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Victorian architecture
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Manchester Town Hall, England, designed by Alfred Waterhouse. Victorian-style homes in Cape May, N.J. Haight-Ashbury Historic Victorian-style houses in Wheeling, W.Va.
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Manchester Town Hall, England, designed by Alfred Waterhouse.
Manchester Town Hall, England, designed by Alfred Waterhouse.

Victorian architecture

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Victorian architecture, building style of the Gothic Revival that marks the movement from a sentimental phase to one of greater exactitude. Its principles, especially honesty of expression, were first laid down in The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841) by Augustus Pugin (1812–52). Much Victorian design consisted of adapting the decorative details and rich colour combinations of Italian, and especially Venetian, Gothic. Though ornamentation could be elaborate, it was usually not superficially applied but grew rationally out of the form and material used.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.