Elevation & Plan for Villa House by Richard Elsam - Image Source Lambeth Archives

The above elevation and plan for three small houses designed in the style of a villa were published in Richard Elsam's Essay on Rural Architecture (1803) and were widely circulated during the Victorian period and were in three editions of the New Practical Builder. They were built in Vauxhall Road (now called Kennington Road) and this short terrace was collectively called Villa House (or Villa Building) but was pulled down later in the century.

The name 'villa', which perhaps conjured up visions of large, luxurious country houses in a simple elegant style, pampered to the pretensions of the Victorian middle class who aspired to the grand houses of the wealthy and the nobility. Victorian architects and builders widely used the term villa for detached or semi-detached brick built homes often covered in stucco or painted plaster with a Greco-Italian flavour. Elsam took this idea further by having three small dwellings appear as a single home.