The 1930s House Explained by Trevor Yorke

Author:Trevor Yorke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The 1930s House Explained
Publisher: Countryside Books

FIG 4.20: The Hoover Building, Western Avenue, London: This iconic Art Deco factory was designed by Wallace Gilbert and completed in 1932. Its colourful facade of glazed surfaces and chrome detailing has been saved by converting it into a Tesco supermarket.

FIG 4.21: Decorative railings and patterned glass with Art Deco chevron and sunray motifs, which appeared on many Moderne houses.

FIG 4.22: Houses inspired by images of West Coast America featured white rendered walls, green pantiled roofs and Art Deco motifs.

The earlier phase of Art Deco was inspired by a re-evaluation of primitive art and recent archaeological discoveries, especially the unearthing of the mummy of Tutankhamun in 1922. Stylized forms of Ancient Egyptian, Aztec and Chinese structures and decoration are characteristic of the 1920s. In the following decade it was images from the machine age and geometry in nature that became dominant. Chevrons, zig zags, lightning bolts, and the iconic sunray represented a bright and bold future. Streamlined forms inspired by trains, cars and ocean liners appeared on objects in the workplace and house while their simple geometric shapes were more easily reproduced on a mass scale in new material like bakelite.

Few 1930s English suburban houses were built completely in what would be termed Art Deco, it was more typically applied to standard structures with distinctive shaped features and decorative motifs: metal-framed windows with chevron patterns, raised geometric emblems in the light-coloured rendered exterior and the sunray which appeared in window glass, front doors and garden gates. Monumental door surrounds simulating ancient temple entrances (see FIG 1.7) on a minor scale and decorative zig zag and linear patterned railings along parapets and balconies were also popular.

In the later 1930s new houses in what was referred to as Hollywood Moderne emerged, inspired by bright and bold low level housing from America’s West Coast that appeared on the silver screen. Houses, but especially bungalows, were built with white rendered walls, dark coloured window frames and glazed green or blue pantiles. This latter feature is distinctive of the 1930s and appears as a startling splash of colour on many white rendered houses of the age.

Period Details

It is likely that the majority of houses built in this period, especially on the mass market, used only a few elements from these various styles and often a number from different ones together on the same building. The following section simply shows the many types of external features and decoration that might help identify the date or be useful if you are restoring a house to its original state.

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