If you enjoy this blog – and, in particular, if you liked the post on S.S. Teulon – then be sure to tune in to an on-line lecture that I am giving next Monday 10th November 2025 at 6pm. It’s called ‘The unknown S.S. Teulon’ and is all about his domestic buildings, focusing in particularContinue reading “A less Eminent Victorian goes live!”
Category Archives: Neo-Jacobean
The Rogues that got away
It’s been over two years since I last posted anything here. But that’s not because my interest in Victorian architecture has in any way diminished. Instead, I’ve redirected my time and effort towards a number of other projects in architectural history . The biggest so far is a book that has just appeared in print,Continue reading “The Rogues that got away”
Prolific inimitability: getting to grips with S.S. Teulon (1812-1873)
For many of the architects featured in this blog, single posts running to something in the region of 15 pages of copy is sufficient to give a reasonably comprehensive account of their careers. Further research might bring to light previously unknown works and thereby flesh out the picture, but is unlikely to yield anything thatContinue reading “Prolific inimitability: getting to grips with S.S. Teulon (1812-1873)”
High Victorianism for the Kent Coast: the architecture of Wheeler and Hooker
The three series of Six English Towns that Alec Clifton-Taylor made for the BBC in the 1970s-1980s are an excellent introduction to some of the most attractive, best preserved and architecturally most rewarding historic places in the country. All 18 subjects were well chosen and all of them will repay handsomely the time and effortContinue reading “High Victorianism for the Kent Coast: the architecture of Wheeler and Hooker”
One good turn deserves another: into the RIBA Journal thanks to Arthur Beresford Pite
In the days before so much human interaction took place virtually, the circumstances in which one struck up a lasting acquaintance tended to stick in one’s mind. When it begins on-line, they can be a lot harder to pinpoint. I think – although I can’t now be entirely sure – that I got to knowContinue reading “One good turn deserves another: into the RIBA Journal thanks to Arthur Beresford Pite”
Joseph Peacock – Rogue to the family business
This is a figure who deserves a long and detailed write-up. That he is not going to get one in this post is the result of a happy circumstance, which is that this blog is about to be supplanted – and on this occasion, by its own author. Last week I received the news fromContinue reading “Joseph Peacock – Rogue to the family business”
The Gothic horrors of a Victorian worthy – Charles Buxton and Foxwarren
The roots of the Gothic Revival extend as far into literature as they do into archaeology. The endeavours of one of its key progenitors, Horace Walpole (1717-1797), to recreate the Middle Ages in brick, wood, plaster and stone through his remodelling of Strawberry Hill were inextricably bound up with his evocations of the Middle AgesContinue reading “The Gothic horrors of a Victorian worthy – Charles Buxton and Foxwarren”
John Croft: the most mysterious rogue of all?
If one were to single out a figure who embodies all the tantalising yet exasperating complexities and lacunae of the byways of 19th century architecture, it might well be John Croft. Two works have come down to us which demonstrate an impressively fertile architectural imagination. Even by the standards of the 1860s – the high-waterContinue reading “John Croft: the most mysterious rogue of all?”
Less Eminent Victorians 