Extreme windows
From the Cotswolds to London, the dormer window provides an excellent way of squeezing a little more accommodation out of a roof space. And so, in cottages, Georgian terraces, Regency villas, and flats above shops, builders put in dormers, and people sleep beneath the eaves. Now and then you see two rows of dormers, for yet more light and living space. But I don’t think I've ever seen anything like these massed ranks of windows looking out from a roof in a street behind Covent Garden.
Looking at the design of the window frames on this presumably Victorian or Edwardian building, the rows of windows must have been installed in at least two phases – the upper two rows look different from the others. The result is stunning to say the least, and the array of glass must constitute an efficient collector of solar heat. But what I really want to know is this: is five rows of dormers some kind of record?
7 comments:
A veritable north face of the Eiger in glass.
Nest of Dormers, as Puccini probably didn't say.
In Paris, almost every building has such windows ("les chambres de bonnes" where the servants were housed, but I've never seen more than two rows here either.
What an amazing picture - but it does seem that the result is lots of bright but low-ceilinged rooms.
Wonderful building. The things you see when you actually look up at the tops of buildings can be amazing.
Thanks for all your interesting comments, which entertained my while I was away from England, amongst the courtyard farms and baroque houses of Central Europe. More English bricks and mortar soon.
It made me think of the Eyes of Ruthin, but that's three rows not five.
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