The Englishness of English architecture

A major new survey of architecture in Britain and Ireland from 1530 to 1880 will be published this autumn. Its author, Steven Brindle, teases out the qualities of one of its most elusive central themes

- Steven Brindle

AN English character pervades our historic buildings, in town and country. This statement can readily be proved by asking any educated British audience—of COUNTRY LIFE readers, as it might be—to distinguish between photographs of an English village, castle, church, high street, farmhouse or country house and their equivalents in France, Spain, Germany, or any other European country. The audience will recognise their own every time. If the Englishness was not real and recognisable, this would hardly be possible. Thus there is no doubt that it is there: defining it, however, is rather more difficult.

There are overarching forces that helped shape this tradition, in particular the influence of the Crown. Our kings and queens have historically tended to employ—and also thereby helped to create—the outstanding craftsmen of every generation. Their taste has also been actively emulated by courtiers, the group before the Industrial Revolution most likely to enjoy the resources to build on the grandest scale. And their work, in turn, informed wider fashions for building. But there is much more to understanding this tradition, which has deep historical roots.