Inquiring readers, guest blogger Tony Grant is a marvelous photographer, as you might have discovered from the images that accompany his posts. A week or so ago he wrote a post about door knockers. He provided only two original images: the rest came from the web. Last weekend he rectified the situation, saying:
I drove into London to meet my daughter off the Cardiff coach at Victoria Coach Station today. I think I did an article on Belgravia once connected with the upstairs Downstairs series. Victoria is in Belgravia.To cut this story short, I had time to have a walk around Belgravia and along Eaton Square. The doors to those houses have a superfluity of Lion head door knockers.What I have discovered taking these photographs is that each lion head has it’s own personality. They are all different which means they were all made individually, each from their own unique mould.
What struck me in viewing those photos is how beautifully painted the doors are. Tony is right – the lions all have their own personalities! Enjoy. Click on each image to view the larger photo.
Jane Austen's World 
We must lionize Tony for his photographic imagery, but I have a question for him. Are the lion door knockers a purely urban artifact or were the great houses in their estates also graced with them? It seems to me that visitors to a stately home were not expected to knock, since the staff had all prepared themselves to greet the visitors as soon as they were sighted in the drive.
Hi Chris. That is a good question. I don’t normally go around taking pictures of peoples front doors , aristocracy or otherwise. The door knocker thing was an adventure. However, I have trawled through some old photographs and found , by cropping, close ups of the main entrances to Knole House in Kent and Castle Howard in Yorkshire. Neither have door knockers.
Knole House in Kent might be not a good example because it was built at the start of the Tudor dynasty at the moment when the wealthy landowners of the country were no longer permitted to build castles to protect themselves and create strongholds. It was a backlash from the Wars of the Roses.Some of Knole Houses features are still castellated although it is obviously a stately home rather than a castle. The front door looks like the front entrance to castle which would not have had a door knocker ha! ha!The Castle Howard door is a much better example.
I have sent Vic the pictures. She might add the pictures to the article.
All Georgian town houses had knockers and apart from the gentleman of the house arriving and leaving at prearranged times so his butler would perhaps be ready at the door, most visitors would knock. The door knockers are ornate but they are functional.
Claudia and Anna thank you for your comments. I hope you and the baby are well Anna.
I must have Regency blood running through my veins. Years ago when my husband built me a computer desk with hutch, I picked out lion head pulls for my hutch doors.
Beautiful! I love these door knobs and find them nostalgic, too, as we had one on our door when I was growing up :)
Like Kester, I was also surprised to find out that these were a feature of Regency houses. I wonder if they were there purely for aesthetic value, or did visitors actually have to knock…
Beautiful, why don’t we see these any more? Maybe I’m just in the wrong place.
Thanks for the beautiful photos, and the history of the knockers. I was wondering about the door paint. All the doors look very shiny, was that standard too, or is it fairly recent, or does what looks like marine paint just stand up better in a moist climate? You’ll have to forgive me, I’m an American (and I live in the dry Inland Northwest).
Hi Laura. You may well be right about marine paint on those doors. I painted my front door with a blue gloss marine paint, It is very hard wearing and weather resistant. My house was built in the 1930’s so my front door has already a had few coats of paint on it. I usually sand it down to smooth it and remove any old flaking paint. I then put a mat undercoat on first. Finally I use a gloss paint to complete the finish. However,If there were too many layers of paint I might use a blow torch to burn off the old paint.
If the door was new I would put a primer on first, then the undercoat and then the final coat, usually a gloss paint.
As you say, we have a wet climate so we have to take that into account.
This topic is so fascinating. I checked out an American New England Georgian mansion and though they have a door knocker it is plain and not a lion. I don’t know if the knocker is original to the period of the house though. I must find out now.
laura, very interesting research on historic paint here.
http://patrickbaty.co.uk/2010/12/21/the-folly-of-taste/