Victorian Bay Window Construction

Victorian and edwardian oriel windows.

Victorian bay window construction.

The late victorian and edwardian period took advantage of the change in new building regulations and now presented their windows in bays. Here is our step by step guide about how to build a bay window. In 1894 the building act changed the regulations so that windows no longer had to be flush with the exterior wall. And what was local was redwood.

This enabled windows to stand proud from the facade. Most people call them bay windows when located on the first floor and oriel windows only if they are on an upper floor. Bay windows are typically rectangular or polygonal and the most common internal angles are 90 135 and 150. A few people built bay windows onto their homes and before long christopher verplanck said everybody did them now back then san francisco was isolated said jay gifford a san francisco resident and tour guide for victorian home walk.

Bay window italianate late to the party in the 1880s these took over flat front italianates when lot sizes got smaller which resulted in using bay windows to increase square footage. Bay windows are a prominent feature of victorian domestic architecture but were originally incorporated into designs during the english renaissance period as a means of making a room appear larger providing better views and admitting more natural light than a window which was flush with the wall line.