I thought other forum members might be interested in my latest discovery. This fireplace was hidden by a nasty gas fire for the 35 years that we have lived in the house.
I had the gas fire disconnected and finally got round to removing it and cutting and edging the carpet around the hearth. Eventually, the carpet will be removed completely but this will have to wait until the room is redecorated.
The tiles were a disgusting brown when first uncovered. Most of the filthy brown appears to have been tar staining and with the marvels of some Flash they cleaned up amazingly well.
The house is 1902/1904 and although my first impression was that this must be a later fireplace (1920s) there is another matching one in the same room and yet another one (in a different colour) in another downstairs room. So I have 3 of these and they are all the same design. Perhaps they replaced earlier fireplaces wholesale or perhaps they are earlier than I realise? The "moustache" surround appears to be original Edwardian.
Anyway, although not exactly my taste, they are staying. It would be a terrible thing to rip them out to replace with cast-iron inserts when they have survived this long.
The fireback says "The Surrey Fire" which is appropriate seeing as the house is in Surrey. The Buddha is known by the family as "Joe". My grandfather brought him back from Burma when he was serving in the RN onboard HMS Phoebe (a Dido Class Light Cruiser).
I had the gas fire disconnected and finally got round to removing it and cutting and edging the carpet around the hearth. Eventually, the carpet will be removed completely but this will have to wait until the room is redecorated.
The tiles were a disgusting brown when first uncovered. Most of the filthy brown appears to have been tar staining and with the marvels of some Flash they cleaned up amazingly well.
The house is 1902/1904 and although my first impression was that this must be a later fireplace (1920s) there is another matching one in the same room and yet another one (in a different colour) in another downstairs room. So I have 3 of these and they are all the same design. Perhaps they replaced earlier fireplaces wholesale or perhaps they are earlier than I realise? The "moustache" surround appears to be original Edwardian.
Anyway, although not exactly my taste, they are staying. It would be a terrible thing to rip them out to replace with cast-iron inserts when they have survived this long.
The fireback says "The Surrey Fire" which is appropriate seeing as the house is in Surrey. The Buddha is known by the family as "Joe". My grandfather brought him back from Burma when he was serving in the RN onboard HMS Phoebe (a Dido Class Light Cruiser).
I had been planning my interiors assuming we wouldn't find anything, but a part of me was willing to compromise if we unearthed some Edwardian loveliness. I know some of the apartments still have original rather art nouveau looking pieces, but not a shred remained in ours. In fact nothing historic was there at all, closest we got was an old bit of newspaper under the carpet. Easier to decorate as its just a blank canvas. Next trip to London I am hoping to finally get some "mid century modern" chairs sorted and a couple of weeks ago we bought a painting that will be destined to live on one of the walls. I convinced His Lordship that one big canvas would make the place look larger, I convinced him of that when we were in the artists studio in an old warehouse building, not difficult to make a former industrial space look rather roomy. On the other hand when you get the thing home you realise it grew significantly :shock:
