Conservatories - Victorian, Edwardian, Lean-To, Georgian Conservatory Styles

What will look correct on my home?

Conservatory Styles

What is a Victorian Style or an Edwardian Style?

So often it seems as though conservatory suppliers are trying to confuse us.

Some conservatory companies call a Victorian design an Edwardian or a Georgian. Others will use names like Home Extender for a lean-to. The reasons for this vary - often it is marketing (which would you prefer - a Home Extender or a lean-to), and sometimes it even depends on where in the country you live. The truth is, the conservatory industry itself does not have a consistent approach.

To be clear it's usually better when describing your requirements to actually detail the conservatory design. For instance you "are looking for a bell ended/bay fronted Victorian with a pitched roof".

To make life even more interesting you can even get Victorian style conservatories with different numbers of bay sections or splays. The most common are three section bay fronts and five section bay fronts.

Then, to even further confuse things, suppliers will sometimes refer to three bay fronted Victorians as five sided conservatories (the LH and RH sides being the extra two sides) whilst five bay fronted Victorians are also referred to as seven sided conservatories.

CONFUSED? - this confuses even the people who work within the conservatory industry everyday! THE "SECRET" IS TO BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE! - Do not be afraid to ask - especially if the salesperson or designer's comments/descriptions don't make sense.

REMEMBER YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER - if they are not willing to explain the "fundamentals" then surely they can't be deserving of your custom. 

The drawings on this page show some of the most common designs and their most common names. We do however point out that some companies will refer to these by different names.