Fake 163

This being a snap of some cladding in progress on a not very old building which is presently the subject of a major refurbishment. A building which fronts onto the Masonic temple end of the north side of Long Acre. A refurbishment which I have noticed before, for example a little over a year ago at reference 3.

Faked because the cladding which looks solid and substantial when finished, possibly even some kind of stone, is actually nothing of the sort. Just thin metal sheets pressed or extruded into shapes giving the appearance of solidity.

A sort of faking that has been around for centuries, if not millennia. See, for example, reference 4 for the faking of marble with lathe and plaster. And to think that in the 1930's, my father, along with others of his time, believed in the desirability of a union between structure and function in the man-made, matching the supposed union of same in nature-made. A belief which has not stood the test of time, but which did sweep away the elaborate, often overdone, decoration of earlier times. From where I associate to the elaborate front doors and front windows often to be seen on otherwise modest terraced houses in modest London streets. A good dollop of fancy stonework to signal, to lay claim to, solidity and wealth. A sample of which is included above. This one was turned up by Bing, but both Google and Bing did quite well with the search key 'london terraced houses window stone trim'.

PS: I dare say a good proportion of the fancy stone work is actually fancy sand & cement work. Cast rather than cut.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/fake-162.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/184.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/penalty-beef.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/more-clandon.html.

Group search key: fakesk.