Wow!
I’ve been living in London for 31 years and somehow I’ve never walked up Hampstead Road before which means I’ve never seen this absolute gob-smacking ugly-beauty brute of a building.
Its Art Deco in style, specifically 20th Century Egyptian Revivalist according to Wikipedia. It reminds me of the temples that Johnny Weissmuller would find in the middle of the jungle in early Tarzan movies and like those buildings it dominates the surrounding area – in this case Mornington Crescent.
It was built as a cigarette factory by the Carreras company in the mid-1920’s and, boy, it oozes sturdy yet tarty confidence, rather like a well refreshed rugby player in drag on a Saturday night. Carreras made Egyptian-style cigarettes which were fashionable at the time and the Egyptian themed architecture and decorations such as the scores of cat faces which adorn the building were clearly on brand. Two large cat statues preside over the front doors.
After a period of decline that lasted much of the second half of the twentieth century, the place was marvelously and camply restored to see in the new millennium. It now houses the offices of charities and advertising agencies and going by the huge number of people standing outside smoking as I walked past, the cigarette still holds an undue influence on the old place.
The front door of the Carreras Building