Perhaps the best known Art Deco building in the UK is the superb Hoover Building in West London.  No longer the head quarters of that company it retains the Hoover name and is well known as an example of the style. 

Built in 1932 in Perivale Middlesex, Wallis, Gilbert and Partners tour de force is possibly the finest Art Deco structure in Britain. Now sensitively preserved as offices for Tesco's supermarket and an office building for Gallaghers. its principle building is a two storey low-lying white structure with the front divided into 15 bays by massive Egyptian pillars with ornate designs on the tops and bottoms.  Over the central doorway has over the door is a huge sunray like design with touches of red, blue, green and golden arrow quills; and matching gates of ornate metalwork. The towers at either end have curved corner windows and sunbursts and arrow quill features. To the left of the factory is what was the canteen, its style reminiscent of a streamlined Odeon cinema. Interior features include a green marble tiled factory washroom and toilets, magnificent art deco stairways and floor to ceiling sunburst windows.

However, Art Deco was not just an architectural style, it became integrated into many expressions of the way people chose to live, in the buildings the furnishings, clothes. In the 20s it could be seen in househild objects such as radios and in the 30s it became very much incorporated into cars, trains and a host of other new consumer durables.

Though Art Deco did not have the 20's and 30's all to itself, moderism had been born at the end of the 19th century and by the 20's and 30's was making its presence felt, particularly in Germany.

'High' Art Deco was largely dealt a death blow by  the Depression when design became much more utilitarian and became much more influenced by the machine age and, to an extent the Bauhaus School of Art in Berlin.  Indeed, Centre Court can be quite easily dated to the latter part of the 1930's as although it retains many of the classical Art Deco geometric lines, it lacks some of the 'frills' of earlier buildings.

In Europe there are very few examples of post war Art Deco with the exception of some individual dwellings.  Public and corporate building did not really get going again until the late 50s, by which time the (by comparison) somewhat brutal modernist movement had taken over.

However in the USA did survive the war and some very good examples of 40s Art Deco can still be found there, characterised in many of the wonderful prints we have managed to source for the walls of Centre Court.

For anyone interested in Art Deco, why not visit one of the most enduring examples on our own doorstep. The Electric Cinema is the oldest working cinema in the country and offers 'a certain style' to the experience of seeing a film that many modern cinemas seem to lack.  For that reason we feel that Centre Court and The Electric have a lot in common!

GALLERY