The Landmark Trust who has owned The Egyptian House since 1970 and just gave it some TLC a few month ago held an open day and invited visitors and locals to wander through the house. It is marvellous and we all want spiral staircases with curved doors.
Looking at the facade what do you notice first?
The Eagle right at the top or the Royal Arms – which were never recognised by Queen Victoria. The lovely windows?
It was thought that the frontage was made out of Coade stone, but no, as tests revealed they are a cast of a cementitious formulation . The sphinxes look more like figureheads on ships.
When sometime in 1970s the scaffolding came down the Pz people gasp and said: Look at those colours. But already in 1840 somebody wrote to the Cornishman asking what was Pz going to do about the monstrosity in Chapel Street. They are the original colours .
I personally am grateful that the Landmark Trust bought the house and spent time and money to bring it back to it’s glory. I firmly believe if they had not stepped in we wouldn’t have our beautiful Egyptian House.
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