Tudor architecture

The Tudorarchitectural style is the term for English architecture in the Tudor period (1485–1603). This was a time of architectural transition, as the GothicPerpendicular style was gradually replaced by a Renaissance aesthetic derived from Italy via France and the Low Countries. Coupled with the change from Gothic to Renaissance forms was a shift from religious to secular architecture, due to the impact of the English Reformation. A subtype of Tudor architecture is Elizabethan architecture, from about 1560 to 1600, which has continuity with the subsequent Jacobean architecture in the early Stuart period.

The low pointed Tudor arch was another defining feature. Some of the most remarkable oriel windows belong to this period. Mouldings are more spread out and the foliage becomes more naturalistic. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, many Italian artists arrived in England; their decorative features can be seen at Hampton Court Palace, Layer Marney Tower, Sutton Place, and elsewhere. However, in the following reign of Elizabeth I, the influence of Northern Mannerism, mainly derived from pattern books, was greater. Courtiers and other wealthy Elizabethans competed to build prodigy houses that proclaimed their status and would be able to host the queen on her annual progresses around the country.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries redistributed large amounts of land to the wealthy, resulting in a secular building boom, as well as a source of stone. The building of churches had already slowed somewhat before the English Reformation, after a great boom in the previous century, but was brought to a near-complete stop by the Reformation. Civic and university buildings became steadily more numerous in the period. Brick was something of an exotic and expensive rarity at the beginning of the period, but during it became very widely used in many parts of England, gradually restricting traditional methods such as timber framing to vernacular architecture.