With the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the rigid plainness of the associated architecture, Victorian Britons were eager for some soothing nostalgia to remind them of a more elaborate and intricate approach to architecture. What was being supplied in the late 1800’s was for the most part, boring and uninteresting.

So it became commonplace to see the conglomeration and amalgamation of different styles, almost as in the Victorian Free Gothic, but this time, the trend was in deference to the Tudor style.  The architecture of the first Tudor era was seen to reflect happy times and a romantic idyll that suited the consciousness of the ruling classes. Even when the Houses of Parliament when razed by fire in 1834, the brief for the new design was to draw up plans of a building that reflected the first Gothic or Elizabethan styles – ensuring that the Tudor style would be forever etched into the nation’s psyche.

In Australia one such grand design was the new Government House for Sydney. The plans for this grand building arrived by ship in 1834. The building had been designed by English architect Edward Blore. One of the consequences of the design was that it truly did remind the colonials of Mother England in its adherence to traditional style and culture.

A special note should be made in deference to the proliferation of the cheap and cheerful Pattern Books of the time where architect, builder, customer and any other party of interest could happily browse the pages and choose what they wanted for their own reflection of the style most popular at the time – a little like choosing the most stylish house today out of Vogue and the like.

One of the main features of the style was the fortified parapet – more for adornment and testament to a romantic past, than for any practical purpose. So, the predominant style was that of a castle – of grandeur, domination and solid, impregnable resilience.

Materials common at the time were used to full effect, especially such things as bricks, glass, metal sheeting, iron and concrete.

Some stunning examples of this type of architecture can still be seen today at such places as Kent Town in Tasmania, and various locations around the country.

The silhouettes of such grand buildings were outstanding and breathtaking to say the least. The battlements and the parapets and the tall towers all testified to the grandeur that the times demanded. And many of them are still well worth a look today.

Some images of the Victorian Tudor Style of Architecture.