Wrought iron portico

[JoceAndChris]

Has anyone had one made? This sort of thing:

http://www.fineiron.co.uk/balconies_verandas_canopies.html

I'm pretty convinced BC had one on the north side as an old photo shows the imprint of the curved roof structure on the masonry, and the previous owner said he found strong evidence of one having been there. Certainly the outshot in the picture below is a later structure, albeit from the 19thC. It's a terrible eyesore really and a strange waste of space as you can only really access the lower part, the staircase leading down to the undercroft - you can jump into the ground floor of it if you're especially agile, but not being so, I've never been able to use it for storage even.

It would enhance the house if we could put something more suitable in its place I'm sure, we've always talked of an ensuite extension at this spot but I think it would be around 40k, whilst a frilly porch would surely be less than 10. Any thoughts?

 

[Feltwell]

we've always talked of an ensuite extension at this spot but I think it would be around 40k, whilst a frilly porch would surely be less than 10. Any thoughts?

My first thought is that it would be awfully draughty as an en-suite, especially as you live on top of a hill :wink:

Seriously, whilst it's undoubtedly cheaper, what would a frilly porch actually be used for? £10k on something with little purpose isn't much of a bargain. And how would it affect the access to your stairs? This is the bit that goes over the little room with your well in, is that right?

 

[billybuntus]

In the first picture I can see where your coming from. In the second picture as a buyer I see it blending quite well into the building. The roof and guttering are in the correct period to blend well into the building.

I would personally not change it and do something internally to make the space more usable. Unless of course you have money to burn.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Fair enough points. But, a plastic roof can only ever be temporary surely. I could perhaps get the Swithland slate from a reclamation yard ( it isn't mined any more), but it would be extremely expensive to put a proper roof on it.

Some more pics to make sense of it, you go through the door

And go down the stairs to the lower scullery and the door into the kitchen.

But from ground floor level this is the way into the outshot - really impossible for me and no way to change it unless to make a door where that little window is. And there's no real incentive for that as it's just dead space really. I can't understand why it was altered to be like that.

And it is quite important that it looks less plasticcy and temporary , as it's in the main view of the facade

 

[LadyArowana]

It really is a rather odd arrangement, although looks OK-ish from the outside. Seems like there's 2 problems, firstly aesthetics and secondly practicality/ safety. If you take away the surrounding structure and the door wouldn't you be left with a hole and steps down? At the moment even though it isn't ideal to open a door straight onto stairs the walls mean nobody could drop into the hole. If there is only a canopy it might need something like a ballustrade? around the stairs and that might spoil it, also if it was more open to the elements the steps would be at risk of getting wet ( I know it's dry where you are but could still be a hazard ). Just musings, not sure I am not reading the pix right.

 

[JoceAndChris]

You are absolutely reading them right, yes. In summer that door gets pinned back and during the very rare occasions we have a rainstorm (it's exceptionally dry in this part of Lincs) the rain tends to make it 3 or 4 steps down - I think there are 9 steps in all. This could be the reason the enclosed structure was built - to protect what I call the lower scullery from the elements. Originally that room was for gutting and hanging creatures and chucking off one's muddy pattens, and it's still a rough, filthy and damp part of the house. You can see why the Victorians grew very tired with Georgian basement kitchens and built their houses differently.

I'm not sure I would be concerned about putting anything round the steps to protect people from falling down, though we tend to use that entrance a lot, guests and deliveries arrive here:

(which is another area that needs at least 10k chucking at it as it used to have beautiful original doors like this - the one renovation for which I'm unable to forgive the previous owner:

It's very difficult to decide the best way forward with period properties sometimes.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I'm still convinced you could improve your entrance rather than replace. I'm certain the lattice wooden glazing bars could be reinstated and that cutting off the frill from the lead would work wonders! The fascia boards on the outshot aren't helping its appearance.

 

[JoceAndChris]

The frill on the lead is very twee isn't it- the whole thing looks very typically 80s to me. I haven't yet found a joiner who could remake the windows and double doors though like you I'm convinced it could be done by the right person. Chris has said he wants to have a go at making them but he never has any time, poor man, so I could imagine waiting until he retires for that.

I agree the fascia boards are awful as well, I'm about to paint the whole lot "Naples" so hopefully it will look a bit better after that - but the awfulness of the plastic roof isn't really showing in the pics above. I think we spent around 2k replacing that plastic roof because the previous one was so broken up, and I really am not going to put yet another plastic one on when this one perishes!

 

[billybuntus]

I can see the whole thing in context now.

If the space is useful to you (it's clearly being used). Then I would look at cleaning up the internal walls maybe sand blast them which would lift the brick and make it look less agricultural. I'd fit cast iron railings around that opening as with the best will in the world someone at some point is going to fall down that hole and when they do it's going to hurt. Doesn't have to be a heavy railing just something light, decorative and functional that could be simply epoxied through the existing floor without too much fuss.

With regards to the plastic roof, it looks like a lead roof from your picture. Perhaps you could fit a lead roof to make the building look a little more permanent?

The only other real constructive option is to knock it down and extend but that would certainly change the frontage of the building and my symmetrical eyes would always be drawn to 'the bit on the side'.

 

[billybuntus]

With regard to the lattice door. I don't dislike the existing door and windows but they certainly aren't what I would have chosen. I equally don't like that old pictured lattice door and windows.

I think you should re-look at it and think about what would really set that area off. You could literally do anything with that entranceway.

I think simple but elegant would be the way and look at breaking up the large expanses of window.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I'm interested that you don't much like either, and wonder if you are quite naturally responding to the wild unkempt state of things in the old photo? The Regecny doors will need to be copied exactly as they are, I'd only accept that, and I suspect that's all that would get LBC. As you come through those doors into the porch you meet another identical set of those doors which fortunately the previous owner did not smash up - so for symmetry they would need to be the same. And the light ought not to be reduced as that is the light for our hallway.

Also with regard to the overall symmetry of the building and the possibility of an extension ruining that, in fact it could make things right as there is a 1930s extension on the south side, just seen in the right of this pic - quite a careful extension that replicates the polygonal bay of the Belvedere - and ideally I'd knock down the Northern outshot and build a mirror image of this, which would house a much needed bathroom - but this would be around £40,000.

But thank you for your thoughts billy!

 

[JoceAndChris]

PS nowhere for railings to go at all down there.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

PS nowhere for railings to go at all down there.

 

[DJH]

Done a few of these (porticoes that is) in my time. To paraphrase an architect I worked with many times who no doubt paraphrased it from elsewhere...

You can lead a horse to water but a rainwater pipes (and portico roofs) must be lead

Doug

 

[88v8]

Surely if the outshut weren't there the rain would just pour down into the basement?

I agree it's a bit blocky, but you could remove the adjacent paving and clothe it in climbers/wall shrubs.
And that pipe across the roof looks daft.

Lattice doors... that entrance is crying out for a spectacular of stained glass.

Ivor

 

[billybuntus]

PS nowhere for railings to go at all down there.

For the narrow side I would bring the railings down to 3 inches from the brick edge then go 90 degrees then form a C over and under the face to give it strength and make a bit of a feature of it.

Looks like your have two choices. Make good of the outbuilding or level it and mimic the other side of the property. It's a lot of cash if you don't need the space.

 

[JoceAndChris]

PS nowhere for railings to go at all down there.

Thanks so much for that Gareth, it really helps make sense of it if we are to knock down the outshot.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Surely if the outshut weren't there the rain would just pour down into the basement?

I agree it's a bit blocky, but you could remove the adjacent paving and clothe it in climbers/wall shrubs.
And that pipe across the roof looks daft.

Lattice doors... that entrance is crying out for a spectacular of stained glass.

Ivor

I love the idea of the climbers! Yes, breaking up the concrete of the path is also on the list...

Not sure the Georgians had stained glass entrance doors. It's more medieval and medieval revival - so Victorian. Georgians loved lattice, diamond patterns are everywhere throughout BC in the fireplaces, in the Ancaster floor- I love them.