Travel Modernism Limited

Essex Modernism

Whereas Sussex became the home of a number of modernist artists, architects and thinkers which encouraged interwar developments, Essex was largely driven by commerce.  Updates on the garden city movement created developments at Silver End and East Tilbury for workers in landscaped environments.

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Frinton-on-Sea incorporates the partially completed Frinton Park Estate which began in 1934 and designed by Oliver Hill.  The intention was to build 1,000 houses but development ceased in 1936.  The town during the period attracted high society and the high street was considered the 'Bond Street of Essex' and the No 24 Art Deco shop on Connaught Avenue remembers these times.  Guests will be shown the buildings and ferried in between as some are a fair walk from the main town.

 
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Silver End village began in 1926 as a development by Francis Henry Crittall for his workers at the nearby Crittall Windows factory.  Some of the major houses were designed by Thomas S. Tait and the village contained many amenities such as department store and a village hall that incorporated a dance hall, cinema, library, snooker room and health clinic.  Thirty five houses where designed by Thomas Tait and Frederick McManus, three of which were detached and the others were semi-detached and terraced. For more information visit the website silverendheritagesociety.co.uk.

 
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East Tilbury includes the Bata Shoe Factory and houses for the workers founded by Tomas Bata in 1932 and considered one of the most important planned landscapes in the East of England.  A large part of the workforce was relocated from the then Czechoslovakia including the architects Frantisek Lydie Gahura and Vladimir Karfik.  The houses included steel columns and reinforced concrete walls in order to increase the speed of production and cost effective on a mass scale.  Bata-Ville like Silver End incorporated a theatre, sports facilities, hotel, restaurant, grocery and butcher shops, post office and newspaper.  Sadly the Bata Shoe Factory closed in 2005 but fortunately many of the buildings are protected and a Bata Heritage Centre keeps the legacy alive.