"History used to be about wars and dates, but to the architecture writer and TV presenter Dan Cruickshank, it's more about floors and grates. In his new book, he takes a keen-eyed tour of eight English houses, from Northumberland to Sussex, dating from the early 1700s to exactly 100 years ago, and ranging from an outlandish gothic pile to one of the first council flats."
"In Cruickshank's pages, classical influences from Rome and Greece give way to a revival of medieval English gothic and the emergence of modernism. He is particularly interested in who commissioned and built his chosen dwellings, and how they got the job done. It's a new spin on the recent fashion for historians to explore the homes of commoners, as opposed to royalty and aristocrats, in order to tell the life stories of their occupants."
"What does survive are building accounts that list names of tradesmen, sums charged and dates on which bills were paid. He concedes that this throws up somewhat arid evidence, and he isn't kidding: for lengthy stretches, The English House is constructed out of yellowed builder's dockets mashed up with dense architectural jargon ( a semi-elliptical colonnade formed by four free-standing Ionic columns supporting a full entablature and flanked by pedimented door surrounds)."
Eight English houses across the country, dating from the early 1700s to 100 years ago, range from an outlandish Gothic pile to an early council flat. Classical influences from Rome and Greece transition to a revival of medieval English Gothic and the rise of modernism. Focus centers on who commissioned and built the houses and how construction was carried out. Surviving building accounts record tradesmen, costs and payment dates, providing primary evidence amid scarce personal documents. Architectural description alternates with dry account listings, reflecting a trend toward exploring commoners' homes to reveal occupants' lives.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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