C20 Society

The Sir Antony Gormley Foundation want to turn this former fire station in Hexham into a store and exhibition space for his work, with the overwhelming support of the local community.

The local council? Nope, we'll demolish that for a recycling depot thanks. Crackers.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Image: Principality (originally Millennium) Stadium, Cardiff - Lobb Sports Architecture, 1997-99 © Dragons RFC

EVENT: C20’s Autumn Lecture Series on Buildings for Sport & Leisure concludes this week, with Josh Jones exploring the social role of sports buildings in Wales.

📆 Thu 27 Nov 2025 - 6.30-8pm
📍 The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London + Online
🎟️ Book tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

‘High-Tech masterpiece’: Rogers’ Inmos factory awarded Grade II* listing ‘High-Tech masterpiece’: Rogers’ Inmos factory awarded Grade II* listing

RSHP’s Inmos Microprocessing Factory in Newport, Wales, has been Grade II* listed

Stuck with the building? Inmos may have ceased operation in the 90s, but if you read the piece you'll note that four decades on, the Newport plant remains the UK’s largest manufacturer of semiconductors.

Inmos Microprocessor Factory, Newport, Gwent – Richard Rogers and Parrtners, with engineer Anthony Hunt, 1982 Image credit: Ken Kirkwood © RSHP Archive

NEWS: We’re delighted to announce that Inmos Microprocessing Factory in Newport (Richard Rogers & Partners, 1982), one of the most innovative industrial buildings of the late 20th century, has been Grade II* listed following an application by C20 and C20 Cymru.

➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/high-te...

EVENT: Join C20 President @SamiraAhmedUK
for our annual Xmas Lecture: From Cathedrals to Cooling Towers–Global stories about the buildings that bond us.
🗓️ Tue 2 Dec 2025 6.30pm – 8pm
📍 The Gallery, Cowcross St+Online
🎟️ Book tickets: @c20society.bsky.social
secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

EVENT: Join C20 for a special curator talk and tour of the new exhibition, Theo Crosby: 100 Lives at Osh Gallery - celebrating the visionary architect, designer, curator and artist.

🗓️ Tue 9 Dec 2025 - 6:30-8PM
📍 Osh Gallery, 46 Essex Road, London
🎟️ Tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Plans to retrofit Peter Barber housing with uPVC are ‘devastating’ Plans to retrofit Peter Barber housing with uPVC are ‘devastating’

Plans to replace timber windows with uPVC ones at Peter Barber’s award-winning Donnybrook Quarter in east London have prompted widespread concern

Clarion are exploring replacement of the existing double-glazed timber windows and doors with uPVC. These generate 43% more waste than timber, 82% of uPVC ends up in landfill and it risks coarsening the design integrity of Donnybrook. C20 is lobbying for repair and refurb of the original windows.

Donnybrook was the practice's first major project, made the RIBA Stirling Prize longlist, was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and won numerous awards. It was once described as ‘Marbella on Thames’ and lauded as ‘one of the most innovative housing projects to be undertaken in the UK for decades’.

NEWS: C20 Society has engaged in constructive dialogue with Clarion Housing regarding the heritage and maintenance of Donnybrook Quarter in Tower Hamlets, designed by Peter Barber Architects (2006)

➡️ Please consider giving generously, click the link below for information on how to donate online, via text, Payroll Giving, or to leave a legacy.

c20society.org.uk/sup.../elain...

The Fund has already enabled C20 to expand our casework capacity, so for the first time we now have two full-time caseworkers. But we want to do more. With your support we’ll continue to invest in our vital casework, while nurturing the next generation of talent in heritage and conservation.

Image credit: Roland Jeffrey

Image credit: James O.Davies

She had a gift for explaining buildings with a uniquely engaging and accessible style and was unfailingly generous with her knowledge - supporting and inspiring both professional scholars and amateur enthusiasts alike. We greatly miss her spirited contributions to all aspects of the Society.

Elain Harwood (1958-2023) was an unrivalled force in the preservation and appreciation of 20th century architecture in Britain. Her life’s work as a historian and writer achieved more than any other individual in advancing the study of our shared heritage.

Image credit: Daniel Hambury

It is exactly two years since C20 Society established the Elain Harwood Fund to secure her legacy, and hosted an incredibly moving event in her honour at the Southbank Centre.
We’re pleased to announce the Fund has now reached £81,000 in donations – over half way to our initial target of £150,000. 🧵

‘Sheffield deserves better’ – Historic England criticises AHMM’s plans for listed icon ‘Sheffield deserves better’ – Historic England criticises AHMM’s plans for listed icon

Historic England has said it can not support plans by AHMM to alter Sheffield’s ‘Modernist crown jewel’, a former John Lewis department store, warning key architectural elements would be lost.

NEWS: In a moving and poignant case study for modern heritage, the government has announced that the National Covid Memorial Wall in Lambeth will be permanently preserved, less than five years after its creation. Detailed feasibility studies will determine the best methods of ongoing conservation.

Image: The Rom Skatepark, Hornchurch © David Levene for the Guardian

EVENT: C20’s Autumn Lecture Series on Buildings for Sport & Leisure continues next week, with Professor Iain Borden exploring the development and conservation of UK skateparks.

🗓️ Thu 20 Nov 2025, 6.30pm – 8pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ Book tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Celebrated as an iconic piece of late 20th-century design, the station has been added to England’s National Heritage List https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/public-buildings/southwark-station-grade-ii-listed

Labour's war on heritage Britain’s heritage is slowly going up in smoke. Medlock Mill was Manchester’s oldest standing textile mill until it burnt down in June. It joins Grade I-listed Woolton Hall – destroyed by a catastrophic...

Buildings of all historical periods have been sacrificed on the altar of ‘build, baby, build’.

✍️ Calvin Po

D-Day Whale roadway section and buffer pontoon (1943-44) being recovered from Southampton Harbour last month. Image credit: Associated British Ports

The roadway section in the Mulberry harbour during the Normandy landings of 1944. Image credit: D-Day Story, Portsmouth

Good news Friday: A rare Grade II listed D-Day floating Whale roadway has been recovered from Southampton Docks, ahead of a restoration project. The 80ft section was a vital component of the Mulberry harbours used during the 1944 Normandy landings, and is one of only two known to survive in the UK.

'Jewel in the crown' Tube station on Jubilee line extension gets Grade II listing

Southwark Tube station has become the first on the Jubilee line extension to be listed by the Government

MJP’s ‘memorable and theatrical’ Southwark Tube station listed MJP’s ‘memorable and theatrical’ Southwark Tube station listed

Southwark Underground Station, designed by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard (MJP) as part of London’s Jubilee Line extension in the 1990s, has been Grade II-listed

Southwark Tube Station (MJP, 1994-99) Image credit: Peter Durant

Southwark Tube Station (MJP, 1994-99) Image credit: Historic England

Southwark Tube Station (MJP, 1994-99) Image credit: Historic England

NEWS: We’re thrilled to announce that Southwark Station on the Jubilee Line Extension (MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, 1994-99) has finally been Grade II listed, nine years after C20 submitted an application and a quarter of a century after opening to the public.

➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/jubilee...

Thanks, reposted with working link!

Church of the Good Shepherd, Batheaston - Martin Fisher, 1966-67 Image credit: Immi Corry

Church of the Good Shepherd, Batheaston - Martin Fisher, 1966-67 Image credit: Immi Corry

Georgian Bath? How about Brutalist Bath!

Sign the petition to save the fabulous little Church of the Good Shepherd in Batheaston (1966-67) from demolition, and allow the local community to buy it instead.

✍🏼 c.org/PdMGmFFhqZ

Bletchley Leisure Centre (1974)

Perth Leisure Pool (1988)

EVENT: C20’s Autumn Lecture Series on Sports Architecture continues with Mike Hall, partner at FaulknerBrowns, exploring the practice’s pioneering and playful work on Leisure Centres.

🗓️ Thu 13 Nov, 6.30pm – 8pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ Book Tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Suitably massive book about cooling towers, published by Batsford and C20 Society

Ferrybridge B power station North Yorkshire, against St Edward's Church, Brotherton, 1960

Just 45 cooling towers left in Britain, all but one in the process of decommission and demolition. If, like me, you are fond of these silent sculptural giants scattered across the landscape, you will love @c20society.bsky.social supersized new book.

C20's Cooling Towers selected by The Modern House as one of six new titles on the brilliance of 20th and 21st century design.

➡️ themodernhouse.com/journal/six-...