ABSTRACT
In December 2011, Victor Pasmore’s Apollo Pavilion– an abstract, concrete structure erected in 1969 at the heart of the Sunny Blunts area of Peterlee – was listed as a Grade II building, granting it protection from alteration, extension or demolition. This chapter explores how Pasmore arrived at this public, abstract statement of community and home. It argues that Pasmore’s artistic developments that led to the construction of the Pavilion were driven by an awareness of home under threat during wartime—the Pavilion is, in effect, shaped by his attempts to grapple with the time of reconstruction and the question of home across nearly twenty-five years. It explores Pasmore’s work at Peterlee that led to the construction of the Pavilion, tracing how this retained the methods and concerns of his works that responded to war. Pasmore’s wartime experiences—ranging from the physical destruction of home by bombs and the rupture of familial relationships through conscription—were not necessarily unusual.
