When our founder, Lee, built a boutique hotel in the Andalusian Hills of Spain in 2004, he was determined to reuse as many local and reclaimed materials as possible.
After salvaging terracotta tiles from an old building and using them in the hotel terrace he was hooked, spending the remainder of the project sourcing reclaimed materials from anywhere he could. But it was the recovery of cement tiles that he found particularly special - each lot felt special and full of character.
That moment was also the beginning of the journey for Bert & May. And 12 years on we’re just as obsessed about recovering antique tiles - or remaking them use the same traditional techniques.
Case study: Bert’s Barge
We’ve always looked for unique ways to use our materials and having an East London warehouse with a mooring, it was obvious what we should do. So designed a prototype of what narrowboat could becoming, kitting one out with handmade encaustic tiles, wall cladding and engineered flooring, all from the Bert & May catalogue.
