We had cast iron fires / surrounds in the Victorian cottage when I bought it and have since pulled all but one out. A builder doing some other work here saw them and suggested they were 'worth a bit'.
I took a photograph of one and showed it to a local fire reclaimers, asking them if it would be any interest and he said 'no thanks' (at nearly any money).
Whilst it was fairly ornate and undamaged, they really only wanted the bigger ones (these were mostly bedroom sized). ;-(
So unless the mixed-light-iron scrap price has skyrocketed ... ?
The remaining fireplace would be fairly 'collectable', even if only because it would add to the local scrap-collectors wagon. ;-)
The lounge had a tiled / concrete surround and hearth and the chimney / breast was still in the kitchen (along with all the other rooms).
I took the one out of the kitchen, though the bedroom and into the loft and braced it there till we had the roof redone and I took it out completely.
The two downstairs ones still have wall mounted gas fires on them and the one bedroom hearth is just bricked up and vented.
The remaining cast iron hearth / surround is still in place and they are actually fairly plain with a few frills. Still, been there over
130 years and the mantle can easily take the weight of a 42" plasma TV[1]. ;-)
I really can't handle the idea of having an open fire in a bedroom!
Cheers, T i m
[1] The glass of the screen still weighs a ton on it's own and I have a fairly large cardboard box full of various PCB's out of it that nearly weigh as much!
Apart from making a coffee table out of the screen, it will be with a heavy heart when I throw (heave) the glass into the skip, considering the millions of cells potentially running at 1200 DegC and the effort that went into designing and building it. ;-(
Yeah. A mate used to make 'mock' Adams surrounds in plaster?
Well, this was (is) a bit more than just a grate. ;-)
Looking here:
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There doesn't seem to be much under £500, most seem to be sold and many are smaller and less well proportioned than ours (or mantle is
36" wide and about 40" height). ;-)
In my long drinking experience, pubs with topless barmaids etc. only seem to last a few months. The pricing policy soon drives people to drink elsewhere.
The other mistake I've seen is to replicate a theme pub, that may work as a one off in London, to the rest of the country. They may get short term trade until the novelty quickly wears off.
While there may be is a place for novelty pubs and pubs with elevated prices the vast majority in the UK are not of this type and have to compete with supermarkets for alcohol sales.
It may take two years to build a pub trade but only two weeks or less to lose it. I've seen too many new landlords/managers come into a once busy pub and virtually empty it, and then complain that the customer owes them a living.
To be fair here, could it be that they are testing the beer first to check that it is okay then applying a new label (rather than just changing the labels)?
Did I miss the repeal of the bit of the The Food Labelling Regulations
1996 that require that (with some exceptions) "the minimum durability of a food shall be indicated by the words ?best before? followed by a)the date up to and including which the food can reasonably be expected to retain its specific properties if properly stored, and ..."?
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