I, like many Londoners, live in a late Victorian mansion block. In August last year our freeholders sent us all a letter informing us that our front doors needed upgrading for fire, and suggested a company that could replace our non-compliant doors with fire-graded replicas. It was an easy, expensive option.

The front door to my flat, like many in the block, is an original two-panelled late 19th-century door. It is 50mm thick, made of slow-grown pine or spruce, with a solid lower raised and fielded panel and an upper panel which began its life as a decorative glazed panel. The door had a similarly glazed door light above.

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