BELOW STAIRS?

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 23

BELOW STAIRS?

Those- who complain that tho fine old mansions more than 100 years old round Liverpool and other large cities are being pulled down, should be taken to see Dorchester House, London, which is now in. the hands of the housebreakers, states a writer in a London journal. Dorchester House was a fine building, us rooms were decorated in the best and grandest style, and the wit and beauty of the last 100 years have laughed, talked, and passed through its doors. ...-■■ & ' It has associations which are dear to every history loving. Englishman, and its marble pillars, gilded doors, and painted ceilings are of something more than a cash value. Yet although all its trappinga and embellishments have gone, and the housebreakers pick is letting the light o± day chase away the ghosts of. the past, now is the time to see it" in its true light. . • ■ Its brilliance was all on the surface, there is something more than the glittering ballroom, the. marble staircase, and the silver candelebras. The strong walls, feet thick, hide ugly twisting staircases,' draughty back passages, and badly ventilated rooms. There are stuffy. attics and a great damp basement, in which no modern servant would work. Tho roof has been taken off and one can see the house as it really was. The reception . rooms fit into their right place and one pities the lives that were spent jn working in the house. There were innumerable steps twisting and turning around . dark corners to be climbed, there were icy cold passages to-be passed through several times a day, J there was a dark kitchen to 'work in, and a stuffy little room in the attic in which to sleep at night. History only tells us of those who passed in front of the gold-edged mirrors' and not of the back passages. DEATH TRAPS. Dorchester House is. an example on a grand scale of other country mansions which look impressive and sometimes, lovely to the visitor, but are death traps to the staff. Modern conditions have brought about many changes, and the servants in these houses are better looked after than their predecessors. The architects of those days built for the master of the house. He made fine rooms, and when they had been planned he worked in the servants' quarters. What the _ mistress of the house had to put up with.in supervising the household work is not known. No wonder we look on the Victorian woman as frail. Once you pass through the service door everything is changed. You see the hauso as a place which was planned by a madman. An army of servants is needed to look after it. One can understand a modern woman refusing to live in such places when she can have a modern house or an old house entirely rebuilt inside which has every modern convenience. It is not only a question of money. It is a question.of comfort. Those who look at the outside or who see the reception rooms of a Victorian mansion

should remember that there is more in the building than they will ever see, and will lighten the passing of an old house with a.thought on the other sid6 of the picture.