Nourish & Flourish!

Within the space of a few hundred yards of each other on and just off the mostly unpleasant Merton Road in Southfields, Southwest London, are three architectural gems. The glorious Art Nouveau building proclaiming ‘Nourish and Flourish!’ (just off Merton Road on Standen Road) used to be Frame Foods, a baby food factory which opened in 1904. It’s now been converted into flats called Tiffany Heights but thankfully kept many of the building’s original features, including its distinctive green tiles.

On the corner of Standen Road and Merton Road is the Art Deco Southfields Tyre & Battery Service. It still functions as a garage and the neon lights do light up at night.

Across the road is another Art Deco building; this one is now Grade II listed. It was purpose-built in 1928 as the headquarters and factory for OK Sauce, a fruity brown sauce still apparently being made by Colman’s but quite difficult to find. It’s meant to taste a bit like HP sauce and is used in Chinese cooking. Now produced in Norwich.