Tower Blocks created an almost frenzied excitement at the newly spied possibilities of wallpaper and the industry has been

Tower Blocks created an almost frenzied excitement at the newly spied possibilities of wallpaper, and the industry has been reaping the benefits ever since.Moreover, as a new exhibition at the Geffrye Museum sets out to prove, the effects have been felt not just in photographic reproductions – though who could fail to thrill to Showroom Dummies’ “Volcano Explosion” – but in florals, 3D designs and even interactive patterns. Sweet Laura Ashley sprigs and jolly gold stars had become embarrassingly pass?Even the magnificent publicity garnered by Lord Irvine’s rich (in every sense of the word) Pugin wallpaper failed to have any effect on the rise and rise of minimalism in the house and the desirability of nice white walls.
Something had to give, and it did, six years ago, in the shape of Sharon Elphick’s dramatic Tower Blocks, in which a photograph of a high-rise was endlessly and oh-so-effectively repeated: creating a geo- metry of soaring lines and neatly bringing the outside inside – so post-modern – into the bargain. Pity the plight of the wallpaper manufacturer through the 1990s. More than 50 years on, that still seems apt.The selling agent is the Wilmslow branch of Jackson-Stops & Staff: 01625 540340, .

Inside they have all the original beams and are large enough to become homes in their own right, if permission were granted.Behind them, through a delightful cobbled courtyard, an L-shaped lake is the only remaining sign that a moat once encircled the house. Two barns, screened from the main gardens by a wall, were constructed in the same English wall bond brick and with stone cornerwork not normally found in such functional buildings. Robinson was clearly a man who believed in displaying a taste for quality. And the cellars are fantastic,” she says.Among the three large reception rooms – all oak-panelled – on the ground floor, one has particularly fine linenfold panelling by the fireplace, with beautifully inlaid wood above.

It is thought that this fireplace had been plastered over for some time and it was only rediscovered at the end of the 19th century.The fine brickwork and details of its time were not confined to the house itself, which was built in 1612 by Robert Robinson, a successful clothier of Manchester and Yorkshire. “There is no fitted kitchen, but you do have things like a pantry and the old meat hooks. It appears that the banisters on this sturdy stair had been taken down at one time and become jumbled because now they form an irregular pattern.It’s this kind of quirk which contributes to the charm of the house which is grade II star listed. This effectively means nothing can be touched without approval , although Rebecca Fifeld says the authorities recognise that modernisation, undertaken sympathetically, is essential.