MOC: British Victorian Terraced House

[TheBear]

Hi everyone,

I've been working on this simple little building for months but I have finally finished it. Rows of these Victorian terraced houses can be found in towns and cities all over Britain and date from a big housing boom around the 1870's. The thing that I find beautiful about them is the patina of the bricks that has slowly aged over all these years. Of course this isn't possible to reproduce in Lego but I wanted to at least try to hint at it. I found it very difficult to get a brick pattern that worked but in the end I'm happy with it.

The thing that I am least happy with is the windows, I would have much preferred to use the newer style window frames but of course there are no 1-wide and 3-wide frames available.

I have only built the front half of the building with no interior as this is intended as a background building as part of a street. Anyway, the inside looks like this so it would be hard to do anything with it.

Thanks for looking.

IMG_8380 by thebearlego, on Flickr

IMG_8390 by thebearlego, on Flickr

[lightningtiger]

AWESOME designing there 'TheBear'......you have given me an idea to roof part of my pub.

I love the brick work and windows......very Victorian era indeed......Brick On 'TheBear' !

[grum64]

Lovely little house. Brillianly designed and built. Well done

[CityBuilder]

That's really cool! It does look like those ones that seemingly line the streets endlessly.

[Kayaderosseras]

Very nice. I really like the uneven sidewalk stones, sort of like the ones around here down near the center of town.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Kayaderosseras

[Criga88]

Wow, that looks great, and for a 'simple' building you packed in a lot of fine details. I think the windows are perfect but I can see how sourcing the older types to make them could be a bit of an issue if you're going to make a street full of these. Looking forward to seeing more of these pop up.

[Steph 104th]

Lovely little building, looks just as its name states. Great job.

[jimmynick]

It looks great and has a good feel. The old-style windows are something of a blast from the past. How did you get the little offset plates or tiles just below the roof?

[legodad-423]

Awesome work !

[bjorn77]

Wow, that facade must've taken some time to build.

[TheBear]

Thanks for the comments everyone, I really appreciate it.

How did you get the little offset plates or tiles just below the roof?

This is how they are done:

Top level: 4x1 plate offset to the wall by half a stud by connecting to the jumpers. The guttering is attached directly to these

Middle level: 4x1 tile connected to the top level via the headlights to give them that small offset

Bottom level: 2x1 tile connected directly to the wall and pushed out slightly

When I started this the 4x1 tiles were very rare in dark orange. I thought I would have to pay £1 each for them, but luckily Lego just started making them again and they were in a recent Friends set so the price came down.

Similarly when I started this there were no jumpers in dark orange. Half way through the build they became available and I was able to simplify this part a bit :)

[TWO2SEVEN]

That is a really cool technique. It looks very time consuming, but it adds a lot to the build.

[jimmynick]

Thanks for showing us how you made that detail.

[SSJ2 Dark]

I've always thought the fewer seams between bricks you have, the better. But those seams really give your creation excellent detail and depth!

[eurotrash]

I really like the approach you've used for the front wall and the detailing at the top (ingenious), but I think my favorite part is the use of the discolored older 2x2 tiles on the roof - that looks perfect!

Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Man with a hat]

Wow, impressive brick work. Thanks showing us how as well.

And I think you couldn't have done better with those old windows.

[Lasse]

Very nice MOC with many great details. The only thing the MOC is missing is a minifig to walk on the street

[BricksMcgee]

Love this, particularly the uneven paving stones - very realistic :)

The mismatched roof tiles work really well too.

[andyscouse]

Excellent! Simple, but elegant; particularly the offset overhang bits.

[Spud The Viking]

Where's the chimney-sweep?

This is a beautiful representation of urban housing back then - love it!

[ER0L]

Great work, the building is anything but simple, the result is worth the effort that went into this. I especially love the brickwork, the old windows and the roof design. That offset technique is brillant.

Furthermore I'm interested in the way you designed the founding and sidewalk since this is something I'm struggling with, too. Obviously both elements are separated (or can be separated easily) plus there is no regular baseplate which is exactly my idea on that subject. Could you please provide some more details regarding this aspect?

[TheBear]

Thanks again everyone for the comments, it really means a lot to get such lovely feedback.

Great work, the building is anything but simple, the result is worth the effort that went into this. I especially love the brickwork, the old windows and the roof design. That offset technique is brillant.

Furthermore I'm interested in the way you designed the founding and sidewalk since this is something I'm struggling with, too. Obviously both elements are separated (or can be separated easily) plus there is no regular baseplate which is exactly my idea on that subject. Could you please provide some more details regarding this aspect?

Thanks a lot ER0L, your slot cars are really impressive. I would love to do something like that if I ever get enough space.

The pavement is built separately and connected with technic pins. I don't have any kind of standard, I just thought this would be more flexible. I also wanted to sink the drain into the pavement so having it raised allowed for that. Where I live the ground is not at all flat so I would like to experiment with elevation changes in the future and having the pavement separate will make that easier.

[Kristel]

This is awesome! The brick work, roof and chimney are just superb!

[TheBear]

Thanks Kristel, it is an honour to be featured on your blog!

[ER0L]

Thanks a lot ER0L, your slot cars are really impressive. I would love to do something like that if I ever get enough space.

The pavement is built separately and connected with technic pins. I don't have any kind of standard, I just thought this would be more flexible. I also wanted to sink the drain into the pavement so having it raised allowed for that. Where I live the ground is not at all flat so I would like to experiment with elevation changes in the future and having the pavement separate will make that easier.

Thanks for the information. Btw. the idea of separating buildings, pavements, and roads plus omitting baseplates and roadplates came up some time before the LCS - the fact that SNOT roads allow openings in the road surface lead to the slot car idea.

Yeah, I agree that it's more flexible, you can even have buildings with an odd width. Sinking the drain into the pavement is a great idea, I haven't thought of that so far. Elevation changes sound interesting, too. We can get much livelier surfaces with such building styles, I guess.

Looking forward to the further development of this. And congrats on the blogpost, of course.