Firestone Building

Inspired by one of Britain's most notorious architectural losses, this architectural object interprets the entrance of the Firestone Building — Wallis, Gilbert & Partners' 1928 Art Deco factory on Brentford's "Golden Mile" — as a refined, sculptural form.

The building itself no longer exists, demolished in a single Bank Holiday weekend in 1980. This piece focuses on its central entrance bay — the tower, pediment, and flanking pillars — reconstructed from historic photographs of the original factory.

Read the full Firestone Building architecture guide

A lost Art Deco landmark, interpreted as an object

The Firestone Building's entrance concentrated its Art Deco identity into a single, symmetrical composition: a stepped, temple-like tower and pediment, flanked by tall white pillars and set above a run of ribbon windows. Rather than attempting the building's full length along the Great West Road, this object isolates that entrance bay so its detailing can be appreciated as a piece of sculpture in its own right.

This architectural model focuses on the building's defining characteristics:

• the stepped, temple-like tower and pediment at the centre of the facade
• the tall, white flanking pillars either side of the entrance
• the fine lines of the ribbon windows, rendered in etched metal

By reducing the building to its entrance alone, the object allows the proportion and character of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners' design to be appreciated up close — a design otherwise accessible only through historic photographs.

Why the Firestone Building works as an architectural model

The entrance translates especially well into object form because it is a self-contained, symmetrical composition built around a strong central motif, with a legible, temple-like silhouette that reads clearly even at small scale. These characteristics remain powerful when reconstructed from photographs alone. The object feels both architectural and sculptural — a tangible way to encounter a building that can otherwise only be seen in archive images.

Craft, materials, and finish

Each Firestone Building object is crafted with an emphasis on material honesty and precision. The plaster finish picks out the crisp lines of the original faience tiling and pillars, while the etched metal detailing renders the fine grid of the ribbon windows against the smooth cast form. The result is an object that sits comfortably within architectural interiors and design studios, on bookshelves and workspaces, and in collections focused on Art Deco or twentieth-century conservation history. It is equally suited to architects, designers, and anyone with an interest in Britain's lost interwar landmarks.

A piece of conservation history

The Firestone Building was demolished on a single August Bank Holiday weekend in 1980, just as the government prepared to protect it — an act of destruction that shocked the architectural world and helped establish the Twentieth Century Society as a serious force in British conservation. Only its entrance gates and railings survive today, Grade II listed on the site where the factory once stood. As an object, this piece offers a way to engage with that history in tactile, physical form, preserving a building that architectural photography and public memory are all that remain of.

Product details

• Subject: Firestone Building, Great West Road, Brentford, London (demolished 1980)
• Architectural style: Art Deco, with Egyptian-influenced ornament
• Original completion: 1928–29
• Architects: Wallis, Gilbert & Partners
• Designed and made by: Chisel & Mouse

Learn more about the Firestone Building

For a detailed exploration of the building's architecture, history, and cultural legacy, see our in-depth guide:

Firestone Building Architecture: Wallis, Gilbert & Partners and the Factory London Lost in a Weekend