New York has lots of beautiful ballroom, bar, and lobby ceilings. One of the most magical is at the Bethesda Arcade—the arched walkway in the center of the park that brings you to Bethesda Fountain and the Central Park Lake.
It’s an enchanting place to go when the weather gets dreary, a colorful antidote to gray winter days. [above photo from centralparknyc.org]
“Installed in 1869, there are more than 15,000 colorful, patterned encaustic tiles, made by England’s famed Minton Tile Company,” states centralparknyc.org.
Encaustic tiles, originally created to cover the floors of European cathedrals, are made of individually colored clays pressed and fired into the tile to form the design. Bethesda Arcade is the only place in the world where Minton ceramic tiles are used for a ceiling.”
Dirty and weathered over time, the tiles were taken down in the 1980s and put in storage until 2007, when the newly restored Arcade was reopened to the public.
Tags: beautiful ceilings New York City, Bethesda Arcade Central Park, Bethesda Fountain, Central park ceiling tiles, Central Park lake, magical places Central park, Minton tiles
Ephemeral New York 
November 26, 2011 at 2:13 am |
gasping here!
November 26, 2011 at 2:16 am |
I know…they must be seen in person to really appreciate how beautiful they are, so different from the rustic park.
November 26, 2011 at 2:33 am |
I wish I could
thanks for sharing such a lovely suggestion
November 26, 2011 at 2:56 am |
This is amazing. They are at the top of the list for my next trip to New York. These kinds of tiles are often seen in American homes in vestibule floors, but this installation is impressive in every way. I’m glad they restored this–often when they store architectural parts, when they get around to fixing it, half is missing.
–Road to Parnassus
November 26, 2011 at 3:45 am |
Yes, you must see them–enchanting. As is all of Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, of course.
December 28, 2011 at 2:57 pm |
As a result of your emailing this to me, when I was in NYC last week I made a special point of going to see these ceiling tiles. They were clean, colorful, and beautiful.
December 28, 2011 at 6:27 pm |
Aren’t they? It’s like being in another city, they enchant and transport you. Glad you got to see them!
August 20, 2012 at 3:36 am |
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October 7, 2013 at 2:49 am |
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February 20, 2014 at 7:57 am |
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March 17, 2015 at 1:02 am |
I know a wee bit about these tiles as I am so very fond of the US Capitol bldg in Washington, D.C. There they have had installed highly elaborate Minton-manufactured tiles in the secondary wings of the bldg. The outstanding feature of these tiles is the fact the design is not just added to the surface and fired – these ‘encaustic tiles’ have the design enbedded perhaps as much as 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch. Therefore, the everyday foot-traffic on the surface does NOT destroy the designs for decades.
(Pompeii had similar tiles too!)
The really cool idea here is that these valuable, colorful tiles are NOT under foot, but rather oddly were chosen as an adornment overhead! Only the fantastical dancer, Fred Astaire would be guilty of wear ‘n tear on THESE tiles – as only Fred was capable of clicking his heels ‘n toes in a ‘Royal Wedding’ dance across THIS Central Park ceiling…and that would be an even more enhancing, entrancing site indeed!
April 14, 2017 at 6:17 am |
[…] may have been struck by the sight of so many women (and some kids, plus a few men) gathered at the Terrace steps, almost all in brightly colored dresses shielding themselves from the sun under […]