When we removed the fireplace from No. 10, the fireplace was full of a lot of rubble – about 10 wheelbarrows of it! Amongst the rubble were some lovely rich blue Victorian hearth tiles – a sort of long oblong shape. Most of them were smashed and all of them were painted over. Presumably, the rich peacock blue colour had fallen out of fashion at some point and it was then fashionably to paint them over with beige paint – yuck!
I saved some pieces and scanned one in (see below). I then thought I would do a quick search on the internet and see if I could find an image of a similar tile in situ with it’s original cast iron fire surround. Well, imagine my surprise when I found the EXACT same tiles on sale London Mosaic Restoration– the image is identical (see below). What an amazing coincidence!
I did manage to find some images showing similar tiles in situ. I think the ones in the cottage are not going to be quite as fancy as these, but you get the idea.
In the rubble behind the fireplace in No. 10, there were a number of peacock blue tiles. They orignially would have been in a Victorian fireplace surround.
Tile from London Mosaic Restoration – it is identical (apart from mine is only a bit of a tile!).