With love to sara, who will doubtless brain me.

[commodorified]

Whatever may be said in favour of the Victorians, it is pretty generally admitted that few of them were to be trusted within reach of a trowel and a pile of bricks.
Summer Moonshine (1938)

(WRT the architecture-commissioning classes of that and earlier eras I myself have speculated more than once that topiary is *the* unmistakable sign of a people much afflicted with spiritual inbreeding, alcoholism and tertiary syphillis, sometimes all at once, but this does not exclude the possibility of Gothic Revival being in the same symptom cluster... )

Via some fabulous person on my friendslist (curse this reading on the phone; no good will come of it), the
Random Wodehouse Generator

Comments

[legionseagle]

There has been speculation to the effect that Pugin for one probably did have tertiary syphilis.

Mind you, my mother when confronted with that great triumph of Gothic excess, Keble College Oxford (there was at that point an anti-Keble society, whose members were supposed to bring a brick to every meeting and CND posters bearing the slogan "What would a one-megaton nuclear bomb do to Oxford?" were regularly annotated "Destroy Keble, if we're lucky") said, thoughtfully, that she thought Oxford needed one, because it had one of all the other styles.

[jesuswasbatman]

I have to decry this post as I work next door to one of the great masterpieces of the Victorian Gothic Revival, still successfully in use for its intended purpose. And I'd be very sad to see it go.

[commodorified]

I kind of love Gothic Revival myself; I just think it's kind of mad :)

[parhelion]

Hmm. We many need a lot more topiary, then, since Victorians were also clear on the concepts that well-executed public projects such as good drains and good roads are the keystone in the arch of civilization. Mind you, their culture of building could be brutal, but at least it was usually brutal with widespread benefits and not just brutal only to help out the developers and their friends in power.

[commodorified]

I'm not sure what in this post suggests that I disagree with this.

[parhelion]

Not so much assuming disagreement as enlarging on the subject at hand. I enjoy contemplating the Victorians at some length.

[commodorified]

Aaah, sorry. I am in favour of more discussion of the Victorians!

[legionseagle]

Next time you're in Manchester I look forward to taking you on the tunnel tour, which contains a subterranean canal and which took a direct hit in the War and lost a small amount of plasterwork. Likewise the Royal Exchange, which was technically Edwardian and which stood up both to the Luftwaffe and the IRA without collapsing.

[commodorified]

Yes, please!

I do genuinely admire quite a lot about Victorian architecture; considered functionally the stuff is astonishing and admirable. The quote struck me as so funny because as far as decoration the era seems to have veered wildly between "solid functional rectangle" (my house, which I love for its good proportions and basic comfy sturdiness) and "eh, we can get more curlicues in there, you're just not putting your back into it."

Mind, both approaches have aged better than one might expect.

[legionseagle]

What you get in Manchester, as I have mentioned before, is what is clearly gargoyle envy: "I know you put yard long gargoyles on Obediah Shuttleworth's mill. Make mine 3 ft six."

[commodorified]

Heee yeah. (Canadian) Parliament is encrusted with the things; I think their function is to remind the politicians not to take themselves too damn seriously.

[sara]

*cackles*

Really, I am more of an Arts and Crafts type myself, at least on a theoretical basis.

[auriaephiala]

What I love about Victorian architecture -- aside from the sturdiness of its fundamentals, as has been mentioned -- is its gorgeous use of wrought iron/steel and of glass. In particular, I love Victorian train stations, which have never been bettered.

In general, I think, Victorian public buildings were well-designed, whereas the interiors of their homes were ghastly.