Elizabethan architecture

This era of cultural upheaval and fusions corresponds to what is often termed Mannerism and Late Cinquecento in Italy, French Renaissance architecture in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain.

[1] In contrast to her father Henry VIII, Elizabeth commissioned no new royal palaces, and very few new churches were built, but there was a great boom in building domestic houses for the well-off, largely due to the redistribution of ecclesiastical lands after the Dissolution.

The most characteristic type, for the very well-off, is the showy prodigy house, using styles and decoration derived from Northern Mannerism, but with elements retaining signifies of medieval castles, such as the normally busy roof-line.

The style they adopted was more influenced by the Northern Mannerism of the Low countries than Italy, among other features it used versions of the Dutch gable, and Flemish strapwork in geometric designs.

Flemish craftsmen succeeded the Italians that had influenced Tudor architecture; the original Royal Exchange, London (1566–1570) is one of the first important buildings designed by Henri de Paschen, an architect from Antwerp.