Figure 29.4 Some examples of the range of styles used on Georgian doors. Double pitched roof
Parapet
www.auctioneera.ie/georgian-house- architecture offers information on how to recognise a Georgian house. Some images are not typical, but the information is good. Use this site to help you recognise Georgian houses in your area or online.
Steps to front door
Street built on arches
Interior
Open area around the basement
Reception rooms on ground floor
Figure 29.5 Cutaway view of a Georgian terrace house.
The plainness of the façade is emphasised by the parapet, which partly conceals the roof. The parapet was required by fire prevention regulations, to avoid rising sparks catching in the eaves and setting fire to the roof. Roofs were double pitched; rainwater was carried through to the rear of the house and collected in down pipes. Houses had a garden at the rear with a carriage house at the far end; this could be accessed from a mews lane, which ran along behind the houses.
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Most Georgian terrace houses were family residences, lived in by successful merchants and members of the professions. Some gentry used them as town houses. They were most often four storeys over a basement with two reception rooms on the ground and first floors, one at the front and one at the rear, with a stairway and passage running down one side (Fig. 29.5). The formal stairs normally stopped on the second floor where the bedrooms of the master and the lady of the house were located. Smaller stairs gave access to the top floor, which was usually divided into four smaller bedrooms for children or servants.
Arrangement of the Rooms
The basement contained the kitchen and rooms for servants to work and live in. Ceilings were relatively low and there was little or no decoration. Ground-floor and first-floor rooms were taller and had decorative plasterwork. The quality and quantity of the stucco depended on the wealth of the owner and the skills and talents of the builder or architect. The drawing room was normally more elaborately decorated; some of the finer houses have fully patterned ceilings surrounded with a frieze up to 30 cm deep. Dining rooms were less elaborately decorated.
NEW APPRECIATING ART IRELAND AND ITS PLACE IN THE WIDER WORLD
