Victorian

Style of architecture, furnituremaking, and decorative art covering the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901. The era was influenced by significant industrial and urban development, and the massive expansion of the British Empire.

Victorian style was often very ornate, markedly so in architecture, where there was more than one ‘revival’ of earlier styles, beginning with a lengthy competition between the classic and Gothic schools. Gothic Revival drew on the original Gothic architecture of medieval times. The Gothic boom had begun in 1818, when Parliament voted a million pounds for building 214 new Anglican churches. No fewer than 174 of them were constructed in a Gothic or near‐Gothic style, and for nearly a century, most churches in England were Gothic in design. Despite the popularity of extravagant decoration, Renaissance or classic styles were also favoured for public buildings, examples being St George's Hall, Liverpool (1815), and Birmingham Town Hall (1832–50).

Many people, such as John Ruskin, believed in designing objects and architecture primarily for their function, and not for mere appearance. Increasing mass production by machines threatened the existence of craft skills, and encouraged the development of the Arts and Crafts Movement, with its nostalgia for the medieval way of life. In the last quarter of the century there were revivals of Jacobean and finally of Queen Anne architecture.