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Time Out
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
This monumental cinema in Mumbai is Asia's greatest Art Deco building
If you've ever stopped to admire a building for its clean lines, geometric forms, bold colours, and opulent materials, you're likely gawping at a piece of art deco architecture. A style that became popular in the 1920s and 1930s, art deco works still number among some of the most prominent buildings in the world: think the Empire State Building in America and the Hoover Building in the UK. To mark the centenary of a landmark Paris exhibition: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) in 1925, our expert in architecture and design has done the tough job of whittling down the 10 finest examples of art deco architecture in the world. Picks range from the Art Deco Historic District in Miami to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, with just one building from all of Asia making the list. That honour goes to the Eros Cinema, located at Churchgate, Mumbai, India. Commissioned in 1935 by the Parsi businessman Shiavax Cawasji Cambata in 1935, it was designed by architect Shorabji Bhedwar and officially opened in February 1938. This is one building you can't miss. The cinema is immense, with an imposing stepped facade of ivory cream and red Agra sandstone protruding onto Marine Drive. The theatre is just as magnificent on the inside: black and white marble covers the foyer, marble staircases with chromium handrails lead up to the upper floor, and elaborate murals, cloud patterns, and relief sculptures adorn the walls of the floors and auditoriums. The Eros Cinema is a significant building in Mumbai's architectural landscape. It's part of the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. Though it was closed in 2017, you'll be glad to know that you can visit it now to catch a movie. It was reopened in 2024 after restoration and renovation works by conservation architects, boasting a brand spanking new 1,300-seat theatre and IMAX screen. Check out all 10 of the world's greatest art deco buildings here.
Time Out
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
It's official: the greatest art deco building in the world is in London
Did you know that 2025 marks a special anniversary for art deco? While the style dates back to the 1910s, art deco got its name as an abbreviation for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), which took place in Paris in 1925. An entire century later, art deco's glamourous craftmanship, bold geometric shapes and opulent colours are as admired as ever. To mark the style's big one-oh-oh, last week Time Out published a list of the world's greatest art deco buildings, enlisting the expertise of art deco aficionado Dominic Lutyens. The list totalled nine buildings around the world, with Lutyens highlighting structures like New York's Chrysler Building, Miami's Art Deco Historic District and Mumbai's Eros Cinema. Also making the cut, however, were buildings from London. A total of three London art deco structures featured in Lutyens' top nine – including top spot. Proclaimed the greatest art deco building in the world was, drum roll please… The Daily Express Building on Fleet Street. The Grade II*-listed site, which was designed by Ellis & Clarke in 1932, features a tiered façade made mostly of vitrolite (a kind of opaque plastic glass). Lutyens writes that the outside is 'adorned only by gleaming, slimline chrome bands forming a subtle grid', but the inside is far more glam. 'Its lobby is sumptuously decorated', he says, picking out highlights such as steel furniture designed by Betty Joel and gold and silver murals by sculptor Eric Aumonier. 🏛️ The most beautiful buildings in the world. London was the only city in the ranking to boast more than one entry. The next highest placing structure was Eltham Palace, with the southeast London house placing sixth. Eltham Palace features both the remains of a Tudor palace and art deco additions from the 1930s, and you can find Time Out's guide to visiting the place here. Last from London to make the list was the Hoover Building in ninth. The Grade II* listed west London building was designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners and opened in 1933 as the UK headquarters of The Hoover Company. It's since been converted into apartments.
Time Out
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
100 years of art deco: The world's greatest art deco buildings
This year marks the centenary of a landmark Paris exhibition: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), in 1925. The term 'art deco' is a snappy derivation of its title. Deco – characterised by clean lines, bold geometric shapes and jazzy colours – was seen as thrustingly modern. And it had a global appeal: the Paris fair hosted exhibitors from 20 countries. I would argue that the movement had its roots in the 1910s (it was influenced by cubist art from the decade) and hit its peak in the 1920s and 30s. It manifested in all areas of culture, from homeware and jewellery to fashion and cars, but most famously in architecture. The style was rampantly eclectic, plucking inspiration from Aztec, Mayan, Egyptian, ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Deco got a second wind in the 1930s, with its equally popular, more sleek and pared-down iteration – streamline moderne. Arguably, art deco wasn't as ground-breaking as modernism – its decorative quality and figurative elements are unmistakably of their time. But the style's more avant-garde elements – its clean lines and simplicity – still feel contemporary and, tellingly, young designers are inspired by deco architecture today. Selecting the best examples of deco architecture is a tough call, but here's an expert's pick of nine of the finest examples from around the world. Dominic Lutyens is journalist and author specialising in architecture and design. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts. 1. The Daily Express Building, London This Grade II*-listed building with a 1932 design by Ellis & Clarke, revised later by Owen Williams, is in the streamline moderne style. Its tiered façade with rounded corners is mainly made of Vitrolite (robust, opaque black glass), adorned only by gleaming, slimline chrome bands forming a subtle grid. Yet its lobby is sumptuously decorated: it was created by Robert Atkinson, who commissioned deco designer Betty Joel to dream up its steel furniture, while the walls are embellished with glistening gold and silver murals by sculptor Eric Aumonier. 2. The Chrysler Building, New York City Of Manhattan's early twentieth-century skyscrapers, the Chrysler Building is the most iconic and recognisably deco, thanks to its tower crowned by typically Deco sunburst motifs bubbling skywards. In my view, the sunburst pattern recalls radio waves, signalling modernity and technological progress. The building was designed by William Van Alen for Walter P Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation, and was completed in 1930. While it may look simple, the tower is elaborately decorated, studded with eagle-shaped gargoyles and details inspired by Chrysler radiator caps. 3. Alex Theatre, Los Angeles Deco cinemas in the interwar years hugely popularised this aesthetic, given the new movie palaces mass appeal. The Alexander Theatre (later abbreviated to Alex Theatre) opened in 1925 as a venue for vaudeville performances and silent movies. Today it's a performing arts centre. It's very showy – aptly, given its proximity to Tinseltown. An obelisk, neon-lit by night, looms above the entrance. The ticket office leads to the lobby via a large, open-air forecourt inspired by Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, a route that adds drama to the space. 4. Art Deco Historic District, Miami Thanks to Barbara Baer Capitman and her son, John – co-founders in 1975 of the Miami Design Preservation League – long-neglected deco architecture on South Beach was extensively renovated. This area contains the world's highest concentration of deco buildings (hotels, homes and shops), mostly built in the streamline moderne style, many in ice-cream pastels. Local architect Lawrence Murray Dixon dreamt up many of its hotels, such as the curvilinear Marlin of 1939 that boasts a façade in powder blue and buttermilk yellow. 5. Eros Cinema, Mumbai Deco architecture flourished in India, particularly in Mumbai. The country's burgeoning middle classes lapped up Western influences, commissioning residences, hotels and movie theatres in a deco style that nevertheless incorporated indigenous motifs, such as stylised peacocks. Businessman Shiavax Cawasji Cambata commissioned architect Shorabji Bhedwar to design the monumental Eros Cinema on Marine Drive in 1935. Its stepped façade pairs smooth ivory walls with the rich earthy brown of red Agra sandstone. Its opulent foyer has a boldly patterned black and white marble floor and Classical and Indian friezes. 6. Eltham Palace, London Originally built in the fourteenth century, Eltham Palace in southeast London was badly damaged during the Civil War. In 1933, Stephen Courtauld (a scion of the textile family) and his wife, Virginia, restored its medieval hall and added a new extension with a show-stoppingly glamorous deco interior, overseen by architects Seely & Paget. Designer Rolf Engström created its domed circular entrance hall. A black and gold door in the dining room is adorned with images of exotic beasts, including the couple's pet ring-tailed lemur, called Mah-Jongg. Virginia's breathtakingly ritzy bathroom had an onyx bath backed by a shimmering gold mosaic. 7. Palais de Tokyo, Paris This vast, complex building in Paris's 16th arrondissement comprises two wings connected by a colonnade, interlinked with a plaza, a rectangular pool and a fountain. It was designed for the 1937 International Art and Technical Exhibition by architects Jean-Claude Dondel, André Aubert, Paul Viard and Marcel Dastugue, and now houses twentieth-century and contemporary art. The imposing building with soaring columns is redolent of bombastic, nationalistic 1930s architecture but its predominantly stark aesthetic is softened by large ornate friezes of languid human figures by Alfred Auguste Janniot. 8. Central Fire Station, Auckland Auckland has a high quota of arresting deco buildings, including its Central Fire Station, designed by Daniel Boys Patterson and completed in 1944. As befits the building's functional character, the fire station is in the streamline moderne style – as were the residential units housing its live-in staff. This being a deco building, functionalism coexists with high style: its geometric façade is decorated with elegant fluted columns and zigzags, all painted a quintessentially deco eau-de-nil shade. 9. The Hoover Building, London This flamboyant Grade II*-listed building in West London borders the A40, and was designed by architects Wallis, Gilbert and Partners for The Hoover Company. It housed the vacuum cleaner maker's HQ and factory, and opened in 1933. Poet John Betjeman identified the flamboyant decoration on its exterior as Mayan and Aztec-influenced – such ornamentation was intended to be uplifting for employees. Said architect Thomas Wallis paternalistically: 'A little money spent in… decoration, especially colour, is not money wasted. It has a psychological effect on the worker.'
