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Runcorn Town Hall
Runcorn Town Hall is in Heath Road, Runcorn, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. It was originally built as Halton Grange, a mansion for Thomas Johnson, a local industrialist. After passing through the ownership of two other industrialists, it was purchased in the 1930s by Runcorn Urban District Council and converted into their offices. Since 1974, it has been the meeting place for Halton Borough Council. History In January 1854 the land on which the building stands was bought by Thomas Johnson from Francis Selkeld for £4,280 (). Thomas was the younger brother in the partnership of John & Thomas Johnson, soap and alkali manufacturers in Runcorn. In 1853–56 a mansion was built for Thomas on the land to a design by Charles Verelst (formerly Reed). The name of the mansion was Halton Grange and its gardens were planned by Edward Kemp. In the 1860s the Johnson brothers became involved ...
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Runcorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. Runcorn is on the southern bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. Runcorn was founded by Ethelfleda in 915 AD as a fortification to guard against Viking invasion at a narrowing of the River Mersey. Under Norman rule, Runcorn fell under the Barony of Halton and an Augustinian abbey was established here in 1115. It remained a small, isolated settlement until the Industrial Revolution when the extension of the Bridgewater Canal to Runcorn in 1776 established it as a port which would link Liverpool with inland Manchester and Staffordshire. and The docks enabled the growth of industry, initially shipwrights and sandstone quarries. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it was a spa and health resort b ...
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Tanning (leather)
Tanning is the process of treating Skinning, skins and Hide (skin), hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed. Tanning hide into leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin, making it more durable and less susceptible to decomposition and coloring. Before tanning, the skins are dehaired, degreased, desalted and soaked in water over a period of six hours to two days. Historically this process was considered a noxious or "odoriferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town. Historically, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name, derived from the bark of certain trees. An alternative method, developed in the 1800s, is chrome tanning, where chromium salts are used instead of natural tannins. History The English word for tanning is from medieval Latin , derivative of (oak bark), from French (tanbark), from old-Cornish (red oak). ...
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Pilaster
In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ..., a pilaster is an :Architectural elements, architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a Capital (architecture), capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other column elements. In contrast to a pilaster, an engaged column or buttress can support the structure of a wall and roof above. In human anatomy, a pilaster is a ridge that extends vertically across the femur, which is unique to modern humans. Its structural function is unclear. Definition In discussing Leon Battis ...
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Quoin (architecture)
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, these imply strength, permanence, and expense, all reinforcing the onlooker's sense of a structure's presence. Stone quoins are used on stone or brick buildings. Brick quoins may appear on brick buildings, extending from the facing brickwork in such a way as to give the appearance of generally uniformly cut ashlar blocks of stone larger than the bricks. Where quoins are decorative and non-load-bearing a wider variety of materials is used, including timber, stucco, or other cement render. Techniques Ashlar blocks In a traditional, often decorative use, large rectangular ashlar stone blocks or replicas are laid horizontally at the corners. This results in an alternate, quoining pattern. Alternate cornerstones Courses of large and small c ...
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Rustication (architecture)
Two different styles of rustication in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and rough-faced below.">Florence.html" ;"title="Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence">Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence; smooth-faced above and rough-faced below. Rustication is a range of masonry techniques used in classical architecture giving visible surfaces a finish texture that contrasts with smooth, squared-block masonry called ashlar. The visible face of each individual block is cut back around the edges to make its size and placing very clear. In addition the central part of the face of each block may be given a deliberately rough or patterned surface. Rusticated masonry is usually "dressed", or squared off neatly, on all sides of the stones except the face that will be visible when the stone is put in place. This is given wide joints that emphasize the edges of each block, by angling the edges ("channel-jointed"), or dropping them back a little. The main part of the ...
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Baluster
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its construction are wood, stone, and less frequently metal and ceramic. A group of balusters supporting a handrail, coping, or ornamental detail are known as a balustrade. The term baluster shaft is used to describe forms such as a candlestick, upright furniture support, and the stem of a brass chandelier. The term banister (also bannister) refers to a baluster or to the system of balusters and handrail of a stairway. It may be used to include its supporting structures, such as a supporting newel post. Etymology According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "baluster" is derived through the french: balustre, from it, balaustro, from ''balaustra'', "pomegranate flower" rom a resemblance to the swelling form of the half-open flower (''illust ...
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Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures, including most Western cultures. Some noteworthy examples of porticos are the East Portico of the United States Capitol, the portico adorning the Pantheon in Rome and the portico of University College London. Porticos are sometimes topped with pediments. Palladio was a pioneer of using temple-fronts for secular buildings. In the UK, the temple-front applied to The Vyne, Hampshire, was the first portico applied to an English country house. A pronaos ( or ) is the inner area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple, situated between the portico's colonnade or walls and the entrance to the ''cella'', or shrine. Roman temples commonly had an open pronaos, usually with only columns and no walls, and the pronaos could be as long as th ...
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Tuscan Order
The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but with un-fluted columns and a simpler entablature with no triglyphs or guttae. While relatively simple columns with round capitals had been part of the vernacular architecture of Italy and much of Europe since at least Etruscan architecture, the Romans did not consider this style to be a distinct architectural order (for example, the Roman architect Vitruvius did not include it alongside his descriptions of the Greek Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders). Its classification as a separate formal order is first mentioned in Isidore of Seville's ''Etymologies'' and refined during the Italian Renaissance. Sebastiano Serlio described five orders including a "Tuscan order", "the solidest and least ornate", in his fourth book of ''Regole generali di ...
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Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The builder was Thomas Cubitt, the London architect and builder whose company built the main facade of Buckingham Palace for the royal couple in 1847. An earlier smaller house on the site was demolished to make way for a new and far larger house, though the original entrance portico survives as the main gateway to the walled garden. Queen Victoria died at Osborne House on 22 January 1901, aged 81. Following her death, King Edward VII, who had never liked Osborne, presented the house to the state on the day of his coronation, with the royal pavilion being retained as a private museum to Victoria. From 1903 to 1921, part of the estate around the stables was used as a junior officer training colleg ...
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Pevsner Architectural Guides
The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published between 1951 and 1974. The series was then extended to Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the late 1970s. Most of the English volumes have had subsequent revised and expanded editions, chiefly by other authors. The final Scottish volume, ''Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire'', was published in autumn 2016. This completed the series' coverage of Great Britain, in the 65th anniversary year of its inception. The Irish series remains incomplete. Origin and research methods After moving to the United Kingdom from his native Germany as a refugee in the 1930s, Nikolaus Pevsner found that the study of architectural history had little status in academic circles, and that the amount of information available, especially to travellers wanting to inform themselv ...
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Belvedere (structure)
A belvedere or belvidere (from Italian for "beautiful view") is an architectural structure sited to take advantage of a fine or scenic view. The term has been used both for rooms in the upper part of a building or structures on the roof, or a separate pavilion in a garden or park. The actual structure can be of any form or style, including a turret, a cupola or an open gallery. The term may be also used for a paved terrace or just a place with a good viewpoint, but no actual building. It has also been used as a name for a whole building, as in the Belvedere, Vienna, a huge palace, or Belvedere Castle, a folly in Central Park in New York. Examples On the hillside above the Vatican Palace, (circa 1480-1490), Antonio del Pollaiuolo built a small pavilion (''casino'' in Italian) named the ''palazzetto'' or the Belvedere for Pope Innocent VIII. Some years later Donato Bramante linked the Vatican with the Belvedere, a commission from Pope Julius II, by creating the Cortile del ...
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Villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a monastery. Then they gradually re-evolved through the Middle Ages into elegant upper-class country homes. In the Early Modern period, any comfortable detached house with a garden near a city or town was likely to be described as a villa; most survivals have now been engulfed by suburbia. In modern parlance, "villa" can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from the suburban semi-detached double villa to, in some countries, especially around the Mediterranean, residences of above average size in the countryside. Roman Roman villas included: * the ''villa urbana'', a suburban or country seat t ...
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