We are feeling both happy and honoured to be short listed for The Tile Association Best Heritage Award 2023.
The nomination is for the work we did in the comprehensive restoration of a tiled floor at Blacket Place in Edinburgh.
We completed the tile restoration work at Blacket Place in 2022. Blacket was one of the first boroughs of Edinburgh and was developed around the 1830s, containing semi-detached and individual properties. It’s a conservation area and if you would like to know more about the area, there is some great information on the area online if you simply google it.
My personal favourite being that ‘Under the feuing conditions, the value of the houses erected was not to be less than £600.’ As you can imagine… they go for a little more than that now.
The Tile Restoration Work
The tiled vestibule and hallway in the property were completely bost. So a full and comprehensive restoration had to be undertaken. With it being a conservation area, the floor tiling had to go back down as it was originally. Because a lot of the floor was damaged, we used everything we could salvage to keep the hallway as original as possible using completely original tiles. With the vestibule we had Craven Dunnill Jackfield match, cut and supply us with the tiles for that area. So the entrance is in completely new tiles.
This floor required a lot of work to help get it back to its former glory. While we were working on the tile restoration work, we had to deal with everything from freezing cold weather to sitting outside having an ice cream on our lunch break.
The job had it all. My friend and mentor Craig from Welby and Wright had a grand old time and we were filled with pride upon completion of the job as we left the finished restoration work looking rather lovely as the rays of sunshine reflected off the freshly finished floor.
