On Tuesday November 22nd 2022 ten BRISTOL 1904 ARTS members visited the Ken Stradling Collection and Design Study Centre, on Park Row, a stone’s throw from the Red Lodge. Just next to where the famous Princess Theatre used to be.

We had an excellent presentation from the curator revealing fascinating aspects of good interior design.  Afterwards we enjoyed a fine lunch at the Flour House opposite the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.

The Stradling Collection is a remarkable collection of 20th and 21st century design and applied arts.  It contains almost 2000 pieces of ceramics, glass, furniture and decorative objects.  This extraordinary collection grew out of retail buying for a design shop – the Bristol Guild of Applied Art.  The link is the home and the things we use and enjoy in it; from furniture to contemporary glass and ceramics.  The gallery features changing displays from the Collection, or artworks created through the learning programme; sometimes the Ken Stradling exhibitions feature both. See: https://stradlingcollection.org/

The Collection holds important examples of modernist furniture by Bauhaus designer Marcel Breuer for the Bristol manufacturer PE Gane.  Crofton Gane was a passionate advocate of Modernism in the 1930s and was instrumental in introducing the style to the British public

Ken Stradling MBE honorary MA (Bristol) was a Bristol Grammar School educated Bristolian who became the Managing Director of the Bristol Guild. See: https://stradlingcollection.org/about-us/ken-stradling/

Paul Main, 1904 Cultural Lead