Victorian House

Would you like your home to be on BBC TV?

2011-03-23T22:02:00.005Z

The BBC sent me an email to say they are looking for people who are putting the original features back into their homes.

They are working on the second series of Original Features for the ‘Home’ channel. The series, presented by Nick Knowles, is looking for people who are renovating and restoring their homes back to their former glory. It could be any type of property - a Tudor cottage, Georgian mansion or 1930’s semi they are looking to restore and it doesn’t have to be huge - it may just be one room.

With expert advice on design and historians on hand, the homeowner will learn how to restore their property in keeping with the period and learn more about the history of their home - Who lived there before? What was the house formerly used for? What is lurking under the floorboards or behind the plasterboard?

If you are interested you should email originalfeatures@bbc.co.uk or call 0117 974 6898/7499. You can also add a comment to this blog about your project.

Web Updated

2011-01-18T00:06:00.007Z

I have, at last, managed to add a few new pictures for the hall, stairs and landing which you can check out on the Virtual Tour on victorian-house.com. I still need to update a few things and especially add the new extension to the tour (that will be tomorrow, or the day after, or one day later than that probably).

Another thing I will do is fix the email address - I used a special one to help avoid spam but someting has got messed up.

Extension

2010-11-30T17:24:00.004Z

A lot has changed in the house now that the 'other houses' are done. I just haven't updated victorian-house.com yet! As I mentioned the hall and stairs were finished ages ago and I urgently need to add pictures. I have just finished the bathroom and have added some new pictures. However, the big change is the extension at the rear. I will add this as a project and get it onto the virtual tour sometime. The extension adds a new family room at the side of the kitchen as well as a shower room, sauna and a link into the garage. The garage has been completely rebuilt. The extension has impacted the kitchen, the utility room, the dining room and I will eventually update these rooms too. So much to do, so little time!

Too many houses

2010-01-18T15:48:00.003Z

I did not blog for the whole of 2009, so why is this? My excuse is that I have been far to busy to blog or indeed to update my website. So why have I been so busy? The simple answer is that, as well as my day job, I have actually refurbished 3 other houses since my last blog!

My mum got a new house (it is also Victorian) needing renovation throughout and I got heavily involved in that.
I decided to buy her old (1930s) house - which needed a fair bit of work to bring it up to a suitable standard for renting out.
My daughter bought a late 1960s flat, a reposession which required total renovation which I did myself.

Anyway, that is all done and I can now work on my own house. I completed the hall a while ago but have not updated the website yet. I have also been working on restoring the bathroom. A cast iron roll-top bath is currently sitting in the dining room and will be installed once everything else is ready. I do hope to start updating the pictures and the blog soon!

Vestibule

2008-04-09T00:35:00.005+01:00

I actually finished restoring and decorating the vestibule in January, but I have only just got round to adding some pictures to the web. The main feature of the vestibule is the Bradbury & Bradbury wallpaper. Even for this small area it was rather expensive and after it was shipped from California as well as the postage I got stung for VAT on the import and a handling charge - ouch. The paper had to be hand trimmed using a very sharp knife and straight edge. It was not easy stuff to hang and my edges were not as perfect as you get with modern paper. I was very pleased when I recently visited an old house (Kellie Castle in Fife - former home of Robt. Lorimer the Scots architect) and found that the edges on their original Morris & Co wallpaper was as imperfect as mine.

I finished the hall, stairs and landing in the summer and have still not posted new pictures yet but will get round to this eventually.

Been a long time ...

2007-12-06T01:10:00.000Z

.. since I last blogged. The reality is that I am too busy working on this house in the evenings to get round to writing anything. Anyway, completed my hall and stairs and have now almost completed the vestibule, it will be done by Xmas, so during the holidays I will write a bit more an put some pics on victorian-house.com.

Restoration what are we talking about?

2007-07-06T23:27:00.000+01:00

To my understanding restoration is about returning something to, or at least close to, its former state. In a sense that is what I want to do to my house. However, I guess I do want to go beyond this in the sense that I want to restore what is there, or there is evidence of, but when things are not there I will create my intepretation of the style and feel (based on evidence from the period but not from my house). I will get it wrong, I may over "Victorianise" the decor, but I try not remove the original materials that exist.

I have noticed that Historic Scotland, and other bodies have a very strict view on restoration. In some cases old buildings are allowed to crumble and fall into ruins. They may not be "restored" to their former glory. While I understand the need not to create a pastiche, I often feel that potentially savable buildings could be more valuable for the community if they are restored with some compromises. In many cases buildings are A-listed and then left to crumble and not even preserved in their current state since the restrictions mean they are not going to be useful buildings and so no-one will invest in these.

I think we could be more lenient, but not stupid, about the how many historic buildings can be restored. However, we could also be more strict about our vast legacy of Victorian houses which we are permitted to destroy without seeking any permission. Doors are now plastic, stone is painted, lime only means a green fruit, portland cement destroys natural porous stone, mullions are removed, thin framed sash windows are replaced with riduculous fat framed upvc alternatives. I think the balance is wrong and maybe too much attention is paid to a few buildings and too little attention is given to our vast collection of period houses.

Who cares about their Victorian Houses?

2007-06-22T00:18:00.001+01:00

I have been trying to find out how many Victorian houses were built in Britain and in America and how many still exist. The answer is not easy to find - Google has let me down. From a book I have it looks like about 6 million dwellings were built during Victoria's reign (1837-1901) in Britain. Interestingly in America it seems that a Victorian House is one relating to particular styles during the Victorian era. According to Wiki "The architectural style of a Victorian house is often either Queen Anne, Stick, Italianate, French Second Empire, or Richardsonian Romanesque. Shingle Style houses are also considered Victorian houses."

Anyway - who loves their Victorian House? My observation has been that the Brit's don't and the Americans (also Canadians and Australians) do. This is not a scientific observation but is based on the amount of Web material on the subject and where it relates to. But then maybe I have been unfair to us Brits. We have a huge number of these Victorian Houses left and many are small terraced dwellings and are less likely to evoke strong affections. The larger houses do appear to be more loved. Obviously there are more American's than Brits and although there are probably less Victorian Houses to go round in America, those that appear on the Web tend to be of the "gingerbread" variety and are more unique.

Another observation I would make is that old things in the New World have a higher status than here in the UK. I presume that this is simply because there is less history and hence old stuff is more scarce. I recall once that I was showing an Australian friend of mine the original hand written deeds and records for my house which date back to 1879. To my surprise and slight amusement he was worried about handling these documents himself and suggested that I should perhaps be wearing gloves.

Anyway back to the question. Who cases about their Victorian Houses? I now have now decided on an answer. Most Americans care about theirs and some Brits care about theirs! If you don't agree with this answer you can respond, or ask my wife who will tell you I am always right ;-)

Faux finishes

2007-06-21T07:47:00.000+01:00

Now that my hall project is nearing completion I have been sitting admiring the almost completed decor. One thing that does strike me is the number of fake or faux finishes I have used and which are typical of Victorian decor. Let me create a small list.

Doors - grained to look like mahogany (also window frames).
Dado panels - anaglypta painted and finished to look like old leather.
Stairs - finished to look like veined marble.
Frieze - lincrusta designed to look like a plaster frieze.
Ballusters - cast iron painted in gold.
Oriental carpet - Axminister made in England.

The Victorians were masters of making cheap materials look expensive and why not. While no-one will be totally fooled the result is strikingly rich and opulent.

Period decor

2007-06-18T01:02:00.000+01:00

I am busy decorating my hall. This is not a weekends work - I actually started it over two years ago but I am almost finished. When complete I will post some before and after pictures. I have been trying to create an 1880s Victorian feel by using good quality traditional materials and techniques of the period while avoiding over 'Victorianising' it or creating a museum piece.

What I will have created is something that fits the house and will not go out of fashion! In thirty years time the room will still look right - I will never have to decorate the hall again! If I had gone for a contemporary look then we would end up redecorating it again in a few years time!

So there is my tip. If you have an old house and decorate for the correct period it will not go out of fashion and you never need to decorate that room again!

Today I start my blog!

2007-06-15T21:21:00.000+01:00

I guess today I am the new kid on the blog!

This will eventually be a companion to my web site victorian-house.com. This is a place where I can stand on my soap box and tell you about trying to restore my own Victorian house and rant about how most other old house owners appear to be doing everything they can to destroy theirs and to scar our urban landscape!