Fantasy Floorplans

Victorian Villa

Cornelius Clifford

Sallerin Philippe (order #4210685) 9

 Victorian Villa
Fantasy Floorplans
Floor plans of a ‘typical’ Victorian villa, based on historic and existing
period houses and designed for fantasy role playing games. Including
two floorplans; room descriptions, construction and occupants.

Page Contents
3 Ground Floor plan
& construction
4 Ground floor room descriptions
5 First Floor plan
& occupants
6 First floor room descriptions

First published in 2013 by DreamWorlds

Text and illustrations copyright © 2013 Cornelius Clifford

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

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Sallerin Philippe (order #4210685) 9

 Victorian Villa ~ Ground Floor Plan
Construction
This ‘villa’ is well constructed in the gothic revival
style, although really this is just a dressing. There are
ornamental references to ‘gothic’ style; pointed
arches and details here and there. But the majority of
the windows, doors and so forth are made in
straightforward, standard Victorian style. The
windows are large sash windows with four panes of
glass, the doors panelled (with four rectangular
panels) and the whole is built of brick. The roof is
tiled with red clay tiles too. Bricks and tiles such as
these were mass produced in huge quantities in the
Victorian period, and, crucially, transported all over
the country by steam train. This resulted in villas
such as this example looking almost identical,
wherever they were in the landscape.
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Sallerin Philippe (order #4210685)
The paintwork is usually painted white, or off white,
strong colours being thought of as in poor taste on
the outside of buildings. Even the muted pastel
colours of the Georgians were frowned upon whilst
Victoria was on the throne of England.
Surrounding the house is a good sized garden,
maintained by a gardener, who comes a couple of
days a week. There would be lawns, for picnicking
and playing ball games on, flowers, shrubs and fruit
trees. A few modest outbuildings, little more than
brick or wooden sheds, are dotted about; a potting
shed, an outhouse (water closet) and a wash house
for the laundry.
It is unlikely a household like this would possess a
horse, ‘trap’ or carriage.
copyright Cornelius Clifford © 2012
9
 Ground Floor ~ Room Descriptions
Breakfast Room Parlour
Here the family eat breakfast and other light meals, A less formal relaxing space than the drawing room
probably the servants eat here, and the children of and more of a family space, here the nanny, who is
the house most of the time, only rarely being invited responsible for the younger children and all their
to join the formality of the Dining Room. The needs, brings her little charges to see their parents at
breakfast room has a cosy coal fire and is furnished least once a day.
with a large pine table, lots of dining chairs and a
couple of sideboards. Pantry
A storage room for all sorts of dry food; bread,
Dining Room grains, rice, vegetables and also diary products; milk,
The formal dining room is used mainly for dinner, an cheese, butter and eggs.
evening meal in Victorian times, often starting as late
as 8pm. The master and lady of the house would Porch
dress formally; in their best attire, for meals in this This is a grand ‘classical’ affair with steps up to the
room, even if they are the only diners. But they invite door and a roof supported by two pillars. The front
friends and relations to dinner regularly. The room is door is wide, panelled and painted a respectable dark
smartly decorated, there is an elegant mahogany green.
dining table with eight or ten matching chairs and a
sideboard. Scullery
Here the cook’s general assistant, or scullery maid,
Drawing Room spends most of her time scrubbing and cleaning
This is the formal entertaining room of the house, dishes and vegetables.
here friends are invited to tea in the afternoon, or for
stronger drinks in the evening. Children would rarely Wine Cellar
be permitted into this room. Here the family show The masters collection of fine wines is kept here.
off their most prized possessions amongst the well Maybe there are also narrow steps down to a real
stuffed wing backed armchairs and the like. Stuffed cellar or basement where coal is stored.
owls and decorative china abounds!

Hall
The entrance hall, here there are grand stairs rising to
the first floor, hat stands, umbrella stands, and coat
hooks.

Kitchen
The kitchen is large and commodious, here the cook
holds fort, she is the most important servant in this
house, which is not large enough to have a butler or
housekeeper. There are several large scrubbed pine
tables, dressers, stacked with china and brass
saucepans, cupboards and a large, coal-fired, cast-iron
stove or range.

Larder
Here meat and fish and other food supplies are
stored, including pies, pressed meats and so on.

www . Dream-Worlds . co. uk copyright Cornelius Clifford © 2012

Sallerin Philippe (order #4210685) 9

 Victorian Villa ~ First Floor Plan
Occupants
This house is lived in by a ‘middle class’ family. In
Victorian times a new class of the ‘middling’ sort
arose as a result of the social changes triggered by the
industrial revolution and the spread of the railways.
These people are not upper class, or nobility, for they
do not have titles or estates, neither are they
‘working’ class (factory workers or farm hands) who
get their hands dirty, or even artisans or craftsmen
who make things for a living. The middle classes are
professionals; engineers, architects, bankers,
accountants, clergy and the like. Villas like this one
were built on the edges of every town an city to
accommodate them.
The master of the house sees himself as a ‘gentleman’
and expects to be addressed as ‘Mister’ even though
he is no squire or gentry. He has a good income, and
may even have a property or two rented out. He goes
into the ‘office’ on weekdays, although he does not
have to, since he may well be in charge of his own
destiny. He probably owns shares in up and coming
industries, perhaps the railways, or the local factory.
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Sallerin Philippe (order #4210685)
The ‘Lady’ of the house is not really a ‘Lady,’ this is
actually how the wife of a Duke or other titled
gentleman should be addressed. But she is just as
keen to be seen as a Lady as her husband is to be
seen as a gentleman.
This couple have lots of children, seven or eight at
the last count. The older three or four are away at
boarding school much of the time. The younger
children are cared for by ‘Nanny’ who sleeps in the
Nursery. A tutor comes in three days a week to teach
these children how to read, write and do arithmetic
(the three ‘r’s) in preparation for their education.
As well as ‘Nanny’ there is Cook, a ruddy-faced,
stocky lady who prepares all the food in the house
and can be a bit of a dragon. The scullery maid
(cook’s assistant) who sleeps in the attics with the
‘housemaid;’ who basically does all of the cleaning
and housework.
The house is well decorated and filled with all sorts
of possessions and ornaments, signs of the families
status and position in ‘society.’
copyright Cornelius Clifford © 2012
9
 First Floor ~ Room Descriptions
Attics Nursery
There are cramped attic rooms, accessed by a steep Here the smaller children of the house play and sleep,
ladder stair in the Linen Closet. Here one or two looked after by the nanny. So there are cots, small
female servants might sleep, and some of the children beds and lots of toys in here.
of the family or guests as well, if there is not enough
room in the four main bedrooms. Bedroom, front right
This is the Mistresses bedroom, here she has a large
Bedroom, front left bed, net curtains, an elegant mahogany dressing table,
This large and spacious room, with a fireplace and wardrobes and chests of drawers. Plenty of lace an
large bay window, is mainly used as a guest bedroom, feminine fripperies abound.
it has two single beds, chests of drawers and a
wardrobe. Sometimes the older children of the family Bedroom, back right
sleep here, when they are home from boarding This is sometimes called the ‘Dressing Room’ and
school. has a good quality single bed, a mahogany ‘tall boy’
double chest of drawers and a wardrobe. This is the
Bedroom, back left where the master of the house often sleeps. It is a
Another guest room, this one is cosy and very ‘manly’ room which smells of leather soap.
comfortable, with a coal fire, a single bed, a chest of
drawers and a wardrobe. Bathroom, back right
A large enamelled iron bath and ceramic sink, with
Bathroom, back left polished brass taps, are used in here by the Master
A simple bathroom with a ceramic sink and a large and Lady of the house.
bath. But no flushing toilet! These contraptions were
introduced quite late in the Victorian period, so Upper part of Hall
chamber pots and an outside water closet is the usual There is a balcony with a hand rail running all around
arrangement. the void over the ground floor, giving access to most
of the upstairs rooms and the two branches of the
Study grand staircase.
This is the Master’s study, here he reads books and
does paperwork; paying bills; accounts from local Balcony
tradesmen who supply the house with meat, groceries Over the front porch there is a fair sized balcony,
and so on. Studies are often on the ground floor but from which processions can occasionally be viewed.
in this house there are no available rooms below.

Linen closet
The Victorians loved to have plenty of linen or
cotton sheets, plus table cloths, curtains, drapery of
all sorts, and this is all stored here. Some families
even had summer (heavy) and winter (light) curtains
for all the windows, the ones out of use would also
be stored in this room or large closet.

www . Dream-Worlds . co. uk copyright Cornelius Clifford © 2012

Sallerin Philippe (order #4210685) 9