Shoreham Airport, Shoreham-by-Sea

The Brighton & Hove City Council website states that Shoreham Airport is the oldest established airport in the UK and so they should. Originally established in 1910 it became the Brighton, Hove and Worthing Joint Municipal Airport in the 1930s.

The art deco Grade II listed terminal building was designed by local Brighton architect Stravers H Tiltman and officially opened on 13th June 1936 by the mayors of the three municipalities.

Today it is the Shoreham (Brighton City) Airport and well worth a visit for any deco fan.

If you like aviation then so much the better. The Visitor Centre provides information and tours of the airport.

Inside there terminal, many of the original deco features survive. I seem to remember an episode of Poirot where the suspect ends up on the roof of the airport and falls throught a nice deco skylight window! Sorry to spoil the ending.

The bar/restaurant offers a great view of the runway and has an airside observation area.

I've read that you can fly to France from Shoreham. I wonder if they have any DC-3s in the fleet? Now that would be something special.

Deco Tower, Dublin

I spotted this building in Grafton St, Dublin and took an instant shine to the polygon shaped tower topped with a flagpole.

I also like the use of brick columns between the windows as a contrast to the white stone used on the rest of the facade.

This website has a great picture of the building from the 1930s and this website reveals a bit more about the building's former life, especially that it was once Nobletts Sweet Shop.

In the recent years the ground floor shop has been a Newsagency and I presume the upper levels have been used as offices.

But I keep getting drawn back to the tower. I wonder how big it is inside and what sort of a view of Dublin it offers.

Kalingrad, East Melbourne

I call this block of flats in East Melbourne Kalingrad but I really don't have a clue. The name on the gate post reads Kalingr so I've added a few letters to come up with a suitably exotic name. If anyone knows the real name I've love to hear it.

Like so many flats built in Melbourne between the wars, this is a only three storeys tall because local building regulations would have required a lift to be installed if it was any taller.

It is lovely to see the original open balconies have not been enclosed like you see on many other flats of this type. I especially like the lines around the balonies denoting the floors. Three lines on the top floor, two lines on the middle and one at ground level.

Kalingrad is a little deco gem and even if I have got the name wrong, it will always by Kalingrad to me.

Art Deco 1910 - 1939, NGV, Melbourne

It's been a big few days for Art Deco in Melbourne.

Last Thursday saw the official opening of the the latest Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, Art Deco 1910 - 1939 by the Premier of Victoria, John Brumby.

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) have worked with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London since it was exhibited there in 2003 to bring many of the fabulous Art Deco treasures to Melbourne.

By necessity, not all of the pieces from the V&A exhibition have travelled to Australia but the major display from the V&A has. The reconstructed foyer from the Strand Palace Hotel has been shipped out and now takes pride of place at the NGV. Staff from the V&A saved this fantastic Art Deco structure when the hotel was being demolished in the late 1960s.

The exhibition also includes many items from the NGV collection and from private collectors and there is a separate section dedicated to Australian deco.

Another undeniable highlight is the rare Cord 812 Westchester Sedan. Only 3000 were manufactured between 1936 and 1937 and the one in the exhibition is one of only 60 right-hand drive models manufactured and one of only 16 in Australia.

There are over 300 exhibits including Cartier jewellery, Hollywood film clips and multimedia slide shows.

On Saturday, the exhibition opened to the public and the NGV hosted an Art Deco symposium which was booked out weeks ago. Judging by the numbers of people attending the first day, it should be a major success. The 2003 V&A exhibition was their most popular ever.

This morning, the Art Deco Society conducted a walking tour of Melbourne deco buildings. It was well attended and attracted visitors from interstate and the USA.

So I should be all deco-ed out but I'm still excited about the exhibition and the 99 days that it still has to run. That's because they used some of my photos in the multimedia slide shows to illustrate Art Deco buildings from around the world.

I can't deny it was a thrill to see my photos among all those great Art Deco pieces and eavesdropping on the visitors conversations as each building appeared on the screen.

If you love deco and can get to Melbourne before October 5th, do it, you won't regret it. And if you can't, you can always have a look at The Age Art Deco page presented to complement the exhibition.


Links:
Art Deco 1910 - 1939, NGV website
Art Deco Society website
The Age Art Deco page

former Coles Store, Adelaide

Architect Harry Norris designed a number of stores for the Coles retail chain from the late 1920 through to about 1940.

This store, located in Adelaide's Rundle Mall was designed towards the end of this period. It is no longer a Coles store and now serves as a retail arcade.

Norris completed the building in caramel coloured faience tiles providing a smooth surface. The metal frames of the horizontal bands of windows are painted a similar colour.

Above the top row of windows a row of cream tiles, set perpendicular to the facade, provide some measure of shading.

For me, this building demonstrates simple elegance as it curves around the corner with virtually no decoration.

Skyline Business Institute, Nairobi

I snapped this photo of the Skyline Business Institute from my hotel window in Nairobi.

It is quite an interesting building. It is four storeys tall with horizontal bands of windows running the length of the building on each level. The windows appear to be metal-framed shaded by a concrete eyebrow.

At the right-hand end of the building there are a series of concrete ribs running vertically up the facade, almost certainly identifying an entrance.

The roofline consists of a simple parapet that curves with the building around the street corner. There is, however, an unusual break in the parapet towards the left-hand end of the building and what looks like a portion of a conventional pitched roof.

It would be great to know more, if anyone out there has any further details.

Beacon Hotel, Miami

The Beacon Hotel on Miami's Ocean Drive was built in 1937 from a design by New York architect Harry O. Nelson.

The night-time neons highlight some of the deco features of the hotel's facade. The strong vertical columns above the entrance and the decoration along the roofline.

Underneath each window there are three broad bands in relief protraying the rule of three, a deco standard.

The etched doors (below) are magnificent. Semi-circular glass panes create a full circle when the doors are closed. The design features a mirror image of flamingoes and tropical plants.

Mayfair Theatre, Kaikoura

Kaikoura is a small tourist town on the South Island of New Zealand and it was lovely to see their local cinema, the Mayfair Theatre, is Art Deco in style.

A simple stepped roofline and decoration around the doors highlight the Mayfair name.

Unfortunately I didn't stay long enough to catch a flick here but I did get to see wome whales and dolphins which was fantastic.