19th Century Architecture
CarryOnKay's description of the Victorian house she grew up in (see "Creepy Kitty" a few posts back) reminded me of something. I find that a lot of houses built in the 1800s and very early 1900s, especially somewhat posher ones built for bourgeois families, have something of a creepy elegance about them. Here in Luxembourg they have ornate facades and often mansard roofs; in the UK and Ireland they are Victorian with sash windows and sometimes "twin" or "double" roofs. But they almost all have that beautiful-yet-somehow-sinister atmosphere about them. Does anyone else feel that way or is it just me?
(lanternchikk hat eine schwere Bohlenallergie, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 12:00, 8 replies)

I think I know what you mean.
Some old properties almost look like they have faces.
Forboding, sinister :-\
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Wed 13 Apr 2011, 12:09, closed)

Indeed.
If I had a penny for every time I've been arrested for wanking over a victorian house, because the facade reminds me of Anne Robinson, I'd have a penny.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 12:15, closed)

I would have
five and a half pence.
( The Mock Turtle ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 12:31, closed)

I completely agree having lived in one. It was beautiful house but you did get the impression it had a character of its own, or that you were really aware that it had previously been lived in. I think really old houses give that off- a complete awareness of living history or something... My mum reckoned ours had a ghost of a little girl in it, who lived in my room. I never felt anything sinister but my old mum used to be freaked out by my wardrobe (which was built in and under the eaves of the house).

P.S I'm a girl not a boy :)
(CarryOnKay, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 13:31, closed)

Sorry about my mistake. Just fixed it. :)
(lanternchikk hat eine schwere Bohlenallergie, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 13:50, closed)

Agreed
I used to commute between Gillingham in Kent and Cannon Street and just before Chislehurst station the trains go up a little slip line that connects the Victoria main line with the London Bridge / Charing Cross / Cannon Street line. Next to this slip line there are two big old rambly Victorian mansions. One looks like a jolly family home. The other just looks sinister. I could never see it without feeling that once upon a time something really, really bad happened there.
(Vainomoinen went looking for the Sampo on, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 13:48, closed)

Do you mean this one
or somewhere else?
( SteamedCleaner, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 15:13, closed)

Yup
The one on the right. Spooky, isn't it?
(Vainomoinen went looking for the Sampo on, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 17:09, closed)

It is indeed spooky.
There's a large, end-of-terrace, mansard-roofed old house about 3 kilometers down the road from where I live, that gives off a very similar vibe.
(lanternchikk hat eine schwere Bohlenallergie, Wed 13 Apr 2011, 19:11, closed)