Thursday, May 3, 2012

Art Deco architecture of London


London, England, may not be a city that people associate with Art Deco, but in total it has quite a few buildings in the category as the photos in this new book demonstate.

The style was en vogue from the late 1920s to the mid 1930s, and its two essential components are streamlined shapes plus decorative features.  In the mid 1930s, associated with the new "machine age", the decorative elements were de-emphasized or eliminated and a consequent "streamline moderne" style followed.

Of interest to blog readers will be the Underground railway stations that were built in this time, and a chapter is devoted to them; see the example of Southgate.  The book is full of lovely photos, and it deserved a larger page format than the publisher has given it. Still the £10 price is quite modest.  160 pages in 180 x 190 mm, softcover with flaps.

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