1930s period features

[PeggySoo]

My dad is having his 1930s house renovated and wants to get rid of the glass panes above the internal doors of the bedrooms as they let in too much light at nighttime from the hallway landing. Do you think these original windows are worth keeping as they are period features? Or are people not that bothered about them? Thanks

I’ve only ever seen such windows above internal doors in properties from the 70’s or thereabouts.

Are you sure they’re original features? Is it stained glass?

But either way, it’s more about the light going into he hallway than the other way round. Does the light stay on all night? Perhaps a case of having more switches by bedroom doors to turn the hallway lights on and off easily.

Ah ok. Not sure they're original. My dad seems to think so. They're not stained glass - textured clear glass. They are above all the doors inside thinking about it including kitchen, toilet and bathroom.

I am asking because he wants to take them out but not sure if it's worth keeping them though if they were original.

I doubt they could be original. Never heard or seen any in 30's houses or books.

Thanks JoJo.

I had this in my 1930s house

They were DX Pitch Pine doors originals not the type mentioned but that’s the nearest new match you’ll get.

With the top panel removed with 1970s fluted glass installed.

You can just take the wood out and put in a wood panel, dip and wax the door again. The colour match will be slightly off on the new piece unless you’re extra careful.

I’ve seen some originally done like this on downstairs doors but this was with cylinder glass.

I don't think the glass you describe is an original feature

Glass planes above door frames are a common feature is victorian properties. Not just a 70s thing. But they are usually clear or coloured and clear.

I know this is not what you are asking. But it will be quite expensive and messy to do this in every room.

Cheaper solutions would be a movement detector on the hall light, so that it’s off all night , or the panels that you can stick onto the windows to make them more opaque.

Transoms. I’d leave them.

My house is 1930s and does not have these, and neither do any neighbouring 1930s houses I’ve been into. Light coming into bedrooms would put me off, as your dad says.

Where is the light coming from? Is it from an electric light or a window? If there are no windows on the landing I wouldn't get rid of them as it would make it too dark.

It's only a problem in the bedrooms. E.g. at night if you've already gone to bed and someone comes upstairs and puts the landing light on or the light in the toilet and then the light from that comes into the bedroom.

The glass is clear and has a raised textured feel to them on one side, smooth on the other.

My thirties Flat has these, as does the rest of the block, so it could be original. Mine were painted over, which sorted the light issue in the one room which would have been problematic.
But sounds like people are unlikely to miss them if he wants rid!

We’d have to see a pic to confirm if it was orginal.

But I’ve only seen glazed sections above the actual frames in bedroom areas in 1920- 1930s houses which were orginal. And this was generally in terraced houses with no natural light to the upper Landing. This tended to be done on the 3rd small front bedroom to allow light into the stairwell and upper landing. Especially on houses where the stairway came from the back of the house.

Unless they’re really special i would replace or put wood in its place. Put the glass in the attic and you can put it back in if you really want.

If you replace do so with another 1930’s orginal Or style door.

Outside toilets and coal sheds are orginal features would you keep these as your sole source of toilet and heat?

This comes from someone with single glazed cylinder glass sash windows on a B road. Some orginal features need to stay others are just not practical.

I live in a 1930's house now, all the upstairs rooms have plain glass panels. What about keeping them and putting some kind of black out panel over the bedroom one.

Interesting. And I thought I've seen it all. If you don't mind me asking - if you have the original glazing above bedroom doors, are you in England or elsewhere?

We actually have glass bedroom doors which were original to our 1960s flat. I like them! The previous owners took out the glass bathroom doors though.

I think I will tell him to keep the glass if he does decide to remove the bedroom ones.

I think I would like them more if I wasn't such a light sleeper

I'm in England, I'll post a pic of similar houses. You've got me thinking now, I'm sure they are original. When we moved in here a few years ago, the same family had owned it from new. They had made improvements but not really too much upstairs. I'll see if I can get a pic of the panels, they're bigger than the ones in a 70's house I used to live in.

I had these in a 1939 built flat (pretty sure they were original even if unusual for that period - there aren’t a lot of blocks of flats of that age either). And in a 1970s built house.

I think they’d be a pain to properly remove. You could paint the glass as an easy fix.

Transom windows are common in early 20th century properties as they would let light into internal rooms and passages. We have a house that's two flats converted into one house and they are in several rooms. I personally love them, but I can see his issue. In his case I'd probably board them up, rather than fully remove them. This seems to be a common solution to them.
DH keeps making noises about replacing the glass in ours as they are certainly not safety glass, but we have 100001 other jobs to do first!

We had a second viewing of a 30s detached house with art deco influences and that had those windows above the doors of the bathroom and the long bedroom above the integral garage. They were original. The bedroom one was painted over.

JoJo there's similar in this house too: www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html/svr/2701?prop=59569015&sale=5949904&country=england (not mine, I should add!)