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    The Architecture Of England From Norman Times To The Present Day
    The Architecture Of England From Norman Times To The Present Day
    The Architecture Of England From Norman Times To The Present Day
    Ebook238 pages1 hour

    The Architecture Of England From Norman Times To The Present Day

    By Frederick Gibberd

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    About this ebook

    Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateOct 4, 2016
    ISBN9781473353251
    The Architecture Of England From Norman Times To The Present Day

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      The Architecture Of England From Norman Times To The Present Day - Frederick Gibberd

      INDEX

      Before beginning the book proper with Norman architecture it is necessary to consider the architecture of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. This had, and still has, a great influence on that of England. Anglo-Saxon and Norman architecture have their roots in the temples of ancient Greece, while after the Renaissance in Italy Classic forms were brought over from that country.

      GREEK.

      About 400 B.C., when Britain was inhabited by barbarous tribes, living in mud or timber huts, Greek civilization was at its highest peak. The finest examples of Greek architecture were the temples they built for their numerous Gods. The most superb of them was the Parthenon, 2. This building consisted of a simple rectangular room surrounded on the outside by columns which supported beams or lintols upon which rested the roof timbers. There was nothing unusual about this system of construction, but what was remarkable was the architectural perfection reached with the use of their local material, marble, in two simple elements, the column and the lintol. The main concern of the Greeks was the perfection of form; that is, the shape of the building both inside and out, the relation of part to part, and part to the whole. In this striving for perfection they shaped each member to a definite system of proportion, and treated it with the greatest refinement of design and execution, even introducing slight curvatures of line to correct optical illusions.

      Section through the Parthenon, Athens.

      ROMAN.

      The Romans, who absorbed Greek culture were, above all, a practical people. They accepted the Classic principle of design formulated by the Greeks and invented new designs for the columns and new decorative features. But they found that the rules of design evolved through a column and lintol construction could not be applied to all the different building types that they required and, in consequence, they took liberties with them until the use of columns and lintols eventually degenerated into a mere decorative device. The Romans made their contribution to architecture with the arch and the vault. Their skill as engineers and the cheap labour at their disposal enabled them to form such enormous structures as their aqueducts, 4, amphitheatres, 3, and public baths.

      Section through the Pantheon, Rome.

      EARLY CHRISTIAN.

      In 313 A.D., when Christianity was formally recognized as the religion of the Roman Empire, the Christians were no longer compelled to worship in catacombs and private homes, and commenced to build churches. The first of these were adaptations of the existing Roman Halls of Justice or Basilicas, which were exactly suited to the purpose of Christian worship and ritual. These Basilicas consisted of a large and lofty hall or nave with side aisles, and an apse at one end; in this the altar was placed. A raised Judge’s seat in the centre of the apse became the Bishop’s throne. In order to keep the hall light and open the nave wall was supported on columns, and was pierced by windows above the aisle roofs, called a clearstory. As church ritual became more complex a transept and raised choir were added.

      Early Christian Basilica.

      ROMANESQUE.

      In early churches the columns supporting the nave were taken from existing Roman temples, and when these were used up stone piers were built and arches and semi-circular vaults (page 8) were thrown from one pier to another instead of lintols; the construction principle of the building changing from lintol to arch. The Christian missionaries migrated across Europe in the Dark Ages and their religion proved a strong influence in the restoration of that discipline and order which the Roman legions could no longer maintain. They took with them this form of church architecture which is called Romanesque; and due to different climates and building materials each country has its own peculiarities. That in England, introduced by the Benedictine monks in the construction of their monasteries, is called Anglo-Saxon. Later on the Normans brought over the same type of architecture but in a more developed form, and to distinguish this from the Anglo-Saxon Romanesque it is called Norman.

      Romanesque Church.

      THE ORDERS.

      The particular types of columns invented by the Greeks and Romans, together with the lintols over them, are called the Orders, and have had a remarkable influence on English architecture. As we shall see, they came to England via the Italians of the Renaissance (pages 20 and 22); after which English architects and archaeologists studied the remains of Greek and Roman buildings at first hand and published books illustrating the Orders. Later still, those architects called the Revivalists even went so far as to build complete reconstructions of Greek and Roman buildings adapted for different purposes (page 36). On the left are shown the three main, types of Orders, consisting of columns with their capitals and bases and the lintols above them. The bottom member of the latter is called the architrave, the middle portion the frieze, and the projection the cornice. The proportions of a Classic building are based on the diameter of the column. The height of the column and of the lintol is so many times the diameter of the base. Half the diameter of the base is divided into thirty equal parts, and the height of each moulding is a certain number of these parts. Thus the proportions of all the members of the building are inter-related.

      A, Doric Order: from the Parthenon, Athens (454-438 B.C.); B, Ionic Order: from a Greek temple (484 B.C.); C, Corinthian Order: from the Pantheon, Rome (A.D. 120-124).

      1. Temple of Wingless Victory, Athens. B.C. 438.

      2. The Parthenon, Athens. B.C. 454–438.

      In their chief architectural type, the temple, the Greeks perfected column and lintol construction. The columns are spaced comparatively closely together, as marble, their principal building material, will not span any great distance. The column with its lintol or beam over is called an Order. In the illustration on the left is shown the Ionic Order, and in that on the right the Doric.

      3. The Colosseum (A.D. 70–82), and the Arch of Titus (A.D. 81) at Rome.

      The important structural development made by the Romans was the use of the vault and the arch. They built temples using the Greek post and lintol construction; but in many of their buildings they also employed the Orders as a decorative feature. In the buildings above, arched construction is shown, with the Orders applied as a decorative veneer.

      4. The Pont du Gard, Nimes. B.C. 18.

      The Romans, being essentially a practical people, brought engineering into the service of architecture. The aqueduct above, one of their greatest engineering feats, is a typical example of arched construction used to bridge a wide space.

      1066 William I. –85 Domesday Book. –87 William II. 1100 Henry I. –35 Stephen. –54 Henry II. –59 Scutage Tax. 7-0 Murder of Becket. –89 Richard I. The Crusader. After the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror subdues the Saxons, rewarding his followers with their estates, and brings over Norman bishops and abbots to reorganize the existing Roman Catholic Church. England is therefore populated by three distinct types of society: a French aristocracy, a Latin Church under the control of the Pope, and an Anglo-Saxon working-class with their own language and customs. When the country has settled down, a peaceful invasion of French craftsmen and tradesmen takes place, and new towns grow up around the castles and abbeys. In the first part of the century the Benedictine monks have the greatest social and artistic influence, taking care of the poor and

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