This unassuming piece of wood is the last surviving fragment of the original ornate door canopy and corbels from 2 Wilkes Street’s door surround.
Dan Cruickshank has been a guardian of these streets since the 1970s when he helped save these houses from demolition, and he’s kept this fragment safe for nearly 50 years!
“I’ve kept an eye on number 2 since the early 1970s, documenting its changing fortunes. I was particularly gripped by its fine door hood – a thing of beauty but neglected and, in parts, far advanced in decay. It was the last of the William Tayler bracketed door hoods – all embellished with cherub’s heads – to survive. There had been two on houses in Fournier Street (the existing hooded door surrounds are relatively recent copies based on my photographs of the Wilkes Street example). But the Wilkes Street example was not destined to survive. One day – in about 1974 – I went to look at the door hood and it had gone – swept away by a market lorry I suppose. I found one fragment of a carved portion of its cornice lying on the pavement. That was all.”
Dan has now entrusted me with the ongoing preservation of it. My plan is to recreate the rest of the hood and put this original piece back in place.
There’s a very thick coating of paint, that within will hold clues as to the history of the external decoration, perhaps back to the original colour scheme from 1725. And underneath the paint, if we chip off a small section, we will have a clearer view of the original design and carving technique to inform the new carver’s recreation.