Operation Driftwood!

The LASSCO team in action!

(From left to right) Archie, Dickon, Martin and Hamish collect a particularly impressive piece of driftwood from the Albert Embankment, proving that, with a bit of imagination, anything can be reclaimed and recycled!

It can now be found gracing our Brunswick House premises in Vauxhall. We only hope its previous position was of no strategic importance!!

1950s Luggage Racks - extract from the Telegraph Magazine 15/01/06

property.telegraph.co.uk - HOME&LIVING
The Room planners
A new lease of life for everyday objects
PAULA SUGGESTS:
Take your imagination shopping. Explore architectural salvage yards, charity shops and second-hand furniture shops. You’ll find a host of unusual items waiting to be transformed: wine strainers can become halogen mood lights; grain sieves make great wall lights; grape harvesting baskets as console tables; 1940s Parisian street bins to transform into stylish side tables; railway luggage racks that become bathroom or kitchen storage, pictured. All these are cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions.

Paula and Phil Robinson - Telegraph

VICTORIAN PINE BOARDS RECLAIMED FROM KENNINGTON SQUAT

LASSCO Flooring has just retrieved 20,000 linear feet of quality Victorian pine floorboards from the famous St. Agnes Place, Kennington, London.

On 29th November 2005, 150 squatters were evicted from 22 Victorian houses in St. Agnes Place. The street was famed as one of Britain’s oldest squats. Home to a Rastafarian temple and host to a variety of colourful characters over the years, none more so than the reggae singer, Bob Marley, who lived briefly in the street.

The buildings were first illegally inhabited back in 1974, at a time when Lambeth Council was planning to demolish them as unfit for human habitation. Although the squatters were awarded a 16-year lease in 1984, by November 2005, Lambeth Council had won eviction orders from the High Court.

Although these Victorian houses are soon to be replaced by modern, affordable housing, LASSCO has been lucky to rescue a part of its colourful history. And who knows, your future floor could once have moved to the rhythm of reggae!

PRESS CUTTING "Reeve Exposed..", Living Etc Feb 2006

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Jarek Emerges Triumphant

Back in November LASSCO St. Michael's had to move quickly to save two fireplaces from a vulnerable building site in Surrey. Once back to the church the chimneypieces disappear into the Vestry where Jarek Juchniewicz, the LASSCO marble mason works his magic. We haven't seen much of Jarek since these two arrived. We did see him at the Christmas party looking a bit pale - but now he has completed his restoration and built the two chimneypieces in the shop we can see what he has been up to.

English marble chimneypieces from the late Georgian era tend to be made from a multitude of component parts. In Edwardian times these chimneypieces were back in fashion and there was, for a period, an output of very fine examples emulating their Georgian forebears. Whether, Georgian or Edwardian, you never quite know how they are going to come out of the wall - some come out cleanly with the parts of each jamb and the frieze staying firmly together. Others are less easy - probably when they have been assembled on site. These Surrey examples, no longer required in the re-formatting of a grand country house there, came out piece by piece and when laid out, they filled the floor area of the large rooms.

This means a lot of work for our Polish mason. Each piece is cleaned and has a poultice applied for a couple of days before further bleaching polishing and repair as necessary. Much of the jasper inlay needed to be re-laid as jasper is a very soft material. Then the three dimensional jigsaw begins.

The results of Jarek's work for the last few weeks can be seen on display at LASSCO St. Michael's (pictured right) alongside previous examples of his craftmanship. He has a few tricks up his sleeve to get the results ... whether it is using tea or lemon juice or specialist compounds to return these marble monsters to their former glory.

His next one to restore is a white marble chimneypiece from the house of Frank Lampard - the Chelsea footballer!

Go to www.lassco.co.uk and pay a visit to LASSCO St. Michael's to browse through all of the fireplaces - marble, stone and wood - where they are pictured, measured, described and priced.