Way OT: 12 Grimmauld Place Appearance?

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 142104

bboyminn:
> 
> I hope this is on-topic enough that I can get away with it. I'm
> wondering how other people pictured 12 Grimmauld Place and Grimmauld
> Square in general.

Ceridwen:
I imagine the street as sort-of like a formerly exclusive 
neighborhood, with the now-ovegrown square of fading parklike 
greenery in the middle (something from Marry Poppins and other movies 
depicting Victorian England filmed in the 50s and 60s), with once-
stately town homes together shoulder to shoulder.  I think this would 
be the sort of area where the well-off characters from Pride and 
Prejudice and all other Regency romance books had their homes in 
town.  And, at one time, these homes were owned by affluent country 
gentlemen and families of lesser title (not princes, but a knight 
might have a residence here, or a baronet).  I also imagine the Noble 
House of Black as the same sort of people, only from the WW.  A 
country home, and this place in town where they go for 'the season'.  
And as times changed, they gave up the country estate, or the family 
estate is divided between brothers, Sirius's branch inheriting the 
town property while the other branch gets the country place.

I don't see it with even the smallest garden out front.  Maybe a 
square in back, for hanging out the laundry and disposing of garbage 
through a fence into an alleyway.  Grand steps lead from the front 
door directly to the pavement/sidewalk.  It is two rooms wide, with a 
central hallway containing the stairs leading to the private areas of 
the house.  And, it's white.  Like marble, or whitewashed to look 
like marble from a short distance.  And, the lower level has that 
large brick look to it, also painted white.  The steps leading to the 
sidewalk/pavement have some sort of ornament built right onto the 
wide railing, something like an urn, or an abstract of that idea.  
The door is recessed into the front, and is the only piece facing the 
street which has any color other than white.  Black, maybe, for the 
family name.  I don't have the book beside me.

Inside, the living room is to the right, the stairs to the left, the 
kitchen door straight ahead.  Steps lead from the kitchen into the 
service area where the boiler is.  There would be a door to the back, 
but I'm not sure where.

I think the Black house is a remnant of a more elegant time, in an 
area that used to be peopled by the haut ton (sp?) but is now 
probably at least half rented out, and probably divided into small 
flats with older widows renting out rooms or flats for the income.

I imagine Grimmauld Place to be self-contained, opening only onto one 
secondary street, where you can drive a car around the park spot in 
the middle to get back out if you drove into it by accident.  About 
two blocks away is a more major thoroughfare with shops, also once 
exclusive, now catering to the working-class people of the area.

Ceridwen, who enjoyed that.