Comments on: Almost forgotten: the Commonwealth Institute

By: squidgybod

squidgybod — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:07:37 +0000

Thanks Dave for a great pictorial. My father, the architect, told me that the shape of the beautiful roof that you’ve pictured, and that he admired, was called a ‘hyperbolic paraboloid’.

With a ‘full house’, my brother and I enjoyed a John Williams guitar concert in the theatre inside. We went frequently from school to watch educational films all about the commonwealth of course.

Progress I suppose, but a pity that the stunning roof will no longer be readily visible from Kensington High Street.

Thanks again Dave for these mementos.

By: Hasenschneck

Hasenschneck — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:30:28 +0000

I lived nearby as a child and visited the Commonwealth Institute frequently. I last visited it in the nineties when it was being used as an exhibition centre and it was sad to see how neglected it was. It will be great to see it housing design classics, although to put a block of flats in front of it is criminal. But with land values what they are, it’s not surprising.

I love your last aerial view too, which shows my school (Holland Park) and the reservoir on Campden Hill (flats built over it now) in the middle of the picture right at the top with the tower, next to the tennis courts of the Campden Hill Tennis Club.

Keep this up. You’re making me very happy.

By: mrmichaelgall@gmail.com

mrmichaelgall@gmail.com — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:06:16 +0000

Poetic post. Thank you