English architecture

The main styles in English architecture are Anglo-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 postmodern. Notable architects include Christopher Wren, Inigo Jones, John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Chambers, John Soane, Charles Barry, Edwin Landseer Lutyens, Hugh Casson, Basil Spence, Frederick Gibberd, Denys Lasdun, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, James Stirling, Terry Farrell, Quinlan Terry, and Zahia Hadid.

For architecture in England before the Anglo-Saxon period, see Roman architecture: Britain.

Anglo-Saxon (5th-11th century) 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. Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire, is another example of Anglo-Saxon architecture, dating from about 670. See also Anglo-Saxon architecture.

Norman (11th-12th century) William the Conqueror inaugurated an enormous building programme. He introduced the Romanesque style of round arches, massive cylindrical columns, and thick walls. At Durham Cathedral (1093-about 1130), the rib vaults were an invention of European importance in the development of the Gothic style. See also Norman architecture

Gothic The three main styles, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular, are distinguishable by the design of their windows, and in particular by the development of vaulting and buttressing, whereby the thick walls and heavy barrel-vaults, the flat buttresses and the narrow windows of the 12th century came to be replaced by bolder buttresses with thinner walls between them, thinner vaults supported on stone ribs, and much larger windows filled with tracery.

Early English style (late 12th-late 13th century) began with the French east end of Canterbury Cathedral, designed in 1175 by William of Sens (died about 1180), 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 (late 13th-14th century) 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 such buildings as the Lady Chapel at Ely and the Angel Choir at Lincoln. Exeter Cathedral is another example of the Decorated style. The gridded and panelled cages of light of the Perpendicular (late 14th-mid-16th century) style are a dramatic contrast to the Decorated period. Although they lack the richness and invention of the 14th century, they often convey an impressive sense of unity, space, and power. The chancel of Gloucester Cathedral is early Perpendicular; Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, is late Perpendicular. See also Gothic architecture: England.

Tudor and Elizabethan (1485-1603) This period saw the Perpendicular style interwoven with growing Renaissance influence. Buildings develop a conscious symmetry elaborated with continental Patternbrook details. Hybrid and exotic works result such as Burghley House, Cambridgeshire (1552-87), and Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire (1590-97). Longleat House, Wiltshire (1568-75) is another building of the period. See also Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean architecture.

Jacobean (1603-25) A transition period, with the Renaissance influence becoming more pronounced. Hatfield House (1607-12) in Hertfordshire is Jacobean, as is Blicking Hall in Norfolk, redesigned around a medieval moated house and completed in 1628. Both were designed by the architect Robert Lyminge.

English Renaissance (17th-early 18th century) The provincial scene was revolutionized by Inigo Jones with the Queen's House, Greenwich (1616-35) and the Banqueting House, Whitehall (1619-22). Strict Palladianism appeared among the half-timber and turrets of Jacobean London. With Christopher Wren a restrained baroque evolved showing French Renaissance influence, for example St Paul's Cathedral (1675-1710), London. Nicholas Hawksmoor and John Vanbrugh developed a theatrical baroque style, exemplifed in their design for Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (1705-20). See also English Renaissance.

Georgian (18th-early 19th century) Lord Burlington, reacting against the baroque, inspired a revival of the pure Palladian style of Inigo Jones, as in Chiswick House, London (1725-29). 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; John Wood the Younger's Royal Crescent, Bath, was built from 1767 to 1775. The second half of the century mingled Antiquarian and neoclassical influences, exquisitely balanced in the work of Robert Adam at Kedleston Hall (1759-70). John Nash carried neoclassicism into the new century; his designs include Regent Street, London (begun 1811) and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton (1815-21). By the dawn of the Victorian era neoclassicism 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) (designed by Barra and Pugin), 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. Joseph 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. See also English architecture: 19th century.

20th century The early work of Edwin Landseer Lutyens and the white rendered houses of Charles 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. The Modern Movement arrived fully with continental refugees such as Bertholdt Lubetkin, 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 1919 and developed after World War II. The latest of the new towns, Milton Keynes, was designated in 1967. Recently English architects have again achieved international recognition, for example, Norman Foster and Richard Rogers for their high-tech innovative Lloyds Building (1979-84), London. James Stirling's work maintained a modernist technique and planning while absorbing historical and contextual concerns. Recent postmodernist architecture includes the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London, designed by Robert Venturi in 1991.