South Kensington Living
South Kensington homes
Here are some of the most important issues relating to South Kensington homes.
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How South Kensington homes have changedSome of the more prestigious South Kensington homes from the Victorian era still remain as houses (usually owned by Middle Eastern oil princes). Many other South Kensington homes were converted to use as embassies. When you consider the number of people working at an embassy, it is amazing to think that a single family would have occupied the house in Victorian times. Many South Kensington homes were originally stables. This is the case with all original mews houses which were built in streets behind the real South Kensington homes. The Victorians would recognise the facades of most South Kensington homes, but be amazed by the change in use behind. Most original South Kensington homes have now been converted into flats. |
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Building regulations for South Kensington homesThe laws introduced to prevent any recurrence of the Great Fire of London banned timber from the outside of all South Kensington homes, and required walls of South Kensington homes to be made of brick or stone. Such South Kensington homes would be far more durable than timbered lath and plaster houses of Tudor and Jacobean times. That is why if you look at the residential areas London it is as if houses were invented by the Georgians. The rules for building South Kensington homes severely restricted the use of wood to reduce fire risk. They couldn’t use wood near chimney flues. |
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Terraces of South Kensington homes in Georgian LondonMost South Kensington homes were built in terraces. Brick homes in terraces was a creation of the Georgian age. By the time South Kensington was being built up in the 19th century typical South Kensington homes were becoming fully stuccoed. The earliest Georgian terraces were uniform in style and symmetrical in layout. The facades of South Kensington homes incorporated classical pilasters, doors and windows crowned with pediments, and decorative mouldings. In the 1720s the “palace fronted terrace” came into fashion for South Kensington homes. The whole terrace was treated as one composition, with a long stuccoed front elevation with pilasters at intervals and a central pediment over the South Kensington homes in the middle. |
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South Kensington homes round garden squaresMost Victorian developments of South Kensington homes followed a similar pattern. South Kensington homes were built in rows, along streets or round specially constructed squares. South Kensington homes might have small front areas, but not considerable front gardens. Most squares were constructed with the South Kensington homes grouped round it and facing onto it. But later Victorian developers, constructed estates with “hidden gardens” between the backs of the South Kensington homes and to which the houses had rear access. |
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Construction of South Kensington homesThe typical London town house was established during the Georgian period and remained more-or-less unchanged until the last quarter of the 19th century. The façade of South Kensington homes would be brick faced, with plain inset sash windows and doors, with a metal balcony at the first floor level. The main structure of such South Kensington homes was a rectangular box, built in stock-brick, and topped with a roof of Welsh slates. The roof of these South Kensington homes was either concealed behind a brick parapet or built in the form of a mansard with dormer windows. A timber frame formed the internal construction of all but the larger South Kensington homes. The joists supporting the floors which ran between the front and back walls of such South Kensington homes were wood. So was the framework of the internal partition walls of South Kensington homes from the ground floor upwards. Brick walls were only used internally at basement level or to support a stone wall-hung staircase, or to give added structural support in particularly large South Kensington homes. |
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Size and height of South Kensington homesThe basic layout and construction of South Kensington homes did not change dramatically throughout the Victorian period. Partly this was because the design worked. For most South Kensington homes there would be a basement with 3 to 5 storeys above. The earliest South Kensington homes had just one room to each floor. So if the frontage of such South Kensington homes was 24 feet wide, the house was usually 24 feet deep. In Georgian times, the standard design of a terraced South Kensington homes changed to the double pile house, meaning the house was two rooms deep on each floor. |
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Different types of South Kensington homesThe Building Act of 1774 classified new South Kensington homes into 4 “rates” depending on the value of the house. Each type of South Kensington homes had its own structural rules. (The poor were not to be as well protected as the rich.) “First rate” South Kensington homes had to have a minimum floor space of 900 square feet. “Second rate” South Kensington homes could be between 500 and 900 square feet. For “third rate” South Kensington homes it was 350 to 500 square feet and for “fourth rate” it was a minimum of 350 square feet. But although the minimum size of South Kensington homes was specified, there was no restriction on the number of people who could live there. |
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The basements of South Kensington homes
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Ground floor of South Kensington homesIn early Georgian times it was normal for the ground floor of South Kensington homes to be for services and servants' accommodation and the first floor was the main floor or 'piano nobile'. But in the Regency period the ground floor of South Kensington homes became the main family floor. The ground storey contained the dining-room, at the side of a narrow entrance hall, and behind it a smaller parlour or morning-room. The dining-room of South Kensington homes might be a little deeper than the front rooms on the upper floors and was sometimes finished with a sideboard recess at its inner end. The rear parlour of South Kensington homes was usually narrower than the dining—room in order to accommodate the extra width of the stairs at the end of the hall. |
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Bedroom floors of South Kensington homesThe bedroom floors of South Kensington homes were usually similar in plan to the living room floors but were sometimes subdivided into smaller rooms, particularly on the top floor. In larger South Kensington homes the stair to the top floor might take the form of a small accommodation stair outside the main stairwell, and in such cases it was normally of timber construction. The owner’s bedroom of South Kensington homes would usually be on the second floor, with provision for children’s rooms and servants’ rooms on this or higher floors in accordance with the scale of the house. |
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