banister

The inquest also heard two statements from firefighters Leighton Brown and Gareth Davies who said the stairs banister, ceiling and the whole of the landing was “covered in smoke and fire” on their arrival.

Fire escapes look corroded and other metal fixtures such as banisters have been coated to look old or rusty, while walls appear water-stained.

He said Beal "wrapped her dead partner up and dragged him down the stairs, destroying the banister rails upstairs in order to do so" and buried him at their home on Moore Street.

A 1960s life-size mirrored figure by the Italian artist Claudio Platania and the French fashion designer Pierre Cardin stood on one of the home’s landings, reflecting the angular carvings of the original pine banisters.

“And then literally at the same time, on another channel, there was Jamie,” he recalled in an interview last week, “this floppy-haired Essex boy, sliding down the banister doing one-pot wonders.”