Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Window Views-Bricked Up Windows

MaryT/The Teach has a great meme called Window Views. For some reason I have always been intrigued with taking pictures of windows or through windows so this meme was made just for me! Hop on over to to Window Views and do some more window peeping.

When you travel through Ireland, Scotland or England you often see buildings with bricked up windows. This is because of a Window Tax which was imposed in the 17th and 18th centuries. A tax was charged for each window in a building so instead of paying the tax, people just bricked up their windows. Here are a couple of examples which I took at Guinness.

10 comments:

Miranda said...

Nice shots! Very interesting, I've seen buildings like this before and wondered about the windows filled in.

Queen-Size funny bone said...

at least you don't have to wash them.

Anonymous said...

'Tis a shame they still do this. Give s the building a sort of "abandoned" look. Our court-house has partially blocked windows to allow for smaller, modern ones...

Robin said...

That's why they were bricked up? What a shame.

Gemma Wiseman said...

Interesting twist on the window views meme. The view you COULD have! I had no idea about that tax!

Shellbelle said...

How interesting! Thanks for taking us along on your Ireland tour and sharing such beautiful photos and wonderful stories.

Dianna said...

Wow, that's so interesting. How sad that they were taxed for just having windows. We'd be in trouble in our house!

Gayle said...

You, my lady, are a wealth of knowledge. I bet you and Tink could get in to quite a little trivia contest! I on-the-other-hand would be better left out of that one! I live brick buildings.

kayerj said...

I think that's the most interesting window view I've seen all day :)
Please stop by and see the view from my window

The Farmer Files said...

Never have seen bricked up windows! Very interesting!