London Interiors – Style and taste in interior design, 1660–1940 - six online talks by Dr Steven Brindle

The Restoration era saw profound changes in society as grand households embraced new formal styles of entertaining, and servants were increasingly confined to their quarters. The rise of the West End as the new focus of fashionable life meant that old mansions were abandoned, in favour of more compact residences, often in terraces. A distinctive new approach to interior design resulted, in which fine joinery, plasterwork, decorative painting, tapestries, textiles and furniture were key. We look at the evidence for London interiors of the Baroque age, notably the important surviving examples at Ham House, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace.

In the 1720s Britain was at peace and its economy was growing. The Grand Tour, in particular to Italy, became an important element in British cultural life. A new, Italian-inspired style of interior design was developed, notably by William Kent, developing the idea of a grand interior as an integrated work of art embracing walls, ceiling, furniture and artworks. Neo-Palladian design values spread, influencing the decoration of ordinary houses. In the 1730s, exciting new variants appeared in the Rococo and Georgian Gothic styles. From the 1760s a young generation of designers led by Robert Adam created new approaches to interior design. Cabinet-makers like Thomas Chippendale and Ince & Mayhew developed complementary furniture designs. Neoclassicism, while ostensibly being about returning to ancient models, was also about variety, novelty and consumerism.

In the late Georgian age the cycle of fashion was turning faster, as society became more complex and more competitive. The dominant Neoclassical mode was refreshed by designers like Thomas Hope and Sir John Soane. However, upholsterers and cabinet makers like Marsh & Tatham and Crace & Company began to supplant architects, in driving developments in interior design. The Regency years saw a reaction against the refinement of mid-Georgian taste, partly driven by the Regent’s love for rich and elaborate effects, pioneered at Carlton House and Brighton. The post-Waterloo years saw a new generation of London houses go up, such as Apsley House and Stafford (now Lancaster) House, larger in scale and more ostentatious than ever before. 

In the 1830s and 40s Gothic once again became part of the mainstream of architecture and style. However, the shapes and forms of town-houses predisposed them to be designed in accordance with classical principles still. The Victorians, with their love of variety of and historic association, were determined to break out of the carapace of Classical proportions. Variations of the Gothic, Tudor and Jacobean styles appeared in their homes, In the 1860s and 70s, ideas about the reform of design and taste created the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements, which refreshed architecture and the design of interiors, furniture, textiles and art objects of all kinds, in previously unimagined ways. Victorian London’s global connections were also manifested in ‘oriental rooms’ of various types, which constitute a lost chapter in the history of the decorative arts in Britain.  

London Society was at its height in these years: the aristocracy and established elite were joined by large numbers of newly-rich plutocrats. London had more grand mansions as settings for smart social life than ever before. The elaboration and clutter of Victorian interiors began to inspire reactions, well before the death of Queen Victoria. Classical styles returned to the fore, supplanting High Victorian aesthetic values, The plutocrats loved 18th-century French styles, but in the early 1900s these were joined and then overtaken by English 17th- and 18th-century styles, Arts and Crafts aesthetic values continued, and came to represent the chief alternative to classical styles, exemplified by the work of William Morris, his company and his associates.   

After the traumatic upheaval of the Great War British high society recovered, though much changed. Great houses were being demolished, and large old-fashioned households supplanted by convenient modern apartments. More than ever London society was run by women, and this was reflected in interiors. These years are often perceived as being primarily about Art Deco and the Modern Movement. Fine domestic interiors of this kind were indeed created, but they only formed part of the picture, which was also characterised by subtle ‘revivals’ like ‘Vogue Regency’ and ‘Curzon Street Baroque’. Brilliant designers like Syrie Maugham. Alister Maynard, Oliver Hill and Colefax & Fowler were at work. The inter-war years were arguably the belle époque of interior design as an art form, when it was brought to new heights of variety, sophistication and invention. However, it is difficult to appreciate this today, as so few domestic interiors from this era survive intact.