Office Building, Twickenham

I snapped this Art Deco office building in Twickenham in 2003 when this fabulous clock tower attracted my attention.

I know nothing about the building but from the decoration I suspect it was associated with a local Electric Board or and Electrical Showroom.

A relief above the door shows a disembodied hand perhaps generating or conducting electrical waves to transmission lines.

Other reliefs on the building are less ambiguous clearly showing a lit electric light globe.

Co-Op Building, Woolwich

This is the former Co-Op department store in Woolwich. I took these photos in 2003 so I can only imagine that the building has deteriorated further since then.

I see on the We Love Woolwich that the building is earmarked for demolition by Greenwich Council to make way for the Woolwich Triangle re-development.

I hate to see a building like this demolished when it could become a landmark feature of the redevelopment and provide a tanigible link to the past use of the site.

Please sign the online petition to Save the Woolwich Co-Op building and hopefully we will see this beautiful building occupied and operational again.

former Carlton Cinema, Islington

George Coles designed this fabulous Egyptian Temple which was constructed in North London in 1930.

It is the Grade II Listed former Carlton Cinema in Islington. In recent years it has been a bingo hall but was closed in March 2007.

In May 2007, the Islington Gazette reported that the interior had been trashed by hundreds of ravers who partied "like wild animals" during a 24-hour bender of drink, dance music and destruction.

Last month, theIslington Gazette again reported on the fate of the former Carlton cinema.

Newly-founded evangelical church Resurrection Manifestations wants to restore the 2,300-capacity building as a conference centre, cinema and community venue.

The church bought the building in 2007 and will build a contemporary seven-storey block of 44 flats at the back of the site to help pay for the work. Representatives of the church are quoted as wanting to return the building to its former glory.

This looks like a great compromise and plans for the redevelopment are due before Islington Council in December 2009.

Rayners Lane Tube Station, London

Rayners Lane is another of the London Underground's Charles Holden designed stations.

Rayners Lane Tube Station dates from 1936.

Arnos Grove Tube Station, London

Yesterday I wrote about Southgate Tube Station being upgraded from Grade II heritage listing to Grade II* joining neighbouring station Arnos Vale as the only two tube stations with that level of listing. So I thought it was only appropriate that today I write about Arnos Grove.

Like Southgate, Arnos Grove station was designed by the London Underground's master architect of the interwar period, Charles Holden.

Arnos Grove was built in 1932, a year before Southgate, and they bear some resemblance to each other with the circular nature of the structure.

And while I liked the lighting at Southgate, it was this bench on the platform at Arnos Grove which attracted my camera lens.

Southgate Tube Station, London

Another of Charles Holden's wonderful 1930s stations on the London Underground has received Grade II* heritage listing.

With this upgraded listing, Southgate station joins nearby Arnos Grove as the only two tube stations with this level of protection according to Sarah Cosgrove's report in the Enfield Independent newspaper.

Built in the early 1930s the main station building is topped with a tower of discs incoporating lighting and sphere shaped finial.

The circular station sits on island acting as a transport hub with the numerous bus stops surrounding it. On one side there is semi-circular sweep of shops dating from the same time.

Inside the station, the lights, particularily two freestanding lamps at the bottom of the escalators, are beautiful works of art.

Cecil Rhodes House, Camden

I stumbled upon these wonderful Art Deco flats behind London's Kings Cross station.

Cecil Rhodes House has a great vertical expanse of glass bricks, no doubt lighting the communal spaces of the block. Each flat has a small balcony with a rounded end, set symetrically fron the central tower and above the entrance there are two sculpural lights.

Old Penguin Pool, London Zoo

The old Penguin Pool at London Zoo, dating from 1934, is a fabulous Modernist building designed by Berthold Lubetkin and architectural firm Tecton. Unfortunately it is not so fabulous as a place to keep wildlife.

The spirialing ramps and open egg-shaped enclosure provide little shade and according to stories, provided little protection from predators such as urban foxes.

I visited on a grey day in 2001 and it was looking a bit sad. As you can see there are more seagulls than penguins.

The building is Grade I listed and therefore protected so now that the penguins have a new more suitable enclosure, Lubetkin's pool has been restored as an elaborate water feature.

Boston Manor Tube Station, London

Like many London Underground stations from the 1930s, Boston Manor was designed by architect Charles Holden.

The resulting building is a low square structure with a circular ticket box at one end and rising above it a brick tower bearing the London Underground roundel.

The leading edge of the tower is made of glass which is light up at night to further draw attention to the tube station from the surrounding district.

Tooting Bec Lido, London

The south London suburb of Tooting Bec has a lido, a huge open-air swimming pool, the largest fresh water pool in England.

The pool was opened in 1906 as a bathing lake and within a few months the South London Swimming Club was formed. The club still uses the lido as its base.

There have been many changes over the years including, I believe, a new entrance so I presume this brick entrance has been replaced.

With the focus on outdoor exercise in the 1920s and 30s the pool adopted the name lido and included a fountain to help oxygenate and circulate the water.

A cafe was also added. I'm not sure if the vertical sundial is original, there may have been a conventional clock there but it certainly is very stylish.

The lido is an oasis in Tooting Bec Common providing a tree lined escape from the hustle and bustle of the London Streets and the colourful doors of the the changing rooms are sure to brighten any day.

Lawn Road Flats, London

Recently, ES Developed, a graphic design company from Florida, wrote about Art Deco as inspiration on their blog. Specifically they wrote about Agatha Christie's Poirot and used one of my pictures of Florin Court, the building used for Poirot's residence in the British TV series, to illustrate their point.

It got me thinking about Lawn Road Flats in north London where Agatha Christie was a famed resident as was Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius.

Lawn Road Flats were designed by Wells Coates, evolving from a project to design two houses for Jack & Molly Pritchard. As the plans developed the building became an experiment in modern communal living. The accommodation was simple but comfortable with furniture from the Pritchard's company Isokon. On the ground floor there was a shared dining facilities.

I visited during the London Open House weekend around 2000 and the flats were not in a very good condition at all. As you can see from the photos, the garden beds were overgrown and full of weeds. There was even some graffiti but surprisingly not that much considering the 'blank canvas' it presented.

It was very interesting to see inside some of the flats despite their condition. They are very small even by London standards.

The good news is that the flats have been restored since then. From the photo on the Twentieth Century Society casework report they look fantastic, complete with Isokon furniture.

Down in a Tube Station ..., London

55 Broadway is the amazing headquarters of the London Underground. It was designed by Charles Holden in the late 1920s. Holden also designed many of the iconic art deco style tube stations around London.

I snapped this picture of a tile on the wall of a tube station and I reckon it is the best picture I am going to get of 55 Broadway.

St Olaf House, London

St Olaf House was designed by H S Goodhart-Rendel for the Hay's Wharf Company in 1928-32.

The Thames frontage (above) carries the name of the company in gold stylised lettering along the top.

The central section of the riverside facade features 3 stylised figures and 36 smaller abstract panels, also coloured gold.

At first glance the Tooley Street facade aapears nowhere near as decorative but on closer examination there are some lovely features starting with the stylised St Olaf House above the doorway almost at street-level.

St Olave, himself, King of Norway, is represented on the curved corner of the building surrounded by thin rectangular windows arranged in sets of three.

Then at the other end of the building, the windows are arranged, still in sets of three, but offset so that they step down.

But my favourite is this doorway. Again St Olaf House is spelt out in stylised gold lettering. And the door is stunning with the wave motif protrayed in the metalwork.

Neville House, London

In March 2003, London Time Out magazine produced an Art Deco issue to coincide with the Art Deco 1910-1939 Exhibition at the V & A.

The feature was a small booklet feature the Deco 100 which described Neville House as 'admittedly undistinguished 1930s apartment block'. In fact the only reason that Neville House was mentioned was because of the Paviours Arms, a deco pub on the ground floor.

Back in 2003, the owners of the building had planning permission to redevelop (demolish) the site to provide 93 modern flats and 2 shop.

By all accounts the pub was a deco gem but it wasn't open when I visited.

And Neville House? I can't actually remember the building but it did have this series of reliefs on the facade.

I presume Neville House, the Paviours Arms and the reiefs have all gone now. I wonder did the built something good to replace them.

Florin Court, London

You may recognise this building as Whitehaven Mansions, the London home of Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, in the the British TV series Poirot starring David Suchet.

In actual fact it is Florin Court in Charterhouse Square.

The undulating wave of the facade of this building is absolutely spectatcular and I never tire of seeing it when we visit Poirot through our television screens.

I've just watched The Third Floor Flat, an episode from series 1, where a women is murdered two floors down from Poirot and he barely leaves the building during the whole show. Bliss ... except for the poor murdered woman of course.

Carreras Cigarette Factory, London

This Egyptian temple was built in 1926-28 by architects M.E and O.H Collins with A.G Porri just a few years after Howard Carter had discovered the intact tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamun. Originally Carreras Cigarette Factory it became an office building in the 1960s losing many of the wonderful Art Deco features.

Egyptian inspired Art Deco at its most colourful and those colours are amazing. Blue, red and green at the top and bottom of each column emphasising the lotus flower a common ancient Egyptian design motif.

The entrance is guarded by a pair of black cats. These statues stand over a metre tall at the top of a short flights of steps leading up to a modern glass doorway.

The black cat was the logo of Carreras Cigarettes and is also represented in a series of reliefs along the façade of the building either side of the Carreras name. Seen close up, the reliefs show a cats head with bright yellow eyes and wire whiskers.

Now called Greater London House the building was restored in 1999.

Osterley Tube Station, London

Charles Holden was a British architect who designed many of London’s Underground Stations dating from the 1920s and 30s. Osterley Station, which he designed to replace and earlier station located nearby, opened in 1934.

The station is dominated by a tall rectangular brick tower displaying the familiar London Underground logo. This brick tower is topped with a concrete pylon with white square lights set into each side.

The rough 'pebble-dash' concrete contrasts nicely to the smoothness of the small brown bricks of the main tower.

Osterley is on the Piccadilly line, out towards Heathrow. If you have the time, it is worth getting off at each station and having a look around especially at these outer stations which despite being part of the London Underground are usually above ground and are more likely to be purpose built stations.

This is one of my favourite shots of Osterley Station. I think the way the geometric shapes and lines of Holden’s design creates a dramatic image, even if the Underground sign is half obscured.