The Bird House, exhibited 1939, oil on canvas, 750 x 905mm, Dudley Museum & Art Gallery.
The Art Deco Bird House at Dudley Zoo was a building designed by the Tecton Group of Architects, the firm of the great Russian Architect, Berthold Lubetkin and built around 1937. Dudley Zoo contains some twelve Tecton buildings and was planned to strike a blow against the urban sprawl of the Depression-hit West Midlands. On the zoo’s’ opening day, 250,000 people turned up to see a glimpse of a brighter, cleaner and more modern way of life.
Article – Object in Focus: It’s all happening at the Zoo – Percy Shakespeare, Tropical Bird House, Dudley Zoo (c.1939) – Samuel Shaw