The past half-century has seen the popularity of conservatories ebb and flow, from a must-have feature to improve house prices, add space and create a dedicated area for leisure and to enjoy the garden, to an extension that is as much a liability as it is loved.
A lot of this comes down to changing regulations, materials, design philosophies and how all of these affect the need to repair or change the conservatory building to make it more enjoyable to use every day.
This oscillation of popularity is nothing new, and a lot of what would take place during the golden age of conservatories has had a knock-on effect on modern design sensibilities.
What Is The Golden Age Of Conservatories?
Whilst conservatories can trace their history back to early orangeries such as that found at the Palace of Versailles, the distinction between a greenhouse and a conservatory was not up to that point entirely clear.
It would not be until the 19th century that conservatories would start to develop many of the elements that would come to epitomise the golden age of conservatory design.
This period was a fascinating intersection between the British love of gardening and the Industrial Revolution, which allowed for substantial technological developments that made it possible for the relatively wet, cold and changeable weather to house exotic tropical plants.
This led to a huge number of buildings made from glass and wrought iron, two materials that had rapidly developed and evolved in the early part of the Industrial Age to create a distinct, tessellated roofing style that shaped the design of conservatories up to the present day.
The Golden Age roughly dates from 1836 up until around 1920, which happens to coincide with the lifespan of The Great Conservatory at Chatsworth House, the first major tropical greenhouse and the largest glasshouse ever made up until that point.
Whilst not the first in Britain with Syon Park’s Great Conservatory predating it by a decade, its success and immediate popularity inspired the conservatory at Kew Gardens, the Crystal Palace ahead of The Great Exhibition, The Barbican Conservatory and other, very similar structures.
Such was the popularity of conservatories that even a broken, collapsed conservatory such as Anthaeum in Hove became a somewhat ironic tourist attraction until the debris was cleared in the 1860s.
These grand designs, which pushed plate glass and wrought iron (later steel) to their limits, would inspire later designs which proudly incorporated structural elements into the design of the building.
It would also inspire countless smaller-scale greenhouses as well that would either be attached or constructed alongside country houses, for the same reason of being a unique garden feature, conversation piece and relaxation area for entertaining guests.
The fall of the Golden Age is difficult to exactly date but is generally agreed to coincide with the fall of the country house tradition following the First World War.
With fundamental changes to the social order emerging as a result of the end of the war and the financial toll it would take on Great Britain, many homes and the conservatories built alongside them were demolished.
The most famous of these was at Chatsworth House, where the tropical plants had died due to a lack of coal to power the furnaces that retained the climate they needed.
It would take until the 1970s for these designs to start being revived.