Shortlands worktops
The kitchens we meet in Shortlands
A good deal of what decides stone worktop supply and fitting in Shortlands could be settled by a tape measure and ten minutes in the room in question. A lot of large period semis where the kitchen has been pushed out into a rear or side-return extension with bifolds, giving one long uninterrupted run and a small island or peninsula rather than a full one. Ceramic Belfast sinks with undermount cut-outs suit the period side. The quote is free, so finding out where you stand costs you nothing at all.
An under-stairs cupboard eats one end of most of these kitchens, and the run stops at a door that has to keep opening. Batches move through a yard continuously, so a slab reserved this month and a slab bought next spring can carry one name and still not be the same stone. Edges are charged along their length, not across the surface.
The back addition is a narrow two-storey outrigger with a single external wall, and the kitchen galley runs the length of it. Rooms in these houses run long and narrow with the only honest daylight at the garden end, so a pale honed surface does more for the working half of the kitchen than any colour with depth in it. At four metres a stone is a tone rather than a pattern.
What the street keeps repeating is Victorian villa, Edwardian semi, 1930s detached and 1960s low-rise flats. Each carries its own carry problem before it carries a worktop.
