Brigade Models are from Maidstone – the one in Kent, the Garden of England, rather than any of our namesakes in the U.S.A., Canada or Australia! As part of our Small Scale Scenery range, we're starting to recreate a few notable local buildings from the town and surrounding area in 1:1000th scale, and today we have a couple of new ones – we've titled this pair 'Art Deco Commercial Buildings'.
The first is a large Car Showroom – we've based this on an edifice known locally as the Rootes Building after the company that originally built it in the late 1930s (although it's officially called Len House). It's currently unoccupied, but for years was home to a franchise of a well-known French car manufacturer. It's now a Grade-II-listed structure, and there are plans to turn it into apartments with shopping and dining facilities.
The second building will bring back memories for local gamers and modellers, even if you don't immediately recognize it. It's another Art Deco building, this time an L-shaped block of shops with flats above. It's based on Granada House, which used to be the home of Hubble and Freeman's toy shop, which is where the two of us spent considerable amounts of pocket money on various plastic kits, paints, and other bits and pieces during a misspent youth.
SSS-8211 – Art Deco Commercial Buildings – £4.00 GBP