Endeavour House, Hendon - a lost modernist masterpiece

Driving along the North Circular Road near the junction leading to the Brent Cross Shopping Centre, I would always enjoy catching a glimpse of Hendon's most special modern building. It was called Endeavour House, a 'flatted factory' which was officially opened on 1st April 1963. 

What helped it stand out from the ubiquitous concrete and the tarmac landscape of the A406 were the two mosaics on each of the side panels of the structure. To the left was a multi-coloured pattern of blocks straight out of the Mondrian school, and on the other side a set of black and white blocks that seemed to chime with the Op Art '60s era that this superb building was constructed in.

Sadly it disappeared one day - perhaps sometime in the early Millennium - making way for more car parks and an empty hole where a modernist masterpiece once stood...

Interior of 'Unit 14', Endeavour House

Where's the Telephone Box? Part 3

Here's another batch of vintage postcards which deliberately, or coincidentally, contain a classic British Telephone Box somewhere in the 'picturesque' scene.. 

It's been about 18 months since my previous two posts on the subject, and inspired by an occasional comment or two from readers who have enjoyed the images, it has spurred me on to highlight more wonderful images of our public telephone box past...

on the Somerset coast

in Essex

Grassington, Yorkshire

Great Yarmouth

Holywell Retreat, Eastbourne, East Sussex

Hurst Green, Lancashire

in Staffordshire

Shaldon, in Devon

Alfreton, Derbyshire

Walmer, near Deal, Kent

in North Somerset

Exploding Bridges Actually Blow Apart Right Off The River

Yes indeed, that's what it says in one of the adverts within a 1974 Marvel Comic published in New York, USA. It's from my copy of The Man-Thing!, a title that I was very fond of when I was around 12/13 years old. Sadly the issue itself is a bit battered and it's incomplete (thus worthless in the collectors market) - so before slinging it in the recycle bin, I thought I'd take a last loving look.

I had forgotten just how weird some of those small ads actually were. Of course there's the classics like the Hypno-Coin and Be Taller in a few weeks, but the Imported Birds for hunting, Repro German Helmets sold by a company calling themselves 'Adolf's', and the Hypnotizing TV Set are extreme oddities that makes me wonder just what kind of advertising control was going on at Marvel back in the 70s?

However if I could play the game of 'what if we could still send off for this stuff?' - I definitely want the Crazy World Ain't It T-Shirt!

By the way, I couldn't resist finding a complete edition of The Man-Thing #9 -  and today I picked up a copy for just £1.50 in the annual half price sale at the excellent Gosh! comic shop in central London...I still really dig Mike Ploog's superb artwork.

A peek inside the 'Stamps for Charity' envelope: the Xmas selection

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Face in the Crowd, Four Corners Books 2018

FACE IN THE CROWD

The Book
2018
Four Corners Irregulars: a series of books about modern British visual culture
No.5

https://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/books/face-in-the-crowd/