Before refrigeration, perishable food was kept in ‘cold’ cupboards mounted on the outside wall of tenement buildings. This rare find that was barely surviving at a second floor flat in Maida Vale.
The customer was emphatic that as much of the original be kept, preserved and reused. The light metal brackets were eaten away by rust, the bolt was rusted into its sleeve and, obviously, the mesh had perished.
To start with this was a horrible job clearing out thirty years worth of grime, dust, mouse droppings and an old bird’s nest . Then came the dirty jobs of de-rusting and making all the metal parts move again. The pleasurable part came with the re-fitting and reassembly of the cold cupboard. Everything is original apart from the mesh and it is back in its original position outside where it was originally installed in 1904, on an outside wall in Maida Vale.
