Life of the house
Even as a young child I had immense curiosity about houses. Not only the history of who had lived in them, but how, when and why the houses themselves had changed. I was often found wandering off to explore. I’d find hidden staircases and creep into the attics or deep basement caverns, and when playing hide-andseek I was never found, as I always knew the best places to hide.
That fascination with the evolution of houses, and the rooms and spaces within them, has continued, based on my interest in architecture as well as in social history that forces change. In my book, The Life Of The House, I try to give an overview of the main architectural features and layouts of rooms from medieval times to present day, and to pinpoint some of the social and industrial advances which led to these changes.
The drawing room was originally three storeys high and resembled a medieval hall. In the 19th century it was reduced to double height and a partition wall was built, to turn the cavernous room into a more manageable space. The furnishings were added by the current owner
I look at alterations room by room, show-ing how lifestyles and trends have contributed to the way we use certain rooms today.
Periods are defined by their architecture, and the interiors of homes – grand, modest and humble – are in their turn influenced by the dictates of the times in which they were built: by available technologies, by life’s necessities and by fashion. So it is that when glass is a new product, it is expensive to produce, so only the grandest homes have windows and the grandest of the grandest have the biggest and the most. When the only heat source is the woodburning fireplace, the grandest homes have the most chimneys, and the simple cottage makes do with one hearth that serves for cooking and heating. These restrictions dictate the nature of the spaces within.
Ornate plasterwork adorns the walls and ceiling of the dining room. The chandeliers are copies of the original
Lifestyles, too, have an influence. The collective nature of life in past times afforded few private spaces, and generations unused to privacy take their time to demand it.
Left: This Regency-style bedroom at Easton Neston was decorated by Henrietta Spencer- Churchill’s design company. The furniture is antique, while the green twotone stripe fabric was specially commissioned for the job Right: One of the house’s principal guest bedrooms. The four-poster bed was inherited from the previous owners
It is a vast subject, and I have concentrated largely on English houses and examples of American equivalents where appropriate and important. I included both houses that I have worked on as a designer, and thus experienced first-hand the real problems and challenges, and also some houses that have important historical family relevance for me, such as Blenheim, my family home in England, and Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island, where my great-grandmother Consuelo Vanderbilt spent much of her childhood.
My hope is to shine a light on how it is possible for houses and rooms to evolve in a practical way through the centuries, yet retain the character of the particular era in which they were built, revealing even more of the lives and lifestyles of those who lived in them.
Easton Neston, a glorious Baroque house in Northamptonshire, was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1694
The Life Of The House: How Rooms Evolve, by Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, is published by Rizzoli International Publications, priced £35.
That fascination with the evolution of houses, and the rooms and spaces within them, has continued, based on my interest in architecture as well as in social history that forces change. In my book, The Life Of The House, I try to give an overview of the main architectural features and layouts of rooms from medieval times to present day, and to pinpoint some of the social and industrial advances which led to these changes.
The drawing room was originally three storeys high and resembled a medieval hall. In the 19th century it was reduced to double height and a partition wall was built, to turn the cavernous room into a more manageable space. The furnishings were added by the current ownerI look at alterations room by room, show-ing how lifestyles and trends have contributed to the way we use certain rooms today.
Periods are defined by their architecture, and the interiors of homes – grand, modest and humble – are in their turn influenced by the dictates of the times in which they were built: by available technologies, by life’s necessities and by fashion. So it is that when glass is a new product, it is expensive to produce, so only the grandest homes have windows and the grandest of the grandest have the biggest and the most. When the only heat source is the woodburning fireplace, the grandest homes have the most chimneys, and the simple cottage makes do with one hearth that serves for cooking and heating. These restrictions dictate the nature of the spaces within.
Ornate plasterwork adorns the walls and ceiling of the dining room. The chandeliers are copies of the original Lifestyles, too, have an influence. The collective nature of life in past times afforded few private spaces, and generations unused to privacy take their time to demand it.
Expanding horizons
There is a collective taste at work, too, thanks to travel and expanding horizons, so the pendulum swings between overwrought Gothic to restrained elegance, back to decorative clutter, and away to the calm again, back to exuberance, off to simplicity and back again to the comfort zone. All this is reflected in the busy, bustling, changing life of the rooms behind the façades.Left: This Regency-style bedroom at Easton Neston was decorated by Henrietta Spencer- Churchill’s design company. The furniture is antique, while the green twotone stripe fabric was specially commissioned for the job Right: One of the house’s principal guest bedrooms. The four-poster bed was inherited from the previous ownersIt is a vast subject, and I have concentrated largely on English houses and examples of American equivalents where appropriate and important. I included both houses that I have worked on as a designer, and thus experienced first-hand the real problems and challenges, and also some houses that have important historical family relevance for me, such as Blenheim, my family home in England, and Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island, where my great-grandmother Consuelo Vanderbilt spent much of her childhood.
My hope is to shine a light on how it is possible for houses and rooms to evolve in a practical way through the centuries, yet retain the character of the particular era in which they were built, revealing even more of the lives and lifestyles of those who lived in them.
Easton Neston, a glorious Baroque house in Northamptonshire, was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1694The Life Of The House: How Rooms Evolve, by Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, is published by Rizzoli International Publications, priced £35.