VICTORIAN 1837 - 1900

The Victorian period is defined as commencing with the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 and ending with her death in 1901. Changes in architectural styles do not happen overnight however and so this is a somewhat arbitrary line. This was an era of great technological innovation. The Industrial Revolution, which was in full swing by the 1830s, enabled the mass production of new materials such as cast iron and plate glass. This permitted architects to explore new developments in the structure of buildings as well as in the detailing.

Architects looked to designs of the past for inspiration and certain styles were adopted for the design of particular buildings. Gothic style was deemed appropriate for churches, Italianate styles were favoured for banks and Tudor for colleges and schools.

New mansions, some in an Italianate style with ornate exterior plasterwork, deep eaves and high chimneys, were built by those who prospered from industrial expansion. However, for most people in Ireland who could afford architectural change to their house in the mid to late nineteenth century, this period of great change manifested itself in a far simpler way. Their thatched roofs were replaced with ‘Bangor blues’, the slates being imported into Ireland in vast quantities from Wales. Occasionally another storey was added to the house as well the change of roof material.

In Ireland, the failure of the potato crop throughout the 1840s caused famine and hardship amongst rural communities and led to depopulation and emigration. Diseases such as typhus, smallpox and cholera added to the death toll. In addition, the rise of manufacturing industry brought an influx of people from country to town. In 1831 the population of Belfast was 50,000, by 1901 it had reached 350,000. Public health became an issue and legislation was passed to provide mains sewers, a supply of drinking water and regular refuse collections.

The growth in population throughout the Victorian period led to a huge increase in the demand for new, affordable housing. The suburbs were developed for housing as transport links improved allowing easy access for people working in the towns. Speculative builders bought up parcels of land and referred to newly published pattern books rather than architects to erect mass housing as cheaply and quickly as possible.

But not all industrial towns grew without control or guidance; some were planned settlements and as a result of enterprising social experiments. In 1835, James and John Herdman acquired the lease of a flour mill and small settlement in county Tyrone, called it Sion Mills and converted it to a linen mill. In 1853 they built a new mill for their expanding flax spinning enterprise and there were later additions. They built houses for their work force, by 1853 there were over five hundred, and a school. In the 1880s the English architect, W.F. Unsworth, designed several buildings in Sion Mills in the Arts and Crafts style.

Bessbrook, in county Down, was developed by the Richardson family between 1845 and 1870 to accommodate their work force. This linen manufacturing enterprise was established on an existing industrial site. Inspired by William Penn’s ideals for Pennsylvania and the temperance movement, John Grubb Richardson established a self-contained industrial colony of between six and seven hundred houses on the most advanced social principles of the time. The settlement was centred on the flax mill and was laid out as two squares linked by a broad main street.

These model towns predated English examples such as Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville (1895).

It was during the Victorian period that the widest range of housing was constructed. Large country houses were commissioned by the wealthy, smaller villas were designed for successful business people and terraces of brick houses lined the streets of most towns.