Anyone leaving London for the West Country can’t fail to have seen the Hoover Building, the art deco edifice which sits along the A40, and which used to be the headquarters of the famous vacuum cleaner company from 1935 until the late 1980s.
While Eltham Palace and Hornsey Town Hall are the perfect expressions of the art deco movement in the domestic and municipal arenas, I’m sure you would agree that in the Hoover Building architects Wallis Gilbert & Partners created the quintessential commercial building. The main block is flanked on either side by office wings that have the most dramatically angled windows, while all of this streamlined confection is picked out in a vibrant aquamarine paint against a white ‘snowcrete’ background, precisely the same colour scheme as it had when it was first opened. There are also glazed tiles in primary colours in certain spots on the exterior, notably along the base of the columns and running above and below the signage, which help to emphasise the building’s clean lines. My favourite feature is the frieze above the main entrance, which is fit to grace the most extravagant picture palace. After dusk the Hoover Building is lit up with bright green neons – it’s an amazing sight at night as well as during the day.
Sometimes the preservation of buildings like this is entirely predicated on their ability to serve a new purpose after their original raison de etre has vanished – for better or worse the central section of the Hoover Building is now a Tesco supermarket – fortunately from the street-facing side there are only a couple of plastic signs and the flags which flutter above it to give this fact away. You also have to give them some credit for the sympathetic way in which they’ve remodelled the rear of the building – even going so far as to base the covered walkway that shelters shoppers and leads across the car park on the original design. You can see a small selection of photographs that I’ve taken here, and here’s a Google map link to the Hoover Building, which offers a unique opportunity to admire 1930s architecture and do your weekly shop at the same time…
About Pete Stean
