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| I took this photo last night on the walk home. |
I was struck by this building when we first arrived. Like the KOKO theatre, it is on my way to school.
After a little digging on wikipedia, I found out the building was built in 1928 as a cigarette factory for the Carreras company. Apparently, Egyptian art deco was in vogue then. During the building opening, they spread sand across the entrance to replicate the sands of Egypt. The Egyptian tobacco industry was particularly prominent at that time, which made the Egyptian comparison favorable.
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| Source: Wikipedia via geograph.org.co.uk, author ceriweden. |
The most striking part of the building is the pair of huge cats guarding the main entrance. The cats reminded me of the black cat Behemoth in the novel The Master and Margarita, which became one of my favorite books recently. Behemoth is a human-sized, black tom cat that accompanies the devil when the devil visits St. Petersburg.
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| Source: Wikipedia via geograph.org.co.uk, author Stephen McKay |
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| Source: Wikipedia via geograph.org.co.uk, author ceriweden. |
In the 1960's when the factory was shut down, the black cats were stripped from the building as Egyptian art deco had gone out of fashion. The cats were replaced when the building was remodeled in the 1990's.
I would support an Egyptian art deco revival.
