"FINE RESIDENCES"

Copyright © 1999 by David H. Fox.  All Rights Reserved

The words of an 1890 biography of G. A. Audsley suggest that a portion of the architectural output of the Audsley firm was domestic. .        "Contemporary British Architects," The Building News (7 Mar. 1890):336.  Unfortunately, as no business records have survived and the architectural press of the day generally gave little notice to residences, examples of their work may remain unidentified.

Despite this, much of the Audsley brother's ideas concerning domestic architecture has been preserved owing to their publication of Cottage, Lodge, and Villa Architecture in 1870.  This work contained designs for eleven "cottages" [small dwellings for gardeners, estate employees, etc.], six "lodges" [medium size dwellings for estate supervisors or middle class persons], and ten "villas" [large country homes], in "Gothic, Elizabethan, Italian," and "Old Scottish" styles.

A fifty-eight page introduction provided the reader with a discussion of architectural styles, building materials, and room specifications.  The Audsleys ascribed to a popular philosophy of the period which felt that while the Neo-classic style might suited to secular buildings, the Gothic Revival was the only proper form for homes and religious structures.  Their "Italian" style, for example, was not the classical "Italianate," but rather a form of Gothic.  Despite rather critical comments on the Neo-Classical style, the work concluded with a twenty-four page comparison of the classical Orders of Architecture as used by Vitruvius, Palladio, Chippendale, and others.  This was followed by a sixteen page section on linear perspective and another nineteen pages on practical geometry.

The Audsleys considered the dining room to be the most important in house followed by drawing room.  The design of these rooms were discussed at length in addition to those for the hallway, kitchen, scullery, store room, butler's pantry, wash-house, laundry, out buildings, and cellars.  Practical suggestions were made that the location of the morning room for breakfast and lunch be near the kitchen, and that libraries should not have gas illumination which damaged the bindings of books.  Bedrooms were urged to be well ventilated with transoms above doors.  Beds were not to face east windows, while dressing rooms needed to be well-lighted.  The gender inequality of the era was reflected in the statement that "all houses of even modest size should have a 'gentlemen's room' with water closet near the main entrance," while the needs of women were ignored.

On 17 October 1876, G. A. Audsley addressed the Social Science Congress in Liverpool on "The Influence of Decorative Art and Art Workmanship on Household Details."  The underlying theme of this speech is one that appears through out Audsley's writings---the equation of the "inartistic" with depraved:

It is morally injurious to keep company with bad things, as it is injurious to associate with bad people. .        G. A. Audsley, The Influence of Decorative Art and Art Workmanship on Household Details (Liverpool: Adam Holden, 1876), 1.

The moral effect of good art and architecture was a widely accepted premise in the late nineteenth century.  In America, this philosophy gave rise to the City Beautiful Movement which preached that attractive structures on spacious squares and tree-lined boulevards would certainly create good citizens.  Audsley bemoaned the fate of his nation:

I fear it is a hopeless task to convince persons of the present day, who believe in the modern cabinetmaker's and upholster's ideas of furnishing, either that they are wrong artistically or that they are sowing, by the wealthy indulgence of their ignorant views, seeds which will bear fruit in the minds of their children and their children's children, and assist in keeping our country in an inartistic condition. .        G. A. Audsley, The Influence of Decorative Art and Art Workmanship in Household Details (Liverpool: Adam Holden, 1876), 11.

Audsley stood opposed to the worst excesses of Victorian decoration.  Though a great admirer of historical ornament, he conceded, "Vulgar things are almost invariably overdone with ornament."  Draperies that spilled onto the floor and oversized mirrors stood condemned as did the use of stark white for walls and ceilings.  As an example of an inartistic furnishing, Audsley humorously described a popular hearth rug which portrayed a tiger emerging from the jungle, its mouth "red with human blood."

There is little record of the style of furniture favored by G. A. Audsley.  A photograph of the music room of his home in Chiswick from the 1880's shows chairs with exposed wooden legs, the upholstery being limited to the seat and back cushions.  The fabric used was similar in pattern to carpeting which completely covered the floor.  Variously oriental rugs were placed on this.  Another hint of the Audsley style might be obtained from his 1916 book, Amateur Joinery in the Home.  Many of the projects were clearly of a Medieval style which was associated with the Reform Movement of the 1880's, a reaction against the Louis XIV, XV, and XVI revival styles. .        David A. Hanks, Isaac E. Scott: Reform Furniture in Chicago (Chicago: The Chicago School of Architecture Foundation, 1974), 12.

The few known examples of Audsley domestic architecture include: Streatlam Towers, the James Lord Bowes residence at 5 Prince's Road, Liverpool (1872); The Towers, Sefton Park, Liverpool (pre-1890), and G. A. Audsley's house at Devon Nook, Chiswick (pre-1883). .        "Contemporary British Architects," The Building News (7 Mar. 1890): 336. .        The Architect (13 Jan. 1872): 29.        Gore's Liverpool Directory (1896). .        G. A. Audsley, "The Music-Room in the Home," The American Organist 6:11:670.

In America, the Audsleys undertook the addition of a forty by twenty-five-foot Elizabethan style music room with pipe organ to the Eugene C. Clark residence at Broadway and Odell Avenue, Yonkers, New York. .        G. A. Audsley, "The Music-Room in the Home," The American Organist 6:11:670.