Mathematical Tiles in Hampshire
Millions of people a year must pass these by without ever noticing,
perhaps recognised by only a few dozen, perhaps this page
will increase the number of those passing by knowingly, now.
They manage to hide in plain sight, even escaping the notice of building
surveyors.
How to recognise them and what goes wrong with them, still existing from
around Hampshire. Hampshire seems to have more variety
of situations than Kent or Sussex, from bank to prison, kebab house
to churches, terraced houses to country mansions. As
of February 2016, 53 definite examples and 4 possibles in Hampshire and
13 and 2 possible on the Isle of Wight. You are never farther
than fifteen miles from an example of mathematical tiling in Hampshire,
and if there was a proven example in the Andover area, then more like
10 miles. A uniquely British phenomenon, and if not for the Penryn
example , a uniquely English phenomenon.
For Heritage Open Days, 8-11 September 2016, I designed a walk and talk on mathematical tiles.
2017 heritage weekend, extending to including Gosport as well.
https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/mathematical-tiles
https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/mathematical-tiles-in-salisbury
https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/mathematical-tiles-in-winchester
https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/event/mathematical-tiles-in-gosport
For a followup of a new discovery on that walk in 2016, see 33 The Close
Salisbury, below. And followup for 2017 , see Hyde Street , Winchester
Considering 2017 seems to be a year to celebrate Jane Austen. There
seems to be a curious connection or coincidence between her and
mathematical tiles. Her house in Chawton has one wall covered in them
(see below ), her 18th birthday celebrated in Southampton at the Dolphin
Hotel has some (see below),
the house of a family friend in Alton she often visited has them (see
below) and in 2017 a statue of her has been erected in Basingstoke in a
street with about 6 or 7 examples of them (see below)
01 March 2017, I gave a well attended talk to
King John House, Romsey, Wednesday Talks
title: Mathematical Tiles in Romsey and Hampshire.
http://kingjohnshouse.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017-programme-draft-anne.jpg
After the talk , we made a new discovery relating to the tiles in Romsey, see below
21 March 2016, I gave a talk to
City of Southampton Society
title: Mathematical Tiles in Southampton and Hampshire.
I gave an earlier version of it to the Southampton Science Cafe in February
2015, in place of a scheduled speaker , who could not make it.
Southampton Science Cafe talk, part way into this page .
If anyone would like to submit their own pics of buildings mentioned
below but are beyond public viewing, or anyone aware of other Hampshire
examples, not mentioned, or recent changes eg gale damage
to ones described here, my email address is towards the end of Part 3.
Southampton
Tudor House Museum, Bugle St, Southampton
On a rear wall, beyond the rear door of the banquetting room , turn
immediately on your right through a door to the rear of the building and
that
external door is contained within the wall that has the mathematical
tiles on it. Or if not going for a tour of the building, ask for
directions to the cafe and the front-desk staff will direct you through
the relevant door. Ignore the hanging tiles at the very highest level
and ignore the
commentary on the audio guide paddles which say these tiles are on the
wall next to the facetted bay window overlooking the knot garden.
Ignore the patch of replacement surface , where the railings are, don't
know what they are, terracotta or brick slips perhaps replacing a patch
of collapsed mathematical tiling presumably or bomb blast damage (see 49
Bugle St), but too smooth in texture and too pink in colour.
A lot of the identifying/suggestive features except the main one of
fully viewing to a side. Perhaps someone could scrape the surplus mortar
off
the lowest 2 tiles in this pic of the external right side of the door
framing. The cracking is along the line of the rear of the tiles, red
arrow markers, giving the characteristic saw-tooth profile.
As a USP of this museum is building features , materials and techniques
from Norman walls to 21C nitrogen fogging , fire suppression system. It
would be nice to
see more made of these mathematical tiles. After all, the crack will be
letting in water whether there is mortar spread to the tiles or not.
I happened to visit coinciding with an architect who liked the conducted
tour
of the attic and a geologist who enjoyed identifying the numerous
differently sourced stone types used in the basement. Incidentally is
the square recess in the basement wall, angled upward as a sort of flue,
as that section was supposed to be a
vault at some time. Was it a sort of early Lamson Tube (using string and
gravity there) , as still used in the likes of Sainsbury and Asda
supermarkets for secure ferrying of cash, or even a night deposit
shute?.
A view of the upper window set in the wall, taken from the attic space,
showing the edge of one of the tiles.
I don't remember seeing this protective nod to MT walls before.
Cylinders of cork to protect from ironwork damage, downpipe fixings
here. Unfortunately
a point of rainwater ingress unless there is sealant behind.
Red arrow showing the front lower edge of a displaced tile or severely
warped tile, and 2 arrows to a patch of bulging tiles, failed backing,
nail sickness or whatever.
The upper window where a lump of fill has fallen out showing the cut tile for a previous window frame perhaps.
Light single knuckle taping of about 12 "bricks", about 2 had the dull
thud of brick and the rest various sorts of slightly reverberant/hollow
sounds. So interesting but not conclusive test for mathematical tiles as
it depends on the amount of bedding and adherence, if any.
An aside. I'm not usually into gimmicks but I quite liked the initial
A-V Harry Potteresque disembodied voices presentation for visitors in
the banquetting room. A good reminder ,for non astronomers, what the
night time light levels were like in earlier centuries. Similarly ,
with great succes, BBC series Wolf Hall, interior scenes filmed
under candle light only.
Albert Rd, Southampton docks area
A new discovery for 2015, on more certain ground than Bugle St.
Not in the publically accessible buildings record as MT, The
Royal Albert Hotel, Albert Road South, Southampton. The upper
faces of two sides and part return on a third face.
When I veiwed it , looks like there has been lots of slipped tiles
previously, but not any gaps. Unsympathetic patches of undyed mortar
slapped in. Just two exposed edges of a tile , this one at a window reveal.
A number of examples of gaps showing behind lower edges to tiles
similar
A tile on its progression to falling out someday soon, showing the
raked edge
no evidence of the phantom core sampler doing his work on these facades (see Romsey below)
Alexandra Hotel, Bellevue Rd, Southampton
This pub has held a secret from the Victorian era.
New discovery for 2015 also. Courtesy , not of a phantom
core sampler but this time heating and ventillation contractor making a
hole through the wall for a vent. Without this clue , not an inkling
of evidence for MT on the upper story of this pub.
Presumably pilot drilled from the outside , then large diameter
coring bit from the inside and dangling through the window, the
outside also. Neat hole under the middle upper window.
The landlord , aware of some of the history of this
pub, was not aware of the tiles . I should have asked him
to open a window and give some of them a knuckle tap. The upper story
does look a bit different to the middle storey but that could be just
due
to repointing at different times. Even so if one storey is tile and the
ther is brick, even with the same clay, I would have thought over time
there would be more difference in colouration and texture and even
lichen coverage.
Looking up from the pavement. The curved section is the entry
porch roof. The narrow thickness of a tile in evidence, delineated from
the backing.
Overexposed view , the pink colour of the material behind probably
means red brick, smeared with yellow tile dust.
From another angle, the same apeature, as an inch or so above the
lower edge then that much thicker than at the true lower edge.
The uppermost coarse is different, lighter coloured, stucco/plaster
faux "brick" to cover the working faces of the tiles ?
Next attempt with x3 of camera and x15 of binoculars, straight on
Eventually with a camera with gyro stbilising in the lens
New discovery for 2016, 9 Forest View that leads on to Cement Terrace, Southampton.
Presumably the street was named celebrating the new wonder material of
Portland Cement, of the early Victorian era. Why no Kevlar Ave or Teflon
Drive or Velcro Street these days ? So not derogatory in the manner of
Steptoe and Son, Oil Drum Lane.
Viewable tile edges denoted by red <, generally structurally very
suspect looking parapet and facade if brick.
Very rare corner tiles, two of them , lower edges revealed, otherwise to
be definitively seen only at Ringwood, Basingstoke and the Singleton
Museum.
different viewing angle around the downpipe hopper.
New discovery 01 Feb 2016 so now 5 in Soton, rear of the Dolphin Hotel,
High St, Southampton.
Another building with a Jane Austen connection, this time in Southampton, see Chawton below for the main connection with her.
Not the ballroom (her 18th birthday spend there apparently) , some sort
of very utilitarian extension at the rear, marked with red V.
Ignore the hanging tiles on the left, perhaps lost in the war when
Holyrood Church was bombed.
Under the corner ,showing the second instance of exposed corner
mathematical tiles in Southampton. All the lower edges to the left face
are visible. An exposed lower edge , other than the lowest run, at the
yellow V.
only too obvious slipped ones
One that got away, Lower High Street, Southampton
A surviving white mathematical tile remnant only now to be found in the
Archaeology Unit, Melborne St (of Jan 2016 in room 19, low pigeon hole
racking , 3 bays in , top recess). Label saying SOU266/06, 1960s
backfill (WW2 demolition rubble?) into a vault , accession date of 1989.
Original site or building unknown but presumably in
Lower High St. Most of the fair face of a stretcher tile, and break in
the working face so part of the ledge.
Edge section
In 2022 I looked at the roofscape near the Red Lion pub lower
High St. Could it have been from a south face of number 56 where a post war building is now. Looking closely ,if bricks
they are too smooth and regular for stock bricks and if yellow
engineering brick why right up there.
There is no tying of the red bricks of the chimney
stacks into the yellow bricks/tiles. No definitive
signs of MT seen.
a rear view
I dropped into the pub and retired local bricky was in there,
having done contract laying of new builds in the area.
I could not convince him that that were mathematical tiles
and he could not convince me they were wire cut bricks.
His main argument was all the queen closers must be brick despite
me saying white queen closers can be seen in Fareham , at least.
My main argument was the smooth appearance, precision laying with less than pencil thick mortar courses.
My attempt at over-exposing for lower edges of this
course of perhaps slipped MT is not convincing. Too high and distant for a narrow beam
torch to illuminate , perhaps someone holding a plain mirror
reflecting the sun into there while photographing.
49 Bugle St ?
There is nothing I'm aware of in the building records that says the
front of this Dutch gable building is mathematical tiles. I'll try
giving my evidence, but the whole fun/intrigue of mathematical tile
research/detection is its the ability to fool you one way or another
with their trompe l'oeil cunning or misrepresentation. Even centuries
on the deceipt can remain. I'll never be allowed to excavate into a
section of obvious covered-up damage or delve hands on. But if this
facade should prove to be mathematical tiles, then it probably means the
King's Somborne vicarage frontage is also tile, as also "cobble header"
left and right external-angle , header and stretcher external-angle
tiles etc.
Picture taken deliberately with grazing sun angle, hence shadow. I first
"saw" mathematical tiles on this frontage at night with the oblique
angled light from the bulkhead lamp PIR unit at the front door.
Showing the bulging "cobble" headers of the bricks/tiles, but difficult
to film at night. Unfortunately house number 47 projects out 3 foot to
the south of 49 so in mid January about noon, not able to get good
raking light, I'll return in June about 2pm BST and retake a daylight
pic
night view with oblique angled light, gives some impression of the cobble-like appearance, but more apparent in real life.
1/ Originally timber-framed and earlier than 17C, so more than a hundred
years on and tired front elevation perhaps or in-fashion upgrade. Given
historic buildings grading in 1953,
before non-invasive/non destructive testing was available (ignoring the
phantom core sampler vandal of Romsey and Soton, see below)
2/Painted over , maybe to cover over and disguise a large area of gale damaged/nail sickness/bomb blast tile loss
3/Why would a prestige big house construction use second grade/ reject
bricks, see Kings Somborne and Ringwood Old Bank. More so because header
bond is a weak form of brick bond, especially to 3 stories, again
like Kings Somborne. I would not like to own or live in a 3 story
house of simple header bond construction, a vertical crack is
far more likely to develop than a bond involving mainly stretchers,
especially involved with timber-framing.
With the supply of mathematical tiles you rarely had any choice in the
matter, most were bowed to some extent.
This is a false colour , far exagerated contrast , pic of this painted
over "brickwork". Sunlight from top left, deepest shadow lower right of
many "bricks".
I've called them cobble header bricks. I'm not aware of any bricks at
any time made with this profile, let alone what they would be called.
They are not bullnose, cownose or radial bricks. They would probably
require 2 part moulds to release the undercut bulge end. But why make a
profile that is so slight that only raking sunlight or night light shows
the effect (see Somborne pic). And I'm not convinced it is a regular
repeated bulge, for a deliberate cobble-like finish, as some have more
like a slight cylindrical bowing. More likely to be due to the common
flexing of mathematical tiles, in the green pre-leather stage, due to
their relatively thin aspect, like all simple clay roof tiles tend to
bow , compared to more chunky brick.
4/ The 3 course string courses are not brick , but stucco/ pargetting
like the window lintles and "keystone" protrusions. If the frontage was
all
brick, why build imitatiobn brick stringing?.
close-up of a non-brick string course
Showing the underside edge of the "string course" . The bucket-handle
incising of the stucco/pargetting is not continued underneath. Also the
"bricks" of these courses are dead flat. So covering the exposed
internal top faces of each top course of a section of tiles, to reduce
possibility of a complete loss of tiles in a wind?. The south end of
these string courses stop a foot short of the building to the south, for
down pipe ? or disguising a gap between properties ?. Also the upper
pic shows a nice area of cobbling/dimpling shading to the right of the
window. In close up there, the header curving seems one dimensional, not
spherical, like very shallow curve double bullnose bricks.
5/ Shallow or covered reveals to the windows, compatible with MT useage.
6/ The "bricks" under the window sills look bogus, perhaps stucco again , covering the upper section of the tiles.
7/ The window boxes have been placed there since the archives pics of
this building around WW2 (air raid shelter ). Perhaps they hide the top
sections of the tile courses under the window sills.
This c1941 pic seems to show 7 or 8 broken window panes, bomb blast of
the house between there and Tudor House in that pic, number 55 ?. The
stopped "string course" runs and downpipe run is the same in the 1941
pic, also in 1941 fully painted-over brick/tile/stucco surfaces.
8/ When there is a proven example of mathematical tiles in a street
there is often other examples, see Alresford, Basingstoke, Salisbury,
Upton Grey. Here we have this house a few houses away from Tudor House.
9/ Lead/zinc flashing/flaunching over the window lintles is consistent
with tile useage. As putty , grout or mortar would not form a seal
against the wood of the window frame.
Talking to the owner in 2016, the very top "Flemmish" facade is definitely brick, the rest of the
front material is unknown, assumed to be brick.
Not very interesting as high up and probably modern brown MT examples on
the south side of 50 Bugle St, see pound shop Salisbury and Gosport
High St and Corries Cowes. The fillet of render is falling away and one
fixing face edge may be exposed. No mortar/putty/grout , so not bricks
and the fair faces are planar so not hanging tiles.
A new find for 2017, making 6 examples in Southampton. 56 Bedford Place, none of 3 people who work there knew of the tiles.
The patch of wall above the columns contained within the 2 downpipes and
hoppers. The first slight indicator of possibly tiles, mangled mess of
"brickwork" around the hoppers. Then the colour is more uniform and
texture is smoother than the surrounding (County of ) Southampton White
(yellow) bricks of the Victorian era. Again no mention in the heritage
building records of MT on this Wilton Lodge building.
And so to the signs of mathematical tiles. Unfortunately the curve of
the bow windows blocks the most straight on view of the left edges, but
careful camera positioning just allows enough of an angle-in. Green
arrows show the backward rake angled
faces in a few places (deliberately over-exposed) and also front on in
one place where there is missing mortar.
A close-run thing, The old Farm House, Mount Pleasant Rd,
Southampton. Looked on the side elevation , nearest the railway and
a plain roof tile had fallen away from the nogging under a collar beam.
Not the slabby tudor bricks to the left or herringbone above.
The green caret marks a nail hole of a modern plain tile, cut down to
fit brick-size, the one to its right shows a nibbled lower edge and the
next one is laying on the ground, a modern plain tile.
Any old builder would have bunged bricks in there to fill up that gap,
but presumably nothing now holding what look like bricks in the layers
of the nogging panel below that line of modern tile infil, ie not having
the depth of bricks to mortar brickbats onto for support.
Modern day repointing mortar in that area, but perhaps around upside
down mathematical tiles , like on part of the Cloisters pub in
Salisbury.
Perhaps modern day clipper-sawed down salvaged old bricks to make brick
slips, but intriguing, if that tile was not missing there would be
nothing of note.
Perhaps an old metal rainwater downpipe wore that vertical groove in the
wooden beam and the corresponding ,in-line with it, top suspected tile,
ie before the days of diamond edged Clipper saws were available .
I made an extending monopod to take a closer pic of that hollow with
lime mortar showing under the collar beam, where that fallen tile had
been.
Well at least my monopod worked.
Looks like back in lime mortar days someone made a batch of thin bricks,
at about 3x plain tile thickness, too wide a ledge for top or bottom of
a mathematical tile. As some of those 2-tone yellowish & pinkish
bricks are
farther down in the panel , they must all be these thin bricks, except
the
top course.
Despite wind-braces on this timber-framing , perhaps it is
unwise to nogging-up totally, leaving a sacrificial
course under a beam to allow for movement and breaking the
odd tile rather than dislodging a whole panel. From architect Gerald
Steer, brick slips were used in the Georgian era where there was shallow
space over timberwork, no space for full bricks, so maybe those brick
slips in the Old Farmhouse could be Georgian rather than modern
intrusions.
Someone on one of my talks had seen this in construction about 2015.
Well it has a lot of similarity of reasoning and purpose and deceipt of
Georgian MT, but I somehow don't expect it to last 200 years. McDonalds
drive-through on Shirley High St , Soton
Large pannels of some replicant material nailed to studding and then
"pointed" all over. Perhaps some sort of mineral surface moulded over
boards, right colour, right texture even if some striations but that
occurs with extruded clay for bricks proper. Looks very convincing , but
tap with a knuckle and they sound more hollow than MT.
They've found a way round disguising the edges problem eg like here
http://www.anticoelements.com/installation_files/Brick7-1.jpg
Perhaps the stark white grout/mortar will tone down with age.
The only give away I could see on any of the 3 faces to the faux-brick
section is this , a batch colour mismatch that can occur with bricks of
course , but
would become randomly distributed by the time of laying. Not just change
of colour of "mortar" but vertical line of bricks "A" different to the
staggered intermeshed companions "B" , very slight difference but is
there, not just an optical illusion from the pointing colour change in
much the same area, at another corner.
A close-up of a "brick"
2022 new build at corner of High St and East St, student hall
Tea break, chatting to the site foreman about the history of
Georgian MT, jettied weight saving and being an improvement on wattle and daub , clunch etc.
He said what goes around comes around, and the USP of this patent cladding is they allow 50mm of insulation behind the thin outer appearance of brick , rather than for weight saving.
Cladding over steel sub-frame
And post-Grenfell Tower, Vincent's Place student housing tower
block in Vincent's Walk , more faux brick. I wonder what the
fire-supporting rating of this insulation cladding is. Even the
Georgians knew not to use faux brick at ground level and they did not
have lorries reversing and careering into their walls, giving the game
away. faux brick panels, Vincents Walk , Southampton
faux brick, Vincents Walk , Southampton
Fareham
Yellow "bricks " at 69 High St, Fareham . Red "S" is where there was a
missing tile in 2015 and red "A" is the area I tapped with a knuckle
for the sound file (vacant property then)
The missing tile position
and an overexposed photo that shows the brickwork behind is
red. Without photographing I could not see the colour by eye.
What you don't expect for identifying an architectural feature, a sound
file. Tapping one knuckle over about 8 tiles in that "A" area, a hollow
sound, more like tapping a small thin wooden box like a wooden cigar
box, certainly
not the dull sound of tapped bricks.
The sound of mathematical tiles
The return from the right of the front elevation showing the tile edges.
And lower down on the left return
The exposed lower edge of some tiles
similar
Where someone has screwed some of the slipped tiles, back to
the underlying. I don't know what the vertical scratch lines
are , something to do with builders aligning replacement slips?
There is also a nasty scar over a number of tile faces that look
like a skittering disc cutter that fell out of a builder's hands.
Looking around the side test, courtesy of Alec Clifton-Taylor
(1907-1985) ,
godfather of mathematical tile appreciation,
from when he visited Lewes, Sussex for one of his six more English towns
TV progs, on BBC2 07 Oct 1981. A quote from him "part of the
fascination of these (mathematical) tiles is that they were not only
intended to deceive but succeded in doing so, and still do, often most
successfully". Mathematical Tiles never appeared on TV since then, not
even on Time Team ever, just a modern variant turned up
on "Grand Designs" once.
Picture from Youtube version of 4/6 program, showing him in an
unfortunately uncredited archetectural salvage yard and surrounded by
different sorts of mathematical tiles. Anyone else reckoned, with
his inability to hammer a nail in straight, he cracked half
a second after a film edit point.? He organised the perhaps only ever
symposium on mathematical tiles in 1981, time for another one?. Set in
Brighton perhaps , the geographic centre of their occurance. Anyone like
to email me with an interest in
attending such a convention, and I will keep a log
of interested persons.
A pixieish Alec Clifton Taylor , getting up close and personal with
mathematical tiles at first floor level in Lewes. So often examples are
not found at ground floor level, in this Lewes case , he was pointing
out the exposed edges.
His first English Towns programme in 1978 , he failed to point out the
example at 59 East St, Chichester.
Mathematical tiles not so much because of their precise irregular
thickness and intricate patterning
and interlocking arrangement in 3D but the older Georgian meaning of
the term mathematical was scientific precision. A bricklayer has to
learn how to progress a wall , using sloppy mortar, maintaining a
regular structure in all 3 dimensions as he goes. Mathematical tiles
just require a flat backing and an ability to draw a few parallel
straight and horizontal lines and the tiles take care of themselves , as
the layup,in effect, has been done at the tileworks . It would be
possible to construct a full "brick wall" from
mathematical tiles in one day as they are held in place by nails, mortar
is somewhat incidental, and no reason to let the mortar solidify , like
proper brick wall construction, before proceeding upwards.
They've always been called mathematical tiles. The earliest newspaper
reference I've found is two references in the Times , both of 1836,
neither report needed any further explanation of the term for its
readers,
implying the term was in general useage at that time. One was Atkinson
of Southwark (close to Eleanor Coade of coade stone operation) , a
supplier's advert and the other of
30 November 1836 reporting fallen and broken mathematical tiles blown
off the chapel
of the Brighton Pavillion in a recent gale.
The physical origin I would go with is fashion for brick came in and
these tiles were a way to gentrify or tart-up a tired or failing week
elevation to an older building. Perhaps relevant, the Georgian era was
the era of follies. Infill of timber framing could be cobb ,clunch,
woven oak strips or wattle
and daub ,as here featured in Guilder Lane , Salisbury, under perspex
cover
or any insubstantial or water permeable material and getting tired.
Tiles instead of brick because a shortage of bricklayers then, requiring
much more skill than laying tiles
and also much less weight if not from foundations and week underlying
wall structure. With precision in the tileworks , then it would
possible to get very fine mortar lines in the "brickwork" , so
suggestive of the most expensive form of bricks , rubbed and gauged,
because of the labour involved in fashioning each brick like that. They
would seem to
be very difficult to make dimensionally and flatness-stable through
drying and firing stages, see the ones on Friends Meeting House,16
Colebrook St, Winchester ,
somewhat warped. The skill was at the tileworks, not where they were
hung. Seemingly the required specialised tilemaking art/skill has been
lost over the centuries. The Winchester ones of the 1990s from
a company in Sussex.
On the rear elevation, to reduce wind-driven damp penetration.
As a followup see the Preston Candover and Alresford , examples of new
precision made tiles of 1990s/2000s, unknown maker identity so far.
Winchester
The original tiles above with giveaway tile apearance in the window reveal,
and 20C ones below, to the left of the down pipe.
Another Winchester example, suggested a local resident as he'd
seen the frontage after a section at the porch had fallen away. As a private house I could not go up
and finger tap the wall to hear if a hollow sound, St Johns Croft, Blue Ball Hill.
Right side of frontage, hiding behind the down pipe exposed right
edges of the tiles and one that has slipped away
Left side and left hand edge of one showing after render had fallen off
Another revealed section of left edges of tiles, very high up.
Carlisle House, Formerly Chernocke House, St Thomas St,Winchester, now an architectural practise. 51°3.603', 1°18.942W .
I have done a bit of repointing and if I was an architect based here,
I'd be particularly peeved having to pass through this example every
day. Whether the string course on the front , is tiles, unknown but main
tiled wall is the left flanking.
Showing the rear face brickwork obviously not tied in to the
side "brickwork" as tiles, and some right edges of tiles showing at the
left of a window reveal.
Again another window reveal.
In 2016 it was reported to me by a Winchester local there is another
example , 15 and 16 the Square Winchester, London Camera Exchange and
Harringtons hairdressers next door.
Awkward corner to take pics without a wide-angle lens and all the shop
canopies and overhangs. Note the checkerboard pattern of presumably
mixing
old and new extruded? tiles in a refit sometime.
The defining shot, courtesy of the occupant allowing me to hang out and
photo through an open upstairs window. Also shows the dentillation.
I hope the white painted quoins are made of now warped wood , as you can
see the faux-stone is not fully fixed to the wall, shadows showing
under the
wood panels.
Chequer-board effect again and note the metalwork fixing of the
floodlight which would usually be fitted to brick walling, here
fitted to a window sill.
Street level evening view of the signature edges at the window reveal of
the camera shop, disguised on the next door ones, and the very rough
"brickwork" around the downpipe.
A slipped tile from all the pallaver of trying to
fix a vintage metal downpipe to a mathematical tiled wall.
A new discovery associated with heritage week 2017. A new build health
centre at 15 Hyde Street front and rear. I'd passed this building , with
close street-view inspection , but not noticed any signs of MT.
But the "brickwork" looks too good and being a Saturday I
took a closer look. A strange flying roof to the porch pediment. A
distant inconclusive clue, non-interleaved "bricks"
facade with the adjascent brickwork.
rear
The most conconclusive signature, a small run of deliberately? unpointed join
at the lower right corner, also showing the mastic filled disjuncture withe adjascent brickwork.
There are a few marginal tell-tales of the start of the upward "tick" of
the internal angle, showing in a few window reveals, green arrow. Pic
shows stretcher, header and queen-closers.
Exposed lower edges at the porch
A possible other Winchester MT site , needs a watch , no defining signs
seen so far.
Toscanaccio , Parchment St, with 1804? escutcheon, very non-brick
looking bricks at upper level and wonky chimney. I'll try an
over-exposed pic of the hopper surrounds sometime.
Romsey
There is an internet reference to the Natwest Bank in Market Place ,
Romsey having mathematical tiles, but I saw no evidence of that.
Prior to coming across the Brockenhurst example I'd only seen vertical
co-planar forms, but on a cylindrical surface?. Perhaps before the
renovations in the 1990s, about 1992, when it was the National
Westminster. I suspect someone has confused Market Place and a bank ,
with the Old Bank House, Market Place, Ringwood, see below.
As a followup I got talking to someone who had done full academic
research on mathematical tiles and she said the curved sections
of the Romsey NatWest bank were tiles. Implying the rest was brick, but
if that is the case then there is a perfect colour match between
tile and brick , which I would have thought was next to impossible.
I suspect there were mathematical tiles there up to the early 1990s
"renovations" , I'll try and find a good resolution pre-1990 pic. Now
the curved section is probably just slightly curved brick slips , so
colour matching the rest of the brick.
A return visit to Romsey and I think I've changed my assessment.
Firstly why are the flag-day flag pole mounts fitted to the 2 inch width
of wooden window frames and not the more usual fixed to the wall, over
a much larger area, and to brick for strength.
From the archives , this pic
Must be after the 1965 conversion of the Romsey postal sorting office
to the Westminster Bank (the bank escutcheon/emblazon still in place
at the upper level, empty white square now), no mention of tiles in the building
plans of that time. The oldworld street furniture , shop names
, car types , and carparking around Palmerston would narrow it down.
But now grade 1 evidence
I don't know what they are , a few such core sampling holes in these
tiles.
This one (of about 4 in total , one per bay )near the Market Place sign,
made by a building conservation officer? To sight from the pavement,
at an angle , 8 foot below this hole, about 14 foot above the pavement,
you can see a band of white in the hole. If this were brick then no band
of white , from the bedding layer of putty, should be seen at that
upwards viewing angle.
With the assistance of flash and placing the camera on a tripod with
extended but closed legs and all held aloft ,on 10 second timer
Upper right , and now as at about 45 degrees instead of 60 or 70 degree ,
upward angle, and closer it looks as though the corer touched/punctured
some dark grey backing material,lead?. I wonder if the owners know
that. Another camera trick for taking such pics as these, often pointing
upwards and then how to frame , in zoom ,
when fixed to a tripod, so bringing the view too low to see some
features in window reveals etc, but you can see by eye. Make a tube
extender to
the tripod. Find some bolts and nuts of the size for camera mounts.
Find some metal tube and hotmelt a bolt into one end. Cut and flare the
other end , to take a nut and jubilee clip around it. Then make an
adaptor so the camera can tilt at about 45 degrees and also 90 degrees.
Melt a nut and 2 bolts into a block of plastic and hotmelt around, the
bolts being at 2 different angles, and some pads of rubber to take up
a length of the bolt and brace the camera base. Even so cannot be
used in stiff wind, despite 10 second delay on shutter.
I've been known to get on a bus for one stop to pass a building to
check out from the top deck of a bus. Back from the aside.
This area of "brickwork" is in fact mathematical tiles, that band of
white putty, of the bedding plane, in the upper part of the hole and
only 5mm thickness of front face "brick" .
Similar white bands , by sight, for the holes in the curved bays but as a
bank , in operation, I did not fancy jigging around with extended
tripod and flash in the window areas.
Also in that pic external right angle mathematical tiles on that pier,
which are rare also. No internal right angle ones though, in the return
face of the middle of that pic, just butted tiles and closers .
The tiles on the Natwest bank were placed by the (late) David Cox of
Romsey mid 1980s with R A Ablett builders of Romsey. From his widow, he
had to go on a list of registered Mathematical tile experts,that then
only had his name on it, before he was allowed to touch them. Otherwise
he had worked on churches and old house renovation. She did not
know of the name of the supplier of the new ones, but does have one of
the mathematical tiles made for the Natwest bank job, Romsey and
remembered there was some sort of logo or impressed name or something on
the rear .
By comparison a similar coring hole, but lower position, in Cranbury
Terrace Southampton, one of about 3 on that building.
Such yellow brick of the Southampton one could easily be "Hampshire
Brick" or (County of ) Southampton Brick, types of mathematical tile
that are yellow (New Forest clay) but called white.
These are not cavity insulation holes, they are stopped an inch in,
but why not plugged with colour matching putty/mastic/mortar?
2017, after my talk in King John's house , a few of us walked down to
Middlebridge and the Natwest. ( The mathematical tile in
King John House museum is thicker and heavier than
the Havant stringer example). Somone with better eyesight noticed
something
odd about a central tile in the panels of tiling between 2 pairs of
first and second story windows. The builders plus one has "signed" their
names.
Enlarging vertical scale by x2 undoes the foreshortening from veiwing 25
foot beneath. Actually on a header, although foreshortening makes it
look like a stretcher.
Looks like John Bull stamp pad with 4mm wide rubber block letters,
impressed in the leather stage clay. As impressed a bit skew, the top
edge of the letter carrier is present. So top row is more recessed than
lower edge consequently. The builder was R A ABLETT of Romsey,
presumably the top row, with only the tops of the letters showing.
"G Bradshaw" was Gordon Bradshaw who oversaw the works in 1992,
not the tilemaker. Sometime i'll try again with elevated camera on an
extending monopod now I've a camera with gyro-stabilised lens servo. Top
image, as on camera and second stretched and contrast etc varied.
Perhaps what is on the tile that Barbara Cox has.
Also in close up the window arches , have the texture of moulded brick
rather than the extruded appearance of the tiles.
Modern mathematical tiles in
a shallow course of 3 "bricks" at the front eaves area in the conversion
to Romsey Library, to get over an awkward disjuncture according to a
Test Valley buildings conservation officer. Presumably slipped off
unstuck tiles on a left edge of a MT string course 3 deep, under the
eaves.
Stretcher tiles over headers.
3 strings of MT and the top string angled over, here 5 + 1 still in
place and the others having dropped away ,seemingly, leaving just 2
rows. The top flanges , the "fourth" row show the fixing holes, but seem
to have been spot glued in place, or not.
11 Middlebridge St, Romsey, unusually a terraced house, perhaps jettied at one time
Sheet of lead replacing a missing one and one missing/broken/misplaced below, showing the tile side section.
Trying to fix a plastic down-pipe to something that is not brick
While in Romsey, view the Tudor geometric wall painting
in the White Horse, Market Place. Go into reception off the
carriage passageway , ask to view, and it is in the bar
just opposite the reception.
Brockenhurst
Brick tower base and then mathematical tiled spire to St Nicholas
Church. Note there must be variants of the angled quoin tiles as the
pitch varies not only between the spire proper and the tiled base , but
also within the base itself. Only one type of corner tile made so part
of the base does not have matching corner tiles, they bulge outward.
One missing tile about 30 foot up at the base of the tile spire, lead sheet showing close behind, not brick deep.
If there had been no missing tile then I saw no other signature of being tiles.
Ringwood
Old Bank House, Market Place.
not so clear cut.
Otherwise very poor "brickwork " not coplanar, probably multiple
"bricks" per tile as there is sometimes a 2 "brick" repeat of the
irregulatity, centre of image, proud, recessed, proud, recessed, proud,
recessed.
The tile heights are not the same as the brick heights in the window
reveals and go out of sync. The obvious overlapping on the tile edges is
disguised here by a smear of mortar, the lintels are perhaps pargetting
sculpted to look like vertical bricks
Hints of underlying tile edges on the left hand corner
Much better evidence, right hand edge, camera on the
ground , looking up, so lower tile edge uppermost in
this image and hollow behind.
St Nicholas house (Debra Charity shop), Market Place, Ringwood, built by the Castlemaine of the railway company.
Impossible to see by eye, and very difficult photographically.
Not quite Vivian Stanshall and my pink half of the drainpipe, but hidden
by the pink drainpipe of next door. Just observable a few edges of the mathematical tiles.
Luckily my visit coincided with some repair to the segmented wood
of the portal pillars
And inside the hollow of that wood some rubble , but not of bricks
but mathematical tiles, the wedge edges could be seen.
The left edge and top of fair face ledge showing of one
Edge , front fair face, top of fair face ledge and hole in the
working face showing of this one
The edge and fair face of another, a punk of wood covering the working face
Mansfield House, Southampton Rd, Ringwood
On much firmer ground with evidence. Originally noticed this
building and trigger points, passing on a bus. Appropriately
Southampton brick tiles in Southampton Rd. Lower tiling sounds
hollow.
One reveal showing some tile edges, other reveals are finished with
corner tiles.
A broken tile on the right return section.
A slipped window brick or tile+brick combination perhaps,
as there could be joins showing underneath or perhaps
colour change from , now gone, under-support.
Hints of underlying tile edges at the left return edge
A now greyed spalled tile showing the bright yellow core and
perhaps a grey intrusion that caused the weakness.
The right side return , right edge , the sloping internal face
of the tile second up, catching the sunlight as it is protruding
beyond its covering tile.
Another possible MT example in Ringwood, not checked out but passes over
by me in previous general street inspection, is on the south side of
Market Place, Brewers and debra, 4 upper windows and a parapet? above
Lymington
The camera is not lying , some examples do have a slight
pinkish tone , otherwise yellow, similar to some of the "harlequin"
tiles of
the Salisbury Arcade example below. 3 yellow architects colours 2.5Y8/4,
2.5Y9/3, 7.5Y8.5/4 and 2 pink 7.5R8/4 ,5R7/8, for these
Lymington ones . This is not a recent retiling from the manager and also
from the age of the wisteria, so perhaps colour
variation/leeching/efflorescence over time. But after the introduction
of pozidrive screws
2 screws per tile, revealed after wind pulling away flashing October 2017.
Wisteria , St Thomas St, Lymington
Convenient camera height of the tile edges.
Thoughtful ways of dealing with attaching heavy ironmongery against MTs, the lamp and
the sign
looks like a wood panel covered in lead sheet , screwed through the
tiles into whatever is behind the tiles, then the ironwork screwed to
wood block
East End
East End House, East End, south of East Boldre 50°45.841'N, 1°29.217'W .
I've included this possible siting again as a thatcher working in Pilley
told me about a house in East End as having MT, presumably this one,
had been rebuilt.
No definite sign of math tiles seen on this east face, or what can be
seen of the south and north faces, perhaps on the non-public west face.
Hythe
Prospect Place
The missing "brick" tell-tale in the first image below. Numerous
problems in the second. The third , the south elevation a whole section
come away and then below the V a vertical series of partially lifted
tiles showing a 2 "brick" repeat pattern, also evidenced as a colour
change repeat every second brick elsewhere in the images. Perhaps wrong
spacing leading to one working face being pitched outwards, so the
overlaying tile working
face is pitched inwards, alternating upwards.
Stonehill Farm, Fawley in the shadow of Fawley Power Station
chimney. South face is normal hanging tiles. From the owner, the house
was originally part of the Cadland Estate and he was told by the
previous owner that all the tiles had been removed, numbered
and replaced in the original posistions.
Close up of the left hand of the front west facade and tile edges exposed
The underside front edges at the top of a window reveal. Did not check
to see if the blistering is from pealing paint or failed glazing coat.
Nearby also in the shadow of the power station, included here but
probably not tiles, Ower Farm. Although distressed surface , only one hint of
tiles and that could be an optical effect in the camera.
Hint of black line under a possible lower edge of tiles , high up.
Christchurch , Dorset
11 High st, is supposed to be mathematical tiles. Shallow reveals, edges rendered over and no repeats patterning seen.
Survived blue plaque hanging, and screweyes marked red<, and those
for a chair , broken itself, but not recently any of the tiles from wind
blowing the chair about or elsewhere. The paint is obviously disguising
a lot of missing tiles, patches of rendering under the paint.
The colour of the tiles under the paint, unless some sort of primer, seems to have been grey
Alton
Lasham House, Lasham
the front some distance from the public road, but around the side
probably tiles on the left section and brick on the right
No 1 High St, Alton (probably, number 3 is the travel agents to the
right , then
the museum complex, then this house with no number and next to it 1a in
the cut to the left of it). Rendered frontage but to the side next to
the museum , tiled elevation.
On the rear edge marked with red < you can just about see the
angled sides to the tiles, abutting brickwork to the rear
close up of an edge
close up of where a soil pipe outlet has been punched through a tile overlap
There is a Hampshire Mills group pic of mathematical tiles,
probably this wall a few years earlier and less paint , not a mill.
Possible further example , 2018, in Alton high Street, Number 12. Empty
and up for sale so could tap and the left section gave the hollow sound
but otherwise no definite visible signature.
http://www.diverse.4mg.com/alton_12high_st.jpg ,
other than if it was brick , you'd be concerned about structural
integrity
http://www.diverse.4mg.com/alton_12high_st_b.jpg
Chawton
Jane Austen house, Chawton . Incidently a lot of masonry bee activity in evidence, must be the right sympathetic lime mortar.
Right on the principal corner on public view
and a close up of the edges
where some are slipping at the most susceptible place, the lower edge
A revealing reveal, the top showing lower edges and the "sill"
made from the internal slope face, verticals are rendered/plastered over.
Selborne
Goleigh Manor,Goleigh Farm Lane, Selborne. Too far from the public road to see if mathematical tiles anywhere.
Swanmore A tip off from someone who was certainly aware of MT,
to there being an example in Droxford Rd ,Swanmore, near the extensive
orchards for fruit juice. If Hill Place or any of the other nearby old
houses, then on the private side of the building. Nothing observed on
the
drive-way access side of Hill Place or from the road viewing of Hill
Farmhouse, Uppper Hill Farmhouse or Hill Cross nearer Cott Lane.
Pic of Hill Place
What is the reason for blanking off the symmetrical fellow of window ,
on the right of the porch in the main pic, retaining the arch, on the
south side of the entrance or nearby blanked off porthole window. ?
Pockmarked "distressing" to the coloured mortar? faux brick or tiles,
and salvaged? not wire-brushed blackened chimney bricks, no idea why or
why the mortar spattering thereabouts. But nothing that would be a
signature of mathematical tiles, just all a bit odd. Perhaps my
informant saw this
area immediately after a gale, since bodged up, or a southern aspect
with them. If MT over the complete facade then it would require left and
right external corner tiles and Brockenhurst-like 135 degree corner
tiles of left and right staggers. A pic on pippaheath.com shows one of
the southerly faces with an anomaly of vertical disjuncture to the left
of a facade plus more of the black brick/"brick", requires an invite to a
wedding reception to check out.
Droxford
St Clair's Farmhouse, Wickham Rd, Droxford. The owner kindly
let me take some pics. Some had fallen off in the 1987 great wind. NE elevation
Southern elevation showing a slipped one
West edge of southern elevation showing tile edges, over a brick lower section.
Hambledon
East Hoe Manor, Soberton.
Near Litheys Hanger, set back from public area, with haha. South elevation
East Elevation
West Elevation (camera problem , split into 2 sections)
Petersfield
18 Sheep St, upper level
A spalled? one
A bulging section at the top right
Broken one showing the underlying tile and shallow mortar course
17 College St, Fir Cottage
South Harting
Straying over the border into W Sussex. The Old House, The Street,
next to the White Hart pub. Wisteria would seem to be compitible
with mathematical tiles, see Lymington, the owner of the Old house makes sure it doesn't start to grow under the tiles
The telltale edge to the right flank.
showing the dendating
showing the fineness of the "brickwork" , narrow pointing/grouting
and high degree of coplanarity
Havant
Davies the Chemist, 8 West St, Havant. The owner is quite happy
to talk about technical aspects of the tiling. The builders were in
at the time of taking the pics. They had maybe discovered evidence of
the great fire of Havant, 1760, a layer of ash and melted lead but
also contained slate, 2015 suggestion this was the result of a
later smaller fire to the side of the building.
The pargetting/stucco has fractured and come away in a number of places, taking some of the tiling with it.
And again, showing some of the dendate work under.
Late 2015 , after renovations, this is the only positive clue to MT on
the front. On the left of a window surround, the lower edge of a tile
esposed.
It is likely the flanking wall is also MT, shown in the 1850s
pic below, before the second story was built , making part of
that external wall , an internal wall, on which there were still
MT in 2015 and still evidence of where the original pitched roof of that
single story building in the pic below, was 1855 or so.
So those side tiles were earlier than 1855.
Sometime I must have a go at this test
http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/05/20/rspa.2009.0117
"Dating
fired-clay ceramics using long-term
power law rehydroxylation kinetics" . I've the kiln and thermostat and
laboratory scales. Perhaps the core samples taken by the phantom core
sampler of Hants, Wilts and Dorset goes off for such tests, enough
material in each core for a test, to get a decadal idea of age.
This pic , of a stereoscope pair, may show that main and west faces were MT.
Note the sleeve of the lad holding a wicker hamper on his head
is in a different position in each image, also the curved masques to the
images . Could only be 1850s with those stove-pipe hats,
curiously same fashion , same time in the USA. Perhaps the shop then White's
was druggist and pioneer of photographic processing, and stationer.
Originals indexed as P1993.4 , White's druggist , West St, Havant,
held at Chilcomb House, Hampshire Museums.
And while at it, examples of Fareham style swirly slip striped chimney pots, sergeants, corporals, kernels?
And some in old Redbridge, Southampton, between the station and the Ship pub, on the other side of the road
