How should we catalogue, describe, present, and interpret museum objects? These are never easy questions and even more difficult when they form part of an ‘ethnographic’ collection.
The @leverartgallery in Port Sunlight has a major collection gathered by industrialist William Lever from his sojourns to West and Central Africa – but very little is known about the objects, and they rarely get displayed because of this.
Together with colleagues from @liverpoolmuseums and AHUWA / Liverpool University we invited members of the Congolese Association to join us in a workshop and to rethink how we might begin to catalogue and understand the art, instruments, weapons, fabrics… We were delighted to be joined by Congolese Ambassador Ndolamb Ngokwey and to have expert facilitation from @bluesaint .
It was only a trial , but the proof of concept worked really well. Looking forward to seeing the other objects and learning more.3 d
We returned to Accra to take down the Kingsway Stores exhibition. It’s currently in storage at the emerging and wonderful Si Hene Foundation. The future of the exhibition is quite exciting – the details are still being resolved, but it’s certainly going to travel around Ghana and onto Nigeria (details to follow – and we’ll post updates here). Si Hene has it’s own collection of Kingsway archive material too – so it’s the ideal spot. The exhibition was dismantled and transported on the motorbike-truck.
I gave a talk to the archivist-curator-artists at Si Hene on our work, methods, practice and community engagement. This was great fun and the quality of the projects being produced here is astonishing.
After dismantling the exhibition there was time to search out some new, old, and modified structures. First on the list was the School of Law from 1959. Designed by Zdzisław Borysowicz of Nickson and Borys. I came across an archival image of the building in the Borys archives – and was eager to visit…
The kind people at the School allowed us to explore and take some photos.
Check out the curved brise soleil – how was this cast with such accuracy? It’s a similar size and proportion to the nearby Library also designed by Borys – but this time curved. This would involve some very tricky and geometrically complex formwork and there doesn’t appear to be a climatic/comfort reason for doing so? There was also the usual terrazzo and concrete with crustacean aggregate – all carefully finished. The most dramatic part of the design is the zig-zag concrete solar shading. This is projecting from the main facade – and appears to hang, unsupported. It’s audacious and brave. There’s new glazing been added behind, but the overall effect is just about retained… The brise Soleil features on the south and north facing facades – was tropical modernism becoming more of a ’style’ than a pragmatic solution by this stage?
Borys designed some of the finest buildings in West Africa. In Accra alone this includes the library, Padmore Memorial Library, PRAAD, Court extension, the law school – and as we went onto see, some excellent housing too.
There’s a fascinating villa in the Borys archive. It’s a house for “Mr and Mrs Pepera, Accra, Ghana”. Pepera was an industrialist and business owner and his family owned some large plots of land across the city. He commissioned Borys to design a house on Switchback Road in Accra. One of the facades contains a distinct mosaic mural. With the help of Allotey Bruce Konuah the family told us that the house had been redeveloped, but the mural survived. We went to take a look. It seems that the house has been rebuilt in a similar style and the mural has either been remade, or possibly partially preserved.
There’s a few other interesting dwellings on the same stretch of Switchback Road – how long they’ll remain isn’t certain – the land value and rapid development is forcing vast highrise construction here and these villas set within large landscaped gardens are at risk.
There are some smaller clinics and hospitals along this road too, with accompanying residences.
The new @adjayeassociates offices opened earlier this month in Accra. It’s an impressive structure with generous interior and exterior spaces for exchanges, meetings, displays, and studios. The gallery contains some of the most beautiful and carefully crafted models we’ve seen.
Stabilised rammed earth (swishcrete) features heavily on the exterior – mirroring the marble clad vertical fins and approach of Lasdun’s Takoradi bank . The most startling aspect of the design is the decision to raise the structure up from the ground level. The structural span is vast and courageous, with the entirely building appearing to perch on a large round concrete drum form at one end (it’s a kind of inhabitable piloti containing a fire escape). It’s quite an unusual gesture to only use as a means of escape.
The structural solution is impressive – but it left me wondering why was it done? Is it referencing the modernist piloti concept, or the colonial bungalow model, or perhaps the former US embassy in Accra ? The underpass could make for a great outside studio, exhibition space, or a spot for a planted garden and evaporation pool – but it’s only used to provide shade for parked cars at the moment… Perhaps the landscaping and activation of the space will follow – it takes time to bed into a space like this – and the roof garden and kitchen makes up for it with views to the ocean and across the city.
Going back to the ‘rammed earth’ – it would be good to know the cement content. Are we really dealing with a pigmented concrete solution here rather than adobe ?
Very grateful @phelim_owusu for kindly giving us a tour and to @k_of_i for organising the visit.
Finally a visit to the Danish embassy – a villa set in gardens in North Ridge. Architect unknown – but a careful design that blended the garden and interiors – perfect setting for the art exhibition, performance, and gathering.
Our new monograph on the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone has (finally) been published – open access and you can download it here. It’s a major output stretching to 240 pages across a chunky 250x250mm format and is the third book in our series on sharing the archives of the United Africa Company. The other two books are on Kingsway Stores and The Photocard collection.
Photocard and Kingsway catalogue
Our approach in Freetown was to identify and write brief historical narratives on the city’s development using archival photographs mainly from the Unilever UAC collection, alongside recent photographs. Archival work took place at Unilever, Bodlean Library, UK National Archives, as well as at Fourah Bay in Freetown – and this informed our fieldwork and photography. The approach is a classic ‘before and after’ set of images with descriptions. There isn’t an architectural guide book or detailed study of Freetown and it’s architecture – which is quite shocking considering the quality of the work and the architects involved (including Nickson and Borys; Jame Cubitt; Ronald Ward and many others….)
Freetown An Architectural Gazetteer
As well as covering the major buildings in the city we include an extended essay on Fourah Bay College, and a write up on Bonthe at Sherbro that we were fortunate to visit. We’re particularly proud of the Bonthe work – and there is certainly a lot more research to undertake into its history and architecture.
Have a listen to Rixt Woudstra and Ewan Harrison talking more about how we researched, made, and designed our latest book ‘Architecture, Empire and Trade‘ on the New Books in Architecture podcast series…. Thank you to Matthew Wells for hosting the podcast and for the super questions and comments.
I’ve been visiting buildings in Accra that I don’t know much about today.
SSMIT Pension House: super bit of brutalism near the ministries. This building looks after the state pensions – but who designed it? Perhaps a forgotten Nickson & Borys? Rather nice open staircase and precise brise soleil…. I can’t find any references to it in my collections or at the RIBA library catalogue. I’ll have to check WABA Journal again, but don’t recall ever reading about this significant building?
Accra Technical Institute. My reliable sources say it’s designed by none other than James Cubitt. Could be – it resembles his early work at KNUST, Kumasi. OR should I have gone to the Accra Technical College? But the dates for that institution don’t seem to add up.
Then there’s a delightful commercial building in Jamestown. It resembles the UAC Kingsway Store in Sekondi. It definitely wasn’t a Kingsway, but perhaps was linked to the UAC?
Finally “Betty House”. A rather large house in what was a prestigious neighbourhood in Jamestown at Korle Wokon. Historically important as the residence of Nana Akufo-Addo’s father and served as HQ for Ghana’s first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) after its formation in 1947.
Bringing the Kingsway Stores Home: Our Exhibition Opens in Accra15 Jan – Easter
On 15th January, we celebrated the opening of “Shopping Emporiums of West Africa: The Kingsway Stores” at Jamestown Cafe and Gallery in Accra, marking a significant milestone in our ongoing research into the architectural and commercial legacy of the United Africa Company. The launch evening brought together an engaged audience including President of the Ghana Institute of Architects Tony Asare, Dr Abena Busia, and Ronnie Micallef, the incoming High Commissioner of Malta in Accra, for what proved to be a thought-provoking discussion about retail modernism, colonial commerce, and architectural heritage in West Africa. David Kojo Derban gave a wonderful opening talk to contextualise the exhibition, along with a wider welcome from cafe and gallery owner architect Joe Owusu Addo.
The exhibition represents the culmination of over 5 years of collaborative research examining the Kingsway department store chain, which operated across West Africa throughout much of the twentieth century. Working alongside Unilever archivist Claire Tunstall and colleagues Ewan Harrison, Rixt Woudstra, Paul Robinson, and Michele Tenzon, we’ve traced the fascinating story of these iconic shopping emporiums from their inception through the independence periods of West Africa and beyond.
This work forms part of our broader investigation into the United Africa Company, published last year by Bloomsbury as “Architecture, Empire, Trade.” In our recent Journal of Design History article, co-authored with Ewan Harrison, Irene Appeaning Addo, and Oluwaseun Muraina, we wrote that “Kingsway responded to independence by instrumentalizing a particularly modernist domesticity through a series of didactic marketing efforts and the construction of boldly modernist new stores.” The article reveals how these stores weren’t simply places of commerce but architectural statements where “modernism is here revealed as complexly imbricated with colonial and neocolonial profit-seeking.”
The exhibition itself has journeyed from Liverpool to Ghana, carefully packed and stored at Jamestown Cafe before being installed in early January. Two freestanding pavilions display archival photographs from the Unilever Archive, accompanied by newly commissioned 3D-printed models created by Liverpool School of Architecture students and archival films that bring the stores’ bustling atmosphere to life. The pavilions themselves, fabricated using CNC routers by our expert technical team at Liverpool lead by James Galliford, echo the modernist architectural language of the stores they document.
What makes presenting this exhibition in Accra particularly meaningful is the opportunity to share this research in the very city where the first Kingsway store stood. The ruins stand next door to the gallery – a poignant reminder of this commercial and architectural heritage. Through collaboration with Allotey Bruce Konuah, we’ve extended the exhibition beyond the gallery walls with vinyl street banners installed on both the gallery exterior, creating a dialogue between past and present. The banners also contain QR codes so visitors and passers-by can freely download the catalogue.
Our commitment to sharing this research extends beyond this single exhibition. We were interviewed on Asaase Radio morning show and it was great to share our work with a broader audience across Ghana. Following the exhibitions run in Accra through to Easter, we hope to tour the exhibition to other venues, continuing the conversation about how retail modernism, colonial commerce, and architectural heritage intersect. This exhibition reminds us that architecture is never merely about buildings; it’s about the economic, social, and political systems that produce them.
The Kingsway Exhibition has been sent to Accra and carefully stored at the Jamestown Cafe for a few months now. We were finally able to unpack the vast pallet on Friday morning and spent the weekend constructing the two pavilions and installing the light boxes and panels.
The exhibition is being extended and reimagined through a further collaboration with Allotey Bruce Konuah on a series of vinyl street banners that will be installed on the exterior walls of the gallery space, as well as on the old ruined Kingsway Stores portico located next door.
The opening night is 15th January and all welcome. The exhibition will remain until Easter before it moves on…
Thank you to James Galliford and the Liverpool School of Architecture Technical Team for their expertise on the fabrication and installation, and to Claire Tunstall and Unilever Archives team for all their help and support sourcing the images and visuals.
We’ll be setting up the Kingsway Stores exhibition at Jamestown Cafe and Gallery, Accra, this week. The two pavilions have made their way from Liverpool to Ghana and are ready for installation. The opening is on Thursday 15th January from 6pm – all very welcome. We’ll be based at the cafe from Friday 9th – so if you’re in the vicinity please call in. The exhibition will run until Easter and then we’ll tour it to other venues, with details to be confirmed.
Hector Othon Corfiato (1892 – 3 May 1963) was a Greek architect (although some claim Egyptian). After studying at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he established the firm of Corfiato, Thomson & Partners and was professor and director at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL from 1946 to 1959 (emeritus from 1960). He worked on various ecclesiastical projects including https://c20society.org.uk/c20-churches/notre-dame-de-france and https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/grade-ii-listing-for-rare-corfiato-church and after his retirement the Church at Debre Libanos, Ethiopia (circa 1961).
Church at Debre Libanos, Ethiopia
He also completed some further projects in Burma, and in West Africa for the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology (NCAS&T) in Zaria. Whilst in Nigeria he established an office at the collage and took on further projects including for the Manchester based firm G B Ollivant.
G B Ollivant (GBO) was bought by the United Africa Company in 1933 and transitioned from cotton and fabric trading into general retail, office supplies, and building management. Corfiato designed several bungalow types for the firm as well as a large retail store in Onitsha (1959) selling cottons, hardware, provisions, and fancy goods. The store was to connect to an existing Cosley store – which we suspect were hardware/builders merchants.
The building provided showroom spaces as well as retail and was probably used more for wholesaling than general retail. The exposed concrete frame of the building supported the overhanging roof to provide solar shading to the upper level whilst the ground floor had a further projecting canopy over pavement. It’s utilitarian and straightforward – but more than a mere warehouse and a considerable aesthetic departure from GBOs usual building style found elsewhere in West Africa. It’s looking more towards the ‘high end’ retail stores being built at the same time across Nigeria, and was part of the construction boom in Onitsha that saw the new cathedral (by Richard Nickson) and market hall (see Nigeria magazine no65, 1960).
Archive snaps of the GBO premises in Onitsha, 1959, designed by Corfiato and partners, from originals in the Unilever Archives, UAC/2/10/a1/4/4/1/5/2
Corfiato collaborated with various other architects about whom we know very little. They’re listed in Nigeria Magazine as just “Avis” and “Horner” and are given credit for designing the Dispensary at Zaria College and a store for Gottschalck in Kaduna. The Gottschalck store closely resembles the GBO store and was also part of the UAC group.
Above Gottschalck Store at Kaduna. BEAM on the right hand side was another UAC subsidiary, ‘Business Equipment And Machines’. From Nigeria Magazine no73, 1962.
These projects raise a number of questions: Did Corfiato ever visit West Africa? Was he responsible for obtaining these commissions in the UK and then establishing a satellite office in Nigeria? Who were Avis and Horner? They were clearly a capable team and delivered some significant residential, educational, and commercial projects across Nigeria.
The July-August 2025 edition of the Architectural Review has published an extended 9-page feature article written by Lois Quartey and Julia Gallagher on the Accra Community Centre, Ghana. The building designed by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, with Theo Crosby as the lead assistant, opened in 1951 and quickly became an important educational, cultural, and social hub in the city. It was paid for by the United Africa Company in an attempt to foster local support after its ‘Swanmill’ HQ was looted and burned following the 1948 Accra riots. TAG provided some drawings and photographs that accompany the article.
The primary thrust of the piece is to raise awareness of this significant historic structure – especially how it was used in the independence campaigns and beyond – and to stress just how vulnerable this building is. Currently being used as a mere store and at risk from the Marine Drive development plan – the article expands on what we covered here https://transnationalarchitecture.group/2022/06/22/accras-renaissance-fishing-harbour-marine-drive-and-a-new-cathedral/ back in 2022.
It’s a deceptively simple and even ordinary building at first sight – but after spending time exploring it’s two interconnected courtyards and assembly hall it quickly begins to feel at home, climatically comfortable, and a nice place to be. It’s also a significant structure because of its design pedigree and especially because of its political significance – so many important speeches, gatherings, and events took place here in the advent to independence and beyond. It’s also home to one of the largest installations by leading artist Kofi Antubam – that alone should secure its future. Our model that replicates one made by Fry and Drew featured in the recent V&A Tropical Modernism exhibition too.
If foreign and leading agencies such as the V&A museum and Architectural Review are prepared to give this seemingly humble building exposure, critique, and cause for preservation – surely the case can be made to restore this heritage structure and to weave it into the wider Marine Drive masterplan. Champions of Ghanaian culture https://www.design233.com/articles/in-trust-for-the-people are behind saving these works and raising awareness, but much more needs to be done.
To deliberately allow a ‘managed decline’ and slow demolition is a tragic waste and short sighted view of the building’s rich political history.
Transnational Architecture Group 