Wednesday 22 June 2011

Former Dental Practice

By coincidence only a week after seeing my dentist I was called out to a house that was the former dental practice. It was designed and built as the dental surgery for the area. Now that dentistry has advanced so much since the 1930's, It was remodelled as a private residence some years ago.


I does have a definite arts deco appearance. It makes use of simple materials, and has simple lines with a few elements picked out.


The dominating feature of the frontage is the tall window that lights the stairs behind.




At the top of the window is the only place on the frontage where the brick is revealed. Otherwise the walls are of a uniform texture painted white.


On the inside the window soars above the half landing and the floor above. It is remarkable how just a few textures of clear glass can provide an elegant feature to a building.


This is the reason I was called out. It is quite a distance from the street, but the stone made its mark with enough force to break the pane.


The large Flemish glass used in this window is no longer made. There is a deep Flemish that is much less soft than this currently in production, but it would be a poor match and stand out obviously from the rest. I have put out questions to various people who I think might have some of this glass that ceased production in the 1970's or 80's.

Just a few days ago when I was looking for some other glass, I came across a large Flemish with soft edges that might just do. It is a little larger than this window uses, but I think it will be a good match for the repair. So if I don't hear from other workers and suppliers, I think I will go ahead with my newly found large Flemish glass. Shame that it is the last that I have.

A complete rebuild came into the studio recently which had the right glass, but unfortunately, of too small a width. So the search goes on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi - Please could you tell me the name of the deep embossed glass around the outside of this window - I am trying to match it up
Thanks
Sue

Stephen Richard said...

I would love to be able to tell you the name. I will need to ask around to see if some of the older workers know. It is very similar to an enlarged Spectrum ice texture (about 3-4 times). I will post here if I discover.

Unknown said...

Small Glister