Seen this one before? Probably. It is Ralph Allen's town house, built to be near the Assembly Rooms (since demolished) and to get a good view of his folly, Sham Castle, on the opposite hillside. You would not even get a view of the hillside these days. It has been boxed-in by all those other buildings.
It is a Georgian mansion in miniature. It is tiny. It was the the site of my first masonry job in Bath, back in the 1970s. I opened a cupboard in the main living room and found the original crystal chandelier, dismantled, boxed and gathering dust. I wonder what happened to it. To one side of the main fireplace hung the original woven bell-pull to summon servants. 250 years old and still hanging there.
In the 70s, there were a lot of thefts from squatted houses. We have a huge, gilt, over-mantle mirror from that period. Every town house in Bath had a huge, pine, Welsh Dresser in the kitchen and a massive copper boiler cauldron in the basement for the servants to do the laundry. Now there are hardly any houses with their original features.
Every now and then a time-capsule of a room or building comes to light, but this is now a rare event. A friend of mine bought a shop which was built against a huge retaining wall. When he was renovating it he discovered a stone spiral staircase set into the back wall and the gardens above it. It had been blocked-in and a metal staircase had been built inside the rooms. He gained many more square feet of space by exposing it again.
The listed building inspectors came into their own in the 1970s. They were 10 years too late to save most of it.
I once had a customer who asked me to replace a horrible, green-glaze tiled fire surround in their Georgian town house with a proper Georgian copy. They asked if they should inform the planners.
I told them that on no account should they mention its existence, let alone show them it. They ignored my advice.
The planner walked into the room, made an on-the-spot listing of the nasty surround and informed them that it was now protected and had to stay there forever. I lost the job but at least I didn't have to live with the disgusting fire surround.
My Sky Dish is illegal on my listed house. Sky won't put a dish up without planning permission so I got a man to do it who would. Sky then and came and united it with the receiver in the house, aligned it and touched it, no questions asked. I think some things about listed properties are idiotic like this, just because a house is listed doesn't mean it is stuck in a time warp in olden times with no mod cons and no allusion to the 21st century. Inside I can do what I like if I want to. I was thinking of painting it bright colours.
ReplyDeleteI can understand it in a built up area of old buildings where the skyline would be ruined if everyone had dishes, but on their own they're just temporary structures. As with everything, rules are rigid.
DeleteThe cat flap is also illegal. I like satellite dishes all over everywhere, old, new, listed, unlisted; we can't live a lie and pretend modern life doesn't exist. I hate that.
DeleteAnd I hate satellite dishes. A compromise has to be reached. I hate Sky, I hate the Murdochs and I hate satellite dishes. People say - about Bath - 'We cannot live in a museum'. Why not? I would love to live in a museum. The world needs more people like me.
DeleteAh, the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Nothing wrong with you, Tom.
DeleteI like a bit of each, but not all museum. There is really nothing whatsoever wrong with satellite dishes. They are saying there is life here within this building; people who are fun and good to know and living and vibrant and of their time.
DeleteA building inspector told a friend of mine to replace a wooden door lintel with a concrete one. As soon as the inspector had gone, he rendered over the wood. When the inspector came back my friend said it had been done as he'd insisted; he then tapped on the area with his knuckles, and said 'Good, you can always tell the difference by the sound". Job done.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I have learned how to deal with planners and conservation officers and bending the truth in the face of unreasonable enforcement is a good tool.
DeleteRound here we just shoot them.
DeleteCovering it up is, indeed, sometimes the perfect solution. I don't know if it could have been done with the tiles. But I once lived in a modern house with very modern looking, shiny, light grey marble (?) windowsills. The windowsill looked awful next to my antique dining set. We then made a fake windowsill with an apron edge out of wood and simply laid it down over the marble. When we moved out, we simply lifted it off. Voila!
DeleteI love/lust for historical discoveries of any kind. There is the lovely historyblog.com, which I look at daily. Thought I should mention it as it might be of interest to anyone else 'out there'.
I think I am right in saying that, out of everyone who comments or post around here, I am the best qualified to intone on this subject. This is not said with any false sense of humility, but with the confidence that comes from decades of being proved right through the test of time. I am the arbiter of taste for many influential people, and sometimes that role has to include pulling the wool over their rheumy eyes. I know what I am talking about.
Delete!
DeleteSadly it does seem that sometimes bending the truth is the best way Tom.
ReplyDeleteThousands of politicians. lawyers and bankers agree with you Weave.
DeleteOur 17th century cottage that we once lived in was listed ..... what a pain. The pointing on the brickwork had to be done as it was done in the 1600’s !!!!! I’m all for preserving old buildings, but they do go too far. There should a bit of poetic license. XXXX
ReplyDeleteOf course the repointing of your ancient cottage should be done in the same way as it was in the 1600s or whenever else it was built. What is wrong with you people? Are you all completely brainwashed by the suppliers of modern builder's merchants?
DeleteDo you know how hard it is to find someone with the knowledge of the pointing techniques of the 17th century ? Maybe there are lots in Bath and in your circle of restorers but not around here !!!! ... plus, restoring an old cottage is very expensive and, even if we could have found someone, it would have been an arm and a leg. I am all for restoring old buildings to their former glory and, in the end, it was done very sympathetically and, when we moved, we had restored that cottage to its former glory which passed muster with the conservation officer. XXXX
DeleteShame that they ignored your advice!
ReplyDeleteA wonderful trail of comments here. I left a tiny mark in the sand, but am scared off, finding you are the final arbiter of taste, at least for people of taste. xxoo
ReplyDeleteHow big is that town house? It does not appear overly small.
We are in current 'discussions' with the conservation officer as we want to put our coach house back to its former glory. It was very badly converted. Where they filled in the carriage door way, they filled it in with rubbish and it is awful. We have the extra whinstone and sandstone and found the original lintels in the garden in a slag heap. We arent allowed to do anything as apparently as it is "it shows progression of age". it looks bloody awful, everyone comments on it they even pushed bits of wood into the cement to fill in gaps where they couldnt find any more rubble to go in. the house was built in 1840's, they would have been horrified by it. We have the original range, with the shelves and the spit turner. the lady in the house behind is 97, her grand parents worked in the house, her grandfather slept in the area above the stable. She has a picture that was taken of a favoured horse and we showed it to the conservation officer and sent a copy with our appeal. We will see what happens. (apparently our appeal could take 10 months? do you know Tom, is this a normal time frame?)
ReplyDeleteSorry I meant to say the picture of the horse shows the coach house in the background.
ReplyDeleteFriends of ours were repeatedly refused planning permission to undo ghastly 1960's alterations on their thatched house in Oxfordshire and restore it to its former beauty. They wanted to convert it back into one house instead of two bodged dwellings but the female planning officer would not budge.
DeleteOne day they had a tip off that the lady concerned was about to go on maternity leave and they should try again. Bingo!
Bon courage!!
Jean I am going to get really mad with them all really soon as I have been told we will be delayed again as it is now the school holidays! urgh!
DeleteJoanna N that is one of my favourite books and as soon as Tom said living in a museum, I thought of it too!!!
ReplyDeleteNear to us there used to be a fabulous restaurant, in an old, tastefully restored, stone built house. Next door was an old, disused mill. The restaurant owner wanted to convert the mill into a hotel alongside his restaurant but was refused planning permission.
ReplyDeleteHe abandoned the lot about fifteen years ago and now both the beautiful house and mill are falling down. Big holes have appeared in the roofs recently. It could have been a beautiful house, a beautiful hotel, a thriving business and employment for local people. Tragic.