A lot of the buildings used during the Second World War in Britain had elements of deco style. Not surprisingly, the era had not really passed when the war began.

So it wasn’t entirely unexpected that when I rolled up at the car park at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, home of the WW2 British code-breaking effort, last September, the first buildings I saw were in that flat-roofed, Critall-windowed mode.

Buildings by car park. These are the sorts of things you see at former WW2 airfields:-

This submarine model beside the road from the car park to Bletchley Park presumably commemorates the code-breakers’ role in winning the Atlantic war:-

This is a more modern building in that wartime style but I don’t think it’s part of Bletchley Park:-

These modernised ones were all inside the Bletchley Park museum site:-

One of the internal exhibits was this photograph of the impeccably Art Deco Hollerith Factory where the calculating machines known as Bombes, which tried out the variations of the intercepted Enigma messages to get a code match were manufactured:-

Hollerith building and interior:-

I have already posted soem photos of Deco in berdeen city Cantre but in Jani=uary last year we were up there again and I found some more.

Former Amicable House. I think I showed this here, but this is my own photo. Horizontals, verticals, flagpole, rule of three in windows (which have been poked out unfortunately):-

Capitol building. Stitch of two photos. Some Art Deco styling here:-

Detail. Rule of three in windows, deco style cartouches:-

High deco light fttings and interior doors, Capitol building, Aberdeen:-

Unfortunate relections in this one:-

Former Woolworths building Sunderland:-

Detail:-

Full frontage. Stitched photo. The curve is an artifact:-

Marks and Spencer. Horizontals, verticals:-

Frontage. Stitch of two photos. The curvature is an illusion:-

Late in the day we got into Sunderland city centre. There was some Art Deco. I don’t know what this building housed originally but it was a Wilko’s in Dec 2019.

Rule of three in windows, rounded corner, white rendering, roofline, flagpole:-

Side of building. Verticals, horizontals, rule of three in some of the glazing, columnar windows:-

Frontage:-

Other side of Building:-

City Library and Art Centre. Horizontals, verticals, rule of three, roofline detail:-

This was hastily snapped in poor lighting I’m afraid. Horizontals, verticals, some rule of three. Now a British Heart Foundation furniture and electrical charity shop:-

In November 2019 we visited Perth Academy to attend its annual Remembrance Service.

Perth Academy’s history goes back to 1696 (or 1542 depending on which part of the text you read in the link above.)

The present building has Art Deco styling – not surprising as work started on it in 1930 and the school moved in in 1932.

Courtyard:-

The clock tower is a prominent feature of the Academy building and can be seen from many parts of the city:-

The yellow painting of the windows accentuates the horizontals and verticals, as does the chimney tower:-

Deco style evident in doors, windows and the columns going off to the right:-

Chimney tower and wing of building:-

We have friends who live just north of Sunderland and took the opportunity when travelling back up from Rye (and Ashby de la Zouch) to visit them.

On the way we passed through East Boldon which is part of a group of villages called the Boldons which also includes West Boldon and Boldon Colliery, historically in the County of Durham but now administratively part of South Tyneside.

I spotted this Art Deco building and stopped to photograph it. Rule of three in main windows, plus porthole window:-

Side of building. Critallish windows. Those at rear have been poked out though:-

Frontage. Deco fanlight, Critall windows to left above East Boldon Dental Practice:-

There were slim pickings for Art Deco in Ashby. The only possibilty was this branch of the National Westminster Bank.

The hints of deco are in the cartouche below the roofline and there is rule of three in the frontage’s arches.

On the way out of Coalville along Ashby Road, I spotted this and had to find a parking space in order to photograph it.

It is an Art Deco bus depot built in 1925.

Central portion. Deco lettering:-

Left portion. Banding below roofline. Red decoration on white detail. Rule of three in windows. Pity their eyes have been poked out.:-

Right portion. Banding continued. Rule of three in lower windows:-

Former Coalville Bus Depot sign. It reads, “The Birmingham and MIDLAND Motor Omnibus Co Ltd.”:-

The former Rex Cinema is a stunning Art Deco building – in that blocky institutional style favoured by government buildings and dictators – in Coalville, Leicestershire. After ceasing to be a cinema it became a Dunelm Mill but that too has shut.

Frontage:-

This view shows how closely located is the Rex to the Palace Cinema – also Deco:-

This former cinema (on Jackson Street in Coalville) but now a Bingo Hall, screams deco.

Horizontals, verticals, friezes:-

Frontage:-

Detail of elegant deco frieze just below roofline and side scrolls:-

Frontage from left:-

Windows and scrolls:-

Small window:-