Modernism was never fully accepted by the British public or the design establishment.  It was seen as being too radical and too foreign.  This was just after the war and there were still strong anti-German prejudices.  The British public felt it was too ruthless and clinical.  Modernism did not suit British tastes, which favoured a cosy, rustic or vernacular tradition.

The cartoonist W. Heath Robinson published a book called How to Live in a Flat (1936), which satirised Modernist architecture and lifestyles.  A contemporary cartoon illustrates some of the anxieties about Modernist design.  It shows a doctor’s consulting room, but the furniture is so minimalist and clinical the patient thinks he is in an operating theatre.  This image mocks the cold and clinical aesthetic of Modernism.

Another cartoon presents a parody of Modernist architecture.  The old couple are bewildered by the architecture and almost expect the new residents to be a radical shape as well.  There is an evident contrast between the new aesthetic of Modernism and traditional English housing.

If the mainstream was suspicious of Modernism, it was nevertheless appreciated by a cultivated elite in Britain.  Intellectuals and avant-garde figures appreciated it.  One of the pioneers of Modernism in Britain was Wells Coates (1895-1958), who was actually Canadian.  He developed innovative housing designs, including Lawn Road Flats (1933-4) in Hampstead, London.  This was one of Britain’s most influential modern apartment blocks.  The flats were made of reinforced concrete with dramatically cantilevered sculptural stairways and access galleries.  This building became the centre of an embryonic Modernist culture in Britain.  The Nazis closed the Bauhaus down in 1933 and European designers fled to Britain and the USA.  Some of the first tenants of this building were leading European Modernists escaping from Nazi Germany, including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Lázló Maholy-Nagy.  Agatha Christie also lived here.

An early Modernist house was High and Over (1929), built at Amersham in Buckinghamshire.  This is a pure Modernist composition, very similar to contemporary houses by Le Corbusier.  The house was built for Bernard Ashmole, who was Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of London.  He specialized in Ancient Greek sculpture, but still admired Modernist architecture and he commissioned Amyas Connell (1901-80) to design the house.  It was designed for a private client, so Connell was able to use this radical Modernist style.  All the same, it was controversial because the locals felt it was a monstrosity.

Modernism was adopted by two key institutions.  London Transport was the world’s most progressive public transport system.  Frank Pick (1878-1941) was the head of London Transport from 1910 until the 1930s.  He wanted a corporate identity that would ‘belong unmistakably to the 20th century.’   Under his direction, London Transport achieved a well-developed corporate style based on Modernism. 

First of all, he asked for a logo that would be instantly recognisable.  The famous red, white and blue roundel was designed by Edward Johnston.  It was based on geometrical forms and used a very restricted colour range.  Edward Johnston was a calligrapher and he developed a typeface specifically for use by London Underground.  Johnston Sans consists of plain block letters with no end strokes or serifs.  It was designed to optimise legibility for passengers.  This is Modernist in the sense that it’s been simplified in order to make it functional.

Almost by accident, one of the best examples of British Modernism is the map of the London underground by Henry Beck.  The underground system was a network of subterranean tunnels that were confused and disordered; it was a labyrinth.  The original map was very difficult to understand.  Beck realised that, because the railway ran underground, the physical location of the stations was irrelevant – only the sequence mattered.  This was a schematic diagram rather than a map.  It distorts the actual positions of stations, but represents their sequential relationship with each other. 

The map can be interpreted as a Modernist piece: the whole underground system has been rationalised and simplified.  Everything has been reduced to its underlying form.  He has brought order out of chaos.  This is an example of Modernism at its best.  It proves that the idea of functionally-perfect designs was not entirely misguided.

Frank Pick’s design programme also extended to architecture.  Dozens of new tube stations were built, particularly along the Piccadilly Line, which was extended in 1930.  The new stations were Modernist in terms of their massing and composition.  Arnos Grove Station has a bold cylindrical structure and geometric detailing.  Even though it is designed in a severe Modernist format, it’s actually executed in traditional materials – brick and stone – to make it more acceptable to mainstream British tastes.  This was still a daringly modern statement for the time.

The other institution that adopted Modernism as its visual language was the BBC.  The BBC was a new organisation that felt its duty was to educate and inform the public.  Modernism suited this technological broadcasting network with high social ideals.  Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters at Portland Place in London, is a clean, white Modernist edifice, but it has some sculptural detail.  This was an attempt to meet mainstream British tastes and to fit in with the surrounding architecture.  There is a radio mast on the top.  This was both functional and symbolic – it’s an example of the machine aesthetic.

In 1930 the BBC commissioned Wells Coates to design a series of studio interiors, equipment and furnishings.  One of them was the BBC Studio on New Bridge Street in Newcastle.  The BBC took over a Georgian Maternity Hospital that had been designed by John Dobson and converted it into a radio studio.  They preserved the exterior, but the interior was given the simple, pristine aesthetic of Modernism – based on geometry and clean lines. Wells Coates designed technical equipment for the BBC, including this suspended microphone on a counterbalanced arm.  The microphone could be moved to any part of the studio, while remaining perfectly balanced.

Modernism was used for hospitals and seaside buildings because the sterile aesthetic was seen as clean and healthy.  A particularly good example of British Modernism is a seaside building called the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea (1935).  This was designed by Serge Chermayeff, who was English despite his name, and Eric Mendelsohn, one of the Jewish architects who fled from Nazi Germany.  It has clean lines, sheer white elevations, and no superfluous decoration.  The centrepiece is this semi-cylindrical window with cantilevered planes that candidly express their construction.