Railings - salvage or new?

[MattW]

At the back of the house there is a lightwell down to the basement & rear cellar. During the building work, due to a misunderstanding (!), the damaged railings that were in situ that had been removed for access were taken away with the other builders rubbish. Yes, I know... please don't start. As you can see below those railings were a bit of mismash themselves, as the circular ones on the right would have post dated the 1830-3 build date of the house by a few decades, and not sure what the date is of the ones on the left.:



The back has now been changed to move the door in the extension on the left that was the cause of the kick in the railings. So I am looking for 2.6m of Railings in a straight run. I've attempted to find appropriate salvage railings but so far have no luck either on SalvoWeb or talking to Jason of Architectural Forum / V &V Reclamation. So wondered what the advice would be:

A) What do you think would have been here originally?
B) Should I continue to find some salvage ones? if so, any ideas of anyone that specialises in Regency railings
C) Should I get new ones made? If so, in what style?

 

[Tom]

It's possible there was nothing there originally. Personally, I don't like either of the ones that were there so, from my point of view, no great loss. Are there any other railings in the vicinity that would give you an idea of what might have been there?

 

[MattW]

Are there any other railings in the vicinity that would give you an idea of what might have been there?

Not as far as I have been able to see. The rear cellar of the other houses on the terrace that I can either see / been in have been demolished or heavily altered so there are no original railings to look at.

The railings on the 1st floor at the rear look like:

These are the same style as the ones on the front of the house, and much of the rest of the square and so are almost certainly original.

It's possible there was nothing there originally.

Interesting thought, hadn't really considered that. Could have been a simply wooden bar I guess.

 

[Tom]

The railings on the 1st floor at the rear look like:

These are the same style as the ones on the front of the house, and much of the rest of the square and so are almost certainly original.

In that case, and if you intend to keep these railings, I'd be inclined to have some new ones made to match these. Even if the remaining ones aren't original 'to when the house was built', they are original to the house....if you see what I mean.

 

[middi]

I would be tempted to look for period reclaimed railings that are of the correct height and a bit longer, then get them adapted to fit within your gap.
It is highly unlikely that you will find an "exact" fit

 

[Jon Maine]

If you have a friendly welder/blacksmith look here http://www.fhbrundle.com/catalogues.htm you will find all that you need to construct your railings in almost any style you wish component by component. One word of warning they say that they only deal with businesses so if you do want to deal with them either buy them through a friends business or pretend to have your own if you dont have one.

Alternatively look on ebay http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=iron+railings&_sacat=0&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313&_dmpt=UK_Antiques_Architecural_RL&_odkw=antiques+railings&_osacat=0

We had top and bottom rails laser cut with holes and recycled the uprights from some reclaimed victorian wrought iron railings forging new points on them by a traditional travelling blacksmith.View attachment 2View attachment 1

This is the website of the blacksmith is http://snailstoves.moonfruit.com/

 

[Nigel Watts]

Matt

Tony Smith did mine and I would have no hesitation in recommending him. He has done quite a bit of work in Islington and you can therefore look at examples. He has lots of original samples from which he can make copies. I will PM you my address if you wish to stroll past and have a look. If you are in my area you could also walk up Fieldway Crescent from Holloway Road. Just as you reach Highbury Fields look at the house on the corner on the right. He did these. The gate is particularly good.

Tony is a bit elusive and doesnt seem to have a website, but I think this is him (from Yell)

A Thomson-Smith Architectural Metal Workers

Tel: 07956 261669 Unit 17, Westgate Centre, Bocking St, London, E8 3RU

 

[MattW]

Thanks Nigel & Jon for those ideas. Sounds that the general opinion is to go down the new route, which matches my view /patience of finding something the right size & period.

For some reason I'm quite drawn to having a two linked panels of trellis like the one below side by side as I think street railings would look odd:



But if money was no object, then these would be fantastic Santa if you are listening!

I know they would be way too grand for the rear of the house, but still think they look lovely. <ends railing envy>

 

[Nigel Watts]

This is a pre-war photo of the railings of Albion Lodge, in my street. The spears are the same as in your pic, but the finials on the posts are different. I used this particular photo to design the gate for my house.

Note that the bottom of each railing should be separately embedded in the stone capping, where it is fixed with molten lead, and not welded to a bottom rail and more modern railings tend to be. In this photo a mortar fillet has subsequently been built up over the capping stone.

See also this link for an old article I wrote on my railings:

http://www.fitzwalter.com/house/railings.htm

Because all the houses in our street had front gardens railings weren't needed for safety reasons This is probably why all were uprooted in the second world war.

I wanted this spear design for my house but Tony persuaded me to have a different one, which I think is equally good. Tony should be able to do you a nice Regency panel. He is not as expensive as you might think.

 

[Penners]

It's possible there was nothing there originally.

Jaqy - I can't help feeling that, if you're correct, there would be piles of skeletons down in the area.

 

[Tom]

Nah, people had more than that to deal with in days gone by and they didn't all cop for it. H&S wouldn't have come into it; more like, "Use the steps properly and don't fall over the edge!"

 

[Jon Maine]

Yes the process of natural selection..........

 

[essexbearhunter]

Our original railings which would have topped a low wall, were long gone and no local examples remain. The slope of the road and the raised modern railings of the adjacent house made it an interesting conundrum.

I found the 19th century spears (originally from West London) down in Kent and the pillars (modified gateposts - not quite the same height) in Lancashire (both on Ebay). The base is reconstituted stone (so that I could drill it) and I got the rail made up to my design by a local metalworker.

The original square mounting plates of the posts had to be taken off with an angle grinder. They are now retained in position by the railings and lengths of scaffolding pole (cemented firmly into the ground) which rise up inside the posts' hollow core.

The rail height matches that of railings next door and the far post shares the same ground level as theirs, restoring some slight degree of visual unity to our section of the terrace.

 

[MattW]

Thanks for those suggestions. I think I will end up having something made - not the highest priority at the moment, as want to get hte builders out by end of February, but will post a pic in due course of what I get done.