Regency England Research - post 9 – Houses

One is a member of the National Trust – I do love a good nose around old homes! Who else is with me on this? I find it fascinating, wandering about and envisioning what it would be like to “live like the other half”.

(*sigh*) One conjures up an image of Pemberley in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The outside was Lyme Park (inside was filmed in Lacock Abbey; oh, the joys of TV trickery!). A place so pretty it made Lizzie fall in love with the grumpy Mr Darcy! I confess, this then prompted my own hero’s abode. Who can blame me? Any film production companies please make notes 😉

 OK, we have a pretty good understanding of those glorious mansions, don’t we? But where did they live in town?

Lady Anne’s papa is a duke, so he would’ve had a grand home in London. 

I based his on a mishmash of real ducal houses I discovered. Sadly, World War 1 saw the demolition of many of these. Poopey! ☹ There’s still a few though, including No. 1 London (Apsley House), where the first Duke of Wellington resided, and the current one still does.

A typical townhouse layout would look like this. That is a fabulously informative article, do take a look. This is the type of house that most of the rich people outside of the nobility would buy/rent when in London.

Shall we talk drawing rooms? There was a vast array, as you can see there. But they were basically where ladies would spend a great deal of time when entertaining. In Regency times, this is where the musical instruments would usually be. Music rooms were then added from this period on.

Not to be confused with the Drawing Rooms which Queen Charlotte held; these were the court presentations. 😉

Talking of royalty, Buckingham Palace was actually merely Buckingham House back then, and pops up in my book. It was relatively newly built.

Fun fact; my own papa was ‘in trade’, specifically carpets. Axminster was still considered one of his finest ranges. And the Regency folk happened to agree. It amused me to include one such in my story in homage to my daddy.

If you wish to learn about furniture I shall point you in this direction.

And I’ll just leave this general architecture note here.

It was a curious thing, writing about Regency homes whilst acknowledging that Lady Anne’s would pre-date these as she came from an old family. Let’s face it, how many of us live in a 2019 house? It amuses me when I watch the fantastic David Suchet play Poirot how everything is art deco – not a complaint as it’s gorgeous.

OK, enough on houses. We don’t want to get bogged down with details of every brick. We write stories, after all. They just have to happen somewhere suitable.

Always in love and light,

TL

 (lalala Regency Love lalala)