ABSTRACT
In 1931, signs that something was afoot in the normally peaceable world of British architecture began to be seen in the pages of the architectural press. In March, The Architect and Building News reported the careful defence of the ‘new architecture’ which had been presented by Frederick Etchells at a debate entitled ‘Tradition in Relation to Modern Architecture’. 1 Acknowledging that this was an ‘admittedly immature movement’, he nevertheless noted that a growing number of architects saw in it ‘a new hope for their art’. Concluding, he rejected the claims of his fellow speakers that this new architecture, in its adherence to function, was therefore ‘purely utilitarian engineering’, and merely a ‘stunt’, and declared his conviction that
There could be no doubt that there was growing up, through a thousand crude and doubtful forms, through a thousand immature experiments, a common state of mind in architecture, and this was the birth of a style, and therefore of a living tradition.
