Way OT: 12 Grimmauld Place Appearance?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 142137

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:

> bbboyminn:
> 
> Ooooohhhh! Thank you everyone. I'm so glad I asked. You've all given
> me such lovely images of Grimmauld Square/Grimmauld Place.

 
> I like Marianne's idea, I think it very closely describes what you 
are
> LIKELY to find in London. I just want to make a couple of small
> changes. I like the idea of brownstone or greystone, but I suspect
> that over the centuries grand bright brown or grey stone has become
> nearly charcoal grey (close to black) with centuries of age, soot, 
and
> other polution. 

<snip> 
 
> Just one small problem, which is the idea of white marble or
> whitewash. That's a little to bright for something as grim as the
> Black house, or as grim as the Black family mood. Of course, it 
could
> be plain stone that was whitewashed originally, then over the
> centuries, the whitewash wore off, and now we just have centuries 
aged
> and discolored plain stone. Anyway, as much as I like the imagry, 
I'm
> sticking with brownstone/greystone.

<Snip> 

> Another thing I wonder about is the kitchen. If you look at pictures
> of London houses, the 'lower level' is frequently only half
> 'submerged'. This allows some windows to the lower level to exist 
and
> provide a service/delivery entrance that is separate from the main
> owner entrance. I'm not sure I have enough information to say that 
the
> Black house has this. When Harry describes the basement/kitchen, he
> says it's dungeon like with rough stone walls and no windows. Yet,
> this partly underground basement idea is very common.

Geoff:
Having just read this post after sending my last message (Reminder: 
write out 100 times "Always check the latest message in the thread 
before putting foot in mouth"), I must add a few more thoughts.

Most older and bigger central London houses were built in the 
Victorian period and externally were of London brick. They were often 
built for upper class families and had a basement area accesible from 
the front via steps where the servants would be found during the day, 
so there was little or no room for a garden.

If you can get hold of a video of the BBC series "Upstairs, 
Downstairs", this was a long running series (1971-75) set in such a 
house and chronicling the lives of the wealthy owners (upstairs) and 
the servants (downstairs).