Just curious - why no old paint?

[Anonymous]

This might be a silly question but I have been stripping wallpaper off my 1890 terrace house and in most places i have found nothing underneath. Just bare plaster or wall paper that is clearlly not very old. Why is there no old paint or old paper? I think the plaster is original. Does this mean that someone has already stripped it and if so how did they manage to remove it so completely?, or would the walls have been left bare? Everything ive read about victorian decor seems to be about grand country houses not standard city terraces. Im a complete novice at this so sorry if the answer is obvious.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Wallpaper was very much the thing when your house was built. The walls were probably papered from day one, and the original paper stripped at some later stage.
Does the paint around skirtings / architraves reveal any layers of interest? In my house it is possible to see where the original paint lapped onto the surrounding plaster before it was papered.

 

[Anonymous]

Stefan Methesius The English Terraced House Yale University Press is the main academic study - still available, try Abe Books or Amazon.

The Victorian, the Victorian Society's journal, (see link to VicSoc at top of main forum page) has its latest edition dedicated to the Victorian terrace, great and small, in support of SAVE's Pathfinder campaign against the proposed demolition in the north (and midlands in fact) of swathes of splendid terraced housing so Barret boxes can be built.

http://www.fightforourhomes.com

The Pathfinder report has a section on the history of the terraced house.

A google

the terraced house

brings up several sites of interest.


http://www.savebritainsheritage.org

 

[Anonymous]

This is a good site for starters...


The Terraced House

 

[Anonymous]

More reading matter - and useful links:



Further reading

 

[Anonymous]

Some of my rooms were stripped naked before repapering - the passage and landing clearly weren't as the original paper is underneath the 60's stuff.
The same with the woodwork - most of the internal doors were stripped before being painted in the 50's/60's-fortunately stripped doors weren't fashionable in this sort of house so I can repaint over the scorch marks left by the blowlamp.
Decoratively interesting (well, it is to a nerd like me) the door in the main room (drawing room I suppose) didn't have the paint stripped and it appears that they used 4 different colours of cream on the usual 4 panel type of door.
Date is 1891.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses. Ive found one layer of oldish wall paper underneath. Its handprinted but not victorian, but below that is naked wall. The coving has only a single coat of white (underneath the thick layer of gold metallic paint left by the last occupants), but i havnt got to the skirting boards yet so maybe they will reveal something interesting.

 

[Anonymous]

You might find this useful-
Evolution and Innovation in 800 Years of Urban Domestic Architecture

Marcus Binney
Mitchell Beazley Hardcover - August 13, 1998

 

[Anonymous]

If it's still available it will possibly be on Marcus's website. Buy direct!

 

[Anonymous]

It is available and on Marcus's website which is worth reading anyhow.



http://www.marcusbinney.com