Old mosaic found under Falmouth Hotel carpet (From Falmouth Packet)

Old mosaic found under Falmouth Hotel carpet

11:00am Saturday 23rd March 2013 in News

Old mosaic found under Falmouth Hotel carpet

A tiled mosaic featuring the Falmouth Hotel’s logo has been revealed after an old and tired carpet was taken up.

The mosaic runs the length of the hotel’s entrance hall and has been restored in time for the hotel’s 150th birthday.

Hotel manager, Christopher Roberts said: “We use to have a worn, horrible red carpet that had been there for years. Someone told me that underneath it there was a wonderful mosaic with the hotel logo and also the double-headed phoenix which used to be the hotel logo.

“One day, we had a carpet guy out and I asked him to lift up a section and there was the mosaic underneath. We managed to pull back more to see if it was in good condition and then had to wait for the owner to see if we could take all the carpet up.”

Mr Roberts got the go ahead so last week, the carpet was removed and staff spent hours scrubbing the floor to bring the mosaic up. “We found it was in relatively good condition,” he said.

In the long term, the plan is to repair the mosaic, filling in the missing tiles using ones that will be removed from the main entrance which is to be replaced with matting. The entire hall will then be lacquered to bring the colours out.

Not all the mosaic has been revealed, though. It is thought it runs through into the bar where the double-headed phoenix is believed to lie hidden under carpet. It is hoped that can be located and exposed at some point.

It is believed the mosaic dates back to the first days of the hotel. “The amount of work that would have gone into it, the amount of time it would have taken, I cannot imagine them shutting an operational hotel to do the work,” said Mr Roberts.