Cafe Parisien

[Joshua Gulch]

When the Cafe Parisien was added to Olympic in late 1912, the entire room was carpeted, unlike Titanic who had only a green throw rug on her decking (Illustrated History, pgs.49, 59). Would anyone happen to have information regarding the color of Olympic's Cafe carpeting?

Thanks in advance,
Josh.

 

[Nigel Bryant]

Josh,

From what Daniel has said to me it looks like it was tiled with linoleum. I think it might be a greenish colour.

Regards,

Nigel

 

[Daniel Klistorner]

I have not seen a color illustration for the Cafe at all, so what color the linoleum was is anyone's guess. No one knows what color Titanic's runner rug was anyway, Ken's depiction I presume was only a guesstimate. After the war however, Olympic also had a wooden deck Cafe, as the linoleum was not reinstalled after the war.

Daniel.

 

[Joshua Gulch]

Nigel and Daniel,
Thank you for the information. The photo does look closer to tile than carpeting on reexamination. The floor is close to the shade of the table tops, so green seems reasonable enough without proof otherwise.

Unfortunately, this was for a model of Olympic in 1930, and I already sanded off the deck detail. Oops.

Thanks again,
Josh.

 

[Daniel Klistorner]

Josh, but were the table tops green? Anyway, it is difficult to say exactly whether the tiles match the table tops.

Here's a photo of the Café in 1920. You can see the wooden deck floor. I think by 1930 the area seen in the foreground was a dance floor and the bay window had sliding doors. See Brian Hawley's image of the Café for the correct depiction.

 

[Nigel Bryant]

Good photo Daniel. The green (more of a light bubble gum green) was just a plain guess with no back up proof, sometimes when I look at black and white photgraphs of Olympic or Titanic I tired to guess on the colour of the furnishings, or the colours that seem to fit the area. Linoelum must not of fitted the essence that the room required.

Daniel, do you think they installed linoleum in the first place was because White Star didn't want the Cafe to look exactly identical to Titanic's as the company wanted to forget the doomed sister? Or was it because tiles has problems like the wearing down which rubbed and discoloured the patterns?

All the best,

Nigel

 

[Daniel Klistorner]

Nigel your ideas on reasons for tiles might be correct. The room proved a great success and it was definitely worth installingon Olympic - as they did. However new features were installed to make her look slightly different to Titanic's Cafe.

 

[Mark Chirnside]

Hi!

I seem to remember a source stating the café had been modified to the 1930 look by 1928, for clarification. I have little else to confirm the exact date, though.

Best regards,

Mark.