Georgian architecture - Definition and Overview

Georgian architecture is the name given in English-speaking countries to the classic architectural styles current between about 1720 and 1840, named after the four British monarchs named George. The Georgian styles succeeded the English Baroque of Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Among the first architects to promote the change in direction from baroque were Colen Campbell and the engravings in Vitruvius Britannicus, Lord Burlington and his protegé William Kent, Thomas Archer and the Venetian Giacomo Leoni, who passed his career in England.

The styles that resulted fall within the broad categories of Palladian— and its whimsical alternatives, Gothic and Chinoiserie that were the English-speaking world's equivalent of European Rococo styles— and, from the mid-1760s, the range of Neoclassical modes associated with the British architects Robert Adam, Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt, Henry Holland and Sir John Soane. Greek Revival was added to the design repertory, after about 1800. See also: Georgian Dublin.

In the American colonies, the neo-Palladian style is associated with 'colonial Georgian' and the neo-classical styles broadly with 'Federal' building styles.

Georgian architecture was disseminated as much through the medium of engravings as it was through the direct experiences of the apprenticeship system. The Georgian styles were also assimilated into an architectural vernacular.

After about 1840, a wider repertory of design alternatives, including Gothic Revival, enlarged the repertory, and the Georgian conventions were slowly abandoned, in a welter of Revival styles.

See also

• neo-Georgian
• Victorian architecture