Been doing Route 297 a lot lately - between Wembley High Road and Ealing Broadway. The buses on this route are old and smelly. But they are always very warm - which makes them very nice on a cold day. The interesting thing about Route 297 is that it winds its way through some highly residential areas of West London - Perivale being one of them.
I always used to think of Perivale as that place just off the the A40 where the Hoover Building is. (By the way - the A40 is my favourite London highway - and I also did a short video of a car journey on the A40 Westbound earlier this year.)
For those who know the famous Hoover Building - it’s a magnificent example (in London) of an architectural genre called “Art Deco” - a highly stylised form of design that was born in the 1920s - but kind of died out round about when the Second World War started. (Other famous examples of buildings in the Art Deco style are the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in New York’s Manhattan.)
As the bus trundles past the front gardens of the citizens of Perivale it becomes obvious that the Hoover Building is not the only example of the Art Deco style in this suburb. There are some very obvious signs of it practically everywhere. Take for example the local doctor’s surgery:
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There is a lovely deco building on the Great West Road in Brentford (more or less accross from the new Glaxo Smithkline headquarters). It’s a JC Decaux office. They actually gutted the entire place and the back is modern but they restaured the frontage to its original glory. Then further West there is the Carillion building (could do with a lick of paint but quite striking - love the “egyptian detailing to it”). It’s not that far from Ealing maybe you could go check it out.
You going to funjunkies on the 11th ?
Hiya Strop - I have driven down the Great West Road so many times - and I’m not sure I’ve seen this JC Decaux office building you refer to. But having said that - you mention “opposite the new GlaxoSmithkline building” - and I always think of the old derelict building which has the Lucozade sign on it!
As for the Carillion bulding - is that anywhere near the “Gillete Corner” ?
Regarding the Funjunkies event on the 11th: I heard/read about this - but I’m kind of shy really …
Posted by: Jag on December 3, 2004 10:03 PMBoth on the left hand side when you are coming from Hammersmith and driving towards Gillette orner, JC Decaux is next to Cable+Wireless. The one with the lucozade sign is the old Glaxo building. The new one is further West (corner of Boston Manor and Great West Road).
Shame about the shyness.