More decorative Ironwork

MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK D. STEPHENSON During the late Georgian and early to mid-Victorian periods, when the balcony railings, described in an earlier paper,1 were popular, other forms of ironwork were being widely used, particularly on town houses. Such fittings as window boxes, balcony brackets, street rails, lamps and name plates, door knockers and boot scrapers were made in ironwork in a variety of designs, and in large numbers. Very few records of the designs of these once familiar features of our streets exist, and it is thought worthwhile to describe examples from Kent and elsewhere before those remaining disappear with many of our old houses. Some specimens, especially railings, are beginning to appear in antique shops, but much of the ironwork still goes for scrap when Georgian and Victorian houses are demolished. WINDOW BOXES Related to balcony railings, but used on windows in situations where balconies would be inappropriate, are several designs of low rails, the functions of which, apart from decoration, are not always obvious. Generally, they would serve as retaining rails for window boxes. When used in conjunction with sash windows many would lend support to the back of a person sitting on the sill to clean the outside of the windows. WROUGHT-IRON EXAMPLES Figure 1 illustrates three designs of wrought-iron rails seen only in Canterbury, nos. 2 and 3 occurring inthe Burgate and no. I on an old house in Mercery Lane. All three examples use plain and twisted squaresection bar, whilst nos. 2 and 3 include scrolls to give added interest to the design. The decoration of opposed leaf forms used in no. 1 resembles that used on a wrought-iron balcony railing on a house on Star Hill, Rochester.2 This suggests that the rail can be dated to the end of the eighteenth century, c. 1790. 1 Arch. Cant., lxxxvi (1971), 173 ff. 2 Ibid., 17 5. 73 D. STEPHENSON iJftffl El I!] 1111 f9l I I II) 1 Ul@z®l 1©®11 2 WROUGHT IRON EXAMPLES Fig. I. 3 7 s 􀀆: .. f t CAST IRON PATTERN 􀀞 .. ., · 9 . ··q • N': WINDOW BOXES Fig. 2 74 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK CAST-IRON DESIGNS At least six of the designs of this type of domestic ironwork are derived from the classical anthemion, which is discussed in Appendix I (q.v.). The subsidiary attachments of the central design of radiating leaves, namely the whorls and the side branches, are also included in some way in each of the six designs. In the record of examples which follows the design numbers are the same as the illustrations in Fig. 2. Design No. 1. This is obviously a true window box. Little lining would be required to retain soil. Here the anthemion device is used with enveloping scrolls; the formalized side branches join the upper ends of the scrolls to form a continuous undulating rim to the box (see Appendix I). It is usually cast in one piece, except for the base. Examples can be seen on no. 7 Albion Place, Maidstone, with other good ironwork; on no. 56 West Cliff R oad, Ramsgate, and, surrounded by much excellent cast ironwork, around the bay window of no. 6 Old Steine, Brighton. (See, also, Plate IIA.) Design No. 2. Here the anthemion device has been modified into a full leaf form. The leaves stand independently, attached only at the base via the scrolls. The design dates from about 1840. The front, sides and reticulated base would be cast separately. It was fitted on nos. 85 and 86 Parrock Street, Gravesend, now demolished. Design No. J. Gloag and Bridgwater give two full-page illustrations of this design on a house, no. 5 Columbia Place, Winchcombe Street, Cheltenham, west side. They describe it as a 'cast iron balcony' and comment that it ' .. . is a free treatment of Greek ornamental forms, making a striking use of the properties of cast iron' and comparing it with 'the more rigid handling of a similar subject in the balcony designed by Robert Adam'.3 This design no. J is at least fifty years later than the 'balconettes' on the first-floor of no. 7 Adam Street, Adel phi, W .1., referred to in the quotation.4 In a recent guide to Cheltenham, the author quotes William Cobbett saying that, when he rode into the town in 1826, he saw 'a new row of most gaudy and fantastical dwelling places, called Columbia Place'.5 As the 'fantastic' appearance of the houses is due in large measure to the unusual ironwork, we must assume that it was there in 1826. The author says of it ' ... they are the first panels in the town to make cast iron successful in its own right. This is like nothing that has gone before, this is no imitation of known work. It is strong, sure and inventive, using the new method in its own way; here cast iron has found its own nobility'.6 3 Gloag and Bridgwater, Cast Iron in Architecture, London, 1948, 140, 141. 4 lbid., 140. 5 Amina Chatwin, Cheltenham's Ornamental Ironwork, Cheltenham, 1975, 39. 6 lbid., 38. 75 D. STEPHENSON A specimen of the design occurs on one deep window ledge of a house in Bexleyheath - no. 42 Watling Street. It was cast with separate ends and mounted on a rail. There is a similar casting on a window ledge on a house in Gravesend, no. 119 Windmill Street, but here the upper scrolls have been cut away. The circular bosses between the anthemia and the side branches have also been removed. Any cutting would probably not have been made on the casting, but on the pattern used to make the mould. The tips of the tallest leaf of each anthemion and the central leaf of each side branch have an apical lug: there is no similar lug on the specimens previously described. The presence of the lugs suggests that this pattern was intended to be fitted with a top bar or hand-rail, which would restore the strength of a pattern weakened by the removal of the bosses. Unlike the elements in designs nos. 2 and 4 the leaves in this casting stand upright, the others turn outwards at the tips. The date of the last specimen is about 1850, some twenty years later than the Cheltenham ones. Design No. 4. This is, in my view, the most delicate and attractive of all the designs for this form of ironwork. The leaves of the anthemia are here turned inwards and joined at the tips, to give strength to the casting. For the same reason rings have been inserted between the three slender leaves of the side branches. The pattern turns outwards towards the tips of the leaves. The design has been seen only in Tunbridge Wells, at no. 87 London Road and on Wellington Lodge, Mount Ephraim. In the former case the 'boxes' have been provided with reticulated bases. When sunlight falls on the windows the shadows of the reticulations, thrown on the stucco wall, make a delightful pattern which enhances the elegance of the ironwork. Design No. 5. The anthemion has here been divided into two parts; the leaves are merged into one serrated leaf, and the scrolls have been joined with the side branches to form separate items. The two parts of the design have been cast separately, and the required number of parts mounted alternately on a bar of wrought iron or steel. Such small individual castings may have been designed to be made in a small foundry, such as that of Medhurst Troughton and Matthew Bevan, at one time in the High Street, Gravesend.7 In Gravesend the design is used on the ground-floor windows of nos. 79 and 80 Windmill Street, built in the 1840s. Some early nineteenth-century houses, nos. 1 to 5 Grove Terrace, Kentish Town, London, N.W.5, had window boxes of this design and on at least one of the houses the owner is taking the trouble to have new castings made to replace those missing. (These houses also have most 1 Arch. Cant., lxxxvi (1971), 184, n. 22. 76 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK unusual cast balcony panels of 'heart and honeysuckle' design no. 1 but having a central boss. The variant is discussed below under the heading 'balcony railings'.) No. 23 Grove Terrace, N.W.5, also has window boxes of this design: the house is included in the Statutory List of the London Borough of Camden as of c. 1780. The boxes were probably added later. The design has also been noticed in Upper Ham Road, Richmond. Design No. 6. A pattern which has retained some of the neo-classical qualities of the anthemion motif, but the 'side branches' have equal importance and similar dimensions. The ironwork forms a strikingly effective decoration on the first-floor window sills of two blocks of stuccoed houses, opposite the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital in King William Walk, Greenwich, S.E.10. The houses were built in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, at about the same time as the fruit and vegetable market behind them, which was completed in 1831.8 The block of brick-faced houses between the stuccoed ones was restored after bomb damage. Design No. 7. Like No. 5 this design is assembled from separate pieces, in this case of very different forms. Only the tall three-leaved device retains any of the classical features. The total effect of the assemblage is much less harmonious and pleasing than any of the previous designs. The finished work with its top-rail is the tallest of any of the series, and serves equally well for a guard rail at an upper window, as for a 'window box' on the ground-floor. The complete collection is used in both ways on a pair of houses, nos. 83 and 84 Windmill Street, Gravesend, built in the 1840s. The design has not been seen elsewhere; perhaps this is a local product. In Brighton, at no. I Pavilion Parade, there is a window box of continuous pattern having some resemblance to design no. 7, but much more attractive, and having definite suggestions of'art nouveau'. Design No. 8. After the middle of the nineteenth century there came a complete break with the classical tradition in many forms of ironwork. This design uses a somewhat grotesque floral motif, and is less pleasing than the earlier ones. Examples have been recorded in London Ro ad, Tunbridge Wells and at 56 High Street, Rochester, both dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. It has been noted, too, in Upper Norwood, S.E.19. Design No. 9. Approximately of the same period as the elaborate design no. 8, this consists essentially of a simple retaining rail; the only attempts at decoration take the forms of conical ends to the rail and its upright supports, with light brackets in the corners. It was seen at nos. 36 and 38 High Street, Rochester, and on houses in south-east London. 8 Olive and Nigel Hamilton, Royal Greenwich, Greenwich, 1969, 109. 77 D. STEPHENSON A similar rail with cubical junctions between rail and upright supports is to be seen in Mount Ephraim Road, Tunbridge Wells. BALCONY BRACKETS Wrought-iron balconies were usually provided with bars of wrought iron, parallel to the house frontage, to form an openwork flooring. A supporting cross-piece would be used at the centre, and its end would frequently be turned down to form the upright leg of a bracket which, in turn, would be fastened to the wall of the house. At other times, it might prove practicable to incorporate the projecting end of the cross-piece directly into the fabric of the house, as would be done, also, with the ends of the outer flooring bar, and the ends of the hand-rail of the balcony. With the advent of flat cast-iron balcony panels the floor of the balcony changed in shape from segmental to rectangular, but otherwise continued for a long time to be formed in the way just described. Lateeighteenth- century wrought-iron balconies can still be seen in• the Adelphi, in London, on Star Hill and in the High Street, Rochester,9 and also in Greenwich, on Park Place, Park Vista, S.E.10. Despite the loss of houses in Parrack Street having balconies stretching along the entire frontage, Gravesend can show many examples of cast-iron panels on wrought-iron balconies, with open floors, extending well into the nineteenth century. Later, solid floors were used, supported on cantilever brackets, particularly on the long balconies, which were becoming very popular. The brackets were occasionally of wood or stone but more usually of cast ir􀁿n; a short length of the iron brackets is shaped to be incorporated in the wall of the house, no. 1, Fig. 3. The projecting portion is sometimes severely functional, but has often been given decorative qualities. Even when this is so, it frequently happens that brackets are painted the same colour as the underside of the balcony they support. The colour most often chosen is white, which best reflects light onto the windows below. At a little distance brackets, in such situations, are barely noticeable. If, however, the brackets have been painted black, they may make a striking contribution to the appearance of a house, or a row of houses, when seen against the white background. Occasionally, one sees adjacent houses or adjacent blocks of houses on one of which there are cast-iron brackets, and on the other a version of the design in wrought iron, or steel. For example, in Fig. 3, no. 4 illustrates a wrought iron support, which has the shape and dimensions of the S-shaped cast-iron brackets on an adjacent block, on the north side of York Road, Tunbridge Wells, the latter shown at no. 3. In Old Steine, Brighton, there is an example in more elaborate designs. No. 9· 9 Arch. Cant., lxxxvi (1971), 175. 78 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK shows cast-iron brackets, which are next door to wrought-iron ones shown at no. I 0. It will be seen that many of the patterns exhibit an S-shape, but all have a downward projection at the tip of the bracket, which is near the front edge of the floor of the balcony or verandah, and this projection helps to shed rain water and prevents it running backwards to cause rusting at the place of contact with the wall. A further precaution is provided by the, almost invariable, up-turn of the lower edge before it joins the upright. Design numbers are the same as the nos. on the illustrations in Fig. 3. Design No. I. The curved outline of the underside varies from one place to another. Such brackets are used at 158 and 160 Milton Road, Gravesend, with the Henry Shaw balcony designs nos. 18 and 19; on Sussex House, no. 61 The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells, where they appear to be made of wood supporting a wooden floor to the balcony; at 15 The Paragon, Ramsgate; on nos. 26 and 28 Myddleton Square, E.C. l, and at numerous other places. Design No. 2. The scroll end to the supporting limb gives a pleasing effect to this plain design. It was seen at no. 17 Royal Road, formerly Royal Terrace, Ramsgate. Design No. 3. A very strong and solid cast-iron version of the 'S' bend with 'scrolled' ends. It occurs on a row of terrace houses in York Road, Tunbridge Wells, north side. Design No. 4. A wrought-iron or steel version of the 'S' bend with scrolled ends. A traditional blacksmith's device; seen on houses adjacent to those having design no. 3. Design No. 5. A development of the simple design no. I to give adequate support with lightness, avoiding excessive use of metal but adding a decorative feature to the houses. It was used at nos. 15 and 17 Albion Place, Maidstone, with the unique balcony railings, design no. 22. Design No. 6. A still more economical use of metal: note the drip-tip. It was seen on a hotel on the Marine Drive, Folkestone. Design No. 7. A very pretty use of subsidiary scrolls inside a strong 'S' scroll. It combines lightness with strength and high decorative value. It is to be seen in Spencer Square, Ramsgate, with balconies of design no. 7. Design No. 8. Perhaps the most beautiful design in this type of ironwork. All the elements are clear, but the design must have considerable strength. It has been seen only under the verandah at nos. 20 and 22 Church Road, Tunbridge Wells. Design No. 9. A decorative cast-iron 'S' bend, which is very attractive when painted black and seen against a white background. It is to be seen below a verandah with 'gothic' balcony railings, design no. 9, on a house in the Old Steine, Brighton. 79 D. STEPHENSON EJt. --:s:::a tJP:: 5 4 ( II P<.. Ji 􀀃 15 Fig. 3. 80 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK Design No. JO. A design in wrought-iron form with outline following that of design no. 9 on the house next door in the Old Steine, Brighton. Interest is added in the shape of two pairs of opposed loops. Design No. 11. Used as bay window brackets in Bedford Terrace, off the High Street, Tunbridge Wells, this fantastic development of the 'S' scroll admirably fits into and adorns its situation. Design No. 12. Another extravagant 'S'-bend design used as brackets to support an overhung floor in The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells. Design No. 13. A further development of design no. 1; it is well used on houses in Fort Crescent, Margate, and at no. 38 West Cliff Road, Ramsgate. Design No. 14. A pleasant combination of 'S' bend and square tip. It can be seen on nos. 23 and 24 Central Parade, Herne Bay, with a very elaborate pattern of balcony rails on no. 23, and a very plain pattern of uprights with an upper, open, border with circles, on no. 24. DesignNo.15. A simple design based on a loop with drip tips; quite pleasing when well sited and suitably painted. It occurs in Augusta Road, Ramsgate, supporting verandahs with balcony railings of design no. i. Design No. 16. A plain 'S' bend made from thick, broad bar, intended to do heavy support work. It holds up a verandah on nos. 16 and 18 ·church Road, Tunbridge Wells. Design No. 17. Intended to afford strength with lightness, it is to be seen on no. 72 London Road, Tunbridge Wells. Design No. 18. A large, loose pattern with a rose at the centre of the largest scroll, and all scrolls made to resemble thorny briars - not very successful. Seen only as bay window brackets on no. 4 Mount Ephraim Road, Tunbridge Wells. Design No. 19. Brackets to support the balcony with the elaborate rails design no. 25 on Parrack Lodge, Parrack Street, Gravesend. Perhaps a simpler design such as no. 5 would have proved more attractive in that situation. Design No. 20. When first seen at La Providence, High Street, Rochester, this was thought to be the design illustrated by Henry Shaw in 1826; and attributed by him to L. Vulliamy.10 On closer examination differences are apparent, see design no. 21. In a biography of Thomas Cubitt, the author illustrates 'cast iron balcony supports' in Bloomsbury, amongst 'details from Cubitt houses'.11 The 'balcony supports' are 16 Henry Shaw, Examples of ornamental Metal Work, L-Ondon, 1836. The plate illustrating the balcony 'Railing Designed by H. Shaw' and 'The Bracket by L. Vulliamy, Archt.', first published in May, 1826, by Priestley and Weale, High Street, Holborn and again in 1836 is reproduced by John Harris, English Decorative Ironwork, 1610-1836, London, 1960. 11 Hermione Hobhouse, Thomas Cubitt, Master Builder, London, 1971, no. 22c. 81 D. STEPHENSON brackets of this design, and would most probably have been cast in Cubitt's own foundry, as would also the balcony railings.12 The brackets have been used also on no. 7 Albion Place, Maidstone with balcony railings design no. 8 and the cast iron window box design no. I. Design No. 21. The design by Lewis Vulliamy is included for comparison with design no. 20. It has not been seen in Kent but was used on the public house 'The Waterman's Arms' on the Isle of Dogs at the southern tip of Cubitt Town. This attractive building has a long balcony across its south face, supported by eight of the brackets, and three rectangular balconies, each supported by two of the brackets, on its east front. The balconies are all formed using balusters in cast iron of simple, identical but pleasing pattern. The house was probably built by William Cubitt in the late 1840s - see the end of Chapter V, Hobhouse.11 Design No. 22. Seen in end view from the front of a house this bracket is easily mistaken for no. 20, but it has much less elaboration. It is shorter than nos. 20 and 23; it is well seen on nos. 20 and 22 Central Parade, Herne Bay and on nos. 60 and 61 Trinity Square, Margate. Design No. 23. This large bracket has been seen only on no. 19 Central Parade, Herne Bay. The only place where replacement of missing brackets and balconies has seemed to be taking place on any scale is Burney Street, Greenwich, S.E. l 0. Here there are three designs of brackets, one has some resemblance to no. 7 and the other two are nearest to no. 23. BALCONY RAILINGS More historical notes Evidence which throws some light on the history of our early iron balcony railings slowly accumulates, and two centres of interest in particular, seem to be worthy to be recorded here. Firstly, in Thanet Street, W.C.1 some well preserved Georgian cottages, nos. 8 to 17 were listed in 1971 as being of architectural and historic interest.13 Nos. 1 to 21 were built in 1812, 14 and most have small balconies, without brackets but having cast iron balcony panels which appear to be contemporary. At no. 11 the large panel bas eight upright ellipses joined at the centres by lugs, with a border of Greek key pattern above, and one of eight quatrefoils below; it resembles the panel removed ii Ibid., 491, Appendix VB. Thomas Cubitt's Works, 'the ironfoundry was also extremely well equipped, not only with a 10 ton crane and two h ydraulic presses, one of 50 tons and one of 100, but also with boxes for casting girders, and useful wood patterns for railings, balconies and fire grates'. 13 Reported in 'London Day by Day', The· Daily Telegraph, Sept. 10, 1971 , with drawing. 14 Private communication from the Public Relations Office, Town Clerk's Department, London Borough of Camden. 82 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK from no. 11 Albion Place, Maidstone, mentioned in my earlier paper.15 Of greater interest here is the fact that at nos. 11 and 12 the side panels are the narrow 'cobweb' pattern, design no. 13, illustrated along with three other members of the 'cobweb' family, in the Carron Company drawing, dated 1823. There is no evidence at the points of insertion of the balcony rails into the brickwork, of its having been disturbed at any time; the general appearance of the balconies and the fact that nearly all the listed cottages have them suggest strongly that the ironwork is contemporary with the building. The above evidence lends support io the view that the three pages of Carron Company drawings, now in the Scottish Record Office, were illustrations of patterns already in use and were not new designs about to be made available.16 On no. 12 the main pattern resembles design no. 21 in all respects, except that the diamond and the circles at the intersections of the diagonals are missing; here the delicate diagonals have no embellishments. Might the diamond and circles have been included in a later design purely for decorative effect, or were they perhaps added to strengthen a weak part of the casting? Whatever the reason this casting is excellently preserved. On no. 16, the two balconies have panels of design no. 20, as used on the Royal Victoria Hotel, The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells and attributable to John Nash.17 The second place of interest is 'Bleak House', Broadstairs. When Dickens lived here there was a verandah which gave the gaunt house what little architectural character it had: The reproductions of an old photograph, available as postcards, suggest convincingly that the verandah was erected with the house in the early 1800s.18 The ironwork of the verandah was re-erected on a summer-house in the garden when the house was enlarged in 1901, 'nearly one hundred years later'. The balcony panels are of the design no. 7. This is further evidence that castings of this pattern were in use before L. N. Cottingham illustrated the design, with a cresting, in 1823/4.19 Early in the nineteenth century nos. 1 to 5 were added to the houses already existing in what is now Grove Terrace, N.W.5. The rails of the balconies were formed using cast panels of design no. 1, which had been modified by the inclusion of a circular floral boss at the centre of the ellipse, where the scrolls and rods intersect. In all other respects the castings exactly resemble the Carron pattern. 1 The panels appear to have 15 Arch. Cant., lxxxvi (1971), 185, design no. 20a. 16 Ibid., 178-180. 11 Ibid., 185. 18 The date is that given by the present owners. No documentary evidence is available, but local tradition says that 'it was built in about 180 I as the first in a row of terrace houses, but work was never started on the other houses.' 19 Lewis Nickolls Cottingham, The Smith and Founder's Director, London, 1823/4, pl. i,no.4. 83 D. STEPHENSON been cast complete; the modification would then most probably have been made by an addition to the pattern used in making the mould. Curved panels of design no. 1 which had been recorded only in Herne Bay have been noticed recently (March 1976) on the Lowood Hotel, Ambleside, Cumbria, together with flat panels of the same design. Flat panels of the design also occur on the near-by Waterhead Hotel in Ambleside. AREA O R STREET RAILINGS Early in the eighteenth century when houses with basements or semibasements began to be built, some form of enclosure was needed around the 'area' so formed to remove the danger of accidents to passers-by. Many town houses were fronted by walls or balustrades. An excellent example of a terrace of town houses now having iron railings is Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, built about 1704.20 It is often difficult to be sure whether street or area railings are contemporary with the first building of a house or were added later; we can be reasonably certain that railings are later additions if the houses are earlier than the eighteenth century. For example, Lindsey House, nos. 59 and 60 Lincoln's Inn Fields was built by Inigo Jones in 1640. The railings which now enclose it are certainly of later date. 21 An example in Kent is The Red House, High Street, Sevenoaks. This handsome house now has robust wrought-iron railings with cast-iron urns on the standards, see Fig. 4, nos. 21 and 22. It was built in 1686. Sir John Dunlop in his history of the town, reproduces an engraving of 1719 from Harris' History of Kent, showing the front of The Red House with a wall and wooden gates.22 It would, however, be a mistake to assume that railings which are in the Georgian tradition were made in the eighteenth century. A recently discovered pamphlet has a print showing The Red House as The Sevenoaks Academy for young gentlemen. The academy was opened in the early 1800s and is shown in the print fronted by wooden palings above a low brick or stone wall.23 The present railings may, therefore, be late-Georgian or even early-Victorian. As in the case of balcony railings, domestic area or street railings were at first made in wrought iron. 24 The tips of the bar or rod would be hammered by the blacksmith to, for example, a simple taper, perhaps 20 Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England, London, i, Cities of London and Westminster, Harmondsworth, 1973, 636, no. 95. 21 /bid., 369, no. 57. 22 Sir John Dunlop, The Pleasant Town of Sevenoaks, Sevenoaks, 1964, 124. 23 Sevenoaks Chronicle, January 4th, 1975. 24 The earliest recorded cast-iron railings are those erected around St. Paul's Cathedral in 1714: they were cast principally at Lamberhurst. Mark Anthony Lower, Sx. Arch. Coll., ii, 169-220. 84 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK with a 'neck', or to form a spear head. Later, tips or finials were cast onto wrought-iron rails, and later still the entire rail would be cast in one piece. Such castings are comparatively small items of foundry work, which could be made in numerous factories all over the country, and patterns could be copied or modified to suit the requirements of the designer or the whim of the customer. The number of variations in design of area and street railings is large; more than a hundred patterns have been noted, and about half of them are illustrated in Fig. 4. The railings on the early eighteenth-century Went House, West Malling,25 built with the same sort of bricks as the earlier Bradbourne House, are, with the handsome gates, entirely of wrought-iron with castiron urns. Here, necked and tapered rails alternate with rails which end in two upward-turning scrolls joined in a pointed tip. The standards are openwork wrought-iron panels, strengthened and decorated with scrolls, surmounted by long necked, cast-iron urns. The present condition of the ironwork suggests that it was probably in place not very long after the house was completed. Some railings of about 1770, with lamp standard and torch extinguisher, from no. 13 John Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C.2, are exhibited in the ironwork gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The rails are of wrought iron, tapered at the tips, and with simple necks, Fig. 4, no. I. Short lengths of such original rails still survive in the Adelphi.26 At no. 10 Adam Street there are two patterns of classical urns, Fig. 4, nos. 2 and 3. Design no. 2 can be seen also at no. 18 across the street; here the original rails, surviving unharmed until 1974, curved away from the pavement, over the area, at their lower ends. Design no. 3 occurs also in Buckingham Street; the urns are, of course, made of cast iron. At this point it is interesting to consider the entirely wrought-iron railings at Forsters, on the west side of the High Street, West Malling. The house is thought to be of mid-eighteenth-century date with modifications later in the century. The thin, flat finials of the rails are set diagonally on the square section bar: they are alternately of simple, pointed spear and fleur-de-lys shapes; the latter are all too easily bent and some have been replaced. There is some additional evidence that this type of railing may have been approximately contemporary with the 'Adam style' of railings just described. For example, on the street front of Swan Hill Court in Shrewsbury, 'a later eighteenth century house'28 there are rails also of square section bar set diagonally and having thin, flat finials of spear 25 John Newman, The Buildings of England, West Kent and the Weald, Harmondsworth, 1969, 579, gives the date as c. 1720. 26 Douglas Stephenson, 'Surviving Adelphi Ironwork', Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, cxxv(J977), nos. 5246-8. 27 Lt.-Cdr. A. C. and Mrs. Painter, personal communication. 28 Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Shropshire, 1958, 283. 85 Li t :f i 1 i _ ft-0 1 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 S i 􀀂 t 􀀎 e t❖ t i 9 10 11 \2 13 14 15 16 Jl 􀀂 t 1+ i 􀀋 􀀌􀀍'. i 17 18 19 20 21 22 􀀎3 24 t i t 1 i? t !❖ i i 25 2 6 27 28 29 30 31 3 2 33 1 tlit!Ai 134 35 - 36 37 38 39 40 4 I i t t· + 1 t t 􀀎-􀀏 􀀐􀀑 -61 5 4 55 56 57 􀀈 59 60 Fig.4. 86 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK. shape with rounded tips. As at Forsters the upper ends of the bars are neatly rounded, where they seem to overlap the finials. At Bisley, in the Cotswolds, the post office and the adjacent house each has square rails with flat finials set diagonally, but here the transition from square section rails to flat heads is more elaborate, consisting in the first case of a double collar and a short round shaft tapering away into the finial, a flat circle surmounted by a narrower squared tip; the second case has finials of a similar shape but bar ends in three 'necks' and a short tapering shaft. An extensive search has not revealed any series of architects', blacksmiths' or ironfounders' catalogues or pattern books of designs beginning in the eighteenth century, but the City of Birmingham Reference Library has a fine collection of trade directories from 1767 onwards. It was not until 1815 was reached, however, that any reference to railings was found. In that year Wm. Neville & Co. claimed, in Wrightson's New Triennial Directory of Birmingham, to be patentees of hurdles and gates. The only patterns of rails shown are illustrated in Fig. 4, nos. 4A and 4B. The garden gate at Ightham Mote would appear to be of this period. The finials of the round, wrought iron rails, now gilded, are shown at no. 4. They were made, each from a single piece of rod, by making cuts in the flattened end, and shaping the spear tip and recurved side pieces, or by very delicate welding of shaped parts. The gate posts consist of four openwork cast-iron panels held together at the top by a heavy square casting which carries the anthemion device on each side. In the Wrightson's directories of 1823 and 1825 there are large folded engravings illustrating agricultural and domestic ironwork which include fences and gates. In the latter, the ironwork by T. & J. Uphill includes large gates with stone or brick pillars, some with elaborate overthrows or lamp-holders. There is one gate shown with heavy openwork cast-iron posts and in all cases the gates appear to be made from rails with simple spear tips or slightly more complicated wrought-iron patterns of the type shown in Fig. 4, no. 4. From 1839 onwards, a wide variety of decorative ironwork appears in the advertisements, e.g. 'ornamental fronwork for churches and pleasure grounds, balconies and virandas (sic) and every kind of f encing' or 'manufacture of mechanical and ornamental ironwork of every description; elegant balcony and ornamental fencing in every style. Metallic shop fronts, sashes, fanlights etc.' and again 'manufacture of wrought iron gates, hurdles, palisading, park fencing, verandah and ornamental ironwork'.29 Many tips are missing from the rails on no. 7 Fortfield Terrace, Sidmouth, South Devon, dating from 179 5; tips and urns are shown, 29 All three quotations are taken from Robson's Birmingham and Sheffield Directory of 1839. 87 D. STEPHENSON Fig. 4, nos. 5 and 6. This is an example of cast-iron tips on wrought-iron bar; it may be that at this early date the process of casting tips or finials onto wrought-iron bar or rods had not been perfected. The railings around George III Customs House in Gravesend are almost certainly contemporary with the building of l 8 l 6. 30 The rail heads are rounded conical castings, design no. 7, and the standards carry small cast-iron pineapples, design no. 8. There is a wrought-iron lamp standard of the period incorporated into the rails on the east side. Another small pineapple is used on rails at nos. 108/9 Windmill Street, Gravesend - design no. 16, with a fleur-de-lys design no. 15 as rail head, heavily rusted. · The designs nos. 9 and JO have been included as they surround houses, with areas, known to be of the years just before 1820. They are in Oxford Parade, Cheltenham, at the corner of Oxford Street.31 A short length of railings of excellent design, recently straightened and strengthened, stands along the pavement edge at the north end of Milton Place, Gravesend: the design no. 11 bears a close resemblance to one illustrated by Cottingham. 32 The pattern can be seen also at no. 13 Trinity Square, Margate, and a smaller version exists at no. 122 King George Street, Greenwich, S.E.10. The related design nos. 19 and 􀀞7 were seen at no. 36 Royal Hill, Greenwich and at Morden College, Blackheath (as standard finials) respectively. Design No. 12 is another one which has many variants, some of which are of wrought iron. The one illustrated is at nos. 14 and 16 High Street, Sevenoaks, and appears to be of wrought iron. The design also occurs on the area railings in Thanet Street, W.C. l (see page 00). On Knole Cottage in Bradbourne Road, Sevenoaks, the spears have longer and more slender necks. Gloag and Bridgwater illustrate the design with a long neck as cast-iron rails in Bryanston Square, Marylebone, London.33 Design No. 13. This urn accompanies the spear heads, on standards, at nos. 14 and 16 High Street, Sevenoaks. Design no. 14. Has been noted in many places. Gloag and Bridgwater illustrate it as 'early nineteenth century' on railings round Portman Square, London. It is used in the gate of Igbtham Place, The Square, Ightbam, along Dudley Road and in York Road (nos. 59 and 60), Tunbridge Wells, in Park Vista, Burney Street, Gloucester Circus and Royal Hill in Greenwich, and there is an odd rail outside no. 53 Wellington Street, Gravesend. See also Fig. 5, no. 114. The firm of A. Ballantine & Sons, Ltd. of New Grange Foundry, Bo'ness, Scotland exhibits in its catalogue of 1957 illustrations of rail 30 John Newman, op. clt., 29 I. 31 Amina Chatwin, op. cit., 22 3. 31 L. N. Cottingham, op. clt., pl. xxxi; reproduced by Gloag and Bridgwater, 224. 33 Gloag and Bridgwater, op. cit., 142. 88 MORE DECORATIVE IRONWORK heads which are 'at least a hundred years old'.34 The Company 'made ornamental castings even before 1856, and the first order which started the foundry was for seven miles of ornamental railings for the Thames Embankment'. The two pages of illustrations with table of dimensions may be of interest to other workers in this field and are reproduced in Fig. 5. The designs nos. 111 and 115 in this series have been seen in Appledore. Design no. 17 is the finial on a short section of old wrought-iron railings at 21 King William Walk, Greenwich and the urn design no.18 is on the standards. Nearby in St. Alphege Passage there are heavy spears design no. 38. John Nash used the similar design no. 20 in Park Street East, N.W.1, and it is also to be seen on no. 10 Inglebert Street, E.C.I. On the standards in St. Alphege Passage there are heads of design no. 37. Designs nos. 21 and 22 illustrate the beautiful cast-iron urns and the double-necked rail tips on the front of The Red House, High Street, Sevenoaks, see page 84. There are urns of the same pattern, but about one third larger on the gate pillars. The urn design no. 23 is on the standards at nos. 38 to 44 High Street, Sevenoaks; it can be seen also at nos. 21 and 22 Fort Crescent, Margate with 'heart and honeysuckle' balconies (design no. I). At nos. 3, 9 and 10 Crooms Hill, Greenwich, the early-eighteenth-century houses35 have a slightly more elegant version of the design in which the 'flame' knob is replaced by a sphere with an equatorial band. In all three places, the rails which are used have tapered tips and single necks. In the High Street, Sevenoaks, some of the tips are broken off 'square', which indicates that they were most likely cast onto lengths of wrought-iron bar. The small urn design no. 24 was seen at no. 15 The Paragon, Ramsgate, with rails tipped with design no. 40. Urns of design no. 26 can be seen on the front of old Sevenoaks School in the High Street. The design is used in Oxford Parade, Cheltenham on houses of 1820 or later. It is to be seen also at no. 18 Crooms Hill, Greenwich and at no. 55 Swan Street, West Malling it is used with rails which have delicately necked and tapered tips. Of the representative series of spears, designs nos. 27 to 33, little more need be said, except to give the locations which are as follows; no. 28 at Paragon Court, Fort Terrace, Margate; no. 29 at no. 15 Edwin Street, Gravesend; no. 30 at Romney's House, Holly Hill, Hampstead; no. 31 on the old theatre in The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells; no. 32 is a baluster finial from St. Dunstan's Terrace, Canterbury; no. 33 is to be seen in St. Dunstan's Terrace, Canterbury, in Edwin Street, Gravesend and on no. 19 Central Parade, Herne Bay. A more striking version of the last of these, design no. 58 with one sleeve ring fewer, but with a larger spear blade occurs on the Chinese restaurant, London Road, Sevenoaks, and 34 Personal communication from the Managing Director, Mr. H. C. Ballantine. 35 Olive and Nigel Hamilton, op. cit., 113. 89 '° 0 ltAILlNQ BAR HI.ADS FNmltt. Soni,. AAU,£NG BAAS - To Vuioin LagUia 148 No,. 122 "' ,.. )21 131 13% lt\ \"UM,. l..en:fiU!! Ml.UNO 1\AJ\ HU.OS i.F.. •r I sr&tW s1·&s1· T T &1· ,.. $;.: .. ' r. ,.(l\okd) r 61..\ .