Crown or not?

[LadyArowana]

Here's a lovely house but the contemporary presentation of it actually makes me want to cry. It's so devoid of charm! What it needs are period contrivances, antiques, battered and well-loved hand me downs, moth-eaten swags and tails.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40633010.html

My hunch is that this is a place that has been staged for sale, rather than a home someone is living in. Interestingly it was initially offered for sale at 2,250,000 in May 2012, and reduced to 2,100,000 in August 2012. It also shows up as the registered office of sundry companies. Nosey? Me? :lol:

 

[plasticpigeon]

I don't think there is a definition of "honest" repair but if it is making repairs look like repairs then I disagree with that philosophy. Reinstating rolled or crown glass in a property that originally had rolled or crown glass isn't creating an anachronism unless your argument is that any use of wobbly glass in the present day is an anachronism. The attitude towards repairing properties seems totally at odds to the attitude towards restoring anything else, be it a car, a musical instrument, antique furniture, jewellery for example where the aim is to repair as skillfully as possible, not to make the item look new, but to make it look as if it has been well looked after and has never been repaired. The better the repair, the less you will see it.

 

[Nigel Watts]

William Morris's SPAB manifesto is worth reading. Here is an extract:

"It is for all these buildings, therefore, of all times and styles, that we plead, and call upon those who have to deal with them, to put Protection in the place of Restoration, to stave off decay by daily care, to prop a perilous wall or mend a leaky roof by such means as are obviously meant for support or covering, and show no pretence of other art, and otherwise to resist all tampering with either the fabric or ornament of the building as it stands; if it has become inconvenient for its present use, to raise another building rather than alter or enlarge the old one; in fine to treat our ancient buildings as monuments of a bygone art, created by bygone manners, that modern art cannot meddle with without destroying."

 

[JoceAndChris]

I agree entirely with plastic pigeon's view, but SPAB and the great William Morris are against us (though I think the Victorian church restoration, which prompted his ire, where the later centuries were stripped back to make the building conform to a 19th C mediaeval ideal, is a very different example to putting a 21st C "glass link" up against a Tudor cottage, or getting a glass and chrome door put in where a great studded oak one stood - even WM surely would protest at that)

When the great palaces of St Petersburg were destroyed by war the people made replicas, and they're lovely, not authentic, but you can wander round and "think this is what Catherine the Great saw, this is how it was". Our homes are no less beloved, or important, to us, so why wouldn't we make efforts to replicate what was there? I know Prince Charles agrees with me.

Joce: First off, please do start a blog or some sort of public/editorial/writing outlet. I love the way you write, and the way you express/describe.

That is immensely flattering but I think enough poor souls are forced to listen to my written thoughts, what with one thing and another. And as for thick paint, if you ever are in beautiful Stamford nip in to the Toby Norris pub on the High St where the thick, glopped layers of paint have been preserved at the command of the CO, and imagine them stripped, and all that history lost.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Here's a lovely house but the contemporary presentation of it actually makes me want to cry. It's so devoid of charm! What it needs are period contrivances, antiques, battered and well-loved hand me downs, moth-eaten swags and tails.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40633010.html

This is exactly the kind of decor beloved of many London bankers, property developers and the International Rich. Countless elegent and very expensive Georgian and Victorian houses in London have been done up like this. Fortunately in this case it looks mostly reversible. Original cornices seems to be in place, no holes have been hacked out of the walls to accommodate wide screen TVs etc. There are plenty of Nash terraces which have not been so lucky.

 

[Penners]

I know Prince Charles agrees with me.

Of course he does, Joce. He wouldn't dare not to!

:wink:

 

[Feltwell]

Flyfisher is a wonderfully practical and skilled person, if I had even the 1/10 of his ability to repair things this house would be in a lot better state. But I think aesthetics and the whole topic of what looks right scare him, or at least, are uncomfortable topics - I hope he will take that remark in the affectionate spirit in which it's meant.

FF, I've diagnosed the problem. It's a direct consequence of you having a Y chromosome. There is no cure, but saying "Yes" or at least an agreeable "hmm" when matters of home aesthetics are raised tends to get you out of trouble in my own experience. That, or a deep abiding love of magnolia.

And never question the need for cushions.

 

[Penners]

a deep abiding love of magnolia.

Ah, now you're talking sense, Feltwell. There's not a home in the land that can't be improved with a few 5-litre cans of magnolia.

never question the need for cushions

Now here I have to declare myself - a chap never appreciates cushions properly until he's been struck down with a bad back. Then, all of a sudden, the profound relief to be gained from shoving a cushion down between the chair back and yours becomes suddenly irresistible.

Mind you, I'm not sure how the PPUK distaff side views actually using cushions, as opposed to simply looking at them. :?

 

[atlasfever]

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40633010.html

This is exactly the kind of decor beloved of many London bankers, property developers and the International Rich. Countless elegent and very expensive Georgian and Victorian houses in London have been done up like this. Fortunately in this case it looks mostly reversible. Original cornices seems to be in place, no holes have been hacked out of the walls to accommodate wide screen TVs etc. There are plenty of Nash terraces which have not been so lucky.

I don't know you Nigel Watts, but based on your many messages and very helpful feedback, I take my hat off to you any day...any.. day. Just one thing -- I have met many people with either poor or unsympathetic taste and many have been non-bankers, non-property developers, or regular brits I'm 1/6th of your earlier categories "international" though not rich Maybe one finds nice, preserved, versions of historic homes all over the country; However, when I have come into contact with them in central London (perhaps b/c of frequency of turnover) they are usually in terrible condition (at least in my price point) The previous owners of my property were non-banking, non-developing, local english and they may have left some features, but did nothing to improve it. My street seems plagued with owners who think "it's old, just leave it.' A little bit of tender loving care didn't hurt anyone. (basically, london bankers, developers and intl rich have feelings too

Joce: Hmmm.... ok, I'll reserve total judgement until I see that location

 

[Nigel Watts]

Many British, it would seem, are unusual in relation to those in other countries in preferring shabbiness and grunge over smartness and modernity. This can often be mistaken for slovenliness or neglect (although in fairness even we Brits can sometimes find it hard to distinguish cultivated shabbiness from genuine squalor).

Personally I like the patina of age in old building, its decoration and furnishings. However it's only possible for a house to look as if it has aged gracefully if it genuinely has (there are few of these) or if signs of recent modernisations and makeovers are not to much to the fore.

My house is in Islington, which for much of the 20th century was a slum. This can be an advantage. No one before us had been prepared to spend large sums of money stripping everything down and redoing it (unlike houses in parts of London which remained more fashionable). Lots of bits were missing or broken, but there was enough to go on. For the architecturally more interesting parts (the stucco facade, the hall and the ground and first floor rooms) my aim has been to coax them back into something closer to their original character: stripping the modern paint of the facade and replacing it with limewash; patching walls with lime plaster rather than wholesale replacement; cleaning and mending existing, broken cornices; overpainting white gloss woodwork with wood effects, only sanding floorboards very gently so as not to lose their character - that kind of thing.

With the basement and second floor (originally the domain of servants and children) few original features remained, so I have not felt so constrained. Here I have spotlights in the ceiling, underfloor heating, modern hardwood floors and white painted woodwork. When I built on a small back and side extension I used steel, glass and lead covered panels in an unmistakably late 20th/early 21st C style. Some would find this rather schizophrenic, but I don't think one should be afraid of mixing the old and the new, so long as the best of the old is repected.

 

[Penners]

Many British, it would seem, are unusual in relation to those in other countries in preferring shabbiness and grunge over smartness and modernity. This can often be mistaken for slovenliness or neglect (although in fairness even we Brits can sometimes find it hard to distinguish cultivated shabbiness from genuine squalor).

My American brother-in-law, an architect, Dean of Architecture at San Diego School of Architecture and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, says that he has the utmost respect and admiration for the British love for and conservation of our old buildings. He also loves the fact that, when you get to the edge of a British city/town, the buildings just stop. There are none (or very few) of the ghastly American "strips" - ribbon commercial developments and lines of billboards that just go on and on.

He says we are absolutely right to treasure these precious features of our country.

 

[LadyArowana]

Here's a lovely house but the contemporary presentation of it actually makes me want to cry. It's so devoid of charm! What it needs are period contrivances, antiques, battered and well-loved hand me downs, moth-eaten swags and tails.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-40633010.html

This is exactly the kind of decor beloved of many London bankers, property developers and the International Rich. Countless elegent and very expensive Georgian and Victorian houses in London have been done up like this.

I think it's the sort of decor that is loved by the decorators and architects they employ. Something becomes "the look" and then it just gets copied and is the paradigm for a while until the fashion changes. A house opposite us was worked on endlessly for about 4 years to achieve just this sort of result. There was a constant stream of trades and upmarket suppliers. I can't say I really liked it, but everything was done with LBC, the place was probably in better shape afterwards and it's not my house.