What is pastiche?

[worms]

Of course the real pastiche in Gareth's Poundbury picture is the mini parked in the foreground. A modern take on an original design, the scale and massing are brought into the modern era, yet the proportions and fenestration make the original inspiration clear.

 

[AMc]

Except that the Kingfisher in Chertsey is identical (give or take a few pantiles) to a pub I've passed a few times going out of Norwich, and to one I saw near Northampton on the Upton trip...

I think you're referring to The Marsh Harrier?
http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/themarshharriernorwich/gallery/

It appears The Marsh Harrier has some history but having been inside it's clearly very much extended and changed. It does acceptable food, wine and beer and serves food all day which is useful sometimes.

The Marsh Harrier was originally known as The King of Prussia in 1840, when it was a small cafe with tea garden. The building was later run as an inn until war broke out in 1914 when its name was changed to the George IV. After a £1m refurbishment we changed our name to The Marsh Harrier to reflect our rural surroundings and proximity to the River Yare.

Both belong to the same chain
http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/thekingfisherchertsey/gallery/

The Kingfisher was previously known as Chertsey Lock and then later as The Lock Haven, because we are situated on the banks of the river Thames. It is our position next to the 18th Century Chertsey Bridge which gives The Kingfisher some superb views and adds to the relaxed atmosphere.

They look similar but not identical, I guess there's a "house style" to how they turn small pubs into large scale pub/restaurants. I don't find it offensive, if I'd seen the original pubs I might think differently but there are so many rural pubs closing that I can see a argument that this is better than a house conversion.

 

[LadyArowana]

Talking of overdoing things, is this the origin of 'listed building'?

I like the fact that they even went to the trouble of putting the sign on the "roof" upside down, only in Japan as they say.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Talking of overdoing things, is this the origin of 'listed building'?

I like the fact that they even went to the trouble of putting the sign on the "roof" upside down, only in Japan as they say.

I must admit, that detail I had missed!

 

[JohnB]

Upside down houses aren't very original. Everyone is at it .

 

[Flyfisher]

There are even upside down boats . . . .

Coming to a Christmas television schedule near you :wink:

 

[88v8]

Perhaps wonkiness can be carried to extremes, but unless the greatest vigilance is exercised during constrruction, any modern addition no matter how 'sensitive' will immediately condemn itself - in my eyes - by its flatness, squareness, levelness, plumbness... is that a word.... and the ghastly glitter of its float glass.

But how many of our revered old wonky houses were built that way? No self respecting craftsman would have built a house with leaning timbers, sloping floors and a wonky roof. Our stock of historic wonky houses are the result of time - something that can't genuinely be added to new builds.

Depends on the house, I guess. Your mansion, for example, was probably of high quality when built, the close spacing of the studwork indicates its elevated status, so likely it was in the upper percentile for non-wonkiness. But of modern straightness? PAR timber, machine-made boarding, two-coat plaster/render, and my pet hate, float glass? Noooooo. And the other sin of modern materials, they will never change. They will never become wonky. Forever ugly, not a great marketing slogan, but the sad truth.

Our own house presents me with a problem. Many problems, albeit small ones. I posted about my loft hatch some time ago, how long it took me to do something appropriate - what someone dismissed as 'look-at-me-woodwork' - in a ceiling which is bellied, with rafters of irregular size & spacing, not level, not straight, twisted, and which always have been. In my house, this is not a product of age. I know that for a fact. The ceiling was made that way, just 200 years ago. And the rest of the house, made earlier, is the same only more so. And probably always has been, although I grant that time may have enhanced the characteristic.
So whatever I try to do here - presently, a cupboard - risks sticking out like a sore thumb. To someone bought up on houses of the 20s & 30s, this is very difficult; there, it was mainly a matter of matching mouldings, suitable wallpapers, colours. Here, much more difficult; I still want to do work that looks as if it might always have been there, but I don't have enough life left to hew my own wood and adze it. Even if I had the skill. So my basic material, PAR timber, is unsuited before I even start, and I know with a sinking heart that my cupboard will not please me when it is done.
Am I aiming at pastiche? Or appropriate sensitivity. Take your pick.

But if it's difficult for me in person, how infinitely more difficult to get such work out of the average tradesmen.
So much easier to build a la moderne, and then attempt to dignify it by labels such as 'of its time' or 'contemporary twist'. I greatly admire those who take the trouble to produce 'pastiche', provided it's done well. Don't we love Victorian Gothic now? The modernists didn't at the time.

In praise of Pastiche.
Cornish or otherwise.

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

I mainly agree, even of the examples I posted I think the "pastiche" house is more attractive than the "modern" house, although it could be argued that the modern one is particularly bad. Ivor, I think you are right to try and make the additions to your house blend in. I think if the style of your work is correct it should be possible to make something from planed timber that fits in, it just won't have the age related bumps and knocks, but it wouldn't have had then when it was originally made anyway!

 

[88v8]

This pub in Chertsey, near to where I formerly lived, was built in errrm, late 1990s(?) Some of the detailing, the bricks, lets it down, but the roof line, the 'sagging' ridge, are well done and avoid the level, straight, flat, plumb, effect which makes most new build blatantly new, whatever the efforts towards sympathetic material etc. Seen in the flesh it's an excellent effort.

Re-reading that, I'm reminded of the chapter "Spinlove's Special Roof" in the funniest book ever written (albeit 85 years ago) about the practice of architecture, "The Honeywood File", by H B Creswell.
For those wanting an perfect architectural history without tears, Osbert Lancaster's "Cartoon Hostory of Architecture".

Hoho, Honeywood File jolly good, still reading. I'm surprised that just a ¼" variation in the battens would show in the finished roof, and that irregular spacing of the rafters would make a wave. Was/am planning to do much more than that in the roof of our garage-to-be.

Reading all the letters in Honeywood am reminded of the copious correspondence in our Extension file from 1990 which I found again when we packed up the house. Unbelievable how much effort it took, although it was a jolly good piece of pastiche, even if I do say it myself.

Ivor