Previously in Alcester I’d only seen one decoish building. This time round we stayed at a different hotel a bit out of the town centre in a direction we hadn’t taken before.

As a result I came across two more.

St Benedict’s Catholic High School. Curved wall and glass bricks.:-

Just over the road really was this one. The Greig Hall and Leisure Centre. Note circular entrance building with porthole windows:-

The previous three times we visited Alcester I had noticed this hall sited beyond the church but hadn’t looked at the plaque on its wall.

It was purchased from the owner and rededicated as a War Memorial in 1919:-

The Church can be seen in this post on Alcester I made in 2012. We visited the town again on our way back up from Bath. This time we went inside the church.

Chancel and Altar:-

Emrys-Jones Memorial stained glass window:-

Information about the window:-

War Memorial plaque to the men of Alcester and Oversley, erected 1951:-

Individual memorial to Arthur Boobbyer Jephcott who fell at Pozières, 4/8/1916, aged 20:-

During the summer we stopped off at Hardwick Hall on the way back up from Alcester. One of the interesting things there was this deco style hedge. I’d forgotten to post it till now. I took the photo from this angle to avoid the hideous marquee that had been erected on the lawn behind it (presumably for some wedding reception the next day.) But the trees in the background are nice.

Once more we’ve been away for a few days.

The good lady liked where we were in April so much we went back again to see the bits we didn’t have time for then.

I don’t know how I missed this shop in Alcester the last time we were down. (I did, then, walk on the side of the road from where I took the photo this time.) The windows and brick work are very deco. I also like the trianguloid pillars between the windows.

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.

On our trip south we next stopped near the small the small town of Alcester, in Warwickshire, England. It had a nice wee museum containing lots of Roman artefacts. The town’s origins lie in Roman times.

The town has several Tudor style pubs and houses and a prominent church tower. The clock on the tower is unusually angled on a corner meaning it can be seen easily from the main street. The War Memorial is in the Church yard by the tree you can see in the photo of the church.

There was one possibly Deco building but it’s more likely Georgian. Horizontals and verticals are a feature of both styles.

The roundabout has a globe at its centre. A woman in the museum told us there used to be a pub called the Globe here. When it was pulled down the roundabout still got called by that name so the local council decided to mark it with a globe.

On the Wednesday evening we had a nice meal in the Swan Hotel. We were the only patrons in the dining room. (Photo from Information Britain.)

When we left, the air outside was bitterly cold! I couldn’t stop chittering till we got back to our room (a few minutes by car.) Mind you we missed any snow in Kirkcaldy that may have fallen that week.

Alcester is a lovely wee place. We may go back sometime.