Please take a look, whatvis this?? Period feature??

[hastalavista]

Hello wise people
Anyone know what this is? Is it a beautiful period feature that I dont understand or some other mad addition? It's in a house I'm buying.
Not the figurine, I mean the white thing it's in..

Alcove. Its neoclassical. Georgian houses sometimes have them. But the one in the picture looks wrong especially with the dado rail. How old is the house?

These can look so nice as a feature but with the dado rail clashing into it it's completely spoilt.

It is a niche and I think it is an addition. If it is just a plaster add on it will be easy to remove.

Example: www.stevensons-of-norwich.co.uk/plaster-niches-22-c.asp

Niche, they came back in fashion (posh faux Victorian Style) in the 90s with the Dado rail and different wallpapers below and above it.

I think there will be an alcove behind it and they've put this horrendous plastic alcove cover over it. This would be the first thing I would take out to see what was behind it.

Thanks everyone. So would the alcove behind be likely to be a nice period feature or would most people fill it in?? I'd like to get rid of the niche but then I'd have to re wallpaper and that would be a massive job wouldn't it... at least I know what it is now.. thanks all!!!

It's a stick-on niche. It's not even stuck on straight.

The trouble is it cuts into the dado rail as well so yes, it's going to mess up the decorating to remove it.
Might not look so bad with nice tall flowers of something in it to disguise the fussy bit at the top.

Is there a garage on the side? My parents have an alcove here in a 1930s house because there was a window there before the garage was added

Yes, an additional, very popular, I bought one of these circa 1995, thought it looked fab 😂

Thanks everyone. Yes its 2930s eith a garage.

1930s!!!

It's not an original 1930's feature.

It's covering something though.

Maybe an alcove, which if treated as a 1930's feature might look pretty.

The dado rail is also not period so I'd be getting shot of that.

Personally I'd get rid. It's badly done (cutting into the dado, and not straight) and not "period appropriate" for the property - hence pretty naff.

OMG, we have got one of those here too!😂
Our house is also 1920s, but my estimate for our 'niche' is 1970s-80s, due to when other work was done and the wallpaper round it. I think it's fibreglass. When we came it had a pink light that would light up in the base. 😳I soon got rid of that (the wallpaper is green and grey, just imagine).

I can't wait to get rid of our 'niche'. It's actually been set into the inner brick leaf where there is a blocked up window on the outer leaf, so it's definitely not original. I intend to rip it out and brick it up properly inside and out, removing the blind leaded window and (hopefully) reusing the leaded glass somewhere else if I can get it out intact, and if I can think of anywhere. What yours may be covering up is anyone's guess!

Ok at least mine doesn't have a light