Was it by coincidence that the formation of the Art Deco Society UK (ADSUK) in 2019 coincided with the publication of Art Deco Britain: buildings of the interwar years by Elain Harwood, Historic England’s 20th-century architecture specialist? Elain argues that we should do more to celebrate our art deco buildings and reminds us of the notorious bulldozing of the Firestone factory, on the Great West Road – London’s first art deco building – over August bank holiday weekend in 1980, just hours before it was due to be listed.
Outrage at the factory’s destruction led to the listing of 150 examples of interwar architecture, including Battersea Power Station, and boosted the membership of the Thirties Society (now the Twentieth Century Society), which had been formed the previous year with art historian Bevis Hillier as its first President. Hillier gave us the term ‘art deco’, the title of his 1968 book of that name, for what had been called ‘jazz modern’ or ‘moderne’ in the 1920s and 1930s; his name was derived from arts décoratifs, taken from the event that had popularised the style: the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris in 1925.
Archaeologists have every reason to celebrate the style: Britain’s first art deco building – Grade II*-listed High and Over, in Amersham – was built for Bernard Ashmole (1898-1988), Professor of Classical Archaeology at London University. Art deco was also strongly influenced by ancient Egyptian art – all the rage following the opening of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber in February 1923.
