The Doors of Monarchs – Introduction
With so many terms banded about Georgian, Regency, Victorian, Edwardian Composite Doors we thought we would do a little digging and try and help you get clear about the real origins of the names of the doors!
Specific historical periods are fixed by the reign of the monarch;
- the times of George I through to George IV (pictured) specifically 1714 -1830 give us the Georgian era,
- this period was interrupted by the Regency period between 1811 – 1820 when George III was incapable of reigning and his son George IV ruled by proxy, prior to ruling in his own name from 1820 to 1830
- the period of 1830 – 1837 the rule of William iv apparently did not attract sufficient architectural changes to require his name be used for a specific period of endorsement
- Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 – 1901 gave us the Victorian era
- the Edwardian era is recognised as the short reign of Edward VII from 1901 to 1910 but frequently accepted as extending to between 1910 – 1920.
However, when it comes to architecture the actual dates become somewhat more blurred as the generally accepted period for the Regency period is 1795 – 1837 with some voices of authority even extending this period into the early years of Victoria’s reign and in some instances the term Regency being used as an umbrella to cover the reign of all of the monarchs.
It was not unusual for some of the larger projects / developments to span different eras during their construction and therefore it is understandable that the categorisation of doors becomes somewhat blurred and confusing.
If this was not sufficiently confusing, a check of a number of web sites clouds the picture even more when it comes to classifying doors according to their architectural period there appears to be limited agreement as to which style falls into which era.
The similarity between Georgian, Regency, Victorian, Edwardian or any other classic pattern is clear to see when trying to chose a door, one manufacture will call the door Georgian whilst another may title it as Edwardian, an example of such being the classic six panel door which can appear under all four styles.
The doors that are marketed and sold today as Georgian / Regency / Victorian or Edwardian are in general for modern properties where items such as light, sound and thermal insulation, letter plates and electric bells are all accepted as standard requirements albeit that some of these items were not available on the original period door. If the simple act of adding a period pattern door to any modern property gives that home a little more style and elegance who can argue, the Architects throughout history took a long time to design and give life to the doors that we now take for granted.
There are however certain unique features and characteristics which can help to decide the style and era of a particular door and building style and these are covered in our subsequent articles for individual period styles.