1937 Grade II*
George Coles
Towering former cinema designed by the prolific George Coles. Coles produced nearly ninety cinemas in the interwar period, with designs all over Metro-Land. This cinema is a good example of the ‘more is more’ style of cinema design, in which the building acts as an advert for itself, an idea not so different from Charles Holden’s underground stations. The Gaumont State Kilburn has central tower finished in cream-coloured faience and a lobby that is panelled with green vitrolite. Like many surviving cinema buildings in London, it became a bingo hall before converting to a church.
SHERRICK GREEN ROAD SCHOOL
1937
Wilkinson, Rowe and Johnson-Marshall
Now known as Gladstone Park, this school was built to designs by Wilkinson, Rowe and Johnson-Marshall for the Borough of Willesden architects department. The school has an unusual shape, being long and thin, with prominent staircase towers at each end of the building. The trio of architects also designed the now demolished, moderne Electricity Showrooms in Willesden. Stirrat Johnson-Marshall would go on to form RMJM, now one of the world’s largest architectural firms.
HIGHFORT COURT
1937
Kingsbury NW9 0QG
OLD ST ANDREWS MANSIONS
1936 Grade II
SLOUGH LANE
1922 Grade II
all Ernest Trobridge
Certainly not modernist, but the epitome of the spirit of Metro-Land and the idea that ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’. Trobridge’s Swedenborgian religion informed his belief in the healing properties of design, especially for those returning from World War I. His most famous building is Highfort Court, with its fantastical turreted entrance, as perched upon by John Betjeman in his Metro-Land documentary. Trobridge used a variety of materials including elm, thatch, tiles and even concrete. His designs can be found all over the slopes of Kingsbury, bringing a taste of the middle ages to Metro-Land.
DOLLIS HILL SYNAGOGUE
1933–8 Grade II
Owen Williams
Stark, concrete synagogue and hall on the edge of Gladstone Park, designed for the United Synagogue. The buildings are constructed of prestressed concrete folded slabs and have hexagonal and shield-shaped windows, creating another fortress-like structure as at the Empire Pool. Unlike that building, Williams’ design here was not judged a success, with the architect forced to pay back some of the fee to his clients. Nevertheless it is now Grade II and still in use, now as a Jewish primary school.
WILLESDEN GREEN FEDERATED SYNAGOGUE
1938
Fritz Landauer
A slightly more approachable synagogue design by Fritz Landauer, just off Willesden Lane. The building is constructed of brick and originally had decorative ironwork grills above the entrance. Now in use as an advice centre, the brick has been rendered and the ironwork removed. Landauer was another European émigré, fleeing Germany in 1933. He designed another synagogue in Golders Green and a number of commercial properties, and stayed in Britain for the rest of his life.
WEMBLEY FIRE STATION
1939 Grade II
Cecil S. Trapp and Middlesex County Council
Fire station built just before World War II in Buckinghamshire brick with a re- inforced concrete frame. This interwar station was designed by the Borough of Wembley surveyor Cecil S. Trapp, with Middlesex County Council under C. G. Stillman making extensions and alterations in 1954, adding a third floor to the station building and a dormitory block at the rear. The building still features the original stained timber doors in the fire station bays.
WEMBLEY TOWN HALL
1940 Grade II
Clifford Strange
One of a number of town halls built in suburban borough centres in the interwar years. This slightly austere brick building sits on a sloping site on Forty Lane overlooking the former Empire Exhibition site. Clifford Strange won the competition to design an administrative building for Wembley Urban District Council with a Scandinavian-influenced building that includes offices, a library and an assembly chamber. Despite the sober exterior, the interior features Botticino marble flooring and staircase railings of silver bronze. In 2013 Brent Council sold the building to an international school and moved their offices to a new building on the former exhibition site.
FERNDENE APARTMENTS
1965
Clifford
