Serge Chermayeff (1900 – 1996) was initially an interior designer, but later became an architect and academic. Born in Grozny, Chechnya, he worked as an interior designer for Waring & Gillow until, despite having no formal training in the profession, he established his own architectural practice in 1930. 

Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953) was a German architect celebrated for his innovative contributions to modern architecture. He gained fame with the expressionist Einstein Tower in Potsdam and later embraced a sleek, functional modernist style, seen in his Schocken Department Stores.

In the early 1930s, Mendelsohn and Chermayeff became partners - a pairing that led to the creation of Britain's most iconic 1930s-built architecture. Their most famous project is the De La Warr Pavilion (1935) in Bexhill-on-Sea, a pioneering example of the International Style. The building’s clean lines, steel frame, and glass façade embodied functional elegance and modernist ideals. Along with Shrubs Wood, the pair are also responsible for Cohen House in Chelsea, which sits next to 66 Old Church Street, designed by the founder of the Bauhaus School, Walter Gropius. Although their partnership was short-lived, the pair were instrumental in the proliferation of continental modernism in British architectural culture.