The Art Deco tower clock of Bucharest’s police headquarters

The Art Deco clock tower detailed in the images bellow adorns the Eforie Street façade of Bucharest’s police headquarters, an edifice built in 1935-1938 on the place of an older and smaller Beaux Arts style building used for the same purposes. The clock, although is not working nowadays, is probably one of the best preserved timepieces from that era in Romania’s capital, a legacy of the fact that the building is government property, and therefore less vulnerable to the uncouth renovation frenzy that disfigured, in the last property boom, many of the privately owned historic buildings of this city. I like  the aspect of the clock face and arms, which resemble at a larger scale that of a wristwatch from the inter-war period. The interesting Art Deco architecture of this edifice hardly gives any clues to the casual passer-by that this is one of the most infamous places in Bucharest. Its cells and rooms have witnessed many dreadful cases of torture and even judicial murder during the fascist rebellion of 1941, when at least one case of defenestration is documented, and the long decades of communist totalitarianism. Some of the darkest hours of this public edifice were during the anticommunist revolution of 1989 when many protesters were imprisoned there and savagely tortured.

Art Deco style clock (1935), Bucharest police headquarters (©Valentin Mandache)

Art Deco style clock (1935), Bucharest police headquarters (©Valentin Mandache)

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I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

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If you plan acquiring or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.

Art Deco octagonal tower clock

Art Deco style tower clock assembly, the former National Hotel building, dating from the late 1930s, Blvd Carol I, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

This post has been inspired by one of Philip Wilkinson’s articles published in his magisterial ”English Buildings” blog in which he mentions a quintessentially 1930s octagonal tower clock face on one of the London’s Art Deco hallmark buildings. I  thus recalled that I found here in Bucharest, at the opposite extremity of Europe, a quite spectacular Art Deco tower clock set within an exuberant arrangement of predominantly octagonal shapes, presented in the photograph above. It crowns the former National Hotel building, now the headquarters of an insurance company, which has been erected in the late 1930s (I have not yet identified the architect(s), but I will make the necessary mention as soon as I will find something). I very much like the play between the multitude of stern geometrical profiles and ornaments, which together embrace the clock face within a symphony of octagonal, square, oblong and other shapes, some arranged in stepped groups according to the rule of three peculiar to the Art Deco style. The great pity is that the clock itself is not the original one, but a cheap contemporary electronic replacement. I remember the original one in my student days in Bucharest during the late 1980s as being of a typical 1930s design, endowed with chunky bronze arms shaped like metal strips that revolved over a creamy white clock face. I just hope that the old clock has not been thrown away to the scrap metal bin as is often happening in Romania nowadays, but is stored somewhere inside the building awaiting better days when Bucharest people will again appreciate their architectural heritage and identity.

Location and actual urban context of the former National Hotel, Bucharest. The tower containing the octagonal clock is within the red rectangle.

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I endeavor through this daily series of daily articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Bucharest Public Clock from the Art Deco Era

The Foisorul de Foc public clock, a well known 1930s landmark among Bucharest's natives. (©Valentin Mandache)

The only original Art Deco era part still in place of this once remarkable piece of urban infrastructure is the concrete-made concave transversal triangular profile staff. The old 1930s clock, a square shape one, a genuine Art Deco style object, as I remember it from my childhood,  has long been discarded by the local authorities and replaced with an unattractive mass production electric example, considered “more beautiful” by the contemporary post-communist mentality population of the city.

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I endeavor through this daily series of images and small articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.