The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne (1702–14), or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century.[1] The historic reference in the name should not be taken too literally, as buildings in the Queen Anne style can bear as little resemblance to English buildings of the 18th century as those of any revival style to the original. What is called the "Queen Anne style" in other parts of the English-speaking world, especially the United States and Australia, is completely different.
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George Devey (1820–1886) and the better-known Norman Shaw (1831–1912) popularized the Queen Anne Style of British architecture of the industrial age in the 1870s. Norman Shaw published a book of architectural sketches as early as 1858, and his evocative pen-and-ink drawings began to appear in trade journals and artistic magazines in the 1870s. American commercial builders were quick to pick up the style.
Shaw's eclectic designs often included Tudor elements, and this "Old English" style became popular in the United States, where it became known (inaccurately) as the Queen Anne style. Confusion between buildings constructed during the reign of Queen Anne and the "Queen Anne" Style still persists, especially in England. The well known architectural commentator and author Marcus Binney, writing in the London Times in 2006, describes "Poulton House" built in 1706, during the reign of Queen Anne, as "...Queen Anne at its most delightful".[2] Binney lists what he describes as the typical features of the style:
In the late 1850s the name "Queen Anne" was in the air, following publication in 1852 of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne.
One minor side effect of Thackeray's novel and Norman Shaw's freehand picturesque vernacular Renaissance survives to this day. When, in the early 1870s, Chinese-inspired Early Georgian furniture on cabriole legs, featuring smooth expanses of walnut, and chairs with flowing lines and slat backs began to be looked for in out-of-the-way curio shops (Macquoid 1904), the style was mis-attributed to the reign of Queen Anne, and the "Queen Anne" misnomer has stuck to this day, in American as well as English furniture-style designations. (Even the most stylish and up-to-date furnishings of the historical reign of Queen Anne, as inventories reveal, was in a style that would be immediately identified now as "William and Mary".)
The British Victorian version of the style is closer in empathy to the Arts and Crafts movement than its American counterpart. A good example is Severalls Hospital in Colchester, Essex (1913–1997), now defunct. The historic precedents of the Queen Anne style were broad: fine brickwork, often in a warmer, softer finish than the Victorians characteristically used, varied with terracotta panels, or tile-hung upper stories, with crisply-painted white woodwork, or blond limestone detailing; oriel windows, often stacked one above another, corner towers, asymmetrical fronts and picturesque massing, Flemish mannerist sunken panels of strapwork, deeply shadowed entrances, broad porches: a domesticated free Renaissance style.
When an open architectural competition took place in 1892 for a County Hall (see photo, right) to be built in Wakefield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the instructions to competitors noted that "the style of architecture will be left to the competitors but the Queen Anne or Renaissance School of Architecture appears suited to an old town like Wakefield" (ref. Wakefield). The executed design, by architects James Gibson and Samuel Russell of London, combines a corner turret, grandly domed and with gargoyles at the angles, freely combined with Flemish Renaissance stepped gables.
In the 20th century Edwin Lutyens and others used an elegant version of the style, usually with red-brick walls contrasting with pale stone details.
In the United States, the so-called "Queen Anne style" is loosely used of a wide range of picturesque buildings with "free Renaissance" (non-Gothic Revival) details rather than of a specific formulaic style in its own right. "Queen Anne", as an alternative both to the French-derived Second Empire and the less "domestic" Beaux-Arts architecture, is broadly applied to architecture, furniture and decorative arts of the period 1880 to 1910; some "Queen Anne" architectural elements, such as the wraparound front porch, continued to be found into the 1920s.
The gabled and domestically scaled, "Queen Anne" style arrived in New York City with the new housing for the New York House and School of Industry Sidney V. Stratton, architect, 1878). Distinctive features of American Queen Anne style (rooted in the English style) may include an asymmetrical facade; dominant front-facing gable, often cantilevered out beyond the plane of the wall below; overhanging eaves; round, square, or polygonal tower(s); shaped and Dutch gables; a porch covering part or all of the front facade, including the primary entrance area; a second-story porch or balconies; pedimented porches; differing wall textures, such as patterned wood shingles shaped into varying designs, including resembling fish scales, terra cotta tiles, relief panels, or wooden shingles over brickwork, etc.; dentils; classical columns; spindle work; oriel and bay windows; horizontal bands of leaded windows; monumental chimneys; painted balustrades; and wooden or slate roofs. Front gardens often had wooden fences. [3]
In Australia, the Queen Anne style was absorbed into the Federation style, which was, broadly speaking, the Australian equivalent of the Edwardian style, derived from the influence of Richard Norman Shaw,[4] an influential British architect of the late Victorian era. The Federation period went from 1890 to 1915 and included twelve styles, one of which was the Federation Queen Anne. This became the most popular style for homes built between 1890 and 1910.[5] The style often utilised Tudor-style woodwork and elaborate fretwork that replaced the Victorian taste for wrought iron. Verandahs were usually a feature, as were the image of the rising sun and Australian wildlife; plus circular windows, turrets and towers with conical or pyramid-shaped roofs.
The first Queen Anne home in Australia was Caerleon in the suburb of Bellevue Hill, New South Wales.[6] Caerleon was designed initially by a Sydney architect, Harry Kent, but was then substantially reworked in London by Maurice Adams.[7] This led to some controversy over who deserved the credit. The house was built in 1885 and was the precursor for the Federation Queen Anne homes that were to become so popular.
Caerleon was followed soon after by West Maling, in the suburb of Penshurst, New South Wales, and Annesbury, in the suburb of Ashfield, New South Wales, both built circa 1888. These houses, although built around the same time, had distinct styles, West Maling displaying a strong Tudor influence that was not present in Annesbury. The style soon became increasingly popular, appealing predominantly to reasonably well-off people with an "Establishment" leaning.[8]
The style as it developed in Australia was highly eclectic, blending Queen Anne elements with various Australian influences. Old English characteristics like ribbed chimneys and gabled roofs were combined with Australian elements like encircling verandahs, designed to keep the sun out. One outstanding example of this eclectic approach is Urrbrae House, in the Adelaide suburb of Urrbrae, South Australia, part of the Waite Institute. Another variation with connections to the Federation Queen Anne style was the Federation Bungalow, featuring prominent verandahs. This style generally incorporated familiar Queen Anne elements, but usually in simplified form.
Some prominent examples are:[9]
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