Architectural Styles
Adam
Alt names / subperiods
Timeline
Distinguishing Features
Geographic Presence
1760-1795
- Classical Roman decorative motifs,
- framed medallions
- vases, urns & tripods
- arabesque vine scrolls
- sphinxes
- griffins, an
- dancing nymphs
- Flat grotesque panels
- Pilasters
- Painted ornaments
- garlands
- swags & ribbons
- Complex pastel colour schemes
- symmetry
- Curvilinear Forms
- UK
- British Colonies
- North America
- Australia
- Caribbean
Common Building Types
Landmark buildings
Historic Accommodation Types
Accommodation Examples
- Domestic architecture
- interiors
- country houses
- villas
- civic buildings
- theatres
- townhouses
- remodelled interiors
- Syon House London
- Kenwood House London
- Adelphi, London
- Register House, Edinburgh
- Interior of the Mound, Edinburgh
- Dunmore Park, Scotland
- Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
- Osterley Park House, London
- Home House London
- Derby House in Grosvenor Square,
- Coaching Inns
- Townhouse hotels (Georgian / Adamesque townhouses)
- Country house / estate hotels
- Historic “residence” guesthouses (single-house B&B format)
- Heritage serviced apartments in Georgian buildings
- Institutional/civic buildings reused as hotels
- Often in Georgian architecture
- Osterley Park House (Greater London)
- Sloane Street / Knightsbridge Georgian Townhouses
- #16 The Royal Crescent Hotels (Bath)
- No. 1 Royal Crescent
- George Street / New Town Georgian Townhouses (Edinburgh)- The Rutland Hotel, The Dunstane Houses
- Kedleston Hall (Derbyshire)
- Holkham Hall (Norfolk); Georgian Townhouse Hotels in Dublix – The Merrion Hotel; The Dean Dublin
Adaptive Reuse
- The Eisenhower Apartment, Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland
- Home House, 20 Portman Square, London
- Paxton House, Scottish Borders
Gallery
Adapted Visitor Accommodation
in Adam Style Building
The Eisenhower Apartment, Culzean Castle,
Ayrshire, Scotland
Between 1777 and 1792 Adam converted an old fortified towercastle for David Kennedy, the 10th Earl of Cassillis.
The Circular Saloon and Oval Staircase are acknowledged as Adam’s final masterpiece.
Kennedy family donated the castle to the National Trust for Scotland in 1945
Home House
20 Portman Square, London,
In 1775, Robert Adam, one of the most celebrated architects of his day,
was appointed to complete the interior of the house
which is acknowledged as Robert Adam’s finest surviving London town house.
Rescued by Berkley Adam Ltd in 1996, Home House was meticulously restored
to its former glory and opened in its current guise as a private members club in 1998.
Paxton House
Paxton, Berwick upoin Tweed
Patrick Home of Billie built the Palladian-style Paxton House from 1758
John and James Adam, brothers of Robert Adam, together with London-based cabinetmakers,
Thomas Chippendale and his son, Thomas Chippendale Junior, were commissioned
to create the Adam interiors we see at Paxton today.
In 1988, John Home Robertson gave the House, most of its contents and 80 acres of grounds to the Nation
and the independent Paxton House Trust was established.
