Inside, the art deco style with its striking colours of red, black, and silver, its exoticism and animal prints sits happily alongside reproductions of Tudor furniture with a Moderne chair in leather and tubular steel. The three-piece suite came into use, most homes had plumbed-in kitchens, and three out of four households had a radio.

Style
streamlined
boxy shapes
Bakelite - a type of plastic used for everything from radio casings to telephones and light switches
chrome
modernism
art deco

Influences
modernism, art deco and Scandinavian design (modern)
historical styles such as Tudor, Jacobean and Georgian
cinema - 20 million people went every week
sun - people loved sunbathing and built flat roofs, pergolas and balconies as sun traps
The names
Alvar Aalto - Finnish furniture designer
George Nelson - American furniture designer
Clarice Cliff - potter
Keith Murray - designed ceramics for Wedgwood
At the time
1936 Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Simpson
1936 Spanish Civil War
1937 To Have and Have Not, Ernest Hemingway
1939 The Wizard of Oz
1939 Hitler invades Poland - war breaks out in Europe