Wrought Iron Decorative Details: Messrs. Austin Reed, 12 Red Lion Square, London.

WROUGHT IRON DECORATIVE DETAILS: MESSRS. AUSTIN REED, RED LION SQUARE - This experiment in metalwork illustrates the difficulty of inventing new forms for railings, which will not at the same time suggest a function different from the usual one. Railings are generally introduced to form a decorative screen protecting, in not too forbidding a manner, lawns or other enclosures from the intrusion of the public. The row of metal leaves too closely resemble wall spikes designed to prevent people climbing over. As the inducement to offend in this manner is small, one feels that these sharp leaves are an unnecessary reflection upon the good behaviour of the public. But the formal qualities of the design are interesting. 

The iron lilies here depicted provide one more evidence that an inexhaustible wealth of new decorative forms lies still untapped, for comparatively few of the innumerable shapes of animals and plants have hitherto been exploited by artists in their search for motifs of ornament. Hence the floral emblems, with their common base consisting in a band of metal, immediately excite one 's curiosity. They are doubtless intended to belong to the same family as the row of leaves which constitute the railing, and thus we are able to imagine a close organic union between these two elements in the composition. [Architect and Building News 10 February 1928 page 244]

Reference    Architect and Building News 10 February 1928 page 244