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YOUNG ALHS
FASHION AND bUILDINGS
Have you noticed that a lot of the houses in Nevill Street have a ‘grander’ look than other houses in town? This is because they look like buildings put up in the Georgian period (1700s and early 1800s) even though most of the buildings are much older underneath and had new frontages added when this was the fashionable thing to do.
The wide front doors are particularly noticeable. One popular story about wide front doors is that they gave more room for the gentlemen’s large stomachs. The other popular story is that the doors were wide to allow room for the wide pannier skirts that were fashionable for wealthy women then. These skirts had a sort of basket frame on each hip which held the skirt fabric out at the sides. The story is obviously nonsense as the women only had to turn sideways to get through narrow doorways easily (while a gentleman with a very large stomach might have even more difficulty if he turned sideways).
What was much more tricky for women was getting into a carriage or a sedan chair. But the panniers were designed to partially collapse and fold upwards (like the covers on a book) while you clambered in and sat. They were designed to drop back to their original shape afterwards.
Images: Wikimedia Commons, ALHS
