Novelda joined the European Route of Modernism in 2007, and it earned its place: the Casa-Museo Modernista, designed by Pedro Cerdán and built between 1900 and 1904, the Gómez-Tortosa building of 1902, Casa Mira of 1908, and a number of quieter houses from the same years. Some of them still have their original street doors: tall, heavy, made of solid timber, with a lock that may be as old as the house.
When one of those doors shuts with the keys inside, the instinct to force it is understandable. It is also the most expensive mistake you can make.
What is holding it shut
There are usually one or two of these:
- An old mortice lock set into the thickness of the door, opened with a long key. Inside it is a simple mechanism of levers and springs.
- A later cylinder lock, added on the inside face or fitted in place of the original.
- Bolts or a bar on the inside, which nobody outside can do anything about. If the door was bolted from inside, another way in has to be found.
Working an old lock from the street side
- If only the latch is holding it, the door can often be eased open without touching the lock.
- An old mortice lock can usually be worked through its keyhole. The mechanism is simpler than a modern cylinder, and patience gets further than force.
- A newer cylinder is dealt with like any other: worked first, drawn out and replaced only if needed.
What is never done to a door like this is to cut into the wood or prise the leaves apart. A worn-out lock is taken out whole and replaced; a damaged panel or a split frame on a century-old door is a job for a joiner, and an expensive one.
Once it is open
- Keep the original key, even if you never use it, and the original escutcheon. Both are hard to replace.
- If the old lock is stiff, have it cleaned and adjusted rather than oiled.
- If a modern cylinder has to be added for security, it can usually go in without spoiling the look of the door from the street.
Related
Flats built in the 1960s and 70s have very different doors and their own problems; see reading the age of the lock on a flat from the marble years. The houses round San Pedro are also near the end of the July romería, when keys go missing easily: keys lost between San Pedro and the sanctuary. And for how every kind of door in town is opened, see door opening in Novelda.