The Breakfast room has had a make-over, preserving one wall of the original William Morris wallpaper that dates back to Patti's era. Originally all four walls were covered in this dark patterned wall paper, which made the room very gloomy. The two walls either side of the fireplace wall had been affected by leaks for decades, before we fixed the roof gullies three storeys above, and before we re-roofed the conservatory. As the limestone walls became saturated with water, so lime had over many years leached from the internal walls, staining the original wall paper with long white streaks.
So the old wallpaper was removed, which is why we are now left with only the fireplace wall having the original wallpaper (shown above). Possibly the fire dried this wall out enough to prevent the leaching of lime. There is still some damp ingress on the rear wall facing over the Country Park.
We can still get the original William Morris wallpaper design but decided against replacing it as it made the room uninvitingly dark. The Victorian era was known for its darkened rooms and loads of furnishings but these days we prefer lighter brighter interiors, magnolia and cream coloured walls. In the Victorian era the castle would have been much darker inside.
Latterly we repainted the ceiling red and white but otherwise this room has not been changed much. It even has the original carpet put down almost 40 years ago by the consortium of pharmacists who owned the castle for a few years when it first went into private ownership after the Hospital era. The fireplace is an orignal Edwardian fireplace dating back to Patti's time, and matching the one in the Patti bar.