COMMERCE AND ART [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] .
SIR,—As an employee in a large business house I was much= interested in Mr. John Dixon's letter last week suggesting that the presence of works of art in city buildings would have great moral and social value. I have earned my living in various commercial houses for about ten years, and in each of them I noticed that while the women tried to bring some little bright.' ness into the offices in the form of flowers, bright calendars and such pictures as they could afford, their efforts were looked on with much suspicion by the men. As we spend more than halt of our lives in sunless and ugly rooms, often with opaque
windows, and the remainder mostly in cheap furnished apart- ments which are equally unlovely in another way, the only brightness we get at all, except from the cinema and an occa- sional theatre, is a sight of turkey carpets and faded photo- graphs of dead directors of our firm when we go to take short- hand notes in the manager's office. - I hope that a great many firms will realise how much we should all appreciate decorations of the kind which those who work in the Williams Deacon's Bank are now enjoying.
Meanwhile, may I be allowed to recommend the only cheap restaurant I know in the City where during the luncheon hour office workers can get a relaxation of the eyes and the mind ? This is Lever House, near Blackfriars Bridge. The restaurant itself is bright with lighted models of the Lever Works, and also with cases of negro sculpture, carving and pottery—all very interesting to look at. In addition, a free cinema is attached to the restaurant, where one may sit for a little while and see all sorts of interesting little pictures about fishing, coal-mining, travel in Africa and so on. I go there myself every day, and I am sure that I work all the better for the short change of ideas I get during my luncheon hour.—I am,
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