Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday 12 February 2024
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
Duke Street Church
Categories No Categories
The extraordinary history of 21 Ennerdale Road; or, How I became a Modernist house detective
21 Ennerdale Road, Kew
When Hilary Thomson and her husband Ian bought a flat in Ennerdale Road, Kew, it was immediately clear there was more to this 1960s block than met the eye.
To start with, the front was built in a concave curve. A neighbour mentioned a rumoured link to the German Bauhaus movement. Then a vital clue was discovered in a pile of old documents… and so began a fascinating detective trail that revealed not only the building’s emigré modernist architect but also the (perhaps even more extraordinary) history of the site’s previous owner.
It is a detective story that takes us from Paris to bohemian Hampstead, from New York’s Museum of Modern Art to the Palace of Westminster, from Arts and Crafts to Constructivism and ends, appropriately enough, in the Kew Gardens Library and Archives.
Hilary Thomson is a retired marketer, script writer and (now) Modernism enthusiast.
+ There were at least 100 people in the audience at Duke Street Church and more than 30 log-ins on Zoom for Hilary’s talk. You can view the talk on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhkPj2s1DJM&t=570s.