Victorian Stairs and Rails — Features That Make Them Grand

Victorian-Era foyers tended to be rather narrow and deep. Despite the frequent space challenges, they managed to fit some amazing stairs and rails into that space.

The most prominent feature of a Victorian staircase is a very large starting newel. Victorian newels would have been either turned on a lathe, or, most commonly, built as an octagon. The amount of detail on these newels just never seemed to end. It can be surprising that an octagon newel can take anywhere from 4 hours to 40 hours to build by hand. The base of a Victorian newel can range in size from 6" to 10". Many Victorian staircases feature one large starting newel with a large rail cap bolted to the top of the newel. The stair rails commonly ascend and twist to the upper floors without the occurrence of intermediate newels.

Perhaps the most beautiful feature of the Victorian balustrade was the large hand-carved rail sections. These hand-carved sections were necessary to eliminate intermediate newels and fit the railings into confined spaces. Today, few stair shops can replicate these hand carved rail sections which require many years of specialized training.

Victorian Era railings are often in need of repair as they tend to loosen with age. This is due to failure of the antiquated "hide glue" and the lack of intermediate newels. Most modern stair designs would use more newels within the rail system and much improved wood adhesives. Victorian era railings were also very short — typically from 27-30" high. Today rake rail height required by code is 34" to 38".

Large Newels Typical of Victorian Era