Victorian Architecture signifies the culmination of architectural styles common during the reign of Queen Victoria. Spanning periods of the neo-classical, classical revival, and Neo-Gothic styles, Victorian architecture does not clearly defined one single unified style, and is here focus on themes employed in residential architecture and its development. Furthermore, the Australian interpretation of Victorian styles borrowed from Europe were typical of the cultural identity commissioning, designing and building them.
Attributes and form associated in this style
Early
- Face or rendered brick
- Steeply pitched roofs - Corrugated Iron, tiles or slate
- Picket fences
- Small gardens at entrance
- Plain ceilings
- Moulded skirtings and architraves
Mid
- Verandahs with Cast Iron balustrades and fretwork
- Ornamented facades
- Stained glass entrance windows
- Double-hung triple-panel timber farmed windows
- Decorative cornices and Ceiling roses
- decorative skirtings and architraves
Late
- Italianate in theme
- Exceedingly ornate detailing
- Ornamental parapets
- Arches
- Decorative brick and rendering
- Mosaic tiling
- Cast iron lace-work
- Bold and contrasting colours
Exemplars
Terrace row houses of the Inner West Suburbs of Sydney
Charles Webb- Hotel Windsor, Melbourne (1883)
Earlswood, Randwick
Edmund Blacket – Main Building and Quadrangle, University of Sydney (1855-1862)
James Barnet - Customs House, Sydney (1884)