Georgian Houses for All

First published in 1978, Georgian Houses for All describes how little Gregorian houses came into being and how the original inhabitants used them. Gregorian houses at their smallest and simplest can be seen everywhere in the British Isles – detached, semi-detached and joined together in terraces. There are probably still over a million of them, built during a period of 130 years without the direct aid of architects. John Woodforde points out that an instinctive wish for a symmetrical front seems to be shown by young children’s drawings of houses, these being generally balanced and orderly. The Georgians’ love of symmetry, marked in their way of hanging pictures, was part of a desire for private order amongst public disorder, a desire to have one small sphere in which nature was fully controlled. John Woodforde reminds us that, in the present-day return to terrace-house building, the Georgian version remains a valuable guide. The book will be of interest to students of architecture, urban planning, and history.