# Victorian kitchen sealed for 60 years



## soranman (Sep 16, 2011)

A couple have uncovered a Victorian kitchen that has been bricked up since WW2, whilst doing up their mansion. Certainly some interesting pieces in the pics, but would be nice to see some pics as they found it, as everything looks to have been cleaned up since they found it.

Link to story here


----------



## Richard Davies (Sep 16, 2011)

I remember reading in one of John Harris's books that he found a Georgian kitchen whilst looking around a stately home. A new one kitchen had been built during a Victorian renovation & the original had been left in situ.


----------



## krela (Sep 16, 2011)

Love it! Wish I had a basement like that. =/


----------



## Foxylady (Sep 16, 2011)

soranman said:


> ...would be nice to see some pics as they found it, as everything looks to have been cleaned up since they found it...


Absolutely! Fantastic find though, even so...imagine having a house that's so big that you can do an explore in your own place!


----------



## RichardH (Sep 16, 2011)

krela said:


> Love it! Wish I had a basement like that. =/



The house where I grew up had something similar, although not quite as spectacular. We lived in a fairly large 3-storey Victorian town house. Our (i.e. the sprogs) bedrooms were on the top floor and one wall of my bedroom had a hollow ring to it. I always wanted to know what was behind it but dad said it was just a false wall to hide rough brickwork or pipes. I got my wish when we moved out: dad carefully found the edges of the plasterboard and removed a panel. Behind it was a 4' wide kitchenette from the 50's. Evidently the upper floor had been let out by a previous owner and, rather than removing it, it had simply been covered over and forgotten.

This happened when I was about 12, so it's probably what gave me the bug for wanting to know what was behind closed doors and suspicious-looking walls...


----------



## Dirus_Strictus (Sep 16, 2011)

As Cefn Park is about to join the multitude of 'Stately' conference centers, I suspect the story of the discovery owes much to journalistic license. In the late 60's the British country side was full of semi-abandoned rundown mansions, Wales being no exception. As domestic staff moved on to better things during and after WW1, the 'poor' owners suddenly realised that they just could not cope with the huge victorian kitchens that their staff had struggled with on a daily basis for years. Thus the servant attics and basement kitchens were just abandoned, more modern facilities being provided on the ground floor. In the late 60's a group of us used to attend executor auctions of properties like this - in many cases entering the property was like stepping back in time, only the dust and decay giving the game away.

So the story of room being lost and forgotten, in the junk filled (hardly a brick wall) basement of a house that has been in one family for a number of generations, is not that surprising given its location and pattern of occupancy over the years.


----------



## krela (Sep 16, 2011)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> So the story of room being lost and forgotten, in the junk filled (hardly a brick wall) basement of a house that has been in one family for a number of generations, is not that surprising given its location and pattern of occupancy over the years.



Maybe not, but 50 years later it IS getting increasingly rare, and not all of us were around in the 60s to see it when it was common.

No offence meant, but whilst you may have seen it all before, some of us haven't.


----------



## Pincheck (Sep 16, 2011)

These things happen more than expected i think. When it surfaces its just a Gem mostly left by mistake but a good one


----------



## TeeJF (Sep 16, 2011)

I tell you what... it must be lovely to have a house so big you can "lose" a kitchen! But bell pulls are really common, even prolls like me and Tonto have those in our house!


----------



## Richard Davies (Sep 16, 2011)

When I stayed in a hotel in New Orleans a few years ago the room had a kitchenette semi hidden behind a set of sliding mirror fronted doors. 

The fridge & sink were useable, but the Westinghouse electric cooker (which looked like it came from the set of The Brady Bunch) was labelled as deativated.


----------



## Pincheck (Sep 16, 2011)

Richard Davies said:


> When I stayed in a hotel in New Orleans a few years ago the room had a kitchenette semi hidden behind a set of sliding mirror fronted doors.
> 
> The fridge & sink were useable, but the Westinghouse electric cooker (which looked like it came from the set of The Brady Bunch) was labelled as deativated.



Very Victorian


----------



## soranman (Sep 17, 2011)

Pincheck said:


> These things happen more than expected i think. When it surfaces its just a Gem mostly left by mistake but a good one



There was another good one from last year, where a family found a chapel hidden under their house.


----------



## Munchh (Sep 17, 2011)

krela said:


> Maybe not, but 50 years later it IS getting increasingly rare, and not all of us were around in the 60s to see it when it was common.
> 
> No offence meant, but whilst you may have seen it all before, some of us haven't.




This is true. I've certainly seen plenty of sanitised versions in large houses. A complete original example like this one, well never actually. It's a very interesting find. I hope they do right by it.


----------



## Pincheck (Sep 17, 2011)

soranman said:


> There was another good one from last year, where a family found a chapel hidden under their house.



yes usually these turn up during newer alterations taking place to older buildings normally remember oen that stopped it due to the significance of the find, Not much fun for the people doing the alterations  such is life.


----------



## Kaputnik (Sep 17, 2011)

seems as contrived as f*** to me! a rupert and henrietta who want to get their faces in the media for 5 mins.


----------

