Queen Anne style architecture

With respect to British architecture, the term is mostly used for domestic buildings up to the size of a manor house, and usually designed elegantly but simply by local builders or architects rather than the grand palaces of noble magnates.

Contrary to the American usage of the term, it is characterised by strongly bilateral symmetry, with an Italianate or Palladian-derived pediment on the front formal elevation.

Christopher Wren used this technique, which achieved a rich effect for a considerably lower cost than using stone as a facing throughout, in his rebuilding of Hampton Court Palace, commissioned by William and Mary.

George Devey (1820–1886) and the better-known Norman Shaw (1831–1912) popularized the Queen Anne style of British architecture of the industrial age in the 1870s.

Norman Shaw published a book of architectural sketches as early as 1858, and his evocative pen-and-ink drawings began to appear in trade journals and artistic magazines in the 1870s.

Distinctive features of American Queen Anne architecture may include an asymmetrical façade; dominant front-facing gable, often cantilevered beyond the plane of the wall below; overhanging eaves; round, square, or polygonal tower(s); shaped and Dutch gables; a porch covering part or all of the front façade, including the primary entrance area; a second-story porch or balconies; pedimented porches; differing wall textures, such as patterned wood shingles shaped into varying designs, including resembling fish scales, terra cotta tiles, relief panels, or wooden shingles over brickwork, etc.

Verandahs were usually a feature, as were the image of the rising sun and Australian wildlife, plus circular windows, turrets, and towers with conical or pyramid-shaped roofs.

Although built around the same time, these houses had distinct styles, West Maling displaying a robust Tudor influence that was not present in Annesbury.