Heathcote Hall is a heritage listed Victorian Italianate mansion in the Sutherland Shire. Built in 1887, it was designed by leading Sydney architect Thomas Rowe. For over 50 years the house regularly changed hands however, soon after WWII it was acquired by the Farrelly family, remaining in their possession till 2016 when it was sold to Fuzortinn P/L, who plan to restore the historic building and develop apartments & townhouses on the 4 acre site.
One element of the mansion's restoration involved the ornate tessellated entrance hall floor, part of which had collapsed due to water damage rotting the timber floor supporting the tiles. Enter Olde English Tiles. Due to the villa's heritage listing and its cultural/architectural significance, our approach to the restoration was complex and laborious, more closely resembling the efforts of archaeologists than tilers, requiring: the removal of every tile after meticulously recording the intricate geometric pattern, removing the concrete and rotten floor boards, acid washing the original tiles to remove 135 years of dirt, grime & cement, & reassembling the tessellated floor in our warehouse in order to calculate precisely the amount of damage. From there we colour matched the original Maw & Co English tiles with our range, and re-cut our metric sized tiles to an Imperial size. It also necessitated the replication of more than half a dozen encaustic tile patterns. Once the entrance floor's substrate was rebuilt, we were able to relay the restored original tessellated floor.
The final result is a testament to the unstinting dedication to excellence of the developer - Pariter, Jasara Construction, the heritage architects and the team at Olde English Tiles.
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