1930s house - original features?

Yorkie1 · 5 June 2011 at 7:01PM

I have a relatively basic 1930s semi.

The doors are as in the photo above. The flooring is floorboards throughout, except for the quarry tiles in the kitchen. The fireplaces have been 'restored' with victorian era ones but they don't look particularly out of place.

Staircase spindle:

Living room fireplace:

My friend has just sold a 1930s art deco semi. His hall had parquet flooring. I think the stairs had solid panelling rather than spindles. The internal doors had a large elongated diamond shape on them - the side points basically at the level of the handle and the N - S points not far from the top / bottom of the doors. Black bakelite handles as previously suggested, in the same position as in the door photo above.

The hallway also had panelled cupboard doors either side of the front door: room for coats etc. I guess your own house dimensions will dictate whether they can be recreated where you are.

Welsh_Totster · 5 June 2011 at 8:40PM

Our 30s house has oak herringbone parquet throughout the hall and two living rooms down stairs and the kitchen has original herringbone quarry tiles. The stairs have solid panelling and squared off rail and newel posts. We have awful plain 60s doors which I will be changing to the doors posted above with 3 panels below a single panel on top to keep them more in keeping with how they should look. We have an original tiled fireplace in the front living room which I hate and want to replace and the rear living room had a cast iron fireplace which is toitally not the era but looks much better!

inamegajam · 6 June 2011 at 9:04AM

Doozergirl wrote: »

With tiled terracotta floors and cast iron fireplaces it sounds quite Victorian/Edwardian more than 30s.

I know but when we checked the deeds it said the house was built in 1935, must have been a victorian bod who put them in. :rotfl:

ormus · 6 June 2011 at 2:16PM

or a 1980s victorian fanatic.

inamegajam · 6 June 2011 at 4:05PM

ormus wrote: »

or a 1980s victorian fanatic.

oh yeah, you could be right. will keep a lookout for any hidden gas lamps hiding in the trees outside LOL;):rotfl:

yumyums · 7 June 2011 at 9:32AM

Wow - thanks for all the replies everyone! I'd forgotten about this thread...

Some great links and pictures there.

I'd absolutely love parquet flooring but it will be super expensive won't it? I believe under the cheap laminate in the hallway there is just a concrete floor though under the badly laid woodblock in the utility room (used to be the kitchen) there are red quarry tiles.
Where do you get parquet flooring?

Here is a picture of the house if it helps. Hope no one recognises it!!

I've been trying to figure out what style it is built in but it doesn't seem to match any of the descriptions I've read. Some people have mentioned that the arch on the corner is of an Art Deco style but nothing else about the house says art deco to me. It used to be the local corner shop hence the arch.

I love those 1930s doors and the way the handles are so high up. Ours have been replaced at some point with generic panelled ones. I've also been trying to source reproduction bakelite knobs without any success. They seem to be very expensive (£20 - £30 a pair) from the reclamation yards.
Welsh totser - where are you getting your doors from? Our doors are pretty solid and work fine so it seems a bit of an unnecessary expense but I love those doors so much it will have to go on my 'one day' wish list.

Luckily we've still got the picture rail in the dining room. The living room used to be the shop so I believe it was redecorated when the house was converted to residential so we've got out of character dado rails, artex etc. I'd like to have a picture rail when we eventually redecorate.

Yorkie1 - my stairs are very similar to yours. Square spindles and wood panelling below with a cupboard.

I'd read about the fashion for linoleum in the 30s. Some of the patterns would be enough to give anyone a headache! In this book they also said that having bare floorboards would have been scoffed at. They'd have covered it with lino or large rugs. Fitted carpets were too expensive at the time.

Doozergirl · 7 June 2011 at 10:41AM

Well, it's not particularly of a style, certainly not instantly recognisable as a 1930s house. I'd have said it was post-war on first glances. There's no distinguishing original features to go off on the outside. An arch certainly doesn't make something Art Deco and there aren't any other distinguishing features to suggest it's 1930s other than perhaps the roofline.

I wouldn't worry about being slavish to an era when the actual house isn't from initial appearances! Just put in the things you like.

yumyums · 7 June 2011 at 11:07AM

Doozergirl wrote: »

Well, it's not particularly of a style, certainly not instantly recognisable as a 1930s house. I'd have said it was post-war on first glances. There's no distinguishing original features to go off on the outside. An arch certainly doesn't make something Art Deco and there aren't any other distinguishing features to suggest it's 1930s other than perhaps the roofline.

I wouldn't worry about being slavish to an era when the actual house isn't from initial appearances! Just put in the things you like.

That's true. I always thought it didn't have any 1930s features but we've been told by a few people it was built in the thirties.
I suppose if we had any original features left it would be nice to restore the ones that had gone but everything has been changed so much (very 1980s decor!) that it would cost a fortune to put right.
I wish I had parquet flooring though - oh and a tiled fireplace. They're quite cool!

ormus · 7 June 2011 at 12:16PM

if it was built as a simple shop, then its unlikely to have any fancy design features installed.
im not keen on the arch front. id be tempted to remove that.
at the roofline.

CharlieBilly · 7 June 2011 at 12:39PM

It doesnt look a 1930 house from outside but thats probably because it was a business and as Ormus said

1930s house - original features?

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