As part of this year’s “Doors Open London”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review?id=200821 event I ventured into this circa 1860s yellow brick building in downtown as I love looking at old buildings and seeing how they have been repurposed. Normally you would not see inside this building unless you had an appointment with one of the lawyers as it had recently been bought by a local law firm, “Hassan Law”:http://www.hassanlaw.com/?q=news/our-new-home-sweet-home. I wasn’t sure what to expect and what I found was quite a delightful surprise. They tried to keep as much of the original features in the building as possible, from beams to skylights to wonderful arched windows. There were refreshments on the first floor along with storyboards explaining the work done and some artifacts found during construction. One of the owners gave a few of us a tour of the building and the work done to restore it.
At one point the building was smaller than it currently is which means that one of the interior walls towards the back of the building used to be the exterior wall of the building next door. As companies did in the old days, an advertisement was painted onto the side of the building. During renovations the contractor found the advertisement. It was in remarkably good condition and the owners decided to preserve the advertisement and reconfigured the floor plan to make the area a boardroom instead of chopping it up into offices. As a result, the boardroom now has a wonderful focal point on the west wall – an advertisement for Sunlight Soap.
Seeing the advertisement took me back to a few visits I’ve made to Port Sunlight Village on the Wirral. I chatted to one of the owners about “Port Sunlight Village”:https://www.silvertraveladvisor.com/review/place/145959-review-port-sunlight and their museum including old advertisements. I’m sure the museum might appreciate seeing how one of the advertisements has been preserved thousands of miles away. This isn’t the first year the building has participated in Doors Open London so it may well be included in future years as well.
