Eddie Izzard pays tribute to Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion in new BBC series

Eddie Izzard has paid tribue to the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, listing it as the place that helped to make her.
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The comedian discussed the history and importance of the pavilion in the run up to the airing of the BBC series ‘Art That Made Us’.

She talked about the work done by Earl De La Warr and architects Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff in designing the building, revealing that her 7-year-old father attended the grand opening in 1935.

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The Times reported her as saying: “In any town or city you want new ideas and to see vibrancy coming through. And that’s what Mendelsohn and Chermayeff put into this building with its striking lines, and the fact that it has stayed. It looks like the top of a ship ready to go to sea at any point.

Eddie Izzard in front of the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea in 2021. Copyright@ Tristan Fewings, Getty Images SUS-210331-161126001Eddie Izzard in front of the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea in 2021. Copyright@ Tristan Fewings, Getty Images SUS-210331-161126001
Eddie Izzard in front of the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea in 2021. Copyright@ Tristan Fewings, Getty Images SUS-210331-161126001

“It has the first theatre in the country with no cloumns. But it almost disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s because its mentor, the earl, died and no one care for it. When I was working in a self-service cae there in the 1970s, the building was tired.

“It was going to become a big pub like a Wetherspoons, but Alan Hayden came along and said he was going to regenerate it and turn it into an arts centre for the South East and he did. I think the earl would have liked what has happened to it.

“As a trans person I’ve played there, Elvis Costello and Patti Smith played there and the Pixies had it as their base before they did their European tour. It’s an alternative groovy place and people come from miles away.”

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‘Art That Made Us’ explores works of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature and drama that have influenced art in Britain. It is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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