Chimneys

Chimneys for the Victorians were a source of aesthetic pleasure. Their Georgian predecessors put little emphasis on chimneys as the Greek temples, which they admired and were influenced by, did not have any. Victorians found an answer to their cravings for the ornate in creating soaring chimneys.

On detached or semi-detached houses, chimneys are often part of the formal symmetry. In a terrace, or a row of houses built to the same design, they set up an aesthetically pleasing regular rhythm. To this day, altering the shape substantially, or removing a chimney altogether, risks destroying this overall pattern.

Victorian taste focussed on the fireplace as a centre of the home and this was another reason for the refining of the design and quality of chimney pots from the rather crude versions of the late eighteenth century. Now, builders were able to choose from a vast array of clayware pots as ornamentation in the 19th century attained an exuberance that has not been seen since.

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