First: a compliment to Freefalling who caught the sense of what I was trying to capture in the previous post # 09/35. The derelict catchment pools of Seething Wells have a degree of "sinisterosity" that is remarkably strong. It's nice to know that sometimes a photgraph "works" like you want it to.
While Seething Wells has a kind of presence that overawes, the post # 09/34 tried to capture a sort of "magical non-event"..............No. 1 Electric Parade is a garage housing a woodworking outfit: and No! it is not the secret laboratory of either Batman or even Flash Gordon, although I wish it were.
So what's this # 09/36 (a co-incidence of number, for I'm now talking 1930 or thereabouts).........It's an exciting Art Deco icon of suburban blandness. Kingston.....once the Capital City of Saxon England of the 10th Century....is now the ultimate Suburbia; a suburban town that actually has its own suburbs! Hence "sub-urban-burbiton" or to put it blandly Surbiton, the ultimate suburb of the England of the 1930s - Oh, Brave New World!
The mini-series "Suburban Sundown" tried to capture some of it. But here we go again. A magical non-event if ever there was one.
I have always liked this building and was sad to see it looking more and more run down over the years. Then at last a developer took it restored its good looks.
Others might say that it's just another bit of Art Deco, just one of many, but I like its black and white tiled facade, the rectilinear windows and the curved "marine style" windows in the upper stories. Buildings like this are obviously "modern", but they always make me feel at home, and for some reason always make me feel as if the sun is shining and Spring is in the air. Unfortunately, not all modern buildings do this.
Today the spacious ground floor area hosts a large and popular Pizza Express restaurant.
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