The Art Deco house - Brentwood – October 2015

The History

I’m afraid I have no Factual history about this place other than a friend told me about it as their mother-in-law lived in the same road. The place has been stood empty for close to 20 years and shares a large plot of land with another empty house, albeit not as pretty as this one. Being a massive fan of the Art Deco styling this is the one that floated my boat.


The Explore

After being given a rough address and location by my friend, I hunted the place down on google earth and found it, although the google earth images where pretty rough. We drove out that way one night to look at something else and we had a quick look at this. It was early hours of the morning and it was pitch black but this one of the two houses got my attention and I knew I would be going back.

I ventured back in the day light a week or so later and snapped some pictures. The house is pretty much trashed now and from what I can find out its being flattened to make way for some new flats. The inside was stripped apart from the kitchen and bathroom. I loved the curved “Crittall” windows in the corner of the house and the staircase was pretty cool.

Sorry for the lack of information and I hope the pictures do the place justice

Wow, I want this house.

you and me both

What a belter,this has to be one of the best small Art Deco houses I've seen and it's crying out to be saved!

I saw that house quite a while back! Glad someone's done a take on it!

That is nice, shame the thieving magpies found it though, Sound Job Mockney, Thanks

They took the Art Deco dial and turned it to Max! I love that curved corner.. Surely that would mean for expensive window panes? Also can't help but feel it would be tricky to furnish a curved room

Good photographs and nicely recorded. This place can still be rescued. There's a few good sized rooms and the windows can be replaced. But glad you captured it before the bulldozers got there.

It would make an awesome house, Had a lovely feel to it

Nice photos. That would have been such a cool house in its heyday.
Thanks for sharing

yeah god knows why it's been empty for so many years

Good work Mockney. What a sorry state for this deco gem.

Demolition this building needs listing! The staircase alone is original with the classic cruves and many other features are still from their when the house was built. The windows and doors look metal to me so again original at a rough guess the house might date from mid 1930s and is a fine example of Art Deco

I believe the windows and doors are "crittall windows" made by a company local to where I live

TheNarrator said:

They took the Art Deco dial and turned it to Max! I love that curved corner.. Surely that would mean for expensive window panes? Also can't help but feel it would be tricky to furnish a curved room

Click to expand...

Producing curved panes from flat sheets, by heating over a metal former, is relatively inexpensive if you find one of the firms that has been in the business for years. The most costly work involves renovating/restoring the metal window frames and fasteners. It is also nice to see the original Pilkington's green glass tiles still in the bathroom. Whilst the already quoted date of mid 1930's is probably correct for this house - the bedroom window that has been built/designed to fit around the head of the double bed first appeared in those 'arty' architectural books of the era in 1929.

Actually houses of this design and size can be found all over England (have not looked at Wales and Scotland, but most likely there also), a local Leeds builder constructed the Southways Estate in Horsforth and a similarly designed estate in Ilkley in the early to mid 30's. All the designs are based on ideas published in the specialised press of that period - fortunately because they were well built they have stood the test of time. Sadly the example shown here exhibits all the nasties one can find in property of this type - poor rendering and poor parapet to roof joint seals and rusting window frames/loose panes. The 'Houses fit for Heroes' boom of the 20's and early 30's produced some downright shoddy workmanship and designs - all flash and sparkle with no substance. Still the Georgians did it, so why not their 20th Century counterparts also?

I don't know about other parts but around here, during the massive housing boom of the 30's when so many council estates were built, the builders commissioned to build the estates (or different parts of them) were often given parcels of land to develop for themselves as part payment. So you'll find nicer roads of privately owned Edwardian houses on the edge of Edwardian era council estates, and on the most prime piece of land on those private roads, you often find a high art deco house much like this, that the building contract has built for his own family. I live on one such road, but sadly not in a house like this, and I do still covet one for myself.

They can't demo a beautiful building like that,glad you at least got a record of it before it goes.

What an amazing house, such a shame.

Also, couldn't help notice the satellite dish on the chimney in the first photo.
Would this not mean the house was inhabited a lot later than the 20 years you said?

(Sorry, not trying to pick holes, I was just puzzled!)

From memory I'm pretty sure satellite TV came out in the early 90's but I did wonder that at the time of taking the pics

where is it