Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

Thanks for that gunter – an excellent summation. Lovely little sketch-up there too.

Yes these two structures have intrigued me also re Billy status – never had a chance to go snooping around the back. Generally the sparcer and cruder the alterations to the front, the more likely it is that the building is particularly ancient – particularly true of Thomas Street. It’d be very interesting to get hold of a couple of those red bricks in the adjoining party wall and get a date on them. Yes I’m absolutely convinced the adjoining ‘Georgian’ was orginally a Dutch Billy also. Time after time in the city proper you see Dutch Billys coming to the end of their life in the early 19th century (sole surviving original sash in this case typical c. 1830), by which time even the lowest rank of self-respecting merchant would refuse to live in such an outdated house – exactly the same of which happened with Georgian refacings in the 1930s-1950s. So interesting how these waves of alterations take place – usually every 150 years.

I see no reason why that gable should not be reinserted – it’s done all over Europe. But why talk about gables when the building itself is unlikely to be there in a couple of years.

The little Georgian squeezed in to the left of Pilear’s suggested Billy is also of great intrigue, though not for the same reason. Far too much fenestration for a building to be healthy. I love passing it by – never fails to catch the eye.