The Queen Anne style turns up in some odd places, and here it is in the West End painted an unlikely shade of lilac.
It comes as something of a shock to discover that Glyn's House (1906) is by the same architects who designed Wandsworth Town Hall in 1935 - W. and E. Hunt. The Hunts clearly moved with the times - here they are Arts and Craft, at Wandsworth they have gone Art Deco.The naked ladies on the second floor are pure Edwardian - shapely, voluptuous and as unlike Kate Moss as it is possible to imagine. Pevsner calls them caryatids but they aren't really. Caryatids stand in for columns, supporting the entablature on their heads, whereas these girls stand in front with a volute behind supporting the entablature.
The big curved pediment above has plasterwork that could have come from Hampton Court or somewhere, with floral swags and a mischievous winged putto.
1 comment:
I used to pass these ladies quite often and have long been an admirer. Oh for a return to such ideals...
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