Marks of Time
Historic Buildings as  illustrations of the past.
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War and Partition

The Edwardian period  came to a  sudden halt with the First World War. Industrial production boomed  during the  war only to decline dramatically afterwards, followed by a slow  decline.  ‘Homes for Heroes’ was a  rallying cry at the end and some effort was put into building new houses for former   soldiers. Conditions in the working class areas of the city remained very  poor  however. The houses in Messines    Park are an example of  the type. These were built in 1925 shortly after the partition of the Island into two jurisdictions in 1922. 

In a similar style are the police stations build across Northern Ireland by the new authority. These were designed by TFO Rippingham in a conservative classical style popular across the UK at the time which was known as Neo Georgian. Eglinton police station, near to the city is a good example.

The war memorial by  Vernon Marsh  is located on the centre of the Diamond and was erected in 1928.  It is a very  dramatic structure with vigorous bronze statues of a soldier and  a sailor  balancing a central statue of ‘victory. She holds aloft a laurel  wreath with a  sword pointing down in her other hand. As a composition it is  quite  conservative but it has a strength and presence which is appropriate  for the  centre of such a large civic space.    It perhaps could be argued that it displays Art Deco influences in the   varying planes and stripped back classicism of its  plinth.

The coming of the  cinema and the curvilinear ‘moderne’ style associated with many of the  American movies  translated easily into a number of Art Deco inspired picture  houses. These are  all now demolished but Craigavon Bridge,  named after the first Prime  Minister of Northern Ireland, and finished in  1936, has some details in the  style. The light standards in particular, which  line the upper deck, could have been designed in no other period. 

 
   

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<Back         The Second World War >
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