Character properties are being ruined

[MaybeMaybeNotJ]

Is it just where I am?
All character priorities have been gutted and the inside is now bland and characterless.
I hate it.

Did @StillGoingStrongToday actually mean wardrobes?

I've never seen an early Victorian property that needed its wardrobes conserving. They are usually quite mobile...

Built-in. To match the quality and style of the rest of the house cost a fortune.

Even good quality freestanding ones though cost tens of thousands per room if custom built to fit.

Do you mean cupboards or closets@StillGoingStrongToday?

I've never come across a 'built in wardrobe' pre-1960s.

If you had wardrobes built all over your house to the tune of six figures to 'match the style', YOU are a despoiler!

To be fair our house has original built in wardrobes from 1920.

You can tell they were built when the house was as the wood batons actually fit into the brick wall IYSWIM. It’s double brick and the internal brick is spaced to accommodate the wardrobe IYSWIM.

That made no sense when I typed it.

🙄

I saw that too! Travesty, the whole house was gutted and looked like a blank greige box with a glass stair case

Looked awful

I agree Maybe and once character has been removed it requires time and effort to put back. NDN is saddened by all the stuff that was taken out by the previous owners in an effort to be modern and now it seems too much trouble, etc, etc. It's a matter of personal taste, isn't it?

My pet hate is windows. 20-30 years ago, people couldn't maybe afford to replace old,, rotting single glazed wooden windows with double (now triple) glazed in wood. So it was uPVC all round. But now you can get affordable uPVC in traditional styles. It would be great if people kept to those styles, keeping the lovely uniformity of terraces.

I agree, OP. And it's not just Victorian and Edwardian houses, I see 1920s modern and mid century semis being pulled to bits. The lovely windows with transom details, the teak garage doors, the iron rainwater goods all smashed into a skip and replaced with cheap nasty grey doors and windows and plastic gutters. Then they pull out the laburnums and roses and lilacs and replace it with rolled out turf and paving.

Why not just buy a Barrett home if that is what you aspire to? Why ruin something of actual quality?

I own an Edwardian semi and I’m actively restoring and putting period features back in. I’ve stripped all the 20 layers of lead and gloss from the fireplaces and got them all back to cast iron and then polished with Stovax.

Every room has had/or will have decorative coving, a ceiling rose and picture rail put back in. I’m also putting roses in the hallway and adding corbels to the entrance hall.

I’ve added gold numbers to the fanlight above the front door and added brass hardware (although I will admit to an Edwardian style composite door - as a timber stained glass door is circa £5-6k to have made), I’ve also replaced all of the ugly modern internal door handles with brass beehive doorknobs (thankfully original doors stripped and rehung by previous owner).

I’ll be replacing my modern style UPVC windows with sash-style UPVC when they need replacing and I’ve had custom made blinds for all of the bays and dual aspect windows in William Morris fabrics.

I’m doing as faithful a job as I can, but it’s not cheap and it takes time to do these jobs when you need to live in the house at the same time.

Sounds beautiful!

Interior stone cladding seems to be having a revival, it's now called brick slips! Each to their own!

I actually love Victorian houses that are quite modern inside, I hate tiny snug rooms- however I do like separate lounges and big kitchen diners - not just 1 big open space and I like hallways.