The De La Warr Pavilion

If you were to visit the sleepy seaside town of Bexhill on Sea you could not fail to come across the the De La Warr Pavilion.
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There is no denying that this building is different from anything else you are likely to have seen before. Not a week goes by without mention of the Pavillion in our local paper. Over the past few years we ratepayers have had to shell out millions of pounds in maintaining and repairing this iconic construction. It prompts an opinion from everyone who visits it. One other falls in love with it or finds it hideous and a blot on the landscape, there is no middle ground.
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Completed in 1935, what we have is the first and largest modernist building in the UK. It was commissioned by the Earl De La Warr, designed by Mendleson & Cherayff and officially opened by the Prince of Wales, soon to be crowned King George IV. Built in a style mid way between art deco and industrial, its use of concrete metal and glass was a pioneering method of construction and one which typifies the decadent style of the decade. At its centre is a breathtaking steel and marble spiral staircase.
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So what is its purpose? It has often been described as a skyscraper on its side. The ground floor alone houses a theatre, a prestigious art gallery, art education workshops, a retail shop and an arts library. All these facilities are in constant use with performances of ballet, music and comedy taking place alongside international exhibitions, children’s art clubs and cultural television programme production. On the first floor there is a restaurant and bar, above that a vast roof terrace which looks straight out across the sea.
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But with all facilities of its type, it’s often seen as elitist and inaccessible by those residents who have to support it through their taxes, yet have no wish to neither use it nor tolerate its continued presence in our town.

Me? I love it!
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A hall a marble floor

A flash of mirror steel

twisting skyward

Glass, seductive curves

Signs black on white

Stark

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Strings and wind

Discordant tuning

The maestro taps his baton

then a quilt of harmony

cossets the hushed crowd

Unheard outside

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Figures creep silently

twixt sculptures, images

Standing back

Contorting bodies

finding the best angle

to view

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A table in a hall

littered with paint and crayons

Surrounded by tiny stools

where children just sat

Art pegged to a string

on the wall

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The ding of a till

Books chosen then wrapped

Painting bought

Small works of art

taken home

Souvenirs

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Above, a clatter of cups

and glasses

Excited chatter

The air filled

with the smell of food

and wine

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Out on the roof

couples cuddle in the breeze

Stare out to sea

like actors on the set

of Titanic

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Sun sets at the end of the day

White concrete glows pink

in the setting sun

Glass reflects

the dying rays

It sleeps

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let me read my poem to you