Tudoresque

i Tudor-style architecture is recognised around the world as a symbol of British identity. It has had a powerful hold on the popular imagination, representing the idea of 'home' to British citizens in the uk and abroad. Some love it, others hate it, but the Tudoresque is still being built, sometimes to give a house a settled old-fashioned air, sometimes (as in Thames Town, China) as something exotic. While lots of people live in Tudor-style houses, very few know anything about their general history. Tudoresque: The Pursuit of the Ideal Home is an insightful book that explores the origin of the style more thoroughly than ever before, tracing its roots to the antiquarian enthusiasms of the eighteenth century. The book looks at the Tudoresque cottage style, which later influenced the architectures in the 1930s, and the Tudor-style manor house, which was particularly favoured in the nineteenth century. While the style has been discouraged since the 1920s, and is especially reviled by modernists, it continues to be chosen - usually when design professionals do not have the upper hand. In that respect it is different from classicism, which originated in aristocratic taste, and modernism, which has been promoted by an intellectual and professional elite. Contrary to common thought, the Tudoresque is the mainstream of British architecture of the twentieth century.