Pity if it's gone. It was like having babies in a Poirot set (well not me, Mrs. Mollie).
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Art Deco Architecture in Edinburgh (Help Needed)
(221 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Is the old Telford College building still standing? It was a magnificent bit of architecture.
Posted 12 years ago # -
This is what you need to Google for
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Simpson+Memorial+Maternity+Pavilion
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Is the old Telford College building still standing?"
Yes -
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=3297&replies=33#post-34450
Posted 12 years ago # -
Ah. I didn't know it had other names. :-/
Posted 12 years ago # -
"I didn't know it had other names"
Well you know it wasn't built as TC - you just didn't what it had been.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Some of the buildings at Pollock Halls are art deco. I think it is Holland House. Causewayside Garage Edinburgh
From SCRAN
1. Alfa Romeo Garage, Angle Park, Edinburgh - An Art Deco Garage built in the 1930s
2. Whitefoord House, Royal Mile, Edinburgh - Art Deco doorpiece
3. Sheriff Courthouse, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh - an Art Deco-influenced exaggeration of the flatness and weight of classical detail
4. Episcopal Chapel of St George, York Place, Edinburgh - now a Casino
5. Window breast panels for Lothian House, Edinburgh
6. Poole's Roxy Cinema on Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, c. 1936
7. Fountainbridge Public Library, Dundee Street/Murdoch Terrace, Edinburgh
8. Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society building, 78-80 George Street, Edinburgh, now the National Westminster Bank
9. Leith Academy Secondary School, Duke Street, Leith, Edinburgh
10. Morningside United Church, 'Holy Corner' crossroads, Colinton Road/Chamberlain Road/Morningside Road, Edinburgh
11. Above lidl on Nicholson Street Edinburgh - old Coop Offices.Posted 12 years ago # -
You might also want to check out King's Buildings as much of the site was built in the 1930s. Specifically, Engineering, Zoology, Geology and Chemistry.
Another possible contender is St Ninian's RC School in Restalrig.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"often a shame to find a grand cinema turned into a Bed Shed!"
Had never realised.
Posted 12 years ago # -
not edinburgh, but can do pics, books and video on asmara, which has more art deco than pretty much anywhere else on earth.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Better a bed shed than flattened to make way for a shopping shed?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Just watched a documentary about the Orient Express. Fact of the day is that the term "art deco" was first used in 1966 in a Times article. Before that it was Jazz Modern or just plain Moderne.
Posted 12 years ago # -
For what it's worth, Glasgow Victoria Infirmary is an Art Deco tour de force. I'm not sure whether the new part is meant to be modelled on Coventry Cathedral's modernist themes or a 21st century take on Streamline Moderne.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well, I started yesterday. Not sure if these links will work, but... Started with Fountainbridge Library (which has a fab staircase just in the front door) and 116 Fountainbridge, a Telephone Exchange built in 1950, of which the builder, Stewart Sim, said, "The architect has expressed in a modern way both the function of the building, itself a modern service, and the dignity of a Government undertaking."
Fountainbridge Library Front by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Fountainbridge Library Sign by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Fountainbridge Library Stairwell_1 by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Fountainbridge Telephone Exchange by blackpuddinonnabike, on Flickr
Fountainbridge Telephone Exchange 1950 by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrPosted 12 years ago # -
Ah I never thought of those two as being Art Deco. Its not a style I'm terribly keen on but I think the style in my head is much more gaudy than those.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm a big fan of post-war modernist industrial buildings like the Telephone Exchanges.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Ah I never thought of those two as being Art Deco. Its not a style I'm terribly keen on but I think the style in my head is much more gaudy than those."
Thinking more Art Nouveau?
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm very fond of the Fountainbridge library bldg. It just doesn't seem to work in its location. And the inside is disastrous.
Posted 12 years ago # -
There are three other notable buildings in the inimitable 'deco style. One is the Fairmile Inn, next to the bypass at Lothianburn junction, one is 11 Easter Belmont Road, known as Lismhor, and the third is 46A Dick Place, which was built two years later by the business partner of the owner of Lismhor. Chapeau, Anth, if you can get photos of those two!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Mein Gott! Easter Belmont Road - had no idea it was there, it's fabulous!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Fantastic Anth, something I thought about doing about 30 years ago, photographing Art Deco buildings in Edinburgh. I also love art nouveau style with its waves and flourishes. The doors of the King's theatre...Perhaps you should read some of the literature from that time to give you a feel for the era too, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, Saki. Film worth seeing, if you haven't already is Metropolis, Fritz Lang, that was made in 1927. There are all the great travel posters of that ilk too, for Cunard liners, trains, holidays in Britain, and of course, covers for magazines, particularly Vogue.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Oh, yes before I forget, The Dome, fabulous interior, on George Street, classic 30's. Quite a number of banks were built around that time. The RBS HQ on St Andrews Sq, may not be deco but definitely worth looking at, the ceiling is absolutely fantastic. Metropole on Clerk St I am pretty sure is deco. There is the golf club house (might be Musselburgh Golf Course) on the Esk Path, that's 30's.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Hey Liz, there's a definite plan for immersion. I absolutely adore the advertising posters of the age (especially the Grand Prix posters - what I'd do for an original...).
@Arellcat, thanks for those three. I'll be writing to the last two, and having a wander by the Fairmile Inn - I'd forgotten about that, best to see it before it falls down...
Posted 12 years ago # -
p.s. this morning I was photographing Lothian House. Planning on trying to get inside that one - there's a swimming pool in the basement!
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Anth there's also some interesting looking blocks in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital that might be worth exploring. Look contemporary with the King's Buildings of that paeriod.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I had a look at the Fairmile Inn this morning and took some photos for the heck of it. Imagine the time when it was a stylish outpost in the middle of fields, leading to the modern suburbia of Greenbank and the Braids.
I also had a look at St Raphael's Hospital, and although the form is still present, the windows have been renewed and detract somewhat from the barefaced style of its youth that Kaputnik mentioned. While I was in the area, I had a look around the cricket ground, but it's private. I think in winter you might glimpse 46A through the trees from Lovers Loan, but it's a pretty secluded area and I didn't want to appear nosy.
Has anyone checked out George Watson's College? A lot the main building looks of that time, particularly the central block with its big square...things - I don't think they're stylised chimneys, nor lift machine rooms, and towers isn't the right word either. Worth a look though.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Garage at junction of Milton Road East and Eastfield. I seem to remember it used to have some sort of canopy around the lot out front.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Baird Hall on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow - former hotel now Strathclyde Uni Hall of Residence would be the largest Art Deco residential building in Scotland (unless there is a bigger one0 - Wee pub across from it was good in early 1990s and went for an art deco theme [I am not dredging up its name but it was good]. GFT probably Art Deco too, just along a bit...
Posted 12 years ago # -
The abandoned lighthouse on the west breakwater at Western Harbour or Leith Docks. You can now easily get right up to the fencing, but it was being used as a gang hut and a rooftop special brew garden by western harbour young team, so I didn't go exploring too close with my nice new camera.
Posted 12 years ago # -
but it was being used as...
Oh well, there goes history. Maybe it was better being inaccessible.
In case Anth can get a cheap train ticket, Northumberland Street in Newcastle looks like it was built as though Art Deco was going out of fashion.
I found some others this evening while poking around on Leith Walk. I did actually know about this one but had forgotten: the former office of the old tram depot on Leith Walk, now owned by tie. And there's the first floor frontage above Pizza Planet on Great Junction Street.
But then, what about Methodist Central Hall, above the funeral directors, or the flats on Tinto Place, and the old snooker hall on Junction Bridge? Are they of that era too?
We'll need a map with pins in it at this rate! :-D
Posted 12 years ago #
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