Are you already a fan of oak buildings? Or looking for some ‘oak inspiration’ for your new oak framed structure? Today the Oak Porches UK team have rounded up some beautiful examples of oak architecture for you to enjoy and draw inspiration from.
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Westminster Hall
Snugly located in the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Hall is one of London’s most iconic buildings. It’s also the oldest parliamentary building still standing. It was first built in 1393, on the orders of King Richard the Second.
If you’ve ever wondered if oak buildings can truly be as durable as bricks and mortar, there’s your answer! It’s partly due to the way oak beams dry out over time. While all woods lose moisture content over the years, oak does so in a way that actually hardens the fibres over time, leaving beams that have comparable tensile strengths to steel. Westminster Hall is far from the only ancient oak structure in the UK, of course. Even some quaint parish churches have oak beams nestled in their roofs that date back hundreds of years. You may also remember the recent Notre Dame fire, in which some ancient oak beams remained far less scathed by the fire than their more modern counterparts.
There’s something truly special about Westminster Hall’s beams, however. It’s one of the most glorious uses of the hammerbeam truss you’ll find in British architecture. The roof is well over 70m in length and spans 20m, making it the largest surviving timber roof in Northern Europe, too. Estimates are that it weighs over 660 tonnes, showcasing how much of a load oak can carry. Be sure to look out for the 26 angels holding shields carved from one mighty beam!
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The Globe Theatre
Unlike several of the oak framed structures on our list, this is a modern building. It’s a restoration of the original theatre where Shakespeare would stage his plays. Yet the team responsible for its construction used only legitimate 16th century techniques to create it. It’s unique, as it’s one of few modern buildings you’ll find with no steel frame at all, purely English Oak. This means it’s a perfect example of traditional tenon and mortise joints (the same kind we use in many of our porch designs). You can also get a unique sense of how oak buildings felt to our ancestors when you visit the Globe. Impressive as the more historical buildings on our list are, it’s always nice to get a sense of how these ancient structures looked while new and shining.
Today, the globe can safely seat up to 1,500 people, and breaks another British milestone too. It’s the first thatched roof that was allowed in London since the city burned in the Great Fire of 1666.
3) The Mary Rose
This iconic flagship of Henry 8th’s navy was built in 1509 and remodelled to include extra broadside cannons in 1536. This massive sailing ship may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of oak buildings, but it should! At her prime, she could safely carry 700 people, and weighed well over 700 tonnes. Nor was she felled by cannon fire, but by an unfortunate freak accident in which seawater flooded the gunports on one side, pulling her under the water.
She would sit on the seabed until October 1982, when she was raised in what was one of the most significant nautical finds of the archaeological world. To this day, the careful techniques developed to safely recover her and the many artefacts onboard heavily influences maritime archaeology. She can be seen today in a special museum built in Portsmouth, where you can admire the remarkable longevity of her oak beams and cladding.
4) The French Oak Chapel
This is an example of how literal you can take the term ‘oak framed structure’! Nestled in Allouville-Bellefosse, a small French farming village, it was already well known as the home of the oldest oak tree in France. It was thought to be between 800 and 1000 years old. It was struck by lightning in the 1600s, killing the tree and hollowing the core of the trunk.
This remarkable sight encouraged two local clerks to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary within the trunk itself. Over the years, a staircase and shingles were added to the tree, and over time 2 tiny chapels were created. Despite almost burning during the French Revolution, this remarkable fusion of nature and man’s architectural talent can still be seen and enjoyed today.
5) The Oak House
When you think oak, it’s inevitable the iconic Tudor style will spring to mind. While there’s hundreds of other beautiful ways oak has been used through the centuries, the proliferation of this specific design has come to be tied, in many ways, to English Architecture itself. The Oak House in Greets Green, near West Bromwich, provides a perfect example of traditional Tudor half-beaming, and can be dated to 1634. Gifted to the town as a museum in 1837, it was fully restored to beauty and opened in 1898. Now a listed Grade 2 building, it has original furnishings from the period and represents a splendid example of oak architecture no oak fan should miss.
Did you enjoy these splendid oak buildings? If you’re looking for oak inspiration to enjoy, there’s plenty of oak-framed structures throughout the UK and the world to discover. Many showcase ancient building techniques we have refined and still use today, making them an exciting statement as to how this wood became so iconic as a building material and style choice. If you’re keen, why not carry forward this great building tradition and let the Oak Porches UK team work their magic on your home, too?
