Over 330 Years of Craftsmanship
Iron transformed into art
Plate I — Ornamental gates, after Jean Tijou
A legacy in iron
Jean Tijou gave iron a new expressive life: leaves, scrolls and crests shaped into architecture. From the great houses of England to the pages of his 1693 drawing book, his work unites sculptural invention with extraordinary precision.
The Work
London · Cathedral
Gilded screens and chancel gates bring flowing ironwork into conversation with Wren’s classical architecture. Alongside the quire, the Geometric Staircase offers another view of the cathedral’s architectural language.
Surrey · Royal palace
Twelve richly ornamented panels mark the edge of the Privy Garden: royal crests, gilded foliage and mythical creatures worked into iron. The palace’s river front and painted stair place this celebrated screen in its wider architectural setting.
Derbyshire · Country house
Gilded balustrades animate the Great Stairs beneath painted ceilings. Today’s ironwork reproduces Tijou’s original design; the gates and wider house are considered separately in the project history.
Northamptonshire · Country house
At Drayton, ornamental ironwork attributed to Tijou brings Baroque detail to a more intimate country-house setting. Curling foliage and finely worked rails follow the threshold between house and garden.
Lincolnshire · Country house
The gates at Burghley turn an entrance into an elaborate composition of scrollwork, gilding and heraldic ornament. Views of the forecourt, stone façade and painted staircase place the ironwork within the house’s rich architectural setting.
London · Royal palace
Crowns, monograms and ornamental gates frame a royal threshold. The collection brings together palace architecture and royal remembrance, without treating the photographed gates as a confirmed Tijou commission.
West Sussex · Country house
Ornamental gates and sweeping railings frame Petworth House’s stone façade. These owner-supplied photographs bring the house, its landscape and the intricate detail of its ironwork into view.
Places of distinction
Film & television · Newest first
2025
Filmed at Burghley House
2024
Filmed at St Paul’s Cathedral
2024
Filmed at Drayton House
2024
Filmed at Hampton Court Palace
2023
Filmed at Hampton Court Palace
2023
Filmed at Burghley House
2023
Filmed at Drayton House
2023
Filmed at St Paul’s Cathedral
2020
Filmed at Hampton Court Palace
2020+
Filmed at Hampton Court Palace
2020
Filmed at Hampton Court Palace
2018
Filmed at St Paul’s Cathedral
Iron · Light · Architecture
A screen becomes a sculpture. A boundary becomes a threshold. Iron gives architecture another voice.
Historic setting: St Paul’s Cathedral.
The Craft
C- and S-curves give iron its rhythm and movement.
Sculptural foliage brings the natural world into the metal.
Crowns and monograms lend a threshold its identity.
Gilded accents catch the light against dark iron.
The Book of Drawings · 1693
In 1693, Tijou published A New Book of Drawings: designs for gates, screens and balustrades, with a lasting ambition to work iron “in Perfection and with Art”.
The frontispiece — A New Book of Drawings, 1693.
Tijou today
Ornamental gates, iron panels and railing components, designed and supplied through a curated manufactured line and bespoke artisan commissions. A historic language, considered for your setting.