Palaces by the Sea - De La Warr Pavilion

The 9th Earl De La Warr, Mayor of the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, formulated an idea for a centre for arts and entertainment for the town. In 1933, an international competition, allowing a budget of £80,000 for the construction of a new pavilion, commenced and over two hundred entries were received.

The winning design chosen was by Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, the former a German emigrant and the latter a Russian. The nationalities of the winning architects provoked an outcry from certain quarters as in 1930s Britain fascism was on the rise. Mendelsohn was Jewish and had left Germany following the rise of anti-semitism; Serge Chermayeff was born in Grozny, now in Chechnya, and had been educated in Britain.

Mendelsohn and Chermayeff were partners in a firm of architects and were proponents of the Modern Movement. Their design was also significant as it was the first welded steel framed structure in Britain and the engineering firm involved was that of Helsby, Hamann and Samuely. Astonishingly for such a new building technique and for such a large building, construction took less than a year.

Construction of the pavilion began in January 1935 and the building was official opened on 12th December 1935. The opening ceremony was performed by The Duke and Duchess of York, the Duke of York later became His Majesty King George VI. The pavilion was a people's palace by the sea for the population of Bexhill-on-Sea and the facilities within the pavilion provided all the leisure, arts and entertainment amenities a town could desire.

The pavilion proved a success, providing the venue for many events. The Mayor of Bexhill-on-Sea had his wish and the building bore his name: the De La Warr Pavilion. The Times newspaper described the pavilion as "by far the most civilised thing that has been done on the South Coast since the days of the Regency".

The number of performances and events at the pavilion were restricted during the Second World War. The location of the town of Bexhill on the south coast put her in a perilous position and it is believed the pavilion provided the Luftwaffe with an aid to navigation and the pavilion did suffer some bomb damage. After the war, the pavilion was a success again attracting 28,000 visitors a year. She was altered to maintain visitor levels to meet new post-war aspirations for leisure and entertainment; changes were not in the style of the original design but necessary to ensure the pavilion remained viable.

The pavilion provided Bexhill-on-Sea with a venue for the arts and a place for social gatherings but had a wider significance. Buildings are recognised not only for their architectural merit, decoration and craftsmanship but also for their social significance. The De La Warr Pavilion is a significant building, socially and architecturally.

In England, some 365,000 listed buildings exist; 94.5% are listed Grade II, 4.1% Grade II*, and a mere 1.4% listed Grade I. All buildings constructed prior to 1700 are automatically listed, as are most building built between 1700 and 1840. However, after 1840 the construction of buildings proliferated rapidly, so a more selective approach to historic buildings was used. But the De La Warr Pavilion, listed Grade I in 1986, is such a special case and has to be considered a unique piece of architecture in Britain and a candidate for one of our best buildings.

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