Dover Green

A pale white-cream ground carrying a central breccia zone in green-grey, muted purple and cream — large clasts ringed by fine dark lines. The pattern is concentrated rather than spread across the whole slab, so there is both quiet and a focal point here.

That balance is rare and useful: the slab can be cut so the dramatic zone falls exactly on the island or the splashback, leaving the rest of the run calm. It is a decision taken in front of the slab, not on a drawing.

Quartzite is a metamorphic natural stone: quartz sand compacted under heat and pressure until it became a single crystalline rock. It is harder than marble and usually harder than granite — a knife, salt or a ceramic plate leave no mark — and unlike marble it does not etch from lemon or vinegar. It is porous, though: the slab is sealed before delivery, and resealing every year or two keeps it that way. There is no resin in it as there is in engineered quartz, so a hot pan will not scorch it — a trivet is still a good habit, particularly near an edge or a joint.

Every slab is one single piece of rock, and no two slabs of the same stone are ever identical. So we drive out to the supplier's yard with you, choose the actual slab there, and mark the layout on it before it is cut.