I have been trying to find out how many Victorian houses were built in Britain and in America and how many still exist. The answer is not easy to find - Google has let me down. From a book I have it looks like about 6 million dwellings were built during Victoria's reign (1837-1901) in Britain. Interestingly in America it seems that a Victorian House is one relating to particular styles during the Victorian era. According to Wiki "The architectural style of a Victorian house is often either Queen Anne, Stick, Italianate, French Second Empire, or Richardsonian Romanesque. Shingle Style houses are also considered Victorian houses."
Anyway - who loves their Victorian House? My observation has been that the Brit's don't and the Americans (also Canadians and Australians) do. This is not a scientific observation but is based on the amount of Web material on the subject and where it relates to. But then maybe I have been unfair to us Brits. We have a huge number of these Victorian Houses left and many are small terraced dwellings and are less likely to evoke strong affections. The larger houses do appear to be more loved. Obviously there are more American's than Brits and although there are probably less Victorian Houses to go round in America, those that appear on the Web tend to be of the "gingerbread" variety and are more unique.
Another observation I would make is that old things in the New World have a higher status than here in the UK. I presume that this is simply because there is less history and hence old stuff is more scarce. I recall once that I was showing an Australian friend of mine the original hand written deeds and records for my house which date back to 1879. To my surprise and slight amusement he was worried about handling these documents himself and suggested that I should perhaps be wearing gloves.
Anyway back to the question. Who cases about their Victorian Houses? I now have now decided on an answer. Most Americans care about theirs and some Brits care about theirs! If you don't agree with this answer you can respond, or ask my wife who will tell you I am always right ;-)
