One of the last surviving fragments of the British Empire Exhibition of 1924–5. Originally the building imitated Indian designs such as the Taj Mahal and acted as the Indian Pavilion at the exhibition, giving visitors a flavour of the subcontinent. Now minus its dome and towers, it has been converted into a warehouse, a fate which befell most of the exhibition buildings before their eventual demolition. Until 2013, the Palace of Industry also survived. Designed by Owen Williams and Maxwell Ayrton, this exhibition hall covered ten acres, with imposing classical entrances and large glazed roofs supported by concrete walls. A decorative lion’s head from the Palace of Industry has been saved and relocated to Wembley Hill Road.
WRIGLEY’S FACTORY
1928
Wallis, Gilbert and Partners
Many of the earliest modernist buildings in Metro-Land, and indeed Britain, were functional buildings such as factories and stadiums. This factory building is a good example. More subdued than the firm’s designs on the Great West Road (see Hounslow here), the firm of Wallis, Gilbert and Partners built a four-storey factory for the American Wrigley’s chewing gum company in 1928. The interior was designed to be rearranged to allow for changes in production, with the ceilings supported by circular mushroom pillars. The building has now been converted into a commercial centre.
SUDBURY TOWN STATION
1931 Grade II*
Charles Holden
HA0 2LA
ALPERTON STATION
1933
Charles Holden and Stanley Heaps
HA0 4LU
Sudbury Town is the original ‘Sudbury Box’ design by Holden, described in his own words as ‘a brick box with a concrete lid’. Indeed the building is constructed from multi-coloured handmade Buckinghamshire brick, with a poured concrete roof. The outside originally featured a neon name sign, the only tube station to have one, removed in 1958. Compared to later box-style buildings like Oakwood or Acton Town, Sudbury Town has limited window space, with four long Crittall windows allowing light into the ticket hall. Inside the ticket hall the original clock and barometer survive, as well as a newspaper kiosk. The platform area features two curved waiting areas, designed to allow passengers to see incoming trains, and a concrete footbridge. Sudbury Town is in a lot of ways Holden’s ideal design. He spent the next decade refining it, in built and unbuilt stations.
Brent is also home to Alperton station, again by Holden, who used the box design at right angles to a viaduct, with a steep passenger staircase. The station had an escalator used in the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain installed in 1955, which is still in place but bricked in by a wall. Stanley Heaps designed the adjacent bus depot, which was completed in 1938.
BARN RISE
1932
HA9 9NN
MAYFIELDS
1934
HA9 9PD
THE AVENUE
1934
HA9 9PQ
LAWNS COURT
1933
HA9 9PD
all Welch, Cachemaille-Day and Lander
Among more traditional designs, an interesting selection of modernist-influenced speculative housing dots the slopes of Wembley, all designed by the firm of Welch, Cachemaille-Day and Lander for the Haymills development company. In Barn Rise are four detached houses in brick with pantiled roof parapets. Further down the hill is Lawns Court, six three-storey blocks of flats in white render with curving exterior staircases. In the adjacent road, Mayfields, and along The Avenue are three-storey houses with sunroofs, perfect examples of the International Style brought to the English suburbs.
ARENA AND EMPIRE POOL
1934 Grade II
Owen Williams
Built ten years after his work on the Empire Exhibition buildings and the Empire Stadium (the original Wembley Stadium), Williams’ design for the 1934 Empire Games shows a leap forward in design. This structure, featuring three concrete span arches measuring seventy-two metres with exterior supporting fins, and boxy water towers, has a fortress-like air. Despite this it has come to be somewhat of a national treasure after its conversion to a popular concert venue, and marks the high point of Williams’ journey from engineer to architect.
KINGSLEY COURT
1934 Grade II
Peter Caspari
An expressionist apartment block alongside the Metropolitan Line designed by Peter Caspari. The building is six storeys high and built in banded brick that curves with an assurance not seen in other buildings of its period. Caspari was one of many émigré architects to flee to Britain from Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. As with many of those who came here, like Erich Mendelsohn, whom he had assisted, Caspri only stayed for a few years before moving over the other side of the Atlantic. Kingsley Court represents the best of Caspari’s brief stay.
GAUMONT
