History of Conservatories

The word conservatory comes from the latin roots 'conserva(re)', meaning to conserve or preserve, and '-tory', meaning the place for a particular activity. These words are combined to make conservatory, a conserving place. Before the 18th century this was used for any room or building used for storing items that needed to be preserved.

18th Century - The Orangery

During the 18th century, a fad developed amongst the owners of grand houses and merchants trading with the West Indies and the far east for growing tropical plants brought back by trading ships, especially orange trees. These plants would not survive in the open in Britain, so buildings of timber or stone with large areas of glass were built to protect and nurture the plants. These buildings were known as conservatories or orangeries, they also become places where members of the family would take tea and entertain guests.

Victorian Era & The Crystal Palace

The improvement in glass production techniques in the early 19th century combined with improvements and growth in cast iron production to allow the building of structures of cast iron and glass. The most famous of these buildings was The Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Follwing the exhibition the conservatory as we know came into fashion with the middle classes, with many being built as attachments to middle class houses. Victorian conservatories were typified by their straight sides and an end bay of 3 or 5 panels (This style has come back into fashion in recent times) and an ornate roof ridge.

Edwardian Conservatories - The End Of An Era

The fad for conservatories continued into the Edwardian era with the only significant change in style being the change from an end bay to a flat end, meaning that most Edwardian conservatories being oblong in shape.

The first world war stopped the building of further conservatories and following the war the fashion for conservatories was forgotten and most fell into disrepair and were torn down. Genuine Victorian or Edwardian conservatories are very rare nowadays, although both are popular styles for modern UPVC conservatories.

UPVC - The Conservatory Renaissance

The development of UPVC allowed a new era in conservatory building to emerge, with the UPVC window frame being relatively cheap, combined with this the rapid rise in house prices during the booms of the 1980's and 2000's meant that conservatories became a cheap way to increase the size of properties leading to the conservatory once again being a fashionable addition to a house.