The Architectural Review July 1954 : cover montage by Gordon Cullen : tiled wall at Lansbury Primary School, Poplar, London by Peggy Richards
During the 1950s and ‘60s there was renewed interest in the use of mass produced colour pattern ceramic tiles to help provide decorative features in buildings. These ranged from full sized ‘feature walls’ such as this depicted here to simpler schemes for such areas as the entrance lobbies to flats - indeed a fair number of the latter survive to this day. Peggy Richards is noted as having studied mass production patterns suitable for tile production - several companies, most notably Carter’s Poole Pottery, manufactured a range of patterns and colour ways on ‘basic’ 6” x 6” ceramic tiles to allow a ‘construction’ of repeating patterns and visual themes. The Lansbury Primary School was designed as part of the post-WW2 reconstruction of London’s blitz damaged and decaying Victorian East End and formed part of the architectural components of the 1951 Festival of Britain. It was designed by architects Yorke Rosenberg Mardall and is now known as the Lansbury Lawrence Primary School. Peggy Richards (nee Angus) 1904 - 1993, was one of the remarkable group of very politically aware artists, designers and educators of the time. She was at one time married to JM Roberts, editor of the AR at this time, and the pattern tiles she developed were commercially produced by Carter’s at Poole.
The Architectural Review July 1954 : cover montage by Gordon Cullen : tiled wall at Lansbury Primary School, Poplar, London by Peggy Richards
During the 1950s and ‘60s there was renewed interest in the use of mass produced colour pattern ceramic tiles to help provide decorative features in buildings. These ranged from full sized ‘feature walls’ such as this depicted here to simpler schemes for such areas as the entrance lobbies to flats - indeed a fair number of the latter survive to this day. Peggy Richards is noted as having studied mass production patterns suitable for tile production - several companies, most notably Carter’s Poole Pottery, manufactured a range of patterns and colour ways on ‘basic’ 6” x 6” ceramic tiles to allow a ‘construction’ of repeating patterns and visual themes. The Lansbury Primary School was designed as part of the post-WW2 reconstruction of London’s blitz damaged and decaying Victorian East End and formed part of the architectural components of the 1951 Festival of Britain. It was designed by architects Yorke Rosenberg Mardall and is now known as the Lansbury Lawrence Primary School. Peggy Richards (nee Angus) 1904 - 1993, was one of the remarkable group of very politically aware artists, designers and educators of the time. She was at one time married to JM Roberts, editor of the AR at this time, and the pattern tiles she developed were commercially produced by Carter’s at Poole.