Is my door original Victorian???

[Childfreesummer]

It’s thick and heavy wood but it only has a single pane of glass which I don’t think is Victorian? Any thoughts! The tiny post flap makes me think it must be very old?

A previous owner added an outer door in front of this one and wood panelled the porch area between the two doors. It’s narrow and constricted and a faff getting out with two doors in such close proximity! I want to fix up the inner door and then get rid of the outer one and all the bits that were put in with it, restoring the doorway to the original Victorian style. Just not sure what to do about this inter door! I would love to restore it if it’s original rather than replacing it with someone expensive and possibly inferior.

It doesn't look that old to me, sorry.

It and the paneling look very 1960s to me!

I guess I was wondering if they “refurbished” the original door by replacing the original panels with this single piece of glass - maybe it had better insulating properties or something. The house is full of ugly insulating cheap fixes.

Looks 1960s to me too.

Not very pretty.

I'd be wary on removing the outer door, having the little porch will keep the rest of the house much warmer and if you get rid of the outer door you'll need to introduce another layer of insulation like a door curtain or more.

Definitely 1950s/60s to me. Not Victorian.

1968?

Probably.

No. Glass is never a better insulator than wood.

Although an inner porch door is common in late Victorian/Edwardian terraces for exactly that reason. So the last owners probably didn't add a door, but someone certainly changed it at some point.

No that door looks about 50 - 60 years old

It's not a particularly interesting door, but if it's heavy and good quality, new glazing, paint and some new door hardware and it would look fine. I'd leave the porch in place, leaving the inner door open when you didn't need the insulation benefits.

Nope, Victorian doors look nothing like this, regardless of whether the glass could have been replaced. 1950s or 1960s.

The outer door is definitely new, our road is a mix of houses where some have added the outer door and others haven’t. Similar to this photo.

What would be the reason for swapping out the original door for this version? I can’t get my head around why someone would do that.

Could have been rotten or damaged through a break in.

They thought it looked nice and modern at the time?

Any suggestions for how to tackle this? I want to get rid of the outer porch door because it’s rotten in places and doesn’t look great in general. I’d like to restore the original look of the house but without losing too much in the way of thermal properties or spending an absolute fortune as we are probably not here long term so it’s not worth it to us.

look late-mid century to me so 50s-80s-ish.

That is when this kind of plain patterned glass was popular. Victorian/Edwardian/Art deco was much more intricate with leading and stained glass.

You could try sourcing an old door of appropriate age in a junk shop/reclamation yard. When we lived in London there was a local shop which had loads of Victorian/Edwardian front (and interior) doors. As long as it is close to the right size a chippy should be able to alter it slightly, it would be cheaper (and more authentic) than getting a brand new 'repro' wooden door.

Same reason beautiful historic buildings were knocked down in the 1960s, and replaced with brutalist concrete structures. People thought it was progress and being modern. History has judged them differently.

That door does look more like 1950s or 1960s. Definitely not Victorian.

No. The lower panel looks like ply.

Which, incidentally, a teen burglar could kick a hole in and crawl through.

Incidentally, the letter box, close to a nightlatch, offers easy access to unlock it from outside using a simple home-made tool, or possibly just a thin arm.

Ours looks similar it’s been there since the early seventies when the house was built

So what would you all recommend? I could source a replacement inner front door before ripping out the outer door. It sounds like a lot of effort and cost 😖but that’s what I’m leaning towards at the moment. The alternative is spending a lesser amount of time, effort and money dealing with the rot on the existing outer door, before stripping the paint and repainting it. The door frame is also rotting at the bottom. Or doing nothing and putting up with it looking less than ideal until we sell 🥲 it may make it harder to sell also. The inside is lovely, it would be a shame for the first thing buyers see to let the rest of the house down.

I voted no, because I don't think it looks original, but now that I am thinking about it, my inner door in my Victorian house also has a large single panel of glass. The thing is, though, that it was never intended to be the only door, and it would be very normal to have an outer storm door as well, to protect the house from the elements. So where you say 'some houses have added the outer door and some haven't', it seems more likely to me that some houses have taken it away. In my area, everyone has one, but some people like to leave theirs open most of the time. Whether original or not, most people have more glazing in the inner door to let light in - insulation isn't really a concern because at night or when it's cold you close the other door.