Houghton Lodge - The House

The House

The architecture of Houghton Lodge marks a period of informality in English architecture which begin in the 1770s and lasted until the 1830s. The antecedents of Houghton's style of architecture, known as cottage ornée, can be traced to the 'Strawberry Hill Gothic' style made popular by Horace Walpole at his fantasy castle at Strawberry Hill in the final quarter of the eighteenth century and further popularised by the writings of James Malton in his 1802 Essay on British Cottage Architecture.

During this period it became fashionable for the upper classes to enjoy country life due to the improvements in roads which made a visit to the country easier than it had been, allowing for shorter duration away from the more sophisticated entertainments to be found in London. For the first time a visit to the country became something to be enjoyed rather than endured. The new fashion extended to architecture and incorporated elements from the growing interest in the picturesque. Designs became more rustic, houses became lower and seemingly smaller, often at the expense of the servants comfort, as the still essential domestic quarters were forced out of sight, often underground or onto a separate wing of their own. It was this separate wing which lead to the break in symmetry so rigorously enforced by the preceding diktats of architecture, thus complementing the contrived informality of the architecture.

Houghton Lodge exemplifies this cottage ornée style; the principal reception rooms are placed on the ground floor, rather than on a piano nobile. The reception rooms, typical of the style, have french windows, shaded by a verandah, allowing immediate access to the garden. Many of Houghton's windows are in the exaggerated, decorative Gothic, almost Islamic, style which originated from the Walpole's Strawberry Hill Gothic.