Bristol. www.bristol.gov.uk/ Wimpole Estate of the Lunar Society.
NEWHAILES: © NATIONAL TRUST FOR SCOTLAND / JOHN SINCLAIR 2007. ICKWORTH: © NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES / DAVID KIRKHAM. FAIRFAX: © FAIRFAX HOUSE

museums Ranger’s House A working estate with Wimpole Birmingham. www.bmag.org.uk/

Free to all Currently undergoing restoration, Hall at its centre. Interior work soho-house
the elegant Georgian villa has continued throughout the 18th Free with National Art Pass
a wide-ranging collection of century, and highlights include (£4 standard)
South East paintings, porcelain, bronzes and Sir John Soane’s yellow drawing
Royal Pavilion silver amassed by Julius Wernher. room and James Gibbs’s library. Eastnor Castle
A magnificent summer palace built Blackheath SE10. Royston. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ A fairytale Norman-revival castle
for the Prince Regent, later George www.english-heritage.org.uk wimpole-estate completed in 1820 and set in
IV, in 1787 and remodelled by John Free with National Art Pass Free with National Art Pass 5,000 acres. Highlights include
Nash in 1815–23 with Indian-style (£6.70 standard) (£9.60 standard) the octagon saloon and the
minarets and onion domes.
Brighton. www.brighton-hove- Clockwise from left:
pavilion.org.uk Newhailes, Scotland;
the Rotunda at
Free with National Art Pass
Ickworth House, Bury
(£10.50 standard) St Edmunds; staircase
at Fairfax House, York
Clandon Park
Highlights of this Palladian
mansion include its two-storey
marble hall and period furniture,
porcelain and textiles.
Guildford. www.nationaltrust.org.
uk/clandon-park
Free with National Art Pass
(£8.80 standard)

Uppark House and Garden

Rescued after a major fire in 1989,
Uppark House has an elegant
Georgian interior, a Grand Tour
collection and an 18th-century
doll’s house with original contents.

48 Winter 2013 Art Quarterly

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 throughout the 1760s. To celebrate Enniskillen. www.nationaltrust.org.
the success of his novel, The Life uk/florence-court
and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Free with National Art Pass
Gentleman, Sterne’s friends (£4.50 standard)
christened it Shandy Hall.
York. www.laurencesternetrust.
org.uk Scotland
Free with National Art Pass Duff House
(£4.50 standard) An impressive house designed
by William Adam and built
between 1735 and 1740 for the
Northern England Earls of Fife. It includes ornate
Rokeby Park tapestries and paintings by
Designed by amateur architect Sir Thomas Gainsborough.
Thomas Robinson and completed Banff. www.duffhouse.org.uk
in 1730, the house is an important Free with National Art Pass
early example of Palladian style. (£7.10 standard)
Barnard Castle.
Gothic drawing room. Grade I Listed Georgian house www.rokebypark.com Dumfries House
Ledbury. www.eastnorcastle.com in landscaped grounds. £5.25 National Art Pass Built in 1760, Dumfries contains an
£4.75 National Art Pass Doncaster. www.doncaster.gov. (£7 standard) outstanding collection of pristine
(£9.50 standard) uk/cusworthhall 18th-century furniture made
Free to all Paxton House specifically for the house. When
Croft Castle and Parkland Built between 1758 and 1763 by the building was threatened with
The castle dates from the 14th Nostell Priory architect John Adam for Patrick sale in 2007 the Art Fund gave its
to the 17th centuries, but has fine Built by James Paine on the site Home, this Neoclassical house is highest-ever grant of £2.25 million.
Georgian interiors. of a medieval priory, Nostell is a one of the finest examples in the Cumnock.
Leominster. www.nationaltrust. Georgian masterpiece with Adam north of England. www.dumfries-house.org.uk
org.uk/croft-castle interiors and a landscaped park. Berwick-upon-Tweed. Free entry to standard tour of
Free with National Art Pass Highlights include a collection paxtonhouse.com house with National Art Pass
(£8.50 standard) of Chippendale furniture, a clock Free with National Art Pass (£8.50 standard); Grand Tour
by John Harrison, a period doll’s (£7.60 standard) £6.25 (£12.50 standard)
Samuel Johnson Birthplace house and a superb art collection.
Museum Wakefield. www.nationaltrust. Seaton Delaval Hall Georgian House
Dr Johnson was one of the most org.uk/nostell-priory This mansion house was built for Designed by Robert Adam, this
famous literary figures of the 18th Free with National Art Pass Admiral George Delaval between town house was built in 1796.
century and this historic house (£10.35 standard) 1719 and 1732 to designs by Sir It has been recently restored to
contains a museum dedicated to John Vanbrugh. show what life was like for the
his life and work. Beningbrough Hall, Gallery Seaton Delaval. www.nationaltrust. wealthy in Edinburgh’s New Town.
Lichfield. www. and Gardens org.uk/seatondelavalhall Edinburgh. www.nts.org.uk/
samueljohnsonbirthplace.org.uk The hall is a grand Georgian Free with National Art Pass Property/Georgian-House
Free to all mansion completed in 1716, and (£5 standard) Free with National Art Pass
contains more than a hundred (£6.50 standard)
Compton Verney 18th-century portraits.
Grade I Listed mansion remodelled York. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ Northern Ireland Mellerstain House
by Robert Adam and set in a beningbrough-hall Florence Court Designed by Robert Adam and
Capability Brown landscaped park. Free with National Art Pass The former home of the Earls of featuring his interiors, Mellerstain
Now home to a broad collection of (£9.50 standard) Enniskillen, the house is famed for House is one of Scotland’s finest
paintings, sculpture and folk art as its exquisite Rococo plasterwork, stately homes. It was begun in 1725
well as temporary exhibitions. Brockfield Hall Irish furniture, extensive parkland, for the Baillie family and finally
Stratford-upon-Avon. Begun in 1804, this late Georgian sawmill and ice house. completed in 1778.
www.comptonverney.org.uk house was designed by Peter Gordon. www.mellerstain.com
£2.70 National Art Pass Atkinson for Benjamin Agar. It has £6.38 National Art Pass
(£5.40 standard) an unusual oval entrance hall and (£8.50 standard)
a cantilevered stone staircase.
York. www.brockfieldhall.co.uk. Abbotsford
North West Throughout the year by appointment Abbotsford and its formal gardens
Dunham Massey £3.50 National Art Pass were designed by the poet Sir
The hall stands in a deer park at (£7 standard) Walter Scott. It has recently
the centre of the parish of Dunham reopened after refurbishment.
Massey. It was remodelled by John Fairfax House Melrose. www.scottsabbotsford.co.uk
Norris in the 1730s for the Earl of Designed by John Carr, York’s Free with National Art Pass
Stamford and Warrington. most distinguished architect, the (£8.75 standard)
Altrincham. www.nationaltrust. former winter home of the Fairfax
org.uk/dunhammassey family is one of England’s finest Newhailes
Free with National Art Pass Georgian town houses. James Smith bought the estate of
(£10.35 standard) York. www.fairfaxhouse.co.uk Whitehill (now Newhailes) in the
Free with National Art Pass late 17th century. He was a pioneer
(£6 standard) of the Palladian style in Scotland.
Yorkshire Musselburgh. www.nts.org.uk/
Cusworth Hall, Museum and Park Shandy Hall Property/Newhailes
Displays of local social history This modest manor house was Free with National Art Pass
now occupy the interiors of this writer Laurence Sterne’s home (£12 standard)

Art Quarterly Winter 2013 49

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