One of the inevitable effects of fatherhood is that you get to see a lot
of kid-oriented movies on video over and over and over again.  Sometimes,
on the nth viewing of something, you notice details that you missed the
first n-1 times, when you were distracted by things like dialog and plot.

In the movie "Mary Poppins", much of the action takes place in a house on
"Cherry Tree Lane", London, in a world that was probably constructed
inside a sound stage or on a back lot in Culver City.

On the whole, whoever built the sets did a decent and nicely detailed job
of it.

One detail which startled me.  When George Banks tears up his childrens'
plea for a sweet, rosy-cheeked nanny, and throws the pieces into the
fireplace, it can be seen that the blackened firebrick (lining the back of
the fireplace) is laid in Flemish Bond.  (Or, I suppose, technically, the
plaster they actually used to build the sets was scored to resemble
Flemish Bond.)

This seems just too bizarre -- almost an architectural inside joke.  But
maybe they were re-creating a real London house, down to the brickwork
details inside the fireplace.

So my question -- have you ever seen the brickwork inside a fireplace done
in Flemish Bond?  Why would anyone do this in real life?

A professor in an unrelated field who claims some knowledge of brick
laying responded as follows:

> I would not expect the interior of a real fireplace, in which fires are
> built, to be laid in anything but running bond, and of course with
> firebrick, not common clay bricks. The reason is to minimize joints and
> to accomodate the expansion and contraction of heating cycles, which a
> bond would not do as well. There is also no need for a bond as the
> firebrick lining is not load-supporting and is usually just backed with
> ordinary bricks. In addition, the firebrick is often laid on edge so as
> to use fewer bricks.

Another amateur brickwork critic wrote this:

> Flemish bond does seem like an odd choice for a fireplace.  Maybe the
> set designer was looking at a brick wall when he did the fireplace,
> instead of an actual fireplace.  I have seen *some* things done in a
> fireplace for decorative effect (curved rear corners, for example, made
> with partial bricks.)

Any thoughts?

                              Larry

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
Polygon, the Dancing Bear, http://potifos.com/polygon
Mailing address: P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106

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