Bricks and mortar

Part of the garden wall was threatening to fall down, so we are having it re-built. Most of the bricks that were whole in the old wall can be re-used, and the new wall is being done with lime mortar, like the original, i.e. no cement at all. And thus was most of Camberwell built.

This isn't just conservation fussiness - lime mortar has a hugely lower carbon footprint than does cement. It also has the indirect effect that when you take a wall down you can get the mortar off the bricks. The only bricks we couldn't re-use here were the ones that had been repaired with cement. When you lay bricks with cement you doom them to single use.

So reclaimed London stocks are only available because of the lime mortar they were put together with.