Last year, I was watching an episode of BBC Two’s Great Coastal Railway Journeys that had been languishing on my Freesat box for seven months.1 Michael Portillo visited Larvik in Denmark and learned about Larvikite stone. I thought it looked quite like the black “granite” used on Burton stores.
By a strange coincidence, a couple of hours later I received a message via the Laid by Monty web site from a geologist who told me that the “granite” is actually Larvikite! Now, a quick Google search reveals that it’s not difficult to find this information out… but the coincidence makes for a more interesting story.
My helpful contact informed me that Larvikite is igneous, like granite, but contains a different “mix” of minerals. Granite has a high quartz content but Larvikite has low to none and instead has feldspar. It’s this feldspar which produces the beautiful iridescent flashes you notice when viewing a Deco Burton building close up.
Hull Whitefriargate Restoration
While many Burton buildings featured a fascia band of Larvikite, and of course the prolific foundation stones, a handful of locations featured an entirely black clad facade.
The grandest of which is the Hull Whitefriargate store. Along with its golden spandrels, pilasters and window railings, we’ve given it a rating of 5 in our database, meaning it’s one of a kind.
I visited Hull in 2018 when the building was still occupied by a Burton and Dorothy Perkins combo, which operated until the final company-wide axe fell in 2021. Since then the building has undergone a complete restoration of the facade.
The Larvikite had deteriorated and required replacing. However, the large panels were too heavy for modern building regulations, while at the same time the building is grade II listed, requiring any replacement to match the original as closely as possible!
The solution was to use a rainscreen system with rails and brackets supporting 30mm thick panels of Lundhs Emerald, compared to the 80mm thick originals. You can read a full technical description of the works in the following Natural Stone Journal article:
You can also check out our page about the Whitefriargate building here:
- Great Continental Railway Journeys series 8 episode 8: Larvik to Holstebro on iPlayer:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002943r/sign/great-continental-railway-journeys-series-8-8-larvik-to-holstebro ↩︎
