Virginia Black

A deep grey-black with a soft pale cloud drifting through it, in a riven finish — a rough, undulating surface produced by processing rather than polishing. It is a finish you feel with your hand before you see it.

The riven texture is the reason to choose it: it gives the stone a physical presence a polish never does, and in a kitchen it is unusually practical — no glare, no fingerprints, no scratches that read. At 330 by 200 the slab is very wide and suited to a large island.

Granite is a crystalline igneous rock — quartz, feldspar and mica cooled slowly at depth — and among the most durable things you can put in a working kitchen. Everyday use does not scratch it, kitchen acids do not touch it, and a hot pan will not scorch it. It is porous to a degree, so the slab is sealed before delivery; resealing every year or two is what keeps oil marks from settling around the hob.

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.