The day after Braintree we took in the nearby village of Silver End. This was the first time we’d been there as for all the years we lived in Essex we didn’t have a car.

We were looking for the housing estate designed by the architect Thomas S Tait who I see from the link submitted an unsuccessful plan for Kirkcaldy Town Hall. Among other accomplishments he was the architect of St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh which I have featured here and here.

We knew we were on the right track when we came upon this in Boar’s Tye Road:-

It’s needing a bit of TLC I would say.

The next junction takes you into Silver Street. Every building is one of Tait’s.

This was taken from the other end of the street after we had parked.

This is the junction of Silver Street and Broadway which also contains many Tait houses.

There must have been around two hundred flat roofed houses in the deco style over the two streets.

A few had some extra deco flourishes like the triangular columns with windows in this photo where you can also see the connecting walls between them which house the gates to the rear gardens.

Here’s a closer view of the frontage of St Andrew’s House. (See six posts ago.) Floating right is a side view of the column behind the flagpole with its very Deco light fitting:-

Below is a detail from the right hand roof line, showing nice trianguloid embellishments. Right is one of the tall side windows (the easterly one) complete with pigeons:-

This is the view from the East:-

The East gateway. The circular motif echoes the porthole window in the building:-

Another angle of the East gateway:-

East doorway. The repeated circular motif would be more apparent if the outer door were closed:-

Coat of arms, front doorway and pillars:-

Close up of main doorway showing historical scenes/figures:-

This ought really to have been one of the first of these posts but I didn’t get round to photographing the building till last Sunday. It belongs in Scotland’s Art Deco Heritage rather than merely Edinburgh’s because it is such a significant building (both architecturally and governmentally) housing as it does a fairly large proportion of the Scottish Civil Service.

Below is a view of the rear looking from North Bridge.

I took the photo from just beside the War Memorial which I featured yesterday. You can just see part of the roofs of Waverley railway station in the foreground. The tower at the top of the picture is actually on Calton Hill, the round structure to the left is in the cemetery adjacent to St Andrew’s House.

Here is the building in all its monolithic Stalinist glory.

From right:-

From left:-

The central frontage is a bit overbearing:-

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Each of the pillars is surmounted by a statue:-

If you click on the above to enlarge it you can probably see the words carved into the stone just above the pillars. They depict six of the functions of the Scottish Office; architecture, statecraft, health, agriculture, fisheries, education.