More pictures of the Art Nouveau National Theatre, (aka Den Nationale Scene,) Bergen.

Detail (to right hand side of entrance – mirrored on left hand side.)

Detail:-

Side Tower and Canopy. There is rule of three in the columnar windows so a hint (or a prefiguring) of Art Deco:-

Side of the building (to the rear):-

Side of building:-

Rearmost side of building:-

Back of building:-

Stitched photo of part of building:-

The National Theatre (Den Nationale Scene) is an architectural gem in the Art Nouveau style in Norway’s second city, Bergen, which we visited in September 2017.

From a distance. I didn’t realise it at the time but the statue just to the left of the lamppost is of Henrik Ibsen:-

Upper frontage:-

Entrance canopy (heavily detailed):-

Reverse angle:-

Doors:-

Door. “Billet Kontor” is, I correctly assumed, ticket office. “Video overvåket” is apparently ‘video monitored’:-

Internal door (and pram):-

Central tower with finials:-

Art Nouveau Street:-

Not Art Nouveau, but a nice twin-spired church:-

These buildings flanked Esplanadi:-

Ground floor detail:-

Upper floors:-

A bit further along:-

I can’t remember which street this was on:-

On the corner of Bulevardi and Errotajankatu is the rather pleasing Rake:

My first glimpse of Helsinki Central Railway Station was from a distance. I had seen this clock tower on the way to the Sibelius Monument and thought, that looks deco, so resolved to photograph it on the way back:-

We wandered closer to investigate and discovered the building it served is the Central Railway Station. I suppose technically it’s not Deco as it was designed and built before 1920. It has elements of Art Nouveau tipping over into Deco though. The building is a masterpiece.

This is only its side entrance:-

Close-up on arched window. Note also canopy and doors:-

The interior was stunnning. This, arched ceiling, clock, interior partition windows is the least of it. The light fitting is a bit modern, though:-

Great decoration below arched ceiling:-

Looking towards main entrance. Rule of three in partition windows. Great decoration on pillars and surround:-

Concourse:-

Arched window from inside:-

This arched partition window is wonderful:-

Hallway:-

Detail:-

Another arched window:-

There’s more of this to come!

Next stop after St Petersburg was Helsinki, capital of Finland.

A lot of the buidings in the city centre are in the Art Nouveau style. These are the ones I photographed on the way to the Sibelius Monument.

The one in the centre here shades into Art Deco in the windows:-

Note the giraffe figures on the balcony here:-

I have absolutely no idea what these were about:-

Eliseyev‘s is a celebrated upmarket grocery on Nevsky Prospekt, built in the Art Nouveau style:-

View up Nevsky Prospekt. Victory Day banner prominent on lamppost:-

The store’s stained glass windows are lovely:-

Dutch towns have interesting architectural features. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether a building is Art Deco or not. Others are distinctively Dutch/Low Countries as on the right here:-

The doorway to the middle building above has Art Deco features to it. Certainly there’s “rule of three” in the windows above it and the door itself has a very 30s feel. The ironwork on the gates is good too:-

The brickwork on the canalside house below is very distinctive and there’s more than a hint of Deco to the double doors in the centre. Also a Charles Rennie Mackintosh feel to all the doors:-

And is this Deco or merely Dutch style?:-

Note the squares in the window highlights. And there’s an Art Nouveau touch to the decoration just above the windows but below the brick arches:-

I was devastated to hear today of the fire at Charles Rennie Mackintosh‘s masterpiece building, the Glasgow School of Art. (For pictures of the undamaged building see here.)

I have featured another of his buildings, Scotland Street School, here.

I have also visited the House for an Art Lover, built to Mackintosh designs in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park (on part of the site of the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938,) and Hill House in Helensburgh as well as the Mackintosh House at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow but all without benefit a modern camera. All are visually stunning.

I must confess to being a teeny bit annoyed when Lorna Gordon, BBC London’s Scotland correspondent, called the Art School an Art Deco building. None of Mackintosh’s buildings are Deco. They are leaning towards it, certainly, but really have more in common with Art Nouveau. At a pinch you could say they act as a bridge between the two styles. While some Mackintosh designs have the blend of horizontal and vertical that is a signifier of Art Deco he also had a strong liking for curves which grew firmly from the Art Nouveau tradition of evoking nature and natural forms.

I assume the plans for the School of Art are still in existence somewhere – and that there is insurance in place. Even if it is costly it is to be hoped that some sort of effort at restoration can be made to the Art School. The result may not be original but so few of Mackintosh’s designs were erected in his lifetime it would be tantamount to a crime to allow to disappear the outstanding example that was.

In the meantime, not just Glasgow, not only Scotland, but the world, is a poorer place to live in tonight.

I spotted these windows the last time we were in Edinburgh.
They are at the start of Nicolson Street, just after South Bridge travelling south.
They seem to belong at the moment to a restaurant called Spoon.
It’s the overall shape plus the bend to the frontage that gives the Deco feel.

The nice stained glass detailing is more Art Nouveau than Deco however.