An Age of Creativity

The creativity of Victorian architecture can be attributed to the time period from which it sprang. According to John Maass, a leading expert on Victorian architecture, "This was no mean age - in every field of human endeavor, the mid-nineteenth century was a time of frenetic activity and massive achievement." The technological advances of the era included the telegraph, ocean steamer, modern machine tools, farm machinery, petroleum, photography, the sewing machine, the rotary printing press, gaslight, the electric motor, the telephone, and electric lighting. Born during the Industrial Revolution, Victorian builders used these new technologies. Mass-production and mass-transmit made ornamental parts affordable, and Victorian architects and builders applied these liberally, combining features borrowed from many different eras with their own imaginations. In addition, this was a period of great wealth. "The new generation of self-made industrialists were boastful of their success, who in the architecture of their houses advertised their achievements in tangible form," said Stephen Calloway in The Elements of Style.The canals and railways enabled materials to be widely and economically distributed, such as cast iron from Scotland, terracotta from the English Midlands, and slates from Wales. No longer were houses only built from local materials as had been usual in the past.