Last night I attended an excellent lecture by a good friend, John Law, drawing on material from his latest book 1938: Modern Britain. His thesis is that many of the aspects of modern life that are popularly believed to be post-War phenomena, for example big screen television, were actually in use in the late 1930s. If you want to read more about his work you can go to his homepage here.

The lecture took place in a new location for me, the Isokon Gallery in Hampstead. The Gallery is part of an apartment block which dates from 1934 and therefore was a natural fit for John’s talk which in part dealt with the early career of Basil Spence and his contribution to Modernist pavilions at the Glasgow Imperial Exhibition of 1938.

I would have liked more time to explore the bijou exhibition which the gallery is hosting on the creators of the Isokon development – a pioneering social experiment as well as being an architectural landmark in the history of London – and the many creative people who lived either in the block or very nearby. Just scanning the names reads like a who’s who of the inter-War avant garde.

As well as panels with information on the lives and careers of the artists, writers, architects and patrons associated with the area there are also examples of their work. You can see in the photograph above items of furniture which embody how theories of rational industrial design translated into beautifully practical pieces for the home. For example, the bookcase above was specificallydesigned for that quintessential 1930s object, the Penguin paperback.

The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays until their exhibition season ends in October and is FREE. You can also take a peek inside the apartments on Open House weekend on the 22nd and 23rd September. Well worth a visit.

Architecture Art Exhibitions London Modernism Museums 1930s Gallery Hampstead Isokon Modernism museum Penguin