A minor piece of deco this one. I think it used to be a bank at one time. It’s mainly the upper story styling that marks it out.

The windows are typical of the thirties. They might even not have been replaced though there is a hint of plastic about them. If they have it’s been done sympathetically.

Nice deco fanlight, too.

Up north again for the latest in this series. The above picture is from the Wikipedia page about the pool which is apparently the only Olympic sized sea water lido in the Art Deco style.

The pool’s home web page is here.

There is a nice photo of the facade at this site. The yellow and blue paintwork is reminiscent of Kirkcaldy Ice Rink.

This is an aerial shot but you can’t really see any deco from above.

The gates look very deco, though.

This arty one is from flickr.

Time was when the Science Fiction crime/detective story was a rarity. This may have been because there is a fundamental disparity between the two forms. In Science Fiction the essence is that the tale is of something changed or changing, by the end of the tale the world is no longer the same. In crime fiction, by contrast, order – normality – is restored, the world is made safe again. There is also a necessary withholding of information in the crime story (or at least a need to disguise it.) In Science Fiction the more information is granted to the reader the more real the changed world seems, the more we believe in it.

The first truly successful SF crime stories that I recall were written by Larry Niven and featured teleportation booths. In A Kind of Murder the resolution and solving of the crime depends solely on a ramification of this SF element. Niven then went on to write novels featuring the detective Gil the ARM Hamilton who as the result of an accident lost one physical arm but then developed a psychic one which he subsequently used in his investigations.

Perhaps because of the infiltration of so much of what was SF into both the modern world and the modern detective story/thriller, especially televisually; perhaps because the conventions of the detective story are so embedded, the SF crime story is nowadays no longer so problematic and SF detectives are far from rare.

These thoughts were prompted by the SF book which I am reading at the moment, The Night Sessions by Ken Macleod. It has elements of the detective story and part of the action takes place in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is a marvellous setting for detective/horror/supernatural fiction as it is so wonderfully Gothic. There is the unmissable landmark of the castle brooding on its rock, Arthur’s Seat, Calton Hill with its curious, apparently unfinished buildings in the classical style, the bizarre under and over layout of the streets just off the Royal Mile, the contrast between the Old Town and the New (and nowadays the peripheral estates.) The Old Town itself has so many mediæval associations – not to mention underground warrens – several atmospheric churchyards with attached cemeteries and of course there is the bodysnatching/Burke and Hare connection; all of which make it almost perfect for the unfolding of skullduggery of various sorts. Glasgow, by contrast, while its estates are bleak, has only the area by the Cathedral which is truly old. Its streets tend to be more grid like – with no dark, tunnel-like thoroughfares analogous to The Cowgate (unless you count the Hielanman’s Umbrella.) For all its energy and (misplaced?) reputation for violence it seems so much more prosaic a place, more bustling certainly, but more modern, more down to earth, less prone to fancies.

Here are two more pictures I’ve found (on flickr) of the building I started this series off with.

Nice ending to my sentence above, wasn’t it? Not one, but two prepositions.

This is the sort of language that, it is said, up with which Winston Churchill would not put.

Here’s yet more proof that Aberdeen does have Art Deco influenced buildings.

Among its claims to fame are a floor sprung on steel springs and that the Beatles played the final gig of their 1963 Scotland tour there.

This link shows a close up of the nice detailing above the doorway.

There’s a more general view here and a nice panorama plus some interior views at Scottish Cinemas.

This one is from a distance inland.

I got the following months ago from Aberdeen City Council website. I haven’t corrected the grammar in its second sentence:-

‘The building presents a low elevation to the promenade but, on entering, the visitor descends the main staircase from which the full height and space of the domed octagonal ballroom can be appreciated. The interior reflect the glamour and Art Deco style of the 1930s whilst the sprung floor of Canadian pine, enjoyed by generations of Aberdeen dancers is still intact. The extension on the seaside of the building was designed by the City Architects Department in the early 1960s.’

Their site has been updated but there’s still an orthographic error on the new page about the ballroom.

Since my younger son is now living in Dundee I’ve become even more acquainted with that city. This building is quite close to his flat and I came across it as I was making my way home after moving him in. Next time I took the camera but it was getting late and quite dark when these pictures were taken.

Here is a close up of the central entrance.

There is interplay between horizontal and vertical so typical of Deco buildings but not much by way of extravagant flourish.

I thought it must have been a mill at one time. It had obviously recently been converted to flats, though.

I’ve just discovered it was formerly known as Lilybank Works and the “distinctive chamfered corner and recessed entrance” dates from 1949, very late for Deco styling.

Also called the Taybank Works it was the last of Dundee’s jute mills. There is a photo here of the building still sporting a Tay Spinners Ltd sign. The new Taybank works apparently replaced Lilybank Foundry after the Second World War.

Of the jam, jute and journalism, for which Dundee used to be famed, what is there now left?

This is Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s lesser Glasgow masterpiece (it comes second to the School Of Art.)

Scotland Street School

The day I visited the School – which is now a museum of Scottish education – there were two buses parked outside making a decent photo impossible so the above picture of the frontage is from the scotcities website where you can find loads of views of both the exterior and the interior.

These are my images:-

Entrance Gates. Lovely arch.

Infant’s Entrance – now the entrance to the museum. Typical Mackintosh motifs.

One of the circular stairwells. The stained glass in these is best seen from inside.

Janitor’s house, sited in the playground.

Side view. The janitor’s house is to the left of this photo.

Detail of side of building at top.

The Glasgow Guide site has on its second page a nice photo of the tiled pillars flanking the Drill Hall just inside the entrance.

Most of the links on the first Google page for Scotland Street School are worth a look.

I came across this building by chance walking through a lower part of the town, after I’d been to the Abbot House.
It’s a Christian bookshop now. What it was originally I’ve no idea.

There’s some nice detailing* above the windows. It’s more deco this side (west) than on the other.

This east side has a nice curve towards the back, though.

Great embellishment on the roofline. Except above the doorway the *zig-zag pattern goes all the way along the building and round the corner.

The doorway has some fine moulding work above it.

I caught the programme whose title was the same as this post on BBC4 on Monday night. It was about the cultural revolution of the 1920s and 30s and focused on Art Deco/Modernism. As a result many of the buildings I have mentioned in passing – the De La Warr Pavilion, the Hoover Building – or shown myself – the Midland Hotel – were highlighted, along with others such as Saltdean Lido and the New Victoria Cinema (not, I think, the one in Edinburgh but more probably this) and a whole host of 20s and 30s buildings from the 1925 Paris Exposition Des Arts Decoratifs (where the term originated) onwards.

The impact of Hollywood on the dissemination of Art Deco style was said to be crucial as was the impression of speed, streamlining being the original “go faster” stripes.

Where I took issue a bit was when it suggested that the perfection and optimism embodied in the form was intended to be extended to humans. Some people at the time did expound eugenics, for example, but that was surely more a distortion of social Darwinism than a consequence or expression of Art Deco.

Apart from the movies the most Deco thing about the era was, of course, the posters, whether of railways or holiday destinations or ships. Some of these are just fantastic. More than a few were displayed in the programme which is on the iPlayer if you want to take a look.

There’s a new series of programmes on Art Deco Icons starting tonight (Wed 22/10/09) on BBC4. The first features Claridge’s.

I took several photos in Perth last week. The first two are of the Playhouse Cinema.

The street seems to double as a bus station so there’s a bus in this first one.
The bus had moved on by the time I took the second.

Typical Deco styling here, lots of vertical/horizontal interplay. It’s a strange mixture, though, of brickwork and white rendering. Both the Chester cinemas I featured a while back have features in common with this.

Here’s a picture of The Playhouse on flickr. And another.

This is just down from Perth Museum And Art Gallery (which is worth a visit by the way.) It was probably originally a mill building. It runs along Mill Street, anyway. This side is clearly Deco.

As is this side as far as the third windows along. Note the flagpole.

No idea what this last one, on South Street, used to be. It’s a Co-operative Travel shop now, obviously.