By Nazvi, 10 April, 2020
You’re walking alone, it’s a full moon night. You don’t feel so comfortable and are looking for a place to stay. All of a sudden you see a mansion, tall and narrow, with many dark windows. Your heart beat starts racing and you feel like your blood is going to shoot out of your veins. You’re not sure if you should ring the bell and ask for help.
Isn’t it strange that people quite often associate Victorian architecture to being haunted? From movies like ‘Psycho’ to ‘The Addams Family’ we have seen that most of these horror movies have a huge Victorian mansion with a gnarly and horrific past that reeks into the present. Ghosts and Banshees seem to belong to such houses, with their tall ceilings and narrow, echoing hallways.
Victorian architecture is a building style of Gothic Revival that marks the movement from a sentimental phase to one of greater exactitude. The history of the Victorian Architectural period roughly parallels the same period in which the British Monarch, Queen Victoria, ruled The British Empire, hence the name. Some of the main characteristics of this architecture were: tall and narrow construction which gave them the ability to be built in a small amount of land, stairways usually leading to wrap-around front porches adorned with turned wood or wrought iron railings, towers and turrets, elaborate molding, both inside and out and everything from Italianate egg-and-dart molding to carved Gothic Revival fascia. It’s not at all unusual to find Queen Anne, Gothic and Italianate elements all in the same house, as the goal was to create something unique and unusual. The Victorian period in itself was pretty draconian and oppressive. The draconian and the oppressive nature of the rule during this period was when the structures were built. Hence, people started relating the architecture of the period to the nature of the period.
These structures have mysterious rooms like attics, basements and dungeons in one house- all of which have been a source of anxiety and nightmares in everyone’s childhood. One of the many reasons why Victorian homes housed horrific stories could be their asymmetrical architecture which give a very uneasy feeling to look at. It could also be that Victorian architecture has a gothic element to it and goth is mostly considered as something dark, grotesque and mysterious. Since the architectural style is extravagant, it is possible that people feel small, inferior and vulnerable when they look at something so tall and narrow. Victorian houses are dark and gloomy from inside because of the overstuffed furniture and heavy drapes to keep out the sunlight. It portrays a dark, ancient image and gives a mysterious vibe.
So, the next time you’re walking alone and it’s a full moon night. All of a sudden you see a mansion, tall and narrow, with many dark windows. You don’t need to be scared because logically if there were ghosts, they could be anywhere. Even in your modern/contemporary home (Maybe behind you right now)
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