Pyrene Building, Brentford

This is the Pyrene Building in what has been dubbed Brentford's 'Golden Mile' of Art Deco factory buildings along the Great West Road. The infamous Firestone Building stood across the road, Gillette Corner is nearby and, what is now the UK Head Office of J C Decaux is next door.

Wallis, Gilbert & Partners designed the Firestone factory around 1928 and the Pyrene Building in the years immediately following that. Then, in the early 1930s they designed one of west London's other deco greats, the Hoover Building.

I can see influences for the Hoover Building in the details Pyrene Building. The curly cue features on the central tower appear at ground level on the Hoover Building but also the colours around the doors and the design of the lamps are also reminiscent of Hoover.

References:
archINFORM - Firestone Tyre Factory
archINFORM - Pyrene Building
archINFORM - Hoover Factory

Art Deco Apartments, London

This is one of those cases where I've come across a folder with some pictures of a wonderful but if I ever knew exactly what the building is called then it is long since lost.

I can tell you that this block of apartments is in North London, around the Finchley or Hampstead area I think.

The set of photos is called Riverside so I presume that is the name of the apartments or the street.

Can anyone help?

[Scroll down to see the doors and you'll really want to find out where this building is]

Brockwell Lido, London

During the Art Deco period, exercise and outdoor activity was very much in vogue. The rich and famous had sundecks and roof terraces but lesser mortals had to make do with the beach, public parks and swimming baths or lidos as they were often known in Britain.

In 1937, London County Council upgraded the public bathing facilities at Brockwell Park with the construction of Brockwell Lido replacing an older swimming pond elsewhere in the park.

The buildings were designed in Art Deco style and are now protected with a Grade II listing.

Unfortunately a very similar lido in Victoria Park, Hackney which opened a year earlier, closed in the 1980s and has been demolished.

References:
Brockwell Lido website
LIDOS IN LONDON no longer open: Victoria Park Lido, Hackney
News in a Nutshell - London's New Lido Opened at Victoria Park, British Pathé, 21 May 1936

A Building in Milton/Sittingbourne

I snapped this little building in 2000 or 2001 in Kent, England. If I took any notes of what the sign says then they are long lost. The only clue I have is the small foundation stone near the door that reads :

H H Scattergood
Chairman
1934

A search of the internet reveals the Sittingbourne, Milton, and District Directory 1908/09 that lists an H Scattergood as a member of the Milton Bowling Club Committeee and also a Mr H H Scattergood as Secretary & Collector of the Milton & Sittingbourne Horticultural Society. So I have made the assumption that this building is around the Milton/Sittingbourne district.

References:
Sittingbourne, Milton, and District Directory 1908/09, Reprinted 1980 by W.J. Parrett Ltd, Sittingbourne, hosted by rootsweb

King Ethelbert School, Birchington-on-Sea

King Ethelbert School in Birchington-on-Sea

The Royal Institute of British Architects, London

This building at 66 Portland Place, London is the home of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Designed by George Grey Wornum it was officially opened in November 1934 by King George V and Queen Mary. In 1970 it became the first modern building to recieve Grade II* listing.

The entrance has two huge bronze doors bearing a relief of the Thames river with some of London's buildings by James Woodford.

The left door (above) includes the Houses of Parliament and Guildhall but I paticularily liked the way the three rounded steps combine with a ramped paths on either side leading to the entrance.

Woodford also designed the two figures that stand on columns either side of the doorway who with a third figure high on the facade by Bainbridge Copnall represent the spirit of man and woman as creative forces of architecture.

High on the side of the RIBA building there are five figures also by Copnall.

A working man


An engineer


A painter


A sculptor


and an architect represented by Chirstopher Wren

Reference:
Guide to 66 Portland Place

Entrance Hall, Eltham Palace

This is the Entrance Hall at Eltham Palace, the 1930s Art Deco home of Stephen and Virginia Courtauld built next to the remaind of a medieval palace.

The room was design by Swedish architect Rolf Engströmer and is bathed in light from a large concrete and glass dome. The walls are lined with blackbean veneer (from Australia) and feature figures of a Viking and a Roman soldier as well as some of the Courtauld's favourite buildings.

The large circular carpet was commissioned from designer Marion Dorn. The original is now in the V&A Museum and the one in the house is a hand knotted replica.

Staircases lead to the bedrooms on the upper levels and doorways lead to the rooms on the ground floor including the extrodinary Dining Room.

As an entrance hall, the room provides a stunning welcome to a stunning house. And it is large space, ideally suited as a sitting room which is how the Courtaulds used it.

I've seen this room pop up in various TV shows and movies. If you pay particular attention during the scenes in Delysia's penthouse apartment in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day you'll recognise where they got some of the inspiration for the set.

Reference:
English Heritage - Information for Teachers

Dining Room, Eltham Palace

This is the dining room at Eltham Palace, the boyhood home of Henry VIII. Naturally this part of the palace was not around in Henry VIII's time. It is part of the mansion that Stephen & Virginia Courtauld built in the 1930s next to the remains of Henry's palace.

The Courtauld's incorporated the Great Hall into their mansion so you get this mix of over the top deco leading on to medieval masonry. The palace and gardens are now Grade II* listed and under the management of English Heritage and open to the public so we can all enjoy it. And when you go, make sure you have a look at the room where the Courtauld's pet ring-tailed lemur, Mah-Jongg, slept.

The decoration in the Dining Room has a Greek style to it as can clearly be seen on the fireplace, side table and the amazing doors featuring exotic (to England) animals including their beloved Mah-Jongg.

The dining table can comfortably sit Stephen and Virginia and a dozen of their intimate friends. The simple stylish chairs covered in red leather matching the colour of the curtains.

The walls are lined with bird's eye maple giving the room a light feeling despite the black doors.

A small clock of inlaid wood is set into the wood panelling and could easily be missed among the overall glamour of the room.

A stunning space and that's just one room in this spectacular mansion.

Reference:
Eltham Palace and Gardens, English Heritage website

Walthamstow Town Hall

I've just finished reading all of Steig Larsson's millennium trilogy so perhaps subconciously when I flicked across these pictures of Walthamstow Town Hall they jumped out as the subject for today's article.

Walthamstow, of course, is in east London, not Sweden. However the London Open House website describes the Town Hall, designed by PD Hepworth and built from 1937-1942, as Swedish influenced.

The eterior of the building is almost without any decoration except on the sides of the columns in front of the entrance where you will find a series of small friezes like the one of a bricklayer below.

Reference:
London Open House

Barton House, Plymouth

I wrote about this building in October 2008 and at the time I knew nothing more about the building than I could see in the photo which I had taken sometime in 2000-01.

Subsequently, I found out that it was known as Barton House in Colin Campbell Court. Originally it was a car showroom/garage for a dealer caled Barton and since my photo has been a Mothercare store and, I think, a Habitat store.

At one point I thought it had been demolished. Happily I was wrong.

Today I see on the BBC Devon website that the building will feature in an interesting art project from 31 March - 9 April this year.

As part of Plymouth's Hidden City Festival, theatre company Part Exchange Co will present a performance guiding people through the history of the building. Colin Campbell Court car park will be set up like a drive-in movie theatre for the audience to watch the show from the comfort of their cars.

No doubt it will be an interesting event. Unlike America and Australia, Britain does not have a history of drive-in theatres so it could be a first-time experience for many of the audience.

References:
BBC Devon, Plymouth's Drive In Deco unveiled
Hidden City website, Drive In Deco

A Building in Kent

I found an old disk the other day with some photos on it including this one.

It was in a folder called Kent so I know which English County it was taken in and therefore it was around 2000-01.

That, however, is all I can tell you.

Does anyone recognise it?

Flats, Primrose Hill

I don't know whether they are oldish or newish but I do know they are in the Primrose Hill area of London.

I hope they are old. The picture was taken around 2000 and it looks like the second flat in from the left hand end has just had some repair work done around the doorway and window.

I thought they looked quite modernist with the use of glass brick, flat roof and white paint job.

Beresford Avenue, Twickenham

Beresford Avenue is in an area of East Twickenham that in the 18th Century was part of the Twickenham Park Estate. The sub-division of the the park from around the middle of the 19th Century saw a series of housing developments until finally Beresford Avenue was constructed in 1935.

The Beresford Avenue Conservation Area Study published by the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames in July 2000, states that the avenue was designated as a Conservation Area in 1990 because it 'is a cul-de-sac development of twenty six semi-detached two storey houses with garages built in the mid 1930s to a largely unified design'.

The houses have these wonderful bulging window bays from the ground to the pitched roof with curved metal windows.

In general low walls or fences have been maintained and in some cases the houses still have the original sunburst design gates.

Reference:
Beresford Avenue Conservation Area Study, London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames, July 2000

Troxy, Stepney

This is the former Troxy Cinema in Stepney, London during its days as a Mecca bingo hall. It stopped as a bingo venue around 2005 and, renovated, it now serves as a concert, sports and events venue.

The cinema was designed by George Coles and openned in September 1933 but was closed in 1960 as a lot of the local population had been relocated due to war damage and subsequent slum clearance.

After lying vacant for three years it became the London Opera Centre and was used by the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to construct sets and as their rehearsal space.

In the 1990s it became a bingo hall and remained so for around 15 years.

This photo shows one of the three identical decorative panels above the large windows on the front of the cinema. They have been painted over as this 1961 photo posted on Flickr by dusashenka shows them as gold on a black background.

Many of the interior elements seemed to be intact (in 2000-01) including this wonderful (and grainy, sorry!) ceiling light fitting.

References:
Troxy Cinema, cinematreasures.org
www.troxy.co.uk

Six Pillars, Dulwich

The look of Six Pillars, a Modernist house in Dulwich, South London belies its age. It looks like it could have been built yesterday but I took these photos ten years ago and the house was already over sixty-five years old then.

Six Pillars was constructed from 1932-34 for Rev J H Leakey, headmaster of Dulwich College Preparatory School, and his wife. Architect, Valentine Harding secured the commission for Six Pillars and worked as lead designer on the project through Berthold Lubetkin's architectural firm Tecton.

Harding maintained a good relationship with the Leakeys and later worked, through them, on other projects for the preparatory school.

References:
Homes with History: Six Pillars, by Fiona McAuslan, Time Out Magazine
Dulwich Architects - Valentine Harding, by Ian McInnes, The Dulwich Society Journal - Summer 2007

Alfresco, Brighton

This is the view from the beach of Alfresco Restaurant in Brighton. A wonderful location looking out on the historic piers and the English Channel.

The address is given as Milkmaid Pavilion which conjures up more questions in my mind than answers. I presume it was a dressing pavilion for bathers ... but there must be some story behind the Milkmaid name.

From the Upper Esplanade the building looks like a ship cruising into shore. The outside terraces are bounded by metal railings and the tower marking the entrance has porthole windows and a flagpole.

I'm sure as the Alfresco name suggests, this is a lovely place to sit out for a meal or a drink on a sunny English summer afternoon.

The Card Market, Blackpool

This interesting shop in Blackpool was The Card Market around 2000 when I photographed it. For all I know, it still is the Card Market.

Run-down House in Silver End

I've blogged before about the village of Silver End in Essex where a number of modernist homes designed by Thomas Tait were built for workers of the nearby Crittal windows manufacturing plant.

There were a number of simple homes built for workers and a few larger house for managers, such as Wolverton.

I visited Silver End about 10 years ago and photographed this house, which is very similar to Wolverton, so I would say it is one of the manager's houses. It was quite run-down but offers wonderful potential as a fantastic home.

I wonder how it has faired over the past decade?

Cafe Sol, Greenwich

A while back I wrote about Burton's Deco Elephants including photos of elephants on former Burton's stores in Belfast and Streatham with links to other examples from around the UK.

In that post I mentioned seeing the elephants on a building in Greenwich and today I came across my photos of it.

As you can see it now the Cafe Sol, or at least it was when I took the photos, but it has a lot of the usual Burton's decoration.

As with other former Burton's buildings, there is an empty cartouche that would have presumably enclosed the Burton name during the store's operation.

There is also thin horizontal banding with zig-zag mitofs at regular intervals and, of course, the elephants heads on the column capitals.

And as I identified in my previous piece the tusks on these elephants (and other across England) are turned inwards where the Belfast elephants have tusks that are turned outwards.