A Son of the Rock

Stratford-upon-Avon is only about ten minutes by car from Alcester. Apart from being Shakespeare’s birthplace I knew that the Royal Shakespeare Company building was erected in the 1930s adjacent to the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (see right, picture from Wiki) which had been destroyed in a fire.

The building has had a recent refurbishment though so it now has some modern features. Below is the view from a nearby bridge across the Avon.

The brickwork and windows on the river side are still deco as is the blocky bit in the middle of the building.

A closer view of the river side of the building:-

From the south side some deco fetaures are still apparent but the rounded bit – is it a survivor of the original Memorial Theatre or a homage to it? – looks like a cathedral’s Chapter House.

From the green on the south side you can see two chimneys with deco styling:-

I’m not sure about the modern tower on the right here but the deco-ness of the brickwork and the windows in the main part here is obvious:-

We had menat to go go to a play but I didn’t get organised for it early enough. Maybe next time.

In the town itself I saw one deco building.

Some more pictures of the RSC building are on my flickr.