User:Finereach/Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria after whom it is named.

Varieties of Victorian architecture
Starting from the early classicism inherited from regency architecture, the Italianate style gained influence in the 1840s and 1850s, and the Gothic style became prevalent by the 1880s. Later in the Victorian era, the Queen Anne style and the Arts and Crafts movement increased in influence, resulting in the transition to styles typically seen in Edwardian houses.

Early in the Victorian era, until the 1840s houses were still influenced by the classicism of Regency styles. However the simplicity of Regency classicism fell out of favour as affluence increased and by the 1850s the Italianate style influenced architecture.

Styles conceived in the Victorian era

 * British Arts and Crafts movement
 * Industrial architecture
 * Painted Ladies
 * Queen Anne (Stick-Eastlake)
 * Second Empire (architecture)
 * Jacobethan (the precursor to the Queen Anne style)
 * Neo-Grec
 * Renaissance Revival
 * Romanesque Revival (includes Richardsonian Romanesque)

Other movements popularized in the period
While not uniquely Victorian, and part of revivals that began before the era, these styles are strongly associated with the Victorian era due to the large number of examples that were erected in that period
 * Gothic Revival
 * Italianate
 * Neoclassicism

Examples of Victorian architecture
There are also Folk and Shingle Style Victorian houses. The names of architectural styles (as well as their adaptations) varied between countries. Many homes combined the elements of several different styles and are not easily distinguishable as one particular style or another. In the USA, highly decorated houses are sometimes called gingerbread houses.

Notable Victorian era cities include Albany, New York (USA), Boston (USA), Brooklyn (USA), Chicago (USA), Detroit (USA), Galena, Illinois (USA), Galveston, Texas (USA), Glasgow (UK), Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA), Jersey City/Hoboken (USA), Kolkata (India), London (UK), Louisville, Kentucky (USA), Manchester (UK), Melbourne (Australia), Mumbai (India), Nelson, New Orleans (USA), Philadelphia (USA), Pittsburgh (USA), Richmond (USA), Saint Paul, Minnesota (USA), San Francisco (USA), St. Louis, Missouri (USA), Sydney (Australia), Toronto (Canada).

In the USA, the South End of Boston is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest and largest Victorian neighborhood in the country. Old Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky also claims to be the nation's largest Victorian neighborhood.

Richmond, Virginia is home to several large Victorian neighborhoods, the most prominent being The Fan and Church Hill. Church Hill has the distinction of being the place where Patrick Henry gave his famous Give me liberty or give me death speech at historic Saint John's church. The Fan is best known locally as Richmond's largest and most 'European' of Richmond's neighborhoods and nationally as the largest contiguous Victorian neighborhood in the United States.

The Distillery District in Toronto contains the largest and best preserved collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America. Cabbagetown is the largest and most continuous Victorian residential area in North America. Other Toronto Victorian neighbourhoods include The Annex, Corktown, Parkdale, and Rosedale.

The photo album L'Architecture Americaine by Albert Levy published in 1886 is perphaps the first recognition in Europe of the new forces emerging in American architecture.

The Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio is recognized as having the largest collection of late Victorian and Edwardian homes in the United States, east of the Mississippi.

Carroll Avenue in Los Angeles contains that city's highest concentration of Victorian homes.