Jon
- Feb 19, 2018
- 36 min read

Tudor Revival Style in Australia

Other Descriptions: Elizabethan Revival, Neo-Tudor, Tudoresque, Mock Tudor, Tudorbethan, Half-Timbered, Stockbroker's Tudor

"Between-the-wars half-timbered houses have shaped our history", says Tim Hitchcock in UK Guardian
"American Tudor Revival is among the most recognizable styles of domestic architecture. - from "The Tudor Revival Style 1895–1945: from architect-designed mansions to planbook homes" (Patricia Poore, Jan 25, 2018 Old House Online Magazine USA)
Tudor Revival architecture is commonly called mock Tudor in the UK - Wikipedia
The knighted 'style guru', 'calculated, dandified Edwardian', architectural artist, Osbert Lancaster, called the mock Tudor craze, "Stockbroker Tudor":
'A glorified version of Anne Hathaway's cottage with such modifications as were necessary to conform to transatlantic standards of plumbing'
Lancaster also said of Stockbrokers’ Tudor:
“All over the country the latest and most scientific methods of mass-production are being utilized to turn out a stream of old oak beams, leaded window-panes and small discs of bottled glass.” (Courtesy of the Lancaster family)[1]

Development of the Tudor Revival Style

The Tudor Period

The Tudor historical period began in 1485 with Henry VIII's father (Henry VII, whose mother, Margaret Tudor, entrusted him to the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford) and lasted until the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Tudor Queen in 1603.

Pictured: King Henry VII, King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth 1 (Click image for larger view)

Historic Tudor Housing Characteristics

Tudor homes are characterized by their

steeply pitched gable roofs,
playfully elaborate masonry chimneys (often with chimney pots),
embellished doorways,
close groupings of windows, and
decorative half-timbering, this last an exposed wood framework with the spaces between the timbers filled with masonry or stucco.

Half-Timbered Oak Frames

Pictured: Mill Street, Warwick; Anne Hathaways Cottage; The Shambles, York (Voted UK's Prettiest Street);

Construction details of historic Tudor houses

Original Tudor homes were half timbered using the wood of oak, chestnut, elm or poplar trees.
Oak was popular because oak is hard and strong, and the spaces between were filled with small sticks (eg wickerwork) and wet clay (called "wattle and daub").
Woven wattle infill
This infill was then painted (for historichomes) or 'white-washed' (modernTudor-style homes).
Historic Tudor period housing which used wattle and daub infill panels were painted red, yellow or pink.
These 500 year-old houses now have a very distinctive black-and-white style appearance, because oak frames can turn black with age...
Oak has a high natural tannic acid content which causes the timber to turn black when exposed to moisture containing trace amounts of iron. Otherwise oak will turn silver-grey like other timber exposed to the weather.
From the Victorian period onward the common black and white design was used with wood blackened and infill white-washed.
Fuming Timber to look like oak: Ammonia fuming is a wood finishing process that darkens wood and brings out the grain pattern.

Penshurst Village Hall, UK, showing Tudor framework, and chimneys. Renovated to half-timber by the Rector's son Maxwell Maberlay Smith in 1898.

Infill material

Wattle and daub was the cheapest filling between the timber framing, but brick or stone could be used if available locally.
In higher class house-building, bricks would be used, laid in a diagonal herringbone pattern.
Older bricks were handmade, absorbed moisture and were a lot heavier, requiring a more solid timber frame.
If the bricks you see are evenly laid, and all of the same size, the brickwork is modern.

Southampton's most important historic building: Front view of Tudor House. A timber-framed building facing St Michael’s Square, built in the late 15th Century

Jettied Floors

Jettying is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the available space in the building without obstructing the street. Jettied floors are also termed jetties.
These jettied floors are a common feature of historic Tudor architecture. When in York UK, visiting the Shambles is a must.
'The Shambles' is sometimes used as a general term for the maze of twisting, narrow lanes which make York so charming. At its heart is the lane actually called the Shambles, arguably the best preserved medieval street in the world.
The Shambles is an old street with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century.
Tudor House, Southampton
Whilst they no doubt provided some shelter from the elements at ground level this wasn't their primary purpose.
The overhanging upper floors allowed for greater floor and living space without obstructing and intruding on the street below.
The Shambles

Tudor Windows

It was during the Tudor times that glass was first used in homes.
Glass was very expensive and it was difficult to make big pieces of glass, so the panes were tiny and held together with lead in a criss-cross pattern, or 'lattice'.
People who couldn't afford glass used polished horn, cloth or even paper.
When people moved house, they would take their windows with them. Glass was expensive during the late 15th century, and since only a few people could afford to buy it, they would take it with them when they moved.

The (New) Tudor Chimney(s)

In most medieval houses, there was only a central open hearth for the fire, with hoods or vents to let the smoke out above, but no chimney.

chimneys were not widely adopted until the Tudor times, and even then, only by the upper classes, with more common folk having to put up with smoke-filled rooms.
In the early 1500s newly built houses incorporated a hearth or fireplace with a (new) flue on the outside wall, and a chimney to carry away the smoke, placed on the outside of the house. These were the most solidly constructed part of the building, usually built of stone.
Even when chimneys were used, they were highly inefficient and often dangerous too, being susceptible to fire.
By 1710, all clay-built chimneys in England were ordered to be rebuilt in brick.[2]
External chimneys pictured:Tudor Merchant's House, Quay Hill, Tenby Wales; Pembridge House dating from 16th century, Herefordshire England UK; Elizabethan Hollingbourne ManorKent, England.

The Sixteenth century external chimney moved into the house in later times.

As brickwork became fashionable, in the later part of the sixteenth century a row of brick chimneys served a multitude of new fireplaces, often placed centrally in the house.
So a later fine new house could afford a solid brick chimney, and the best new houses had a row of chimneys made of ornamental bricks.

Pictured: Tudor cottage Welsh Row Nantwich Cheshire UK; Tudor Building, Dartmouth, Devon; Deanery Tower, Hadleigh UK; Impressive Ornamental brick chimneys at Hampton Court, London.

The Tudor Arch

A Tudor arch is a pointed archway with a greater span than rise. Basically, it's wide and short. The arch is a product of the English Gothic style of medieval architecture, popular under the Tudor Dynasty (1485-1603).

Pointed apex. While a traditional arch has a rounded or curved top, the Tudor arch culminates in a distinctive point.
A Tudor arch has a greater span than rise, which means it is wider than it is tall. This gives the Tudor are a very shallow, flattened feel.

Original Elizabethan Manors

Pictured above: Elizabethan Manor House at Hollingbourne; Montacute House; Norfolk Elizabethan Manor House (b. 1576)

The Elizabethan Age was one of the high points in English domestic architecture. After the intrigues and economic doldrums of the court of Henry VIII and the short reign of Mary Tudor - known as Bloody Mary for her penchant for creating Protestant martyrs - the reign of Elizabeth I was marked by stability, prosperity and growing confidence.

Under Elizabeth the county's economy began to revive. The new queen encouraged a return to farming, and the resulting recovery put a reasonable amount of wealth into the hands of a large number of people.
This new wealth expressed itself in two simultaneous building booms;
a great number of small houses were built, and
at the same time numerous country mansions were constructed.
Many of the earlier medieval or Tudor manors were remodelled and modernised during Elizabeth's reign.
Landowners, grown rich on the flourishing agriculture encouraged by the Queen, built magnificent houses to show off their wealth and power.
The best houses of the period incorporated plenty of glass (not a new technology but an expensive one), an extraordinary degree of ornamentation (something the English of the period were famous for), and more rooms for comfortable living - sitting rooms flooded with light, for example.[3]
Hampton Court, Surrey
Entrance to Sutton Place

Great gatehouse at Hampton Court, Surrey Hampton Court is the country’s finest remaining Tudor palace (built 1515), and was one of Henry VIII’s favourites. He acquired it when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey fell from grace in 1529, and he spent £60,000 extending it over 10 years – roughly equivalent to £19 million today.

Sutton Place

Sutton Place, 3 miles north-east[n 1] of Guildford in Surrey, is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house built c. 1525 by Sir Richard Weston (d. 1541), courtier of Henry VIII. It is of great importance to art history.

Burton Agnes Hall Robert Smythson, Master Mason to the Queen (Elizabeth 1) was a builder much sought after whose style defined the stately manors of the age. These three Smythson houses, all open to the public, are among the best examples of his work:

Burton Agnes Hall

Burton Agnes Hall, near Beverley and the coast in East Yorkshire, is one the few houses for which Smythson's plans still exists, kept in the library of the Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA).

The house, which is privately owned but open to the public for about six months of the year, is notable for:

extraordinarily elaborate carving and ornamentation, particularly in the Great Hall
one of the earliest examples of a newel post supported staircase in England
the Long Gallery - a type of room that made its first appearance in Elizabethan houses.
Facilities for visitors include a lovely walled garden and a woodland garden with wildlife sculptures

Hardwick Hall

Hardwick Hall Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall is a saying that quickly grew up around the house Smythson built for serial widow and fabulously wealthy 16th century celebrity Bess of Hardwick.

The house's massive windows, lit by candlelight from within, could be seen, like a lantern on a hill, for miles around.
The windows were designed to bring light and views of the Derbyshire countryside into the house.
Unlike earlier manor houses, which tended to turn their back on the countryside and open - if at all - into inner courtyard spaces,
Elizabethan houses, for the first time, addressed nature and the outside world in a more direct way.
Bess of Hardwick, a woman from a modest background who married up, outlived four husbands, accumulating fortunes, land, jewels and houses with each widowhood.

Longleat House

Longleat House Longleat House, one of Smythson's earliest projects and the first of the so-called "inside-out" houses, was completed around 1580. Queen Elizabeth I was a guest there in 1574.

Today the house, owned by the colourful 7th Marquess of Bath, is at the centre of a Wiltshire estate that's home to one of Britain's most famous family attractions - Longleat Safari Park.
Longleat is known for its elaborate ceilings, most of which were added after the Elizabethan period, and for the murals painted by the current Lord Bath, which can be visited on a tour.
The Great Hall remains the most authentically early part of the house with a typically ornate, deeply carved Elizabethan chimneypiece.[4]

Roots of The Tudor Revival

James Malton: The most significant influence on the Tudor Revival was the work of James Malton, and publication of his book An Essay on British Cottage Architecture in 1798.

These Malton cottages illustrate half-timbered houses without the black and white colour scheme we know now: Malton rebuilt cottages for simple country folk and as retreats for the wealthy. But, he made the new look old. Malton’s cottages featured uneven walls, non-matching colors and textures outside, and jutting gables with windows lacking symmetry.[5]

Above: Cottage exteriors from "An Essay on British Cottage Architecture"
Picturesque Movement: Architect John Nash designed a hamlet of cottages at Blaise, near Bristol in 1810. These houses had vernacular and Tudor elements, and were designed by the very same designer both of Regent Street and Buckingham Palace. These were the first of the 'Picturesque Movement'.
Even philosopher John Ruskin in his youth (1837-8) asserted that the only style of villa architecture which can be called English is the Elizabethan style and its variations, illustrated here:
Fashion for "Tudorbethan" Manor Houses:

Tregothnan, Cornwall:
The original two-storeyed house was destroyed during the Civil War and was rebuilt several years later in 1652. In the 1820s, the architect William Wilkins enlarged the house in Tudorbethan style and it stands today much as it does in this drawing.[6]

Tudor Revival Manor craze (1830s)

Pictured above: Harlaxton Manor, Lincs. (1831–7), Highclere Castle, Hamts. (1842–9), and Mentmore Towers, Bucks. (1851–4), are good examples of the Elizabethan and Jacobethan Revival.

The great enthusiasm of the 1830s was not for cottages, but for the grander Tudorbethan mansions and manor houses. The earliest examples of the style originate with the works of such eminent architects as Norman Shaw and George Devey, in what at the time was thought of as a neo-Tudor design. Cragside, designed by Norman Shaw in what he called a "Free Tudor" style (1869 to 1882).

Cragside, NorthumberlandInfluential Writer Charles J.Richardson valued the picturesque and drew attention to the influence of the Tudor period

"(The Tudor Period) which could produce a Bacon and a Shakespeare was not likely to be contemptible in architecture..." ( in "The Englishman's house, from a cottage to a mansion.")
Superintendent P.F. Robinson wrote a popular guide to this architectural craze, Domestic Architecture in the Tudor Style (1837), which encouraged much building in the Tudor Revival style.

The Tudor Revival style made one of its first appearances in Britain at Cragside, a hilltop mansion of eclectic architectural styles that incorporated certain Tudor features; Cragside was designed by the architect Norman Shaw. The architectural historian J. Mordaunt Crook considers Cragside to be truly "avant-garde or trend-setting".[7]

Leyswood near Withyham However at approximately the same time, Shaw also designed Leyswood near Withyham in Sussex, which was a large mansion around a courtyard, complete with mock battlements, towers, half-timbered upper facades and tall chimneys – all features quite readily associated with Tudor architecture; in Shaw's hands, this less fantastical style achieved immediate maturity as the Queen Anne style.

Half-timbering Revival (1880s)

Built circa 1870 two semi-detached cottages at Mentmore masquerade as one Tudor-style house.

semi-detached cottages at Mentmore From the 1880s onwards, Tudor Revival concentrated more on the simple but quaintly picturesqueElizabethan cottage, rather than the brick and battlemented splendours of Hampton Court or Compton Wynyates.

Large and small houses alike with half-timbering in their upper storeys and gables were completed with tall ornamental chimneys, in what was originally a simple cottage style.
It was here that the influences of the arts and crafts movement became apparent.

Eureka Inn, California Stucco and half-timbering on facade of the 1922 Eureka Inn in Eureka, California However, Tudor Revival cannot really be likened to the timber-framed structures of the originals, in which the frame supported the whole weight of the house. Their modern counterparts consist of bricks or blocks of various materials, stucco, or even simple studwall framing, with a lookalike "frame" of thin boards added on the outside to mimic the earlier functional and structural weight-bearing heavy timbers.

An example of this is the "simple cottage" style of Ascott House in Buckinghamshire (Illustrated above). This was designed by Devey for the Rothschild family, who were among the earliest patrons and promoters of this style. Leading to "Stockbroker Tudor" style?

The Tudor Revival, though, now concentrated on the picturesque.

Australian Tudor Revival

Running Creek Castle in Kancoona Victoria sold in 2014 for $1 million. Photo: Ray White Wodonga Victoria

Tudor Revival in Australia (1915-1940)

In Australia, the English cottage style tended to have a (much) steeper roof pitch than the Aussie bungalow and seldom were rafter ends exposed (as compared to the Federation style).

Beams exposed on the interior were common, but not on the exterior until after the 1920s.
The cottage was seen as 'masses' bunched together, rather tightly (as in the above picture)

16 Grandview Grove Toorak Gardens SA The most obvious examples of Tudor Revivalist buildings in Australia have

steeply pitched roofs and
distinctive white plastering with black-painted timber, but other features to look out for include
overhanging second storeys or
oriel (a type of bay) windows (as in picture above, left, with turret);
the use of decorative clinker brickwork in herringbone or chequered designs;
multiple narrow windows,
diamond-pane glass and
dormer windows in the roof; and
more rarely, “catslide” roofs[8] (which end near the ground level)

“Hot bed of architectural corruption”

Not everyone liked the Tudor Revival style.

It was dismissed snobbishly in the early 20th century as something favoured by those of the nouveau riche with more money than taste by some of Australia’s cultural “elites”, most vocally by Robin Boyd, who referred to (the style) as architecturally “corrupt”.[9]

Architect Robert Bell Hamilton

Tudor Revival type of architecture was so intertwined with politics that Robert Bell Hamilton, who has been described as Australia’s foremost proponent of the Tudor Revival style, became the member for Toorak for the Liberal and Country Party.

Among other projects, he was responsible for the distinctive heritage-listed Tudor-style buildings in the Toorak Village shopping strip.[10]
Read more on the page: Architect Robert Hamilton

Architect John Brogan

23 Redgum Avenue Killara, NSW 2071

19 Locksley St., Killara, NSW 2071 A significant architect known for designing beautiful homes on the Upper North Shore:

in 1926 a young Sydney architecture student named John Brogan won an ideal home design competition sponsored by Grace Bros' department store.
This popular success allowed him to establish his own practice the following year when he was registered as an architect.[11]

5 Pibrac Ave Warrawee is a beautiful 1930's "Stockbroker Tudor" home by renowned architect "John Brogan" House, Sold on 18 Sep 2015 for $5,010,000
26 Vaucluse Road Vaucluse, NSW 2030, designed by architect John R Brogan in the iconic “Stockbroker Tudor” style, and redesigned by Garth Barnett, this exquisite c1930s residence captures the quintessence of Sydney Harbour with divine views, and sold on 30 Apr 2016 for $12,500,000.
19 Locksley St., Killara, NSW 2071, designed by renowned North shore Architect 'John Brogan' in a 'Stockbroker Tudor' design and sold on 01 Sep 2017 for $3,680,000
23 Redgum Avenue Killara, NSW 2071, designed and built c.1936 by renowned architect John Brogan in the iconic “Stockbroker Tudor” style
Castlecrag mansion Penhallow built 1953 (Arts and Crafts style) sold for record $13 million October 30, 2015.
5 Fitzroy Terrace, Thorngate SA

Architect Eric Phillipps Danker

In Adelaide: neo-Tudor styles (were built) in new suburbs like Colonel Light Gardens and Toorak Gardens.
The plainer, redbrick and tiled roofed house in Buxton Street, North Adelaide (1909) and Tudor styled house at 5 Fitzroy Terrace, Thorngate, was completed in 1912, (RAIA card index 1986).
Toorak Gardens and Springfield had strict design standards which suited Dancker’s preference for English vernacular revival styles.
He built the house in Toorak Gardens that he shared with his sister, directly opposite Attunga, which had been designed by his father, and the contrast in style and scale is significant.
The two red brick, Tudor styled houses on triangular blocks are signature examples of picturesque design and siting.[12]

Pictured above: 123 Kensington Road, Norwood SA built by and for Eric Danker and his sister. .

Sir Bernard Evans, Army Officer, Lord Mayor and Architect

Claude Albo de Bernales engaged Bernard Evans to replace decrepit mansions in St Kilda and Queens roads, Melbourne, with moderne or period revival-style flats, and, in 1936, to design the Tudor Revival London Court Arcade in Perth.

Tudor Revival Interiors

From Old House Online January 2018 (USA) "House exteriors ran from somber to whimsical—but the interiors were thoroughly modern for the times.

A less formal living room had replaced the parlor.
The kitchen had electric appliances and an eating nook; the first floor boasted a powder room.
Tudor sentiment might show up only in windows, a Tudor-arch fireplace mantel, or a “medieval” staircase newel."

"The early wave of English Revival houses was upscale, often featuring two-storey Great Halls with baronial fireplaces and expensive paneled walls.

Rich suburban examples might have a high-ceilinged (or step-down) great room, perhaps with a timbered ceiling.
Many spec-built models ca. 1925–1945, however, had generic interiors much like those in late bungalows, Dutch Colonials, and Spanish Revival houses.
Arched door openings, French doors, and coved ceilings were popular in all of these.
Ceiling beams, window and door casings, wainscots, and staircases tended to be dark and heavy, made of stained oak or chestnut dully finished with wax.
Celebrate architectural features such as exposed ceiling beams, Tudor-arch doorways, board-and-batten wall paneling, and stone fireplaces with elaborate mantels."

Colour

Choose a warm color scheme (e.g. crimson, yellow, and orange), with brown as the base neutral. Add touches of blue and green for contrast. As in Arts & Crafts dining rooms, wainscots were taller than those in Colonial Revival houses. Damask wall coverings were appropriate over wainscots.

Mock age was suggested by rough troweled plaster or a textured wall finish, often painted an ivory color.
Flooring was often wide oak boards, though slate and dark tile were used in halls and kitchens. Axminster or Persian rugs partly covered floors.
Heavy iron hardware complemented heavy metal lighting fixtures.
Tapestries, antlers, and taxidermy hung on walls. Motifs included shields and other heraldic imagery, quatrefoils, and oak leaves and acorns."

Elegant Entryways

Some Tudor features are decorative and some are meant to provide protection from the elements.

Tudor entryways do both by recessing the door from a thick masonry wall or adding a small roof over the door.
Elegant Renaissance-style embellishments may include an arched or peaked board-and-batten door with a single small window, hefty metal door hardware, and quoinlike cut-stone blocks set into the surrounding wall.
These embellishments make the doorway a focal point and enhance curb appeal.|

Wood Panelling & Linenfold

Wood panelling or wainscoting, almost always made from oak, became popular in Northern Europe from the 14th century, after European carpenters rediscovered the techniques to create frame and panel joinery. - Wikipedia

English oak chest with complex linenfold panels.

Linenfold (or linen fold) is a simple style of relief carving used to decorate wood panelling with a design "imitating window tracery","imitating folded linen" or "stiffly imitating folded material". Originally from Flanders, the style became widespread across Northern Europe in the 14th to 16th centuries.
The simplest linenfold style is "parchemin" (also known as "parchment fold"), a low reliefcarving formed like a sheet of paper or piece of linen folded in half and then spread out with the sharp centered fold running vertically, and the top and bottom running out to the corners of the panel, with something of the appearance of an opened book.
More complicated styles resemble a sheet of fabric that has volute folds back and forth many times. Linenfold might be fielded, visually complete against a flat panel surface and contained within each panel, or it might provide the appearance of a continuous linenfold passing behind the stiles of the framing.
Linenfold started to fall out of fashion as Renaissance styles spread in the 16th century, replaced by fielded panels for simpler work, and more complicated "Roman" and higher relief carving, but linenfold continued to be used in less sophisticated surroundings well into the 17th century. In the 19th century, linenfold panelling reappeared in the revivals of the Gothic and Tudor styles.

Tudor Revival architecture in Australia

NSW Tudor Revival

Above: Rothbury, 46 Arnold Street, Killara NSW; Old English style house Killara; 2 Grosvenor St. Wahroonga; 6 Ray ave, Vaucluse, NSW 2030; 12 Eulbertie Ave Killara; 1262 Pacific Highway, Turramurra, NSW

Bellevue Hill Tudor Revival mansion, Bonnington

8 Victoria Road Bellevue Hill NSW

Circa 1935 Tudor-style manor residence designed by revered Architect F. Glynn Gilling.
A mystery buyer has paid about $22 million for the Bellevue Hill mansion Bonnington.
Read more on this page: Bonnington, Bellevue Hill

Tudor Lodge, 6 Fairfax Road, Bellevue Hill NSW

A rare example of an externally and internally intact example of the Inter-war Old English style of house. Included on the NSW State Heritage Register 2004
Tudor Lodge, 6 Fairfax Road, Bellevue Hill NSW
A virtually intact and prominent example of the Inter-war Old English style rarely identified in Council’s heritage register. It retains the particularly dominant steeply sloping terracotta shingled roofs, leadlight windows, chimneys pots, gabled garage, flagged driveway and paths.
Tudor Lodge was built in c1926 to the designs of the architect Frederick George Deane, a registered architect in NSW. Tudor lodge featured in The Australian Home Beautiful in its 1 February 1927 issue. Nora Cooper wrote: "It is a house that grows on one. At first sight, it seems but an unpretentious adaptation of the English farmhouse, of the sixteenth century, less rugged and picturesque of course, and more suited to the needs of a newer civilisation. But by and by it is apparent that in spite of the smooth wall – smooth by comparison that is – the trim garage, the sleeping balcony, and the deep sun porch with its promise of a delightful out-door loafing such as our ancestors never knew, Mr Deane has yet caught the spirit of those far off ‘spacious days’. In this Sydney home the same sturdy dignity, the same feeling of security, of dreaming age-old peace, is expressed as truly as it ever was in an Elizabethan manor."

Mount Caeburn, Suffolk Ave Collaroy NSW

Mount Caeburn, Suffolk Ave Collaroy NSW

is based on an English manor.
The grand manor house has long receiving rooms for entertaining, a billiard room for the gentlemen, a full-length terrace for pre-dinner drinks and a large level lawn
It was built in 1936 by the late Mrs Mabel Moss, modelled on a home in England, and used the best materials and the top craftsmen of the day.

Glenifer Brae: Wollongong Conservatorium of Music

Murphys Avenue, Keiraville, NSW 2500

Gleniffer Brae, Murphys Avenue, Keiraville, NSWConstructed: 1937-1939

Glenifer Brae; Wollongong Conservatorium of Music

Historic Gleniffer Brae Manor Houseadorns the grounds of the picturesque Wollongong Botanic Garden, overlooking a sweeping vista of the city and the escarpment.
Built in 1938-39 for a member of the Hoskins steel-making family, it was both a gentleman's residence and manager's house for a large industrial complex.
The English Tudor style manor house is now home to the Conservatorium of Music. This enchanting place will more than reward you for a visit.
Gleniffer Brae forms a well designed residential estate in sympathy with the surrounding site which was selected for its topographical setting. It is associated with architect Geoffrey Loveridge and landscape designer Paul Sorensen. Gleniffer Brae exhibits a high quality of craftsmanship in the fabric of the original buildings.
The detailing represents the finest in Australian building skills of the pre-war period and this is enhanced by the fact that its original fabric is more or less intact.
Historic Register NSW

Rothbury, 46 Arnold Street, Killara NSW

Rothbury, 46 Arnold Street, Killara NSW"Rothbury" is a grand two storey residence positioned in the best part of one of the Upper North Shore's most exclusive streets.

Superbly extended and restored by leading architect David White, this beautiful family home enjoys sensational formal and informal entertaining areas which flow to the glorious North facing back garden with park-like grounds
High ceilings and generously proportioned rooms through-out
Entry foyer, formal lounge room and banquet dining room
Four bedrooms plus 5th bedroom / teenage retreat, 4.5 bathrooms and 2 studies - his & hers
Master suite with generous walk in wardrobe and large en-suite bathroom
Modern gourmet kitchen, sensational family room and games room flow to the large North facing back garden

Brown Gables, 6 Ray Ave., Vaucluse, NSW 2030

Brown Gables, 6 Ray Ave., Vaucluse, NSW 2030 Sold on 29 Mar 2017 for $4,800,000 'Brown Gables' is a rare authentic example of Tudor style architecture in a dress-circle enclave renowned as one of Sydney's best addresses.

Capturing views to the city skyline and harbour from the upper level, the lovingly restored and revived home is within easy reach of boutique beaches, renowned schools and vibrant harbourside villages.
Beautiful craftsmanship is showcased throughout, from the herringbone parquet floors and stained glass windows to the elegant bay windows and high ornate ceilings, creating a home of enduring charm.

'Wichita' 10 Warrawee Avenue Warrawee Neo-Tudor Architecture in Warrawee NSW

'Wichita' 10 Warrawee Avenue Warrawee Designed by renowned architect Emil Sodersten in neo-Tudor style, the full brick c1928 residence combines traditional heritage elegance with a stylish contemporary floorplan.

Presented on 1992 sqm of manicured Peter Fudge gardens, the home features stunning detail including stained glass lead light windows, soaring decorative plaster ceilings, and magnificent joinery throughout.
The formal spaces include lounge with domed ceiling and open fire place, and a substantial family/media room. There is a separate formal dining room, with fireplace and original cabinetry, which comfortably seats fourteen.
More photographs, video and listing

Queensland Tudor Revival (1920-1940)Architect EP Trewern's Brisbane architectural practice, established in 1920 and maintained until his death in 1959, proved highly successful. During the interwar years he was influential in popularising Georgian revival style in Brisbane commercial building and Spanish Mission and Old English/ Tudor Revival style in Brisbane residential architecture. (From Wikipedia: Santa Barbara, New Farm)

There are pockets in Brisbane where you can find this tribute to ye olde England. (From the Blog Fun and VJs:) This form of domestic architecture, sometimes called Mock Tudor or English Revival, was particularly popular during the interwar period, the 1920s and 1930s, and some great examples still exist in
Coorparoo - eg 32 Mars Street, New Farm eg The Moorings, Hamilton (see below) and Chelmer.

Suburban house, Ascot. (Source: SLQ)In Queensland, building a Tudor revival style home was considered a statement of wealth and prosperity and according to the blog 'Interwar Brisbane'

If you wanted to show you had class, connections to the mother country, upheld traditions, were old money, you would choose this style.
Because the style originates in a cold climate, architects had a hard time adapting it to a sub-tropical context.
Interwar buildings in this style are rarely airy and are mostly dark inside.
The interiors are oppressive rather than enticing.
There are very few semi-outdoor rooms - how do you make an Elizabethan verandah space?
Regardless, this was a popular style for suburban architecture, more popular than others by far.
Typically, Tudor revival style in Brisbane is constructed from masonry and features a terracotta tiled roof...although you do find the odd timber and 'tin' variety as well.

From 'Brisbane between the Wars': from the late 1920s, homes of brick, concrete, fibro and tiles became more popular, partly because new construction techniques for brick veneer dwellings reduced the quantity of bricks required and therefore the cost.[13]

Pictured above: Typical 1930s Tudor style house at Ascot Queensland 1958; Large Tudor style home in Hamilton; 2 Donaldson Street Greenslopes, Qld 4120; 132 Windermere Road, Hamilton QLD 4007; Two storey mansion owned by Woodwards at Pullenvale, ca. 1944

1117 Mount Cotton Road, Burbank QLD

Storybook (Tudor) style:

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South Australian Tudor Revival (Adelaide 1928-1938)

The Tudor style in Adelaide is characterised by steeply pitched gables at the front of the home.

These gables are often ornately decorated.
In its simplest form the Tudor, like the Bungalow, consisted of five main rooms plus a sleep out under the lean-to.
Much larger and more ornate Tudors consisting of up to 12 rooms were also built.
Victorian Tudor buildings such as Prince Alfred College at Kent Town (McMinn with Daniel Garlick) also have a distinctively Scottish flavour.
Federation architecture was taken up enthusiastically by Garlick, Frederick Dancker, and the practice of English & Soward, and the turn of the twentieth century saw some robust red brick designs such as Henry Cowell’s Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange in the east end of the city,
Dunn and Fuller’s Stock Exchange in McHenry Street, and the Museum North Wing and School of Mines on North Terrace, both by Charles Edward Owen Smyth (the superintendent of public buildings, 1886––1920).[10]

Pictured just above: 11 Fergusson Square, Toorak Gardens;16 Grandview Grove Toorak Gardens SA

Springfield House, Adelaide with Tudor style second floor addition

Hampton Lucy, 41 Austral Terrace Malvern S.A.

Hampton Lucy, 41 Austral Terrace Malvern A charming & elegant home offering impressive frontage and street appeal.

Inside offers both formal and informal living spaces including formal drawing room with marble fireplace surround, sitting room currently used as home theatre, separate formal dining room, entertainer's kitchen with adjacent casual dining area, family room opening to the rear garden, four spacious bedrooms including a master suite with bay window, ensuite and walk-in robe, plus fourth bedroom/study, main bathroom, laundry and powder room.
Every window has the most glorious aspects overlooking the most prettiest of gardens!
The tudor revival home features steeply pitched timber gables and freestone walls. The verandah sits within the main roof. It has been modernised inside but has retained some of it's distinctive tudor-revival elements.

Tasmanian Tudor Style

The Elizabethan Revival, Hobart Government House of Tasmania

High Peak, Neika, Hobart, Tasmania

Hidden behind an impeccably tidy and impenetrable hedge stands High Peak, one of Tasmania’s most adored family homes.

'High Peak', a Queen Anne Tudor style house on the slopes of Mt Wellington TAS

High Peak, Neika, Hobart, Tasmania

Shielded by enormous Douglas Firs, cedars and a giant sequoia from the Huon Road that winds below, at 126 years old, the Tudor-style home remains in pristine condition thanks to fourth-generation owners and proud custodians, developer Jim Grant and his wife of 53 years Annabelle.
It is one of the Apple Isle’s few remaining properties still in the trusted hands of its original families. The distinctive home was built in 1891 for Charles Henry Grant, a prominent engineer, public figure and politician who managed the Tasmanian Main Railway Line between Launceston and Hobart.
Designed to be the family’s summer retreat architect George Fagg, known for his church architecture, was commissioned to design a property similar to the Parattah Railway Hotel, which he designed and Grant was a company director.
Read more: Apple Isle style at its Peak, and this page: High Peak, Neika

Hathaway Home for Aged, 15 Fitzroy Place, Sandy Bay, TAS, Australia

Hathaway Home for Aged, 15 Fitzroy Place, Sandy Bay, TAS'Hathaway' is a two-storey urban residence which is a rare Tasmanian example of the Federation Queen Anne style, demonstrated by its asymmetrical form, tall chimneys, half timbered and pebble dash effect on the gables, an ensemble of varied roof shapes with Marseilles pattern terracotta roof tiles and finials, and fretwork on the verandah.

This is a large, two storey, Federation Queen Anne style house. The building is picturesque and asymmetrical. The ground floor is built of tuck pointed red brick and has a bay window, central entrance and verandah with fretwork balustrade. The upper level is half-timber with pebble-dash panels. There are ceramic finials on the ridge ends of a tiled roof. Windows are casement type with lead-glazed upper sections. The house's name, 'Hathaway', is emblazoned over the entrance arch beneath an archivolt. The house is set in a garden of large exotic trees within a streetscape of imposing houses exhibiting wide stylistic variation and which are generally sited on large blocks with established gardens. The front garden area has been changed to a car parking area but a large oak remains and is a feature of the street.

(Registered) Register of the National Estate

Ilfracombe Park, 8 Christine Avenue, Devon Hills, Tas 7300

8 Christine Avenue, Devon Hills, TasmaniaFrom the moment you enter the gates of Ilfracombe Park you can be forgiven for believing you are in England.

The exposed timber framing, stucco, steeply pitched gables, century old slate-tiled roof, peaked doors and brickwork are all hallmarks of Tudor style.
This imposing home offers large and spacious rooms well designed for both relaxing and entertaining.
The downstairs area of the home comprises of the entry hall, lounge room, huge family room complete with bar, formal and informal dining room with a well-equipped kitchen leading to the conservatory/sunroom.

The upstairs area comprises a large master bedroom with ensuite and walk-in wardrobe, and four extra bedrooms including a charming storybook children’s bedroom.

A study, bathroom and walk-in wardrobe complete the upstairs. All rooms have good wall spaces, style and wonderful views of the garden or surrounding countryside.

Parattah Hotel, Oatlands, Tasmania

Parattah is a small township in Tasmania, located approximately 6 kilometres (4 mi) southeast of the town of Oatlands. At the 2011 census, Parattah had a population of 360.

Parattah Hotel, built in 1889 The area is home to about 100 families, and contains many historic buildings, such as a farmhouse which was once home to Hudson Fysh, one of the founders of Qantas, and a historic railway station.

The main street contains a number of attractive dwellings dating from the town's heyday, some of which are currently undergoing restoration. The village retains the original general store, the impressive Tudor style 'Parattah Hotel' and a number of historic churches.

The village retains the original general store, the impressive Tudor style 'Parattah Hotel' and a number of historic churches.

The Parattah Hotel was built by W. Cheverton to plans by George Fagg for the Parattah Hotel Company. Illus. Nat. Trust News, No. 85, Oct. 1983, p.5 Victorian Tudor Revival

See also the page Interwar Old English Style (Victorian heritage properties)
Selective Heritage Listed Elizabethan or Tudor Revival Properties

Talana is the most elaborate Queen Anne residence in Melbourne.

Talana, 1 Harcourt St, Hawthorn East, VIC or also 27 Auburn Rd, Hawthorn VIC

Talana is the most elaborate Queen Anne residence in Melbourne

From the Aust Heritage Register: "The house is extremely large."
"The two storey height is emphasised by an extra high ground floor, a raised plinth above ground level, and the large hipped roof."
"Executed in the required red brick, the decorative embellishments are in render and rough cast, overlaid with timber."
"Although the house has a basic gable wing, to coordinate point form, it departs from the standard Queen Anne pattern in several areas:
Tower. Porch & Verandah The principal facade to Harcourt Street has (overlaid on the basic form), a tower and entry porch gable feature and the return verandah is a highly individual design.
Bay Window & Tower Window: The corner bay expression in the verandah is atypical and the Gothic tracery in the tower window unusual on a Queen Anne design.
"The roof is clad with Marseilles tiles. Given their date, these are probably of imported French origin along with the cappings and griffon.
Although the building addresses the corner site with its corner balcony, the principal facade is clearly Harcourt Street.
The grounds provide an appropriate context for the building but do not contain a garden which makes a contribution on its own."
NOT heritage protected by Victorian Heritage
Indicative listing only with the Australian Heritage Register
HO247 Overlay for External Controls, Boroondara Planning Scheme

404 Glenferrie Road Kooyong, Vic 3144

'ENGHOLM HOUSE', 404 Glenferrie Road Kooyong, Vic 3144 'ENGHOLM HOUSE' c1911 A grand residence by revered architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear, updated in the 1930s by Marcus Martin. Architect Marcus Martin designed a number of fine homes in areas such as South Yarra and Toorak, from the 1920s through to the ’50s. [14]

Accommodation includes formal sitting and dining domain with open fireplace and French doors to the northern garden preceding informal living of pleasing proportions and large kitchen/dining
Positioned opposite Sir Robert Menzies Reserve, close to trams, Kooyong Village shops and cafes, parklands and bike trails. Past, present and future appeal!
Heritage Listing by Stonnington City: Level of significance - Incl in HO area individually significant
Sale listing and photographs: House, Sold on 02 Sep 2015 for $5,250,000

8 Monaro Road MALVERN, Stonnington City

Former 'Stallwood House',
Construction date 1930, Architect/Designer Eric Beedham
8 Monaro Road MALVERN, Stonnington City
locally significant Heritage (Stonnington HO277)

Apart from its early use of the suburban Old English style (or `Stockbroker Tudor'), this house is unusual because of the number of times it appeared in the national home magazine, `The Australian Home Beautiful'. It was pictured in the cover twice and in detail in another issue, making it among the most publicised suburban home designs in the inter-war issues of the periodical. This gabled and hipped roof, two-story Old English style house has

stuccoed walls (originally sand finished) and half- timbered gable ends,
Marseilles pattern terra-cotta roof tiles, timber-framed casement windows with diamond pane lead lighting (originally `bottle glass') and
timber shutters, clinker brick feature elements such as the entry porch and chimney capping, and
crazy or random paving to the entry and driveway median strip.

Tudor Revival in Preston Victoria

"Historic Edzell House, an example of Melbourne grandeur....

Edzell House, one of Melbourne's very grand mansions, is located in the coveted St Georges Road at number 76." The mansion is set on an elevated 6023-square-metre block on the Yarra River, and offers postcard river and city skyline views over Richmond.

The house Dame Nellie sang in

$11 million Edzell, Toorak

Edzel House. Photo: State Library of Victoria, Image Number: a31558.

Edzell House is currently configured as seven oversized apartments but comes with plans/permits to build a waterfront home.

Tudor Revival in Western Australia

Heritage Listed:

Government House (inc gardens, The Domain)

13 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA Architectural Style: Victorian Tudor Elizabethan Revival

Government House, Perth CBD, WA in Elizabethan style The building is a two storeymansion designed by Edmund Henderson [1] in the early Stuart or Jacobean Revival style, set on 32,000 square metres of English gardens in the centre of the Perth business district, between St. Georges Terrace and the Swan River.

The unique architectural character of the building is characterised by the use of stonework and bonded brickwork, incorporating squaremullioned windows, decoratedgables and ogival cappedturrets.
The attenuated gothic arcading at ground floor level derives from another form of Victorian Revival expression Fonthill Gothic. The building has 16 rooms on the ground floor and 25 on the first floor.

Ye Olde Narrogin Inne, 2 South Western Hwy Armadale WA

Ye Olde Narrogin Inne, 2 South Western Hwy ArmadaleYe Olde Narrogin Inne, a double storey brick and tile hotel in the Inter-War Old English style, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:

the place is situated on a site which has been continuously used as a hotel since at least 1856, and has been important to the Western Australian community as one of the early stopping places for coaches,
and as a venue for socialisation by the local community and travellers from 1856 to the present;
the place is an outstanding and rare example of a building constructed in the Inter-War Old English style, enhanced by consistent stylistic detailing;
the place is a widely recognised landmark building on the South Western Highway; and,
the place was designed by architects Eustace Cohen, John B. Fitzhardinge and Joseph Eales of long standing firm Eales & Cohen.

Kulahea (Kalahea), 4 Forrest St Cottesloe WA

Kulahea, a two-storey roughcast rendered brick and tile residence in the InterWar Old English style, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:

Kulahea, 4 Forrest Street Cottesloe; Traditional Exterior by William Clark Design

WA Heritage Registered
the place is the only known surviving private house designed by the prominent Western Australian architect, George Temple Poole, who was Chief Architect of the Public Works Department from 1885 to 1896;
the place has remained largely unaltered since its construction in 1922 and still contains most of its original fittings and built-in furniture;
the place has historic value for its association with the development of Cottesloe as a prestigious suburb primarily as a result of its beachside location and the large amount of wealth generated by the State’s gold boom in the 1880s and 1890s;
the place was the home of the prominent solicitor and local and State politician Hon. Charles Frederic North MLA;

Redesigned by William Clark Design

Built in 1922 for Charles North, who would be Mayor of Cottesloe in 1923, the heritage-listed property has recently been restored and updated.
However, true to its historic character, the house still retains its Old English charm through the half-timbering, steep gabled roof and vertical windows.

House, 2 Hill Terrace, Mosman Park WA

2 Hill Terrace, Mosman Park WA No. 2 Hill Terrace, Mosman Park is a fine example of the Inter-war Old English architectural style, including high quality interior decoration. The place was designed by Reginald Summerhayes and demonstrates the development of Mosman Park.

2 Hill Terrace, Mosman Park, consists of a large brick and terracotta tile residence in the Inter-war Old English architectural style, with this style applied to the walls and ceilings of the house's interior.
History: In 1934, Dr Frayne, a Perth radiologist, bought a block of riverside land at Mosman Park and contracted noted architect Reginald Summerhayes to design a family home. The house was subsequently owned by a number of families but the exterior structure remained largely unchanged since the 1930s.
Heritage Registered

South Fremantle Post Office and Quarters (former)

174 Hampton Rd South Fremantle WA The prominent architect George Temple-Poole designed this 1896 public building in his free interpretation of the English vernacular styles, which belong to the British Arts and Crafts movement.

(Former) South Fremantle Post Office and Quarters

The former South Fremantle Post Office is constructed of rendered limestone in the Federation Arts and Crafts style that features timber framing to the first floor and a prominent steeply pitched gabled roof that was originally shingled ,but is now terracota tiled.
The Post Office had quarters for the post master and his family.
The Post Office was built in 1896 and continued being used for that purpose until sold in 1985
The roof has five rendered chimneys with corbelling and a half timbered gable which projects and is supported by timber brackets.
There are multi-mullions to the top half of the timber double hung sash windows and large arched window.
Corner rendered steps rise from the pavement to the front entrance.
Listed on the Register of the National Estate

Caves House Group, Caves Road, Yallingup WA

The Caves hotel of 1938-39 is a very fine and substantial example of the InterWar Old English style, designed and executed to high standards internally and externally, and was an outstanding achievement in the Inter-War period, when the Public Works Department of Western Australia was responsible for a number of fine buildings.

Caves House Yallingup, Yallingup Caves Accommodation House)

"The use of the Inter-War Art Deco style for the interior is unexpected;
the garden setting of Caves House Group is an exceptionally fine example of an Edwardian terraced garden;
with its diverse collection of buildings, cultural landscape and surrounding bushland it is a significant cultural environment;
as a health resort, a holiday and honeymoon destination, and in association with the experience of visiting Yallingup Cave, the place has been highly valued by visitors since the early twentieth century, and it has become a cultural icon;
owned and developed by the Government of Western Australia from 1902 to 1968, to provide accommodation for visitors to the Yallingup Cave, the development of the place as a resort is one of the earliest and longest enduring examples of the State's ownership and development of a place as a tourist destination;
since the construction of the Accommodation House in 1902-03, together with the Yallingup Cave, the place has played a central role in the development of the Yallingup and Busselton area, of the SouthWest, and of the State as a tourist and holiday destination;
builder Robert Donald of Busselton was responsible for the first and last major buildings at the place, as Hough & Donald in the former, and R. Donald & Son in the latter, as well as the 1905 additions.
Principal Government Architect A. E. Clare was responsible for the design of the new hotel in 1938, together with S. B. Cann."
Heritage Registered

Architects of Tudor Revival Style

Architect John Nash (UK)
Norman Shaw (UK)
Architect William Wilkins (UK)
George Devey (UK)
Architect Robert Hamilton
Architect John Brogan
Architect Eric Phillipps Danker
Sir Bernard Evans
Architect F. Glynn Gilling
Architect Frederick George Deane
Architect Geoffrey Loveridge
Architect David White
Architect Emil Sodersten
Architect EP Trewern
Daniel Garlick
Henry Cowell
Dunn and Fuller
Superintendent Charles Edward Owen Smyth
Architect George Fagg
Architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear
Architect Marcus Martin
Architect/Designer Eric Beedham
Architect Charles Neville Hollinshed
Architects Eustace Cohen, John B. Fitzhardinge and Joseph Eales
Architect, George Temple Poole
Reginald Summerhayes
Architect A. E. Clare
William Clark Design
Edmund Henderson

A Glossary of Tudor Styles

From Old House Online (USA) These English-inspired houses are part of the same architectural movement that spawned the English Queen Anne style, the Shingle Style, and American Queen Anne houses. They mark a transition between late Victorian sensibility and the beginning of modern architecture, including Arts & Crafts.

Tudor

Refers to the first half of the 16th century and the reigns of the Tudor monarchs (1485–1558): Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I. Like Elizabethan and Jacobean, Tudor falls between the Perpendicular Gothic before it and the classical Palladian style that would follow. Houses of the Tudor period are known for their domesticity; less like the fortresses of the past, they offered specialized rooms for study, dining, and sleeping. Finishes included linen-fold paneling and plaster relief ceilings. Mullioned (divided) windows and oriels, flattened Tudor arches, brickwork combined with half-timber construction, tall gables, and decorative chimneys predominated.

Tudor Gothic

Suggests the continuing influence of the Gothic during the early Tudor period. Turning their attention to domestic building, church craftsmen continued in the Gothic tradition but began to adapt Renaissance motifs. Heavy (timber) construction predominated.

Elizabethan

The “golden era” defined by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Literature and poetry flourished in this time of Shakespeare and the English Renaissance. The style designation “Tudor” is often assumed to include this period’s influence.

Jacobean

A reference to the reign of King James I (1603–1625). It is the second, more obviously Renaissance period of English architecture, after the Elizabethan.

Jacobethan

A word coined in the 1930s to refer to English Revival architecture after 1830 that combined elements of Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture. In the early 20th century, American “baronial” houses were called Jacobethan.

Tudor Revival

Understood to be a conscious, romantic revival of late- and post-medieval vernacular architecture, starting with designer William Morris and architect Richard Norman Shaw in England during the 19th century. The sweeping, so-named Tudor Revival in America was an Anglophile phenomenon in the suburbs of the 1920s and later. Another Tudor Revival occurred during the 1970s; those houses were often called Mock Tudor.

Stockbroker Tudor

A pointed reference to the bourgeois houses of the 1920s built by conservative new money. For ideas on appropriate interiors for Tudorbethan houses, see the Queen Anne style guide.

Tudor Style Blogs

Amusing WA Blog: http://mockmytudor.blogspot.com.au/

Latest Post: (Jan 2018) Set high above Perth's blue River Swan, with views to match the altitude, this would be Western Australia's most expensive mock Tudor. I'm no estate agent, but reckon the monstrosity would be worth close to $10 million. What you can see is probably just the camels' quarters. There's also a two-storey mansion behind. Labels: City of Perth has planning control over this. POSTED BY GRUMP LES TILTSKIN AT 11:06 PM | 2 COMMENTS LINKS TO THIS POST

2. I'm All About Tudor Style Houses (Post at My Two Cents blog)

(This blog describes American Tudor Style houses quite well)- Archived here for future reference

What is a Tudor house?

I'm all about Tudor Style Houses. I'm sure you know what it is, even if you didn't know its name, you've seen them before. They are far more popular in the North East, and there is good reason for that. They have often been described as "storybook fairy tale houses full of charm," and if you've ever seen one, that's a pretty good description.

An original Tudor survives and is preserved to this day in England.

The true Tudor houses of England were built at the end of the Medieval period into the Renaissance period. Back then, they were built because it was the best way to build a house and they used what they had. They used large wood beams and filled in the spaces with stucco. They had huge fire places, because they needed to heat the entire house with them. They had thatched or wood shingle roofs, because again, that's just what they had for roofing material.

In America, from 1890 to 1940, people copied this look and we now call this era the American Tudor Revival. Homes were built to resemble the old English Tudors, but this time the beams and stucco plaster outsides were more for the look instead of the actual structure of the building.

They were widely popular with the rich, who wanted to make a classy upscale house to show everyone that they had money. The houses were also known as "stockbroker Tudors," due to the rich people building and living in them. Many northern cities experienced massive growth during those years and the people that were making money from steel mills, lumber companies, the railroad, and mines, were the ones building Tudor style houses. There are even some neighborhoods comprised entirely out of Tudor style houses!

Tudors lost popularity when World War II began because Americans wanted to go in a more American direction with their architecture. They believed it was more patriotic to build and live in homes with more of an American feel. People began to go back to the old Colonial styles instead of European influenced houses. This is actually what started the American Colonial Revival.

This Tudor uses brick, stone, and wood.

What makes a Tudor a Tudor though? No two are the same, yet they all have the same design elements. Steep pitched roofs with multiple gables are necessities for a Tudor style house, but that's not all. Tudors are also made out of brick, stone, and wood but often have all three as the house is divided from its stone or brick bottom half and a wooden top half, consisting of exposed beams (known as half-timers) and stucco/plaster spaces in between the beams. The half-timbering with stucco in between in the Tudor signature look.

Double over-lapping gables is a common feature in Tudors.

Tudor windows are all very similar. They are long upright rectangles, grouped together, often with multiple panes. Diamond patterns are also very common. Dormer windows were staples of the Tudor design. They also have very big chimneys because on the inside, the large hearth was meant to be the centerpiece of the home. The top of the chimney sports a chimney pot, although functional, they were mainly used to be decorative.

Tudor doors vary but again, the design elements remain the same. They were to be large wooden doors surrounded by stone or brick. The entry way into the home often had its own gable. The doors themselves were commonly rounded.

Tudors don't have to keep the same color scheme. Although dark brown to black beams and white stucco is the most common, the color combinations can come in just about anything. Some "reverse" Tudors have light wooden beams and a darker color for the stucco.

A reverse Tudor, white beams and darker stucco.

Today the Tudor style house is making a comeback, a lot of people still love the appearance. The modern Tudor uses the same design elements but has far more space and has the modern updates people have become accustomed to, however, they lack the charm and craftsmanship of the homes from the early 1900's. I love these houses and I always have. Finding one in Northern Texas is just about impossible because homes and neighborhoods here aren't nearly as old as the ones in North East cities.

Brand new Tudors just aren't the same. One draw back, that I have noticed with the Tudor style, is the size. Many of them were built to be on the smaller size but when one is big, it usually has a big price tag to match. It isn't anything strange to see large Tudor style houses listed for sale at over a million dollars.

Not all Tudor houses are on the small size. When the design elements come together on a large scale, the results can be spectacular. Here are some amazing examples of the very large Tudor style house.

I would love to own one someday. I have always wanted to live in a Tudor even before I knew what they were called. There is just something about an old house that I love. I think the new houses of today are cookie-cutter and lack charm. It's hard not to agree when you see a Tudor Revival house that is nearly 100 years old, but that's just my two cents.

POSTED BY ANDREW AT 2/12/2016 06:38:00 PM

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Powder room

16 Windrock Ave Craigieburn, VIC

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