Monday 19 December 2011

St Martin's School of Art, Charing Cross Road WC2

St Martin's School of Art had its front door at the other end of the building from the College for the Distributive Trades and, as befits the more prestigious institution, has a much bigger entrance. Oddly, however, it has just four panels by Adolfine Ryland against the counter-jumpers' eight.
They are simple small heads, much more self-consciously 'arty'. St Martin is there, as might be expected, with a rather grand-looking couple in Renaissance dress and a crazy scowling lady with a scarf on her head and a flower between her teeth.
The amalgamated with the University of the Arts and moved to King's Cross - the panels now flank the entrance to St Martin's Lofts, the flats above Foyle's bookshop.
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2 comments:

  1. Chris Partridge24 December 2011 at 08:27

    I love my iPad but it does make it easy to press the wrong button. So I accidentally rejected this comment from the Duke of Waltham. Sorry, Your Grace.
    "Looking up the school on Wikipedia I remembered this BBC Magazine article on Central Saint Martins; it describes the building as "a complete dump internally, by all accounts". I wonder what will happen to it now, though I cannot claim to care much about a building of which the appearance and history are a complete mystery to me—with the exception of what I've read and seen here, of course.

    (I also found that, through a series of mergers, the two former co-tenants of the building now belong to the same institution, the University of the Arts London. Be it in business, government or academia, unpicking the history of conglomerations can hold a curious fascination for me.) "

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  2. The Duke of Waltham24 December 2011 at 09:58

    That's all right, Mr Partridge; no harm done. Only the link is missing from the message: BBC article.

    And as it's this day of the year... Merry Christmas.

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