Doulton House, Albert Embankment, Lambeth, London - architects render c1939 : from "Ceramics in Art & Industry"
One of the great architectural losses in London was the demolition of this fine building, Doulton House, built on a site long associated with the Lambeth ceramics concern of Doulton & Company. This appears in an issue of the lavish company publication "Ceramics in Art & Industry". Number 3, produced in 1940 just as the building was being completed. The architects were T P Bennett and the building, unsurprisingly, was constructed with exterior use of their own Carrarawear faience. This included the wonderful coloured salt-glaze frieze of "Pottery through the ages" by Gilbert Bayes.
The interior was equally lavish and included entrance hall, decorated another Bayes frieze as well as with nine tiled coloured panels, showrooms, offices and staff accomodation. It was a late 'art-deco' tour de force and its loss is therefore all the sadder especially as it formed a part of an important streetscape with the contemporary London Fire Brigade HQ and the adjacent W H Smith building. Of these three only the LFB building survives and, as far as I'm aware, the only surviving fragment of the Doulton building are the Bayes friezes.
They were salvaged by Ironbridge Gorge Museum when the building was demolished c1980, thanks to the initiative of Paul Atterbury, then head of Royal Doulton's historical department and now a well-known author and antiques specialist. The 'Dutch Potters' frieze remains at Ironbridge, while Royal Doulton presented the 'Pottery Through the Ages' frieze to the V&A.
Doulton House, Albert Embankment, Lambeth, London - architects render c1939 : from "Ceramics in Art & Industry"
One of the great architectural losses in London was the demolition of this fine building, Doulton House, built on a site long associated with the Lambeth ceramics concern of Doulton & Company. This appears in an issue of the lavish company publication "Ceramics in Art & Industry". Number 3, produced in 1940 just as the building was being completed. The architects were T P Bennett and the building, unsurprisingly, was constructed with exterior use of their own Carrarawear faience. This included the wonderful coloured salt-glaze frieze of "Pottery through the ages" by Gilbert Bayes.
The interior was equally lavish and included entrance hall, decorated another Bayes frieze as well as with nine tiled coloured panels, showrooms, offices and staff accomodation. It was a late 'art-deco' tour de force and its loss is therefore all the sadder especially as it formed a part of an important streetscape with the contemporary London Fire Brigade HQ and the adjacent W H Smith building. Of these three only the LFB building survives and, as far as I'm aware, the only surviving fragment of the Doulton building are the Bayes friezes.
They were salvaged by Ironbridge Gorge Museum when the building was demolished c1980, thanks to the initiative of Paul Atterbury, then head of Royal Doulton's historical department and now a well-known author and antiques specialist. The 'Dutch Potters' frieze remains at Ironbridge, while Royal Doulton presented the 'Pottery Through the Ages' frieze to the V&A.