5 Pathways to the past
In the mid-19th century, another front door accoutrement came into fashion: the tiled porch. After inheriting his father’s tile factory in 1836, Herbert Minton revolutionised tile production, making them more affordable.
Soon, chequered and geometric patterns were flowing from tiled paths through front doors and into halls across Britain. Step into a porch in an upper or middle-class Victorian home, and the chances are you’d be greeted by a riot of flowers, birds, literary characters and idealised rural scenes.
These designs reflected a broader trend in Gothic Revival architecture, since they resembled the floors of medieval churches. In fact, a hankering for the past loomed large in the Victorian vogue for decorated tiles. In a rapidly urbanising society, these designs – especially those inspired by flora and fauna – resonated with a yearning for bucolic idylls in simpler times.
Such nostalgia can also been seen in the rise of the house name, as the research of the historical linguist Laura Wright shows. Monikers such as “Orchard House” and “The Willows” betray a longing for what had been lost in the race to industrialisation.
The period from 1850 to the Second World War was a golden age for house-naming, as more and more Britons owned their own homes. Railways connected sprawling suburbs with town centres, where builders named houses to attract buyers, or new homeowners sought to personalise their particular mass-developed house.
Builders might name new homes to give an impression of solid respectability, such as “Merton Villa” or “Grosvenor House”. And world events were reflected in
as “Trafalgar House”.