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De La Warr Pavilion. Pavilion’s history and project brief The Grade I listed De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea is widely considered to be the most important British Modern Movement building of the inter-war years. Designed by Eric Mendelssohn and Serge Chermayeff, its design and construction were radical. The pavilion was the first public British building in the International Style – a Peoples’ Palace embodying Modernist architecture’s concerns with healthy living conditions, and making art accessible. The De La Warr Pavilion was extremely popular in the years immediately following its opening in 1935. However, after the Second World War the Pavilion’s use declined and the building began to fall apart; it was little appreciated and suffered from many alterations.
By the early 1980s it had become neglected and decayed, its render crumbling, its metal corroded by the salty sea air and covered in scaffolding; the much-altered interiors were covered in flock wallpaper and floral carpets. De La Warr Pavilion. New & Old Bexhill-on-Sea, United Kingdom John McAslan + Partners 2008 World Architecture Festival 2008 - Shortlisted De La Warr Pavilion completed exteriorPeter Cook Pavilion’s history and project briefThe Grade I listed De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea is widely considered to be the most important British Modern Movement building of the inter-war years.
Designed by Eric Mendelssohn and Serge Chermayeff, its design and construction were radical. The pavilion was the first public British building in the International Style – a Peoples’ Palace embodying Modernist architecture’s concerns with healthy living conditions, and making art accessible. The De La Warr Pavilion was extremely popular in the years immediately following its opening in 1935. However, after the Second World War the Pavilion’s use declined and the building began to fall apart; it was little appreciated and suffered from many alterations. All external elevations were restored to original specifications. Historic building to get £7m facelift | Art and design. The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, arguably the most beautiful 20th century building in Britain, which narrowly escaped conversion into a super-pub, is instead to be restored at a cost of £7m.
"This is fantastic news, about a fantastic building" said Adam Wilkinson, secretary of Save - one of many conservation groups which have campaigned to preserve the grade I building in public ownership and use. Almost 70 years after it was built, the sleek white building still looks as if a design-conscious alien spacecraft has crash landed among the Regency terraces and Edwardian candy floss shops of the south coast resort. Sir Charles Reilly, who was professor of architecture at Liverpool University when the pavilion was built, called it "a revelation from another planet". However, it had latterly become steadily tattier, the crumbling terraces closed, the interior still in use but depressingly dingy. However, the subsequent outcry forced a change of heart.
Turned out nice again | Magazine Features. De La Warr Pavilion. In 1933, the Royal Institute of British Architects ran an open competition for Bexhill Corporation to find a suitable architect for their proposed new seafront entertainment complex – the first such competition to be held in Britain. It attracted 230 entries and was won by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayoff. The De La Warr Pavilion takes its name from the ninth Earl De La Warr (pronounced Delaware), Bexhill’s socialist mayor from 1932-35, who oversaw the project with great personal interest. Mendelsohn, a German Jew who had come to Britain to escape the Nazis, was already famous for producing strikingly provocative Modernist masterpieces. The Pavilion’s clean horizontal lines set the scene from the outside but it’s the smaller internal features that do it for me – especially the staircases.
A second great tragedy was narrowly missed in the 1980s when there was actually talk of demolition following a long period of neglect.