Z is for Ziggurat

For the final entry in the A-Z Blogging Challenge focussing on Loughborough’s Art Deco buildings, let’s first have a look at some ancient structures!

We’ve already mentioned in earlier posts in this series, the influence of Egypt on the Art Deco style - Egyptomania and lotus flowers - but not so far mentioned the pyramids. I’ve never experienced the pyramids for real, but from what I’ve seen in photographs they appear to be huge structures, starting with a very large square base, with layer upon layer of structure that decreases at each level. In some cases, the outside surfaces look like tiny, tiny sets of steps, in other cases they almost look like very, very deep steps. An example of the former might be the Great pyramid of Giza, and of the latter, the Pyramid of Djoser.

According to the National Geographic, Egypt, with its astonishing pyramids, was a close neighbour to ancient Mesopotamia, the latter being between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, and better known today as Iraq, with parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and western Iran. Being neighbours, it is not surprising that the architectural styles and structures could be deemed to be cousins, although the purpose of the buildings was different.

While Egypt had the Pyramids, Mesopotamia had the Ziggurats! I’ve never seen the ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats for real either, but from photographs it would appear that the base is rectangular, and the landings (if we’re thinking of these steps as a staircase) seem to be much wider, and thus there are fewer layers. So, for example, the Great Ziggurat of Ur has only three layers, while the Temple of Marduk has seven.

And the significance to Loughborough? Well, the town is replete with Ziggurats!! Our Art Deco buildings showcase loads of them! We just need to look up, to spot them!

Here’s a few examples from our wonderful town centre, starting with Cashino, then the corner of High Street and Baxter Gate, followed by the Blacksmith Arms on Ward's End, Fenways (now Peter's Pizza) on Baxter Gate, and finally a view of the former Echo Press offices, showing the three bays, and the steps to the keystone. 

 

And remember, next time you are in town, look up to view some of the other ziggurats not pictured here, like the former Baxter Gate Café, and the former Revs on Baxter Gate, Caffé Nero in Market Place, and the row of three buildings, each with three bays, on Market Street. 

Thank you for following along with the posts in this A-Z Blogging Challenge – I do hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed putting them together! A full list of these A-Z entries, plus all the other posts on the blog can be found on one of the special blog pages.

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). Z is for Ziggurat. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/z-is-for-ziggurat.html  [Accessed 30 April 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

U is for Utilitarian

In this series of posts featuring some of Loughborough’s Art Deco heritage, we’ve already had a look at some stunning buildings, many with some highly decorative and ornamental architectural features – I think one of my favourites has to be the torches on the Blacksmiths, and the lotus columns peeking out from the top of the columns outside the former Echo Press offices on Swan Street.

So, for today’s entry in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, we’re looking into the letter U. I’ve decided to go with Utilitarian. It’s not specifically an Art Deco term, and the dictionary defines the term as something that is designed to be practical and useful rather than something designed to be attractive, so those buildings I’ve just mentioned certainly don’t fall into that category.

Some of our Art Deco town centre buildings really are more utilitarian than some of the others, but in my personal opinion this doesn’t detract from their beauty and elegance. I’m thinking particularly about a couple of our pubs (nothing new there then!), like Fat Sam’s (at one time called the Mundy Arms, and you can find an explanation of why in ‘Loughborough Pubs’), the Generous Briton, which featured in a recent blogpost, and the former Moon and Bell. As I said, the design of the buildings in no way affects how important they are in our town’s history and streetscape.

I guess, you could call the side of Beacon Bingo utilitarian. Absolutely by necessity – the huge auditorium nestled inside the building means that the outside has to stretch a long way, and really it would have been too expensive and unnecessary to clad the whole length in Hathernware! However, do note the most unusual brick poster frame on the side which flows along Lemyngton Street.

There are plenty of other Art Deco buildings which one might suggest are utilitarian in style, and while the fronts of the shops along Market Street all have some lovely features on them – balconies, Crittall windows, beaten metal, and a variety of motifs – a sneaky peek around the back of the buildings, either looking along from the Market Street entrance to the Carillon shopping centre, or from the entrance to the Carillon car park on Derby Square reveals the familiar cube-like rooms at the back of the shops.

I suppose in this respect, the Generator Building might also fall into this category: construction began in 1934, and officially opened in 1937, it certainly is rectangular in shape, and well-suited to the activities that originally took place within its walls. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and the new building on Frederick Street, close to Caldwell Street certainly echoes the style of The Generator to good effect.

And here we must leave these beautiful buildings and search for the next entry in this challenge! 

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I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). U is for Utilitatian. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/u-is-for-utilitarian.html  [Accessed 24 April 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

S is for Shells and Swags

I may have mentioned in an earlier post that sometimes I find it hard to decide if the architectural ornamentation I’m looking at is feathers in a peacock’s tail, or shells!! I’m going to suggest that my interpretation of shells can be found on our former Echo Press building on Swan Street! These are placed at regular intervals on several rows, one row being just above the ground floor windows, the other row being part of the window surrounds on the first floor.

Often we think of swags and tails in relation to window coverings, but in this blog we are considering swags as architectural ornamnetation. One of the definitions I’ve come across for the architectural version of a “swag” is that it is a decoration which looks like a garland of fruit, or flowers, or leaves, and is draped between two points. The little 1920s building that is now part of Lloyds Bank on the High Street side certainly has a most wonderful depiction of fruit that it looks almost real! If you look into the building from across the street, and look up you can see there are some beautifully shaped windows towards the back. I was going to apologise for the poor quality of the photograph, but it's so bad Blogger won't even let me upload it - sorry!

Instead, here's a photo of the mosaic swags and tails on the building that is now Francis and Gaye, the jewellers, which was previously Denhams, which is a beautiful example of Arts and Crafts architectural decoration, and on this building, it dates from 1907.

  

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I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). S is for Shells and Swags. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/s-is-for-shells-and-swags.html  [Accessed 22 April 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

R is for Roses

Without more ado, let’s admire the roses, which are a popular motif in Art Deco architecture.

If you’re new to Loughborough, you might be familiar with the Loughborough Arms pub on Baxter Gate, with its seemingly old and appropriate name. You might also have noticed the stained-glass windows to the ground floor, and admired the depiction of roses and crowns. You might also have noticed that the building is dated 1924, so built during the period when Art Deco was popular.

This building replaced an earlier one, which was also a pub, but which was then called the Rose and Crown. There are some features on the new building which chime with the Art Deco style, for example, the beaten metal between the first and second floor, the cream-coloured faience tiles, and even the stained glass. However, the roof is tiled in Swithland slate, which isn’t common in buildings of this age, and the building almost has an Art Nouveau feel to it.

And what of the rose motifs? Well, on this particular building they are not related to the style of architecture, but more to the pub’s original name. The name Rose and Crown is reasonably common for a pub, and relates to the coming together of the House of York and the House of Lancaster, following the Wars of the Roses, when Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the families. By 1927, the pub was being run by Mrs Jones, and the name was changed to the Loughborough Hotel, but I’m not sure when it reverted to the Rose and Crown (which it had done by 1978).

 

And now to roses that really are motifs associated with some of Loughborough’s Art Deco buildings. Firstly, the empty shop next to the Loughborough Arms, which was most recently Baxters Tea Rooms, previously a café called Delice, and prior to that a Caribbean restaurant, an IT education space, and a gentleman’s outfitters. I’ve spotted twelve English roses adorning the front of this building – on the string course below the first-floor windows, above the first-floor windows, and just below the second-floor windows.

 

The beautiful former offices of the Echo Press building on Swan Street also showcases roses. These are on the first-floor string course, and in all I counted 16 of these! They are slightly different from those on the former café on Baxter Gate.

 

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I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). R is for Roses. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/r-is-for-roses.html  [Accessed 21 April 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

N is for Nymphaea Lotus, and Nymphaea Caerulea

Originally I was going to write a post about Nirosta, a metal alloy developed in Germany, its name being a German acronym meaning non-rusting steel, its anti-corrosive qualities coming from its 18% chrome content. It was used in the Chrysler Building in New York, but I could find little connection with Loughborough, apart from being the subject of a research outcome by the current VC of Loughborough University, so instead, this post is about Nymphaea Lotus, and Nymphaea Caerulea

These Nymphaea are probably better known to us as the lotus flower, and in this case, these are the Egyptian white and blue lotus flowers respectively. These flowers are of high cultural and spiritual significance to the Egyptians. We have already seen in E is for Egyptomania, that Art Deco was highly influenced by all-things Egyptian, as in the 1920s archaeologists were excavating the tomb of Tutankhamen. So, it shouldn’t really be any surprise that Art Deco architectural ornamentation often takes the form of lotus flowers. It is said that blue lotus flowers were actually scattered over the body of King Tutankhamen when his body was discovered in 1922.  

Our best examples are probably the columns surrounding the doorway of what was opened as the offices for the Echo Press, on Swan Street. Sadly, both are now covered in hardboard, to protect them from damage, but looking up, and even looking down, reveals some of their splendour.

 

____________________________________ 

I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). N is for Nymphaea Lotus, and Nymphaea Caerulea. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/n-is-for-nymphaea-lotus-and-nymphaea.html [Accessed 16 April 2025

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

L is for Lions

Art Deco art, ceramics, and architecture took a lot of inspiration from nature – like animals and flowers – as well as from mythical creatures, like sphinxes, which had the body of a lion and the head of a human. Unlike the ethereal nature depicted in the Art Nouveau style, along with the use of fantasy creatures, the Art Deco style favoured domestic animals, like dogs, particularly greyhounds, and any number of different big cats. These graceful animals, with their sleek forms, symbolised power, and elegance.

Jaguars, of course, became the logo and name of British motor manufacturers (now Jaguar Land Rover), which saw its origins in the company of the Swallow Side-Car company back in 1922, but it wasn’t until 1935 that the first Jaguar car was produced.  

Taking the lions as a motif in Art Deco architecture, these were depicted in a static way, often sitting like royalty, and often they were placed at the entrance to a grand building. You can walk around Loughborough today, and see various pairs of lions adorning the gateway to a number of domestic buildings, for example, on Westfield Drive. Back in 1962, however, you’d not have seen the pair of terracotta lions that sat outside a property on Leicester Road, but the following year you might have spotted them on the entry to Quorn Court, on Loughborough Road in Quorn.

But let’s go a bit further back in time, to the 1920s and 1930s! I haven’t been able to find much evidence of lions on our Art Deco architecture, apart from those on the former Burton Tailoring store. And what a treat that is! There are no less than 9 lion heads adorning the string course above the first-floor windows, and just below the parapet.

There are also these on the former Echo Press offices, which are located on the string course between the upper two floors of windows, and are surrounded by an angular motif. There are only 8 of these, but again, they're pretty stunning, but look a bit more vicious than the ones on the former Burtons!  

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I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). L is for Lions. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/l-is-for-lions.html  [Accessed 14 April 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

K is for Keystone

I'm sure you know me well enough to realise that I'm not a huge fan of using words that often need to be explained, especially since that usually means I need to look them up for myself, too! However, since in this A-Z blogging challenge we're looking at some of Loughborough's buildings which were built during a specific period, when a particular style of construction was popular, I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and talk about keystones! If you think that's bad, wait till we get to the letter Z!!

So, what is a keystone? In the context of Art Deco architecture, a picture can paint a thousand words, so we need only to look at some photographs of our fabulous buildings to get the measure of them, so here are a few pics:

 

 

 

You'll have spotted that the keystone is the central stone, which is at the highest part of the building, and in the case of Art Deco buildings is usually surrounded on both sides by what I call ‘stepped sides’ – so the roofline comes down in a pattern rather like a set of steps (more on that later in the alphabet!). In the specific examples, above, the keystone also includes an informative plaque, but others across the town simply have a decorated keystone, as for example, in the chevrons on the former Constitutional Club (most recently Revolution), and Peter's Pizza which we saw in an earlier post. 

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I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

 

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). K is for Keystone. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/k-is-for-keystone.html  [Accessed 12 April 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

E is for Egyptomania

For today’s A-Z April Art Deco Blogging Challenge, I was originally torn between going into [too much!] detail about Egyptomania, and some detail about the Paris Expo of 1925. But, instead I included details of the Expo under letter A, where I explained how the Art Deco movement was only named in the 1960s, and how it was a name that was influenced by that 1925 exhibition. So, let’s look at the influence of Egypt!

Egyptomania – an enthusiasm for all things Egyptian, particularly Ancient Egyptian – has always been a thing! The Western world has always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt and Egyptian motifs, and Western interpretations of these, have been around for centuries.

However, when in 1922 the tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered, and subsequently opened, by Howard Carter, there was a renewed interest in Egyptian designs and artefacts. These Egyptian ideas were incorporated in, and became part of, the visual culture, including in the UK. They were adopted in many aspects, including fashion, like jewellery and clothing, furnishings, and in architecture.

We saw in D is for Diamonds, the brightly coloured painted columns on a shop on Ashby Road, which somehow hints at Egyptian decoration

But, our most magnificent Egyptian treasure is hiding behind some wooden covering, so not easy to spot! The building on Swan Street that was once home to the Echo Press shows off many of the features of Art Deco architecture exceedingly well, and it is here that the Egyptian columns can be found. They are hiding as when the road was open to two-way traffic one of the columns was hit and damaged by a lorry. First we have an aerial view of Swan Street, with the Echo Press building closest, and then a view of the two columns, with their stunning colours.

 

 

____________________________________ 

I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). E is for Egyptomania. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/03/e-is-for-egyptomania.html  [Accessed 5 April 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

B is for Barley Twist

As we saw under letter A, the Art Deco style of architecture is often colourful and easily identifiable, when it isn’t being what I describe as utilitarian!

One of the things that helps to make it identifiable is the use of motifs. These are usually decorative features, which are often repeated, and recur across the same building.

For letter B in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge, in which I’m featuring Art Deco, let’s have a look at some decoration that is, in the case of Loughborough’s buildings, created from the same material as the building’s cladding – barley twists! I suppose when they are vertical, these are a little bit like mini columns, and I’m thinking barley twist legs on chairs on tables, rather than barley sugar sweets!! Sometimes these decorative effects can be found in a building’s string course, so horizontal rather than vertical.

Here's an example from a building on Swan Street, Loughborough, which is currently an estate agent and jewellers downstairs, and possibly an escape room upstairs.

The building has many other Art Deco features that will likely appear in future blogposts in this series, so I won’t go into much detail, except to say that the building was originally constructed for the Echo Press, who published the local newspaper, the Loughborough Echo, and some local books. The building also housed the Press’s stationary shop. Here's an aerial view of the whole building - not too close up so we can't see too much detail - yet!

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I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!! 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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