There’s Something About an English Rose Kitchens Lover
Bladders full to bursting we set off on the 15 or so miles to meet Mr Poole, or “Michael” as I’ll call him. 20 or so minutes later our satnav directed us towards some concrete bollards that cut his road in two and another 10 minutes later we arrived at Michael’s house.
The stark contrast between his welcome and the reception we’d found in Brockenhurst threw us momentarily. He took us through to his kitchen and we saw, for the first time, some restored and installed units.
In fact he had installed runs top and bottom along both sides and one end of his kitchen before getting completely carried away and using some of the units he’d intended to sell on along two walls of his dining area. Ray and I thought that that part was probably overkill, lending itself to the effect of standing in a show room, but that’s just a taste thing and you’d be hard pressed to fault Michael’s skill and enthusiasm.
He was full of useful advice and told us the processes he’d used to restore the units. I was planning to document them, but before I had a chance he posted a comment to say how here: Restoring English Rose Kitchen Units, Michael’s way .
In his garage was another restoration project of his, a beautiful 1937 Ford Club Coupé. Michael is sort of like Al. Only - er …
Michael’s Ford Club Coupé
He took us to a lock up garage he has about 15 minutes away to pick up the units. A double sink atop four base units, two full size wall units and two half size units, plus a larder, a couple of end shelves and, as every self respecting seller on of English Rose kitchens has, a surpising amount of unidentifiable bits. We unscrewed the bottom run into two lots of two units and he knowledgeably guided us round them. He explained that some parts, particularly the backs, are steel rather than aluminium, which is good to know and now I understand why those are the parts that get rusty.
Mercedes Sprinter splitter vans are huge, but when configured for a band, there’s very little space inside for other stuff. We managed though and Michael thoughtfully provided carboard, a piece of underlay and some rope to help lash it all together.
We did plan to drive the lot of it back to my parents’ garage that night, but that would have meant clanging large pieces of metal around at about midnight in what is a very quiet area. That’s not a good look, so we drove it home (I did the best parallel parking job of my life in the thing!) and waited till the next day. Luckily Ed was on hand to help lift the fridge down from the van and then later to just inside our French doors, where it will remain till the Smeg sells (it’s coming up tomorrow and is currently an absolute bargain at £75).
October 19th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
as a new convert to the joys of the english rose,(i went from never hearing of it. to aquiring a kitchen, fridge freezer and oven in a week. i am very impulsive lol.)
i wanted to say keep up the good work on the site.i was suprised at the lack of info online. i thought it would have a nice little community with people swapping tip offs and parts. but as yet your site is pretty much all ive found.
we only picked it all up on fri and got back in the dark and hav’nt had time to have a good look round it yet but it seems in quite good nick apart from the work surface is missing. all i’d like to add is the end shelves in red (so if you hear of any i’d really appreciate the nod)
cheers, neil
October 19th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Thanks Neil.
Well of course the nature of this stuff is that you end up buying a lot more than you actually need, so I’ll have some bits left over at the end. Most of our stuff is STILL in my parents’ garage so this is from memory, but I think I have some end shelves there, though I can’t remember what colour. I’ll have a look next time I go over.
I agree though, you’d have thought there’d be more people chatting about it online and I’m quite surprised by the lack of comment and information. I’d be interested in your experiences painting it up, if that’s what you’re intending to do.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
cheers for that,i know what you mean im already looking at other kitchens for sale to get all the bits i want.
will keep you informed on progress. hoping to move into our new place sometime next month.already got the kitchen in their garage,(one of the perks about buying off friends, lol.) and want to crack on with it while im motivated.the base units were in an ok condition, till we scratched them on the way home. iv’e got some mates who are car sprayers so will prob go that route.but still need to have a good look at them.hoping to check them out over the weekend.
October 25th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
managed to get a look at them today and they seem in good nick,apart from the lack of worktop and the scratches i made,(bugger) the runners are all in excelent condition. i think a good clean and the units should come up pukka.
bought some nice rocket style supataps off ebay today for the grand total of 99p to replace the newer ones that are there at the mo. result the older style can go for £180.
haha i need my own blog
October 25th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
You do, but feel free to post here anyway :-)
October 31st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
If anyone reading this does already have an English Rose kitchen I am looking to use one as a filming location for a couple of days for the BBC2 historical food programme ‘Supersizers Go…’. Of course, there would be a fee involved.
If you were interested, please call me on 02079073426 or email on nick.adey@silverriver.
Nick Adey
Silver River Productions