The Hoover building Perivale West London

Not quite in the same class as the classical built buildings in Britain, two buildings I do love are Art Deco style.
Sadly one is no longer with us, the lovely Firestone building on the Great West Road approaching Chiswick.
I fond childhood memories of driving up from the West country or Hampshire, to see a Great Aunt and seeing this building all lit up, it used to have a sleigh filled with presents on the lawn and reindeer and santa waving.
Despite having a preservation order coming to save the building, it was bulldozed to the ground the day before the order became legal. It has been said in the local legend, that a man was paid to get drunk, get in a bulldozer and hit a particular corner of the building which would me it was no longer structural sound to renovate and there for leave room for demolition and the unsightly 'cubes' that replaced it.

Luckily The Hoover building was saved this fate, and has been restored and renovated, housing a Tesco 24 HOUR shop inside it.
You can often see the building in programmes like Peiroit


www.perivale.co.uk/hoover-building.htm -


You might like to see the gates of the Firestone building in this link, only thing they left.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Mile_(Brentford) -

Mags I love the Hoover building and was so glad it was saved and still in use. I remember watching a show all about this building years ago now must have been just before it was saved it was on that show that I cant think of the name of the one with Kirsty Wark etc. Thats terrible what they did to Firestone Building a thing of beauty like that can never be replaced. It must hold fond memories for loads of peps of there childhood with santa on the roof etc. I might have found a picture is this it Mags.

http://search.orange.co.uk/mediaredirect?sv=pictures&src=google_image&q=Firestone+building&b=-9&brand=ouk&uu=0000011f42ffc3b28e27bd0e7a18ca92&d=forum.skyscraperpage.com&thumb=http://images-partners.google.com/images?q=tbn:1Akc7SsneyKZ4M:http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w202/speedytouch/Picture004.jpg&pictitle=%20Firestone%20Building%20,%20demolished%20%20...%20&picname=Picture004.jpg&picweight=64kb&fullsize=http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w202/speedytouch/Picture004.jpg&pagefrom=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.skyscraperpage.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D128523%26page%3D3&height=480&width=640&geom=640x480%20-%20jpg&pge=1&pos=3&size=&imtype=

Fantastic find Mel, what a shame some lovely buildings torn down.
I know that some buildings did substain structural damage during the Blitz, meaning that they were no longer safe to be left standing or altered which was a crying shame.

Yes we lost some gems in Bristol Mags so much so the old main shoping area in Bristol changed and they built Broadmead which is yuk mind you they gone and built something else now a massive centre have not seen it yet bet thats just as bad. I always said that Bristol Planning department did more harm after the war than the Germans did with there bombing etc.

Mags I seem to have lost my edit button on this thread so had to use a new post. Here is one of Bristol buidlings that we lost in the Bitz The Dutch House

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2333/2061558375_d953831488.jpg?v=0

You may find this interesting Mags it show the old Bristol shoping centre just scroll down page for pictures

http://members.lycos.co.uk/brisray/bristol/blitz1.htm