London Art Deco

The Art Deco movement flourished throughout the 1920s and 30s and following the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, from which the style took its name, became the first truly international design movement, rapidly spreading around the world. Each country assimilated Art Deco in a different way, adapting it to suit its own historic traditions in terms of design, materials and techniques. In Britain, Art Deco developed in ways that reflected the country's imperial status and the national love of architectural detail. In London, in particular, Art Deco quickly became the style of choice for succession of landmark buildings: from elegant Savoy Hotel, through ornate West End theatres, to imposing temples of commerce such as the Daily Express building in Fleet Street or the Hoover factory on the new Great West Road. Remarkably, many of the country's Art Deco buildings still survive - their once grime-covered fa ades now mostly scrubbed clean, beautifully displaying their many sculptural features, all captured here and celebrated by the camera of Arnold Schwartzman.