Redhill Borough Council Offices

This municipal red brick style building, typical of many to be found through the West Midlands is in fact an HO scale plastic kit of a Synangogue. Produced by Heljan for the US market it is a model of 770 Eastern Parkway, New York, the central headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.

The kit is designed to snap-together with pre-coloured parts. As supplied it has some raised brick designs which look very odd to British eyes. The kit is available from Walthers stockists.

To fit the space available I had to cut the kit down a little at the back. I also removed all the raised brickwork, including that around the windows and applied a layer of Scalescenes brick paper. The window lintels and cills were added on top of this.

Having decided to use the building it took me a long while to decide just what purpose it would serve. I considered a police station, library, post office and even a school before fixing on the borough council offices.