Designer Desire: Wells Coates

Montage of Wells Coates architecture and furniture designs

Born in Tokyo, Wells Coates (1895-1958) was a British modernist architect and designer of Canadian parentage. Greatly inspired by the likes of Le Corbusier, he designed a number of public and private commercial and residential buildings.

My first proper introduction to Wells Coates was when I was at the University of Brighton. I did a summer school course in photography where I focussed on capturing images of Embassy Court (seen at the top of our montage above) – my favourite building in the city – located on the seafront in Hove. It was the mid-1990s at the time, and the building (erected in 1935) was in a very sorry state; the 11-storey façade was rusty, crumbling and strewn with ugly satellite dishes – but its beauty still shone through. Today it’s a des-res and one of the 72 flats would set you back a cool half a million pounds and more!

In 1934, he designed the Isokon / Lawn Road Flats, Hampstead for Molly and Jack Pritchard. The couple and their family lived at the address, with some of the other 32 flats being occupied by design greats of the time; Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Maholy-Nagy.

The following year – with David Bartholomew Pleydell-Bouverie – Wells Coates designed the Sunspan Houses. Fifteen of them were built; including one in Portsmouth, another in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, three on Woodlands Avenue in New Maldon, Essex, Chadwell St Mary, Essex and Esher in Surrey.

In 1939, he designed 10 Palace Gate, a block of luxury flats in London’s Kensington for construction company, Randall Bell. Flats currently command rents of over £1,000 per week. A space in the building’s underground car park is currently for sale for the princely sum of £65,000.

He designed the Telecinema – one of the 1951 Festival of Britain buildings. Apparently it was:

…the first theatre in the world in which big screen television, 3-dimensional pictures and tereophonic (sic) sound took its place on par with the cinema… spectators wearing (the) special stereoscopic spectacles…

The woven upholstery fabric for the Telekinema’s seating was designed by Lucienne Day in 1951.⁠⁠

In addition to buildings, he designed office furniture for Kingfisher Limited of West Bromwich, some examples are included in our montage above. He also created 9 models of radio for Ekco including the round Bakelite AD65 (1934), AD75 (1940), A22 (1945) and rectangular A33 RadioTime (1946).

There are a number of books that investigate the man and his works. His daughter, Laura Cohn, authored The Door to a Secret Room: A Portrait of Wells Coates. There’s a 1970s monograph written by Sherban Cantacuzino and a more recent one by Elizabeth Darling.

Portrait of Wells Coatescredit

Additional image credits:
Artnet | V&A

Price Points: Media streaming sticks

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Media streaming sticks - Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire

Staying in is the new… staying in, or are we just getting old?

We like nothing better than spending evenings in our upstairs den, with the wood-burner lit, watching films & television – with a glass of wine, perhaps.

We’re HUGE fans of European dramas such as Borgen, The Bridge, The Killing, Spiral and Gomorrah. We’re also occasionally known to gorge on box sets like House of Cards, West Wing, The Wire, The Sopranos…

Currently, we’re only able to watch Netflix-only series (House of Cards, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul et al) on the laptop; not an ideal scenario. A media streaming stick is the ideal solution. You just plug it into the back of the television (so long as it has an HDMI slot), connect it to the Wi-Fi and off you go!

We’ve done a bit of research into what’s best for our requirements and these are the best options. We’ve read a few reviews and done a service comparison between all three products and, even though it’s the dearest and has the fewest number of channels (who needs that many, anyway?), we’re going to plump for the Roku.

    1. Roku: £39.99, Currys
    2. Chromecast: £25, Tesco
    3. Amazon Fire: £34.99
FeatureRokuChromecastAmazon Fire
remote control
number of channels 1,700+ 200,000+ 10,000+
Spotify
Netflix
 iPlayer
All 4 ✓
Now TV
YouTube
Amazon Video
Google Play Movies & TV
Sky Store

 

Isis radio

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red vintage Isis radio | H is for Home

We couldn’t resist this radio at the local flea market.

red vintage Isis radio | H is for Home

Condition isn’t quite as mint as we like, but it’s such a classic design – and the imperfections are just honest wear & tear to the shiny front surface as opposed to drastic damage from being dropped or chewed by a dog! The radio is actually working fine and it still displays well. In fact, we’ve become quite attached to it sitting on our lounge shelves (where many items find a temporary home).

red vintage Isis radio | H is for Home

They were manufactured by a company called ISIS – who also made those lovely clocks in the shape of the word CLOCK.

red vintage Isis radio | H is for Home

We’re not short of radios in the house, so having shared a wonderful few weeks together, we’re saying goodbye. It’s part of today’s additions to our antiques centre space. We divide our stock between the virtual world and the real world- so pop into the centre if you’re ever near Todmorden. You’ll find lots of similar vintage loveliness!

Sounds of the 60s

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vintage 1960s Garrard radiogram in teak cabinet

On the very same day that we bought our previously-mentioned vintage Anglepoise lamp, we bought this fabulous 1960s radiogram.

vintage 1960s Garrard radiogram in teak cabinet with lid up showing record player

We’d actually been on the look out for an amplifier to go with a record deck we had – but suddenly, as bidding was about to stop at £30, we couldn’t resist this beauty!

detail from vintage 1960s Garrard radiogram in teak cabinet showing push button controls

It’s a Garrard Dynatron – radio, record player and speakers – housed in a beautiful teak cabinet.

vintage 1960s Garrard radiogram in teak cabinet

Not only does it provide music in  lounge – we think it’s a great looking piece of furniture. Streamlined & good proportions, it fits the space exactly – the teak is a lovely warm colour too.

vintage Garrard radiogram showing soft close lid vintage Garrard radiogram showing soft close lid vintage Garrard radiogram showing soft close lid

Justin was very impressed with this particular feature… the slow, soft-close lid – no danger of precious records skipping, jumping or being scratched.

vintage 1960s Garrard radiogram in teak cabinet
And most importantly – it sounds pretty good too!