page_title: Architecture of Wales
section_title: Art Deco and international Modernist school of architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Wales / Art Deco and international Modernist school of architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Rear of the pavilion (Penarth_Pier), Penarth, Wales
context_page_description: Architecture of Wales is an overview of architecture in Wales from the Medieval period to the present day, excluding castles and fortifications, ecclesiastical architecture and industrial architecture. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.
context_section_description: Examples of Art Deco buildings in Wales are limited largely to Cinemas and houses. Possibly the best example of a cinema is the recently closed Pola Cinema in Berriew Street, Welshpool, with its attractive curved frontage and good stained glass, which was completed in 1938. An important house in the International Modernist style is the Villa Marina, set on the seafront at Llandudno.  This striking building was designed by Harry Weedon in 1936 well known as a cinema architect. It has been recently been restored.
  An  example of Art Deco architecture is Penarth Pier. The original cast-iron pier was designed by H. F. Edwards in 1892–1894. In 1927–1928 a pier pavilion was built in Ferro concrete to designs by L.G. Mouchel and Partners. Mouchel was founded in Briton Ferry now in Neath Port Talbot in 1897 by Louis Gustave Mouchel, who arrived in the UK from France with a licence to use the new technique of reinforcing concrete using iron bars that had been developed by François Hennebique. was a pioneer in the use of re-enforced concrete, although the pavilion was built after Mouchel's death. The pavilion has topee shaped dome lets and a semicircular Tuscan colonnade.
  An even more striking example of Mouchel's use of Ferro-Concrete is the White Bridge at Pontypridd. This was built in 1907,  to designs by P R A Willoughby, surveyor to Pontypridd Urban District Council, in association with L G Mouchel & Partners. The contractor was Watkin Williams & Page. Its river span, of 35metres, was when built, the longest reinforced concrete arch in Britain.
  A later Art Deco use of concrete is the decorative facade to the  former Queen's & Royal Garage, 27 Westgate Street, Cardiff which dates to the 1930s. The building has an Art Deco frieze above the garage entry  depicting  a stylised motor car and aeroplane from the inter-war period, with “Carways” and “Airways” written above. The central emblem depicts wings and a car tyre, behind a flaming torch. It originally served the Queen's Hotel and the Royal Hotel. It was presumably aimed to attract customers using Cardiff's first civilian airport which was built at Splott in 1931  and from 1935 until the Second World War had scheduled international flights to France.
caption: Rear of the pavilion (Penarth Pier) December 2013
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