The Victorian Society Book of the Victorian House covers every facet of building and decoration—from roofs, brickwork, and chimneys to paint effects, curtains, and floor coverings. It abounds with information on the development of Victorian domestic architecture, building methods, and materials, and offers a wealth of practical and authoritative advice on restoration, maintenance, and preservation. Throughout, the emphasis is on family houses of various sizes and styles, with particular emphasis on finding ways in which period authenticity can be combined with modern standards and convenience of lifestyle. Kit Wedd is a former deputy director of Britain’s Victorian Society. She currently works as a freelance editor and writer specializing in the conservation of historic buildings and interiors.

A rich selection from diaries, letters, advice books, magazines, and paintings creates a rooms-by-room portrait of Victorian life--from childbirth in the master bedroom to separate gender domains in the drawing room and parlor.

'Victorian Houses' presents the architectural detailing of the time in the context of the era - providing a comprehensive understanding of its architecture and design. Pattern books played a vital role in the dissemination of taste between architect, builder and client in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. By focusing on the contribution of the pattern book to the architecture of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, the various trends of the time are documented. The types of publications and other sources of taste available at different points over this period reflected social and economic factors, such as the changing demand or changes in organisation of manufacturing and retail. * Gain a comprehensive understanding of Victorian architecture from an experienced author * 160 pages of illustrations and an accessible writing style make this an excellent reference source * Discover invaluable information on the role of architectural pattern books in victorian design

A middle class home, circa 1850, of the sort that many people live in today, is the focus of Judith Flanders' book. The Victorian age is both recent and unimaginably distant. In the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation in the world, people carried slops up and down stairs; buried meat in fresh earth to prevent mould forming; wrung sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. This drudgery was routinely performed by the parents of people still living, but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Running water, stoves, flush lavatories - even lavatory paper - arrived slowly throughout the century; and most were luxuries available only to the prosperous.

Twenty-nine meticulously rendered, ready-to-color illustrations portray the many distinctive styles of actual Victorian-era homes, including a seaside cottage in the "stick style"; an Italianate San Francisco residence of the 1880s; the unusual Octagon House in Ottawa, Illinois (1856); a Moorish-styled urban residence in Baltimore (1886), and the elegant "Vinland," a Newport, Rhode Island, residence (1882–1884).