148. Raynham Park, Norfolk, The West Front.
149. Plan of Coleshill, Berkshire (1650).
The two tendencies in design just mentioned may already be observed during the lifetime of James, for in 1622 was built the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, designed by Inigo Jones as part of a vast palace for the King, of which the rest was never undertaken. It is perhaps the most classic building of that century, quite devoid of any trace of Elizabethan detail. At the same time, and indeed for another ten or twelve years, were being built houses which still retained all the old characteristics. Such is Aston Hall, near Birmingham, which has the curved gables, the turrets, the chimneys, the mullioned windows, the ribbed ceilings, the busy staircase, which had been customary in fine houses for the last fifty years. Yet Aston Hall was not completed till 1635. The most significant sign of change at Aston is the disposition of the hall, which, as already stated, is no longer intended as a living room, and is entered in the middle of its length instead of at one end through the customary screens. The change of habits which this alteration implies, coinciding as it did with the advent of more accurate knowledge of Italian ways, undoubtedly helped forward their establishment. It was no longer necessary to provide on the ground floor a great hall suitable for a living room, and dividing the family apartments from those where the servants worked and lived. The whole ground floor was devoted to the family, who were provided with a suite of salons surrounding the hall, which itself became a large vestibule leading to them. The servants were relegated to the basement; not indeed for the first time, for Smithson has several plans in which this arrangement was adopted, and so has Thorpe; but these were exceptions to the general rule. The long gallery and the great chamber went out of fashion. These rooms had been upstairs, the long gallery sometimes on the topmost floor, while not a few of the rooms on the ground floor had been “chambers” or “lodgings,” that is in effect bedrooms. It now became more customary to devote the ground floor to the day-rooms, and the upper floor to bedrooms, especially in houses of medium size. In great mansions complete suites of living and sleeping rooms were still provided on the same floor. The plan of Raynham Park (Fig. 147), built according to various authorities either in 1630 or 1636, and attributed to Inigo Jones, shows the change that had taken place in domestic habits. So too does the plan of Coleshill in Berkshire (Fig. 149), built in 1650 from designs by the same master; but in this case some of the ground-floor rooms are still intended to be used as bedrooms, and the dining-room is upstairs.
150. Coleshill House, Berkshire.
These two houses illustrate equally well the new methods adopted in treating the exterior. Elizabethan and Jacobean houses were picturesque and busy in their appearance owing to the varied outline of their plan, and to their irregular and broken sky-line caused by the gables, turrets, and chimneys with which they were furnished. The many lights of the mullioned windows also added much to their lively effect, while bay windows were used with great skill to give rhythm and interest to the design.
151. Houses in High Street, Southwark.
(Now destroyed.)