What kind of building is this and where??

[DudleyWinchurch]

Someone PLEASE tell me where the second bed is ?   I just can't spot it ? 

In line with the obvious one but behind the altar rails.  The head board (nearer to the viewer)  is higher than the foot-board but it's a bit strange as the corners indicate another solid squared brass bedstead but there appears to be an ornate cast-iron part in the middle of the head-board.  The covers on that bed look like they are light-coloured and frilly.

[Lydart]

GOT IT !!!!!

So if the foot end is furthest away from us, the viewer, what is that iron thing growing up out of the foot end of the bed ?   Its not behind the bed, but appears to be standing on it ? 

(I can see this is going to keep me awake tonight, as it did last night !)   

[DudleyWinchurch]

So if the foot end is furthest away from us, the viewer, what is that iron thing growing up out of the foot end of the bed ?   Its not behind the bed, but appears to be standing on it ? 

I think what you are reffering to is what I took to be the corner of the head-board so is in front of the foot board rather than growing out of it.

I don't think that this could be a servant's room either, too much furniture and the quality of the furnishings (matching set of light coloured fabric padded chairs, for example).  I think it's a room being used to make some (people) as comfortable as possible in an emergency maybe.

The spooky thing is that it seems eerily familiar.  Not that I have seen it before but that the doors etc. seem of a very familiar style. A long time ago I was at a convent school, built as a Victorian orphanage, I believe, but there were cloisters and attics that come to mind whenever I look at this picture.

[Paul E]

Why do I keep thinking of a Dan Brown novel when I see this picture? 

[Gadget]

Could it be that the upper part is a dressing room area with a daybed. The area on the dressing table wall might suggest a fire place (behind the dressing table) with open alcoves and closed cupboards either side. The blank panel could have been where a mirror is usually placed. Any signs of a water jug and bowl?

The rails in this case are not 'altar rails' but just a division of functional area.

I think that the reason that this is driving us all mad is that most of us like mysteries and puzzles - same as family history really.

I MUST GET ON 

Gadget

[Gadget]

Still driving me mad 

has anyone mentioned a barge or a boat yet, | remember someone saying a railway carriage but those wall panels seem to possibly slide. if it was in the Grand Victorian House style, they'd have enbossed wallpaper wouldn't they?

Gadget

[wheeldon]

The picture looks like a shepherdess to me

[patrish]

What an interesting picture, it seems to me to be some sort of defunct  religious building,  maybe non conformist  which was turned into a dwelling. It fascinates me too. Definitely females living there.

[DudleyWinchurch]

What a pity that the titles on the books on the near table are not readable.  On the sharpened version of the picture, the item next to them looks like rosary beads.  How was this pic digitised? Can it be done at greater resolution?

The room is far too wide to be a train carriage but the possibility of a Dutch barge (rather than a narrowboat) had crossed my mind.  The roof vaulting seems too complicated though, and the rails and change of floor level, together with the architectural style of door frames and the greek pillars and ornate moldings at the front, do seem like a catholic chapel.  Perhaps one no longer needed after a Church was openly built nearby in the mid 19thC?