Tudor architecture

“ Tudor architecture is admirably adapted for cities and towns, and much more easily handled in a street than among trees. By Tudor is here meant the English domestic style that prevailed in the sixteenth century, and this term is now commonly applied to the architecture of England after the fifteenth century. ”

“ It almost appears as if this style, which has its own peculiar beauties, had been adopted out of a national antagonism to the contemporary style in England. The Tudor architecture has always a horizontal tendency, spreading itself out in broad open screens or wall-plates, diversified by occasional angular eminences—as, for instance, in the tops of the decorated windows. But in the Gallo-Scottish style everything tends to the perpendicular, not only in the long, narrow shapes of the buildings themselves, and their tall, spiral turrets, but in the many decorations which incrust them. ”

“ There are many crooked old-world streets where the soft, time-mellowed tones of the gray walls and antique gables are diversified by carved beams, plaster fronts and diamond-paned windows, each of which has its box of brightly colored flowers. The most notable of the old houses and one of the noblest specimens of Tudor architecture in the Kingdom is “Ye Ancient House,” with its odd dormer windows and richly decorated plaster front, situated near the Butter Market. The interior, now occupied by a bookshop and public library, is as unique and pleasing as the outside. ”

“ I have selected a Tudor castle because the field is practically untouched in American Renaissance and modern architecture generally. If there be fashion in adaptation, the fashion has been for Elizabethan and Jacobean adaptations rather than Tudor; but the real reason why we have no creditable offspring of that delightful old rambler—Haddon Hall (see Plate LXXII) , in America is to be found in the fact that no American architect capable of exploiting the thing has thought about it or else he has lacked the opportunity, more probably the latter. ”

“ The porch also has a fine Tudor arch, which might form the entrance to some college quadrangle, and there are rooms above and gables on either hand. The whole structure breathes the spirit of the Tudor age, before the classic spirit had exercised any marked influence upon our national architecture, while the details of the carving are almost as rich as is the moulded and sculptured work in the brick houses of East Anglia. ”

“ Although in the general design the florid Gothic order of the time of Edward the Third has been followed, the architect has, in parts, not only availed himself of the low Tudor arch, but has adopted the peculiar style of any period suitable to his purpose, and has made subservient to modern domestic convenience the rich and varied forms in which our ancient ecclesiastical architecture abounds. The walls, battlements, and pinnacles of the building are constructed of stone of a light and beautiful colour, brought from Delamere Forest ”

“ In Spain, the Netherlands, and in Scotland, there had been executed much clever building, but when the blow fell which destroyed further progress in this department, all excellence existed in English architecture alone. It is significant that not one four-centred arch was produced even so near as Scotland, while the last bloom of monumental art unfolded to perish forever in the frigid extravagance of Tudor Gothic. ”

“ Tudor architecture appeals to us for many reasons, and not least because of its human associations. In the presence of such a building as Hampton Court we are reminded of various periods of architecture and different generations of notable people. The names occur to us of many royal personages who lived there. We think of Wren ending his days near to the structure with which he was so intimately associated. But it is the memory of Wolsey which takes the foremost place in our thoughts. ”

“ They afford a late specimen of Tudor architecture. The church is beautifully situated on the highest ground of Brington, and is surrounded by a stone wall lined with trees. Dibdin says that a more complete picture of a country churchyard is rarely seen. A well-trimmed walk encircles the whole of the interior, while the fine Gothic windows at the end of the chancel fill the scene with picturesque beauty. ”

“ THE TRANSITION. The architectural activity of the sixteenth century in England was chiefly devoted to the erection of vast country mansions for the nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie. In these seignorial residences a degenerate form of the Gothic, known as the Tudor style, was employed during the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., and they still retained much of the feudal aspect of the Middle Ages. This style, with its broad, square windows and ample halls, was well suited to domestic architecture, as well as to collegiate buildings, of which a considerable number were erected at this time. ”

“ At a later date, but still early in the Decorated period, the hall, buttery, and domestic apartments were built along the north front and the kitchen.
The works in the Perpendicular style are few, and are confined to alterations in the domestic apartments, and in the entrance passage to the keep and the kitchen.
Then came the Tudor period, in which the castle had to be converted into a palace for the Presidents of the Marches. The base of the keep became a prison, the well-stair was probably inserted, the rooms fitted with Tudor windows and fireplaces, and the gatehouse was built. ”

“ In the later years of the reign of Elizabeth we can point to noble houses which are more allied to the ancient Tudor, with its small windows and simple towers and roofs, than those of the Henrys VII. and VIII., who in their earlier days had a gorgeous and even fantastic taste for palatial architecture. ”

“ Dick (who, in spite of Clara’s gibe, knew the place very well) told me that the beautiful old Tudor rooms, which I remembered had been the dwellings of the lesser fry of Court flunkies, were now much used by people coming and going; for, beautiful as architecture had now become, and although the whole face of the country had quite recovered its beauty, there was still a sort of tradition of pleasure and beauty which clung to that group of buildings, and people thought going to Hampton Court a necessary summer outing, as they did in the days when London was so grimy and miserable. ”

“ A Late Perpendicular gateway at the north-east, erected by Abbot Kirton, whose rebus appears over the side door, leads to the Deanery. It has a Tudor arch, with the arms of the see in spandrels, and is ornamented with Tudor rose and portcullis, and Prince of Wales's feathers. ”

“ The latter carried the day, and, after an heroic struggle and many failures, England awoke from her long lethargy, to find herself the possessor of a noble architecture, a true exponent of ecclesiastical art and tradition, although confessedly far from perfect when applied to domestic buildings. For these latter edifices the old manor-houses, with their many mullioned windows and Tudor arcuation, formed the basis for design, and machicoli, turrets, and open timber roofs became the fashion for country-houses ”

“ TUDOR PERIOD, in architecture, the later development of medieval architecture which followed the Perpendicular and, although superseded by the Elizabethan and the Renaissance styles, still retained its hold on English taste, portions of the additions to the various colleges of Oxford and Cambridge being still carried out in the Tudor style down to the middle of the 18th century. In church architecture the principal examples are Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster (1503) , King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and St George's Chapel, Windsor ”

“ The Tudor mansions were constantly growing in beauty. Changes and additions were made to some of them and many new palaces and manor-houses were erected. Architects—among them John Thorpe—and landscape gardeners now planned the pleasure-grounds to enhance the beauty of the mansion they had created, adapting the ideas of the Italian Renaissance to the English taste. The Elizabethan garden in their hands became a setting for the house and it was laid out according to a plan that harmonized with the architecture and continued the lines of the building. ”

“ So they are. But they are one of the chief means of binding that splendid roof together—of keeping the walls from being pulled inward by the mass of stone they have to support. They act like the guy-ropes which keep a flagstaff upright.
Thus far we have seen how by Edward the Sixth's time the mediæval architecture has given place to the Tudor, the feudal Gothic to the more domestic Perpendicular. But in the constitution of the Abbey a far more momentous change had taken place. In Henry the Eighth's reign the Reformation shook the life of England to its very foundation. ”

“ Thence a range of unsightly brick buildings extended along a broad paved terrace, to the south, descending to the Garden, or bank of the Thames. These buildings have lately been removed, and the above splendid range erected on their site, from the designs of Robert Smirke, Esq., R.A. They are in the Tudor, or to speak familiarly, the good Old English school of architecture, and combine all the picturesque beauty of ancient style with the comfort and elegance of modern art in the adaptation of the interior. ”

“ There is no triforium, and the clerestory is somewhat contracted. The windows have five lights of Perpendicular tracery, and most of them are filled with modern glass. The roof is ancient, but has been [268] much restored. In the distance we see the handsome choir-screen with the organ over it. The spandrels of the chancel arch are richly carved with shields in quatrefoils, and above is the Tudor rose. Shields adorn the spandrels of the main arches. Above us is the ceiling of the tower, which is a good example of fan-tracery. The modern baptistry is on our right. ”

“ The first floor is exactly above the basement, and measures 30 feet by 17 feet 6 inches. In its south end is a Tudor window, no doubt replacing a Norman loop; and in its north end are two windows in Tudor recesses, and between them a Tudor fireplace. In the west wall, north end, a round-headed door opens into a side-chamber 8 feet by 13 feet, vaulted, but with a timber floor, having windows to the north and west, and in its east or keep side two round-headed recesses of 3 feet 8 inches opening, and 3 feet deep. ”

“ The style of Tudor Gothic was dictated to the competitors, apparently from a mistaken idea that the building ought to “harmonize” with the architecture of Henry VII.’s chapel adjacent to the site. Had Barry been left to himself, there is no doubt that the Houses of Parliament, with the same main characteristics of plan and grouping, would have been of a classic type of detail, and would possibly have been a still finer building than it is ”

“ This embraces in width only the central bay of the substructure, and solid abutments of concave outline are carried up over the side bays. A plain attic over the pediment of the temple forms the base for a square pyramid intersected by a tall hexagon, surmounted with a hexagonal dome. No voids, except the central opening under the Tudor arch, break the solid mass, but the wall surfaces are ornamented with disks, niches, entablatures, and small pediments in relief; and the pedestals of the temple order are carried on corbels and ressauts in the lower entablature. ”

“ Hunt was fond of the Tudor style, and applied it extensively to domestic architecture. He died at Kensington Palace on 4 Jan. 1831. He published at London: 1. 'Half-a-dozen Hints on Picturesque Domestic Architecture,' 1825, 4to; 2nd edition, 1826; 3rd edition, enlarged, 1833. 2. 'Designs for Parsonage Houses, Alms Houses,' &c., 1827, 4to. 3. 'Architettura Campestre: displayed in Lodges, Gardeners' Houses, and other Buildings,' 1827, 4to. 4. 'Exemplars of Tudor Architecture,' 1830, 4to. ”

“ In the west wall was opened a square-headed window, in a splayed recess, and close south of it is a small Tudor fireplace, the flue of which ascends into the south-west turret. The east wall is less perfect, but still shows the line of the old roof, and the jamb of a Tudor window. In the north-east angle is the door from the well-stair.
The floors of the walls were throughout of timber, the joists of the first and second resting in the holes in the north and south walls of the turrets; that at the south-west is probably modern. ”

“ As Garden Tower, this building was a well-known Tudor prison. From hence to Bell Tower, 150 feet, the original curtain remains, of its full height of about 40 feet, and its base thickness about 10 feet. It is, however, so defaced outside, and inside so encrusted with houses of the Tudor period, that but little of its detail can be seen. It is pretty clear that there is no range of loopholes in its228 substance. A cell, recently a stable, is really a Tudor brick vault built against it.
Near to Bell Tower is an original mural chamber, probably a garderobe, lighted by a recess and loop. ”

“ Characteristic features of secular Tudor buildings are the extensive use of panelling, the bow or projecting window rising direct from the ground, the oriel window or window supported by a corbel of stone often finely carved, battlements with open tracery work and richly decorated gables, fine specimens of all of which are to be seen at Hampton Court Palace. ”

“ An earlier, more severe, sort of Tudor, carried out in stone, served Moffatt, Scott’s former partner, for a mansion at No. 19 Park Lane. But this house was most exceptional; in the forties London architects and builders generally eschewed Gothic of any sort except for churches. Generically medieval, if not specifically Gothic, inspiration would eventually play a major part in forming the advanced commercial mode of the late fifties and sixties however (see Chapter 15) . ”