Firstly, this part of the update is for the opposite end of the house but seeing as the content is pretty retro I will post. Part of the reason I fell in love with this house is that it has a period gas lamp post in the front garden. It's converted to electric, but we believe it's a locally cast Douglas lamp although there is no casters marking, it matches evidence that it is and most of the street furniture around here is VERY local (The drain grate outside my house was cast by the Avonside Engine company).
It was however and has been in dire need of some love. So given the time I have on my hands me and speedy88 (he lives here) set to it. It was black, with a coat of gloss over matt, which was all peeling horrendously over bottle green (which was also on the bay window gallows brackets before they were repainted) over a green over numerous basecoats, all of which was by now many many millimetres thick in places causing a loss of definition on the fluting.
Several hours with a wire wheel on the angle grinder saw the paint stripped right off the main post and a few coats of rust resistant primer applied thinned 50/50 just to protect it overnight. It's cast iron and in lovely condition. The top was painted in advance of this.
The colour. Yes, the colour. Previously I had contacted the Kingswood museum regarding colour as I had a suspicion these were not black in service. They indeed confirmed they had a few Douglas posts and they were in fact green and I would be welcome to come get an idea from them what the colour would be. However, they have strange opening hours, and then this whole lockdown shebang kicked off and museums don't seem like a great idea right now. I knew that the bottle green was wrong. So I took to the internet, remembering a photo set on Flikr from Bristol 'before my time'.
Low and behold I came across this gem, from 1974, locally in Staple hill of the gas lamps still being used, in the weird green shade that Bristol used to paint it's street furniture.
www.flickr.com/photos/fray_bentos/198695686/in/album-72157594155572977/
It's a wonderful set, and I would recommend a browse through all the pictures.
So, onward! Post completed!
I also realised at this time it still had an incandescent bulb fitted which I have now replaced with a more vintage smoked bronze LED filament bulb which gives a nicer colour light. It's not a dark area so it's function as a lamp is pretty moot, it just looks nicer with a more muted warm glow. Looks a lot brighter than it is.
So, that done, moving on to the workshop, I had been eyeing up a filing cabinet on my dog walk behind the local doctors. Normally one would just go ask the receptionist if it was junk and could I take it but again, I wasn't overly keen on going into a doctors right now, overcautious I know but we have 3 other people living in the house and I don't like the risk, if it's avoidable I'll avoid. So it sat there, behind the fence taunting me. Until one morning, the handyman lad was looking to dismantle it, as I was walking past. Result. He popped in and checked it was 'takeable', which he confirmed it was so we popped up and loaded it in the car. Timing!
Means I could clear this shelf and put away the tonnes of paint. The filing cabinet goes in the previous no mans land under the weird bit of roof that used to leak, which i'm fairly sure now does not, so I can make some use of the space.
That left me with an empty shelf.
I boxed the sides in so stuff doesn't fall off and to stop grinding crud going onto the shelving like it did previously.
Painted the boxing-in.
Then I made a door, well, kind of, it's all I had.
What's going on in there then?
Ah.
Teatime. So I will be using that space to build a scale WPL garage for the trucks for storage and photos.
It was however and has been in dire need of some love. So given the time I have on my hands me and speedy88 (he lives here) set to it. It was black, with a coat of gloss over matt, which was all peeling horrendously over bottle green (which was also on the bay window gallows brackets before they were repainted) over a green over numerous basecoats, all of which was by now many many millimetres thick in places causing a loss of definition on the fluting.
Several hours with a wire wheel on the angle grinder saw the paint stripped right off the main post and a few coats of rust resistant primer applied thinned 50/50 just to protect it overnight. It's cast iron and in lovely condition. The top was painted in advance of this.
The colour. Yes, the colour. Previously I had contacted the Kingswood museum regarding colour as I had a suspicion these were not black in service. They indeed confirmed they had a few Douglas posts and they were in fact green and I would be welcome to come get an idea from them what the colour would be. However, they have strange opening hours, and then this whole lockdown shebang kicked off and museums don't seem like a great idea right now. I knew that the bottle green was wrong. So I took to the internet, remembering a photo set on Flikr from Bristol 'before my time'.
Low and behold I came across this gem, from 1974, locally in Staple hill of the gas lamps still being used, in the weird green shade that Bristol used to paint it's street furniture.
www.flickr.com/photos/fray_bentos/198695686/in/album-72157594155572977/
It's a wonderful set, and I would recommend a browse through all the pictures.
So, onward! Post completed!
I also realised at this time it still had an incandescent bulb fitted which I have now replaced with a more vintage smoked bronze LED filament bulb which gives a nicer colour light. It's not a dark area so it's function as a lamp is pretty moot, it just looks nicer with a more muted warm glow. Looks a lot brighter than it is.
So, that done, moving on to the workshop, I had been eyeing up a filing cabinet on my dog walk behind the local doctors. Normally one would just go ask the receptionist if it was junk and could I take it but again, I wasn't overly keen on going into a doctors right now, overcautious I know but we have 3 other people living in the house and I don't like the risk, if it's avoidable I'll avoid. So it sat there, behind the fence taunting me. Until one morning, the handyman lad was looking to dismantle it, as I was walking past. Result. He popped in and checked it was 'takeable', which he confirmed it was so we popped up and loaded it in the car. Timing!
Means I could clear this shelf and put away the tonnes of paint. The filing cabinet goes in the previous no mans land under the weird bit of roof that used to leak, which i'm fairly sure now does not, so I can make some use of the space.
That left me with an empty shelf.
I boxed the sides in so stuff doesn't fall off and to stop grinding crud going onto the shelving like it did previously. Painted the boxing-in.
Then I made a door, well, kind of, it's all I had.
What's going on in there then?
Ah.
Teatime. So I will be using that space to build a scale WPL garage for the trucks for storage and photos.
