Our membership magazine 'The Victorian'

The Victorian is published three times a year, and is posted to all members of the Society for free. As well as the feature articles listed below, the magazine contains book reviews, Society news and events, casework reports, and interviews and house notes on the care of Victorian and Edwardian houses.

Churches and Change

Victorian magazine No 67 July 2021 Churches and Change. Articles on Ecclesiastical Exemption - is it working? David Valinsky on ES Prior. Learning to love the Victorian Church William Whyte. JF Bentley lost and found by Peter Howell. Our favourite Victorian Churches by Griff Rhys Jones, Ptolemy Dean, Sir Roy Strong and Lucinda Lambton.

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Women in architecture

No.65, November 2020 - From Sarah Losh to Ethel Charles: Women, design and architecture in the 19th century.

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The Victorian garden revisited

No.64, July 2020 - The Victorian garden revisited, glasshouses rescued and the story of a medallist.

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The Genius of George Devey

No.63, March 2020 - The genius of George Devey, inside William Morris's dream house and a visit with the Albertian Society.

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Tower Bridge

No. 61 July 2019 Sir Horace Jones, the young Victoria, and walking in the footsteps of Nairn.

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Ruskin at 200

No. 60 March 2019 The architectural legacy of John Ruskin and the revival of Priory Gardens.

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To infinity and beyond

No 59 November 2018

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Ingenious Eugenius Birch

No. 58 July 2018

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The Victorian Society at 60

No 57 March 2018

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The Power of Pearson

No 56 November 2017

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Mosques

No 54 March 2017

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Buildings in peril

No 53 November 2016

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Church reordering

No 52 July 2016 In Search of Good Practice

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Last orders?

No 51 March 2016 Calling time for Victorian pubs

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Powerhouses of the north

No. 50 November 2015 The Future of Victorian Town halls

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Philip Webb - A centenary celebration

No. 49 July 2015 We mark the centenary of Philip Webb's death.

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Spotlight on Tower Bridge

No. 48 March 2015 Interview with David Cannadine Remembering Hermione Hobhouse

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Our Smithfield triumph

No. 47 November 2014 Roar of victory: Our Smithfield triumph Cry of shame: The Top Ten Endangered Buildings 2014

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Revolutionary Morris

No. 46 July 2014 Fiona MacCarthy talks about her exhibition

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Cornwall

No. 45 March 2014 Preview of the new Pevsner

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The Survey of London

No. 44 November 2013 Celebrating 50 volumes of the Survey of London

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Young Victorians

No. 43 July 2013 We profile five Young Victorians who have been inspired by the nineteenth century.

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Libraries in crisis

No. 42 March 2013 As public libraries are threatened with closure across the nation, we look at the rise and evolution of these Victorian institutions.

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William Burges: Gothic Revival genius

No. 41 November 2012 A new edition of J Mordaunt Crook's biography of Burges has been published; we explore his life and work.

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Artists’ houses: Art, home, work and spirit

No. 40 July 2012 The reopening of the Watts Gallery in Surrey prompts a look at the places in which the great creative minds of the nineteenth century lived and worked.

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On the right track? Renewing Victorian railway buildings

No. 39 March 2012 The current revival in popularity of Britain's railways presents threats and opportunities for our unrivalled railway heritage. We look at some of the current issues.

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Edward Burne-Jones: Master of Victorian decorative arts

No. 38 November 2011 Prompted by the publication of Fiona MacCarthy's highly-acclaimed new biography, we immerse ourselves in the life of one of the most important painters of the nineteenth century: Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98).

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George Gilbert Scott bicentenary

No. 37 July 2011 This issue we celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78), the most successful architect of his day and the most prominent architect of the nineteenth century in Britain.

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Who do you think you were? The census issue

No. 36 March 2011 Census day is 27 March 2011. We celebrate the twenty-first modern census by looking at what use those interested in Victorian and Edwardian buildings might make of the information it contains. While aggregate data is immediately useful for public administration, it is the detailed records only made public one hundred years later that are of most use to those interested in geneaolgy and individual buildings.

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Turn right for Hull

No. 35 November 2010 As we commemorate 70 years since the Blitz, it is remarkable that Hull has been largely absent from the press coverage. Apart from London, Hull was the most heavily bombed city in Britain, so it would not seem a fruitful hunting ground for Victorian buildings, but it is surprising what has survived. Hull has a remarkably rich architectural heritage, with many good Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

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Down on the farm: The rural buildings issue

No. 34 July 2010 As we commemorate 70 years since the Blitz, it is remarkable that Hull has been largely absent from the press coverage. Apart from London, Hull was the most heavily bombed city in Britain, so it would not seem a fruitful hunting ground for Victorian buildings, but it is surprising what has survived. Hull has a remarkably rich architectural heritage, with many good Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

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Home, sustainable home

No. 33 March 2010 Large scale demolition has been suggested as one way of meeting the targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the Energy Savings Trust estimates that four-fifths of the houses that will be standing in 2050 have already been built. So the challenge is what to do with our existing houses, one in five of which was built before 1919. This issue of the Victorian does not come up with any definitive answers but shows what has been done.

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The Black Country Saga

No. 31 July 2009 This issue of the Victorian looks at the West Midlands, and Cradley Heath in particular, best known by speedway enthusiasts as the home of the Cradley Heath Heathens. But their track, like much else in Cradley Heath, has been lost for redevelopment. The toll of destruction is truly depressing.

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Victorian parks: Is the grass greener?

No. 30 March 2009 Despite the credit crunch, at least Britain's Victorian municipal parks are still free for all to enjoy. Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, many have been rescued from a spiral of decline. As the articles in this issue show, they have been transformed from run-down magnets for antisocial behaviour into elegant places of retreat for everyone. But we need to remind local authorities of the need to look after them.

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Colour in Victorian Britain

No. 29 November 2008 'The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most', wrote John Ruskin in The Stones of Venice.

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Northern grit: Leeds and West Yorkshire

No. 28 July 2008 Alan Bennett has written that he felt growing up in Leeds in the 1940s can't have been unlike growing up in a fifteenth-century Italian city state. There was a powerful sense of belonging to the city, constantly reinforced by the omnipresence of the City's coat of arms, but there was an even stronger sense of place created by the distinctiveness of the city's mercantile and civic architecture. Leeds would have been, he wrote, 'one of the architectural showplaces of the kingdom, a Victorian

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50th anniversary issue: Saving a century

No. 27 March 2008 This issue, as we celebrate 50 years since the first meeting of the Society on 25 February 1958 in the drawing room at Linley Sambourne House, we can be forgiven for being a little introspective. It's curious how opinions about Victorian architecture have changed. Now, cab drivers and corporate leaders alike will unhesitatingly tell you how beautiful they find St Pancras Station whereas even ten years ago admiration was accorded only grudgingly if at all.

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Redundant churches: who cares?

No. 26 November 2007 Invariably, it seems, churches become redundant. The country changes around them and for one reason or another they find themselves bereft of the worshippers needed to keep them going. Many, if not most, of the buildings seem eventually to find new uses, but it is not easy to generalise about how often these uses preserve their architectural and historic interest. A significant minority are demolished.

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Campaigning special

No. 25 July 2007 As well as the ongoing work of commenting on applications for listed building consent, from time to time the Victorian Society runs campaigns to get a bit more public attention for buildings that really need it. This issue covers our 'Heritage Crime Scene' demonstration at Waltham Forest Town Hall to protest about the cuts to the William Morris Gallery, as well as some of the more high profile cases we've been dealing with recently.

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Beside the seaside: Reasons to be cheerful?

No. 23 November 2006 There is a certain amount of head-scratching going on at present about the future of coastal towns. The ODPM Committee has been busy gathering evidence, and one volume has already been published. How will they assess the value of the Victorian legacy? It will be interesting to see.

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Victorian swimming pools: Going down the drain?

No. 22 July 2006 Public swimming pools are a threatened species. By the Government's own estimate, swimming pools owned by local authorities need maintenance costing something like £500 million. Local authorities' preferred method of dealing with this problem is to close them. The London Pools Campaign tells us that, every year, one London swimming pool closes and is not replaced. It seems odd that, in the lead up to the Olympics, local swimming pool provision is shrinking.

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The Victorian terrace: An endangered species again?

No. 21 March 2006 Victorian terraced houses have been in the news a lot over the past year. The government is convinced that demolishing them is the solution to the 'housing problem' which affects some areas in the North of England: low demand and consequently low prices. It is typical of our times that the programme is called the 'Housing Market Renewal Initiative', as Stefan Muthesius points out in his article, which considers the state of the Victorian terrace today. The 1960s might at least have prefer

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