Art deco week in Brighton

Annexe

Art deco week in Brighton

The uncertain fate of some of Britain's best-loved Twenties and Thirties buildings tops the agenda of the World Congress on Art Deco, which begins this Saturday in Brighton and continues through 7 July. According to the Twentieth Century Society, organisers of the congress: "The perceived low status of art deco design among modern architects" is threatening buildings such as the SmithKline Beecham factory on the Great West Road, London (designed by the Americans Wallis Gilbert & Partners), which the owners plan to demolish and replace with a building by the Richard Rogers Partnership. There is also concern about the future of the roofless Battersea Power Station and the Apollo Victoria Theatre, London, the original lamp standards of which have been removed by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and are now untraceable. Conference events will include the Twentieth Century Fair, a two-day collectors' fair for decorative arts, paintings, prints and books, at the Corn Exchange, as well as lectures on art deco (speakers will include Piers Gough, Bevis Hillier and Gavin Stamp). For further information about the conference, phone 0171-387 3154.