Art Deco architecture in East Dulwich

[edhistory]

I've been told that the Art Deco building in Crystal Palace Road has been demolished to make way for slave-box flats.

Is this correct?

Did anyone take photographs?

[James Barber]

What art deco building?

The hairdresser warehouse shop closed last year and is nearly demolished but it didn't look art deco.

[KidKruger]

Maybe you mean the building that used to be next to the sports centre / pool ?

(Though that didn't look Art Deco)

The hairdressing suppliers demolished on CP Rd was certainly not Art Deco.

[Rolo Tomasi]

Slave-box? Really?

[preston_johns]

Not art deco, but interesting none the less. It was a commercial building designed by the architect John Outram in 1987. Outram is still very much a maverick polemicist in the profession and has designed some truly remarkable buildings (look up The Judge Institute of Management Studies in Cambridge). It certainly wasn't one of his best, but it probably had more thought and passion put into it than a thousand other 'light industrial units' around the country.

[KidKruger]

Which (ex) building on CP Rd are we talking about.

[mikeb]

Old warehouse next to swimming pool

Hairdressers' warehouse shop doesn't look Art Deco

Not sure which one John is referring to - he knows his architecture so maybe he's thinking about something else.

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incidentally, the "back to the future" feature of Google maps also shows the old Monkey Puzzle tree which was a favourite of my son. It was overwhelmingly big for that front garden ...)

[ed26]

From the logo, I assumed that this place was going to be in an mock Art Deco style, but the artist's impression is far more disappointing: http://www.thetribeca.co.uk/

[steveo]

Very unpleasant rat boxes

[BigED]

They would struggle to put together something uglier and less in keeping with the area. Not that I suppose that matters to the developers. As for the hair products emporium, it was originally a Victorian era stables with the subsequent addition of some WW2 bomb damage, as with much of the area. Not art deco. But still lovelier than what is being proposed.

[Jeremy]

I never understand what people mean when they complain new-builds aren't "in-keeping" with the area. Are we talking about architectural style? Surely nobody is advocating mock-Victorian buildings. Or are we talking more about the height of the building?

As it goes, I think the new flats look quite smart - as does the leisure centre next door.

[KidKruger]

the flats match the leisure centre (in the artist's impression, at least).

Be interesting to see how long that patio set outside one of the ground floor flats would be there before getting half-inched !

[edhistory]

The site was 203-205 Crystal Palace Road.

The photograph from 2008 that Mike found was the earliest I have seen.

The abused building has still has sufficient diagnostics.

If anyone has an earlier photo, or took a destruction in progress photo, I would like to see it/them.

There is still a standing similar building at 6-12 Grove Vale.

[KidKruger]

I have photos of this site from the 1990s (I am not going to dig them out and digitise them, that would be a project in itself to trawl through my attic) however the facade has not changed since 1990 when I moved nearby.

The only change in appearance has been the endless cycle of graffiti / over painting.

Nevertheless, I think 'art deco' is an overly genuine description of what was there until a few weeks ago !

Currently the site looks like this (see photo attached).

[JohnL]

Jeremy Wrote:

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> I never understand what people mean when they

> complain new-builds aren't "in-keeping" with the

> area. Are we talking about architectural style?

> Surely nobody is advocating mock-Victorian

> buildings. Or are we talking more about the height

> of the building?

>

> As it goes, I think the new flats look quite smart

> - as does the leisure centre next door.

It's not all about design bacaus I don't mind the design - it's the cutting corners.

New flats need some decent quality - chipboard floorboards in the bathroom now damp shredded wheat in mine :(

[mikeb]

John - do you mean Badminton House on Grove Vale? I'd assumed it was post-war, particularly because it doesn't seem to feature on the 1938 OS map (which shows only the outline of the new roads).

[edhistory]

Domino's Pizza!

[nxjen]

Not much Art Deco about Domino's Pizza! And it's been renovated and altered so much I'm guessing just the external brickwork and perhaps roof is all that remains of the original. When I first knew it, it consisted of three separate shops - was that how it was originally?

[edhistory]

Domino's is poor man's art deco. The sort you don't find in the architectural history books. Infra dig.

A better preserved example is over at Nunhead.

[east-of-the-Rye]

when the shop fronts were renewed a few years ago, the old sign, covering all 3 shops, "Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society" was revealed, then covered up again. The bit under the Monleys sign is still there I think.

[mikeb]

I think Domino's displays neither art nor deco. At most, maybe Streamline Moderne?

[nxjen]

No curved edges

[edhistory]

mikeb Wrote:

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> I think Domino's displays neither art nor deco.

> At most, maybe Streamline Moderne?

This morning I was driven around the most obscure of East Dulwich backstreets in search of remnants of Streamline Moderne.

Zilch.

The Grove Vale building seems to be the sole survivor and we should treasure it.

[edhistory]

nxjen Wrote:

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> No curved edges

This book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bombay-Art-Deco-Architecture-1930-1953/dp/8174364471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497254444&sr=8-1&keywords=bombay+art+deco

is good on the absence of curves on the most prestigious of art deco buildings.

You s should be able to borrow it from Southwark Libraries.

The afterward by Abha Lambak explains the book was partly put together to support a World Heritage Site listing for the Bombay "Art Deco Cluster!.

[nxjen]

The book isn't shown on Southwark Libraries catalogue and the link you included shows the book currently to be out of print but as an observation only, and probably a very superficial observation at that, India has a long tradition of assimilating other cultural influences to create something uniquely Indian.