Knightsbridge Living
Knightsbridge properties
Click one of these topics relating to Knightsbridge properties .
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How Knightsbridge properties have changedSome of the more prestigious Knightsbridge properties from the Victorian era still remain as houses (usually owned by Middle Eastern oil princes). Many other Knightsbridge properties were converted to use as embassies. When you go to an embassy and consider the number of people working there, it is amazing to think that a single family would have occupied the house in Victorian times. Many Knightsbridge properties were originally stables. This is the case with all original mews properties which were built in streets behind the real Knightsbridge houses. The Victorians would recognise the facades of most Knightsbridge properties, but be amazed by the change in use behind. Most original Knightsbridge houses have now been converted into flats. |
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Building regulations for Knightsbridge propertiesThe laws introduced to prevent any recurrence of the Great Fire of London banned timber from the outside of all Knightsbridge properties, and required walls to be made of brick or stone. Such Knightsbridge properties would be far more durable than timbered lath and plaster houses of Tudor and Jacobean times. That is why if you look at the residential areas London it is as if houses were invented by the Georgians. The rules for building Knightsbridge properties severely restricted the use of wood to reduce fire risk. They couldn’t use wood near chimney flues. |
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Terraces of Knightsbridge properties in Georgian LondonMost Knightsbridge properties were built in terraces. Brick properties in terraces was a creation of the Georgian age. By the time Knightsbridge was being built up in the 19th century typical Knightsbridge properties were becoming fully stuccoed. The earliest Georgian terraces were uniform in style and symmetrical in layout. The facades of Knightsbridge properties incorporated classical pilasters, doors and windows crowned with pediments, and decorative mouldings. In the 1720s the “palace fronted terrace” came into fashion for Knightsbridge properties. The whole terrace was treated as one composition, with a long stuccoed front elevation with pilasters at intervals and a central pediment over the Knightsbridge properties in the middle.
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Knightsbridge properties round garden squaresMost Victorian developments of Knightsbridge properties followed a similar pattern. Houses were built in rows, along streets or round specially constructed squares. Knightsbridge properties might have small front areas, but not considerable front gardens. Most squares were constructed with the Knightsbridge properties grouped round it and facing onto it. But later Victorian developers, constructed estates with “hidden gardens” between the backs of the Knightsbridge properties and to which the houses had rear access. |
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Construction of Knightsbridge propertiesThe typical London town house was established during the Georgian period and remained more-or-less unchanged until the last quarter of the 19th century. The façade of Knightsbridge properties would be brick faced, with plain inset sash windows and doors, with a metal balcony at the first floor level. The main structure of such Knightsbridge properties was a rectangular box, built in stock-brick, and topped with a roof of Welsh slates. The roof of these Knightsbridge properties was either concealed behind a brick parapet or built in the form of a mansard with dormer windows. A timber frame formed the internal construction of all but the larger houses. The joists supporting the floors which ran between the front and back walls of such Knightsbridge properties were wood. So was the framework of the internal partition walls from the ground floor upwards. Brick walls were only used internally at basement level or to support a stone wall-hung staircase, or to give added structural support in particularly large Knightsbridge properties. |
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Size and height of Knightsbridge propertiesThe basic layout and construction of Knightsbridge properties did not change dramatically throughout the Victorian period. Partly this was because the design worked. There would be a basement with 3 to 5 storeys above. The earliest Knightsbridge properties had just one room to each floor. So if the frontage of such Knightsbridge properties was 24 feet wide, the house was usually 24 feet deep. In Georgian times, the standard design of a terraced house changed to the double pile house, meaning the house was two rooms deep on each floor. |
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Different types of Knightsbridge propertiesThe Building Act of 1774 classified new Knightsbridge properties into 4 “rates” depending on the value of the house. Each type of Knightsbridge properties had its own structural rules. (The poor were not to be as well protected as the rich.) “First rate” Knightsbridge properties had to have a minimum floor space of 900 square feet. “Second rate” Knightsbridge properties could be between 500 and 900 square feet. For “third rate” Knightsbridge properties it was 350 to 500 square feet and for “fourth rate” it was a minimum of 350 square feet. But although the minimum size of a house was specified, there was no restriction on the number of people who could live there. |
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The basements of Knightsbridge propertiesThe basements of Knightsbridge properties contained the kitchen, scullery and pantries, and ample storage for beer and wine was provided, usually in the centre of the house between the back and front basement rooms. The placing of the kitchen at this level of kept the principal rooms well away from any rising damp in the brick walls of Knightsbridge properties. |
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Ground floor of Knightsbridge propertiesIn early Georgian times it was normal for the ground floor of Knightsbridge properties to be for services and servants' accommodation and the first floor was the main floor or 'piano nobile'. But in the Regency period the ground floor of Knightsbridge properties became the main family floor. The ground storey contained the dining-room, at the side of a narrow entrance hall, and behind it a smaller parlour or morning-room. The dining-room of Knightsbridge properties might be a little deeper than the front rooms on the upper floors and was sometimes finished with a sideboard recess at its inner end. The rear parlour of Knightsbridge properties was usually narrower than the dining—room in order to accommodate the extra width of the stairs at the end of the hall. |
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Bedroom floors of Knightsbridge propertiesThe bedroom floors of Knightsbridge properties were usually similar in plan to the living room floors but were sometimes subdivided into smaller rooms, particularly on the top floor. In larger Knightsbridge properties the stair to the top floor might take the form of a small accommodation stair outside the main stairwell, and in such cases it was normally of timber construction. The owner’s bedroom would usually be on the second floor, with provision for children’s rooms and servants’ rooms on this or higher floors in accordance with the scale of the house. |
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