C20 Society

Image © Stuart Lamb / Arts in Redditch

Image © Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation

Image © Stuart Lamb / Arts in Redditch

Image © Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation

UPDATE: We’re delighted that the Eduardo Paolozzi mosaics at Kingfisher Shopping Centre in Redditch (1981-83) have now been Grade II listed, following support from C20. They're the first Paolozzi murals and only the second post-war shopping centre to be partially listed, after Milton Keynes (1979)

Image credit: Kin Creatives for Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio

Image credit: Kin Creatives for Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio

Image credit: Kin Creatives for Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio

NEWS: Planning consent has just been granted for the £231 million Barbican Renewal Programme, following extensive consultation and the support of C20. The sensitive and conservation-led scheme will improve accessibility and reinstate key original design features.

➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/plans-a...

What can be done to save cultural heritage in wartime? As the threat of armed global conflict increases, we mustn’t stop trying to protect archaeological and cultural sites, writes Peter Stone

As the threat of armed global conflict increases – and its reality makes itself felt – what can be done to protect invaluable cultural heritage? At least we now have a roadmap, writes a leading expert in the field.

Waterloo International Terminal, Lambeth - Grimshaw Architects (1988-94)

Waterloo International Terminal, Lambeth - Grimshaw Architects (1988-94)

Waterloo International Terminal, Lambeth - Grimshaw Architects (1988-94)

EVENT: Join C20 for the fourth High-Tech dialogue of our Spring Lecture Series, featuring architect Neven Sidor (@grimshawarch.bsky.social) in conversation with Laura Mark, C20 Head of Casework.

🗓️ Thu 5 Mar, 6.30–8pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ Tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

The 1960s Kett House was built near the site of James Rattee and George Kett’s 19th century stone carving works on Station Road, Cambridge. George Kett was a descendant of the 16th century Norfolk rebel, Robert.

Image: Jack Bolton / Art UK

Good News Friday: A prominent 1960s sculptural mural in Cambridge depicting a 16th century rebellion has been saved from demolition, and will be relocated as part of a scheme led by Bennetts Associates.

The sandstone bas-relief of ‘Kett’s Oak’ was created by Austrian artist Willi Soukop in 1962-63.

As it’s @londonfashionwk.bsky.social, here’s one of Britain’s most fun, fashion-conscious and original buildings: Selfridges Birmingham (2003).

Designed by Future Systems, the thousands of aluminium discs were famously inspired by the chain-link sequins of a Paco Rabanne dress.

Image © Mark Somerfield

Image © Cllr Steve Hassall

Image © Cllr Steve Hassall

‘Demolition Derby’ strikes again, as the 1938 Egyptian Art Deco style Crompton House has been flattened to make way for Derby's new flood defences, despite a public backlash.
With a bit more imagination, could the locally listed building not have been retained and included in the scheme somehow?

Exterior of St Richard's church. It is a single storey 20th century building with a timber hyperbolic paraboloid roof.

Calling all evaluators!

Our members Focus are working with St Richard's Church and are looking to appoint a Heritage Fund Evaluation consultant for their project to renovate the Grade II listed building.

Find out more about this opportunity on our website:
heritagetrustnetwork.org.uk/jobs/

Hopkins House, Hampstead (1976) © Lesley Lau

Glyndebourne Opera House, Sussex (1994) Image © Martin Charles

EVENT: Join C20 for the fourth High-Tech dialogue of our Spring Lecture Series, featuring architect Dame Patty Hopkins in conversation with C20 President,
@samiraahmeduk.bsky.social

🗓️ Thu 26 Feb, 6.30-8pm
📍 Cowcross St Gallery + Online
🎟️ Book tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

A book cover with a print of a metal-clad building against a blue background.

Less than two weeks before the publication of my new book, 'High-Tech Britain: Buildings of the Space Age'! Here's the cover to get you all excited, and check out High-Tech Dialogues, the ongoing series at @c20society.bsky.social. Next up is Patty Hopkins. www.batsfordbooks.com/book/high-te...

Belfast Floral Hall - David Wright Boyd, 1935-36. B1 Listed. Image © spatialpan - Flickr

Belfast Floral Hall - David Wright Boyd, 1935-36. B1 Listed. Image © Belfast Zoo

Good news Friday: Belfast's Art Deco Floral Hall is to receive £500k funding from the City Council, to install a new roof and make the decaying structure watertight.

Designed 1935-36 by David Wright Boyd and located at Belfast Zoo, the B1 listed building has been closed to the public since 1972.

💥 Carbuncles? Archigram? Pah. Check out architect Eva Jiřičná‘s pop-collage competition entries for the National Gallery, Battersea Park and other 1980s projects.

Taken from Eva’s inspiring lecture last week, part of C20’s High-Tech Dialogues series:

➡️ secure.c20society.org.uk/default.aspx...

Images © Reach Plc / Ruth Millington

Images © Stuart Lamb / Arts in Redditch

Images © Stuart Lamb / Arts in Redditch

NEWS: C20 has supported listing Eduardo Paolozzi's polychromatic Pop Art murals (1983) at Kingfisher Shopping Centre in Redditch, described as the 'Ravenna of the New Towns' by historian Owen Hatherley. The 12 mosaic panels depict the towns industrial heritage.

➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/support...

London Eye (1999-2000) Image © Marcus Robinson

Kew Treetop Walkway (2008) Image © Peter Durant

EVENT: Join C20 for the third High-Tech dialogue of our Spring Lecture Series, featuring strutural engineer Jane Wernick in conversation with Edith Blennerhassett (Arup)

🗓️ Thu 19 Feb, 6.30pm – 8pm
📍 Cowcross Street Gallery + Online
🎟️ Book tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Once reviled, now celebrated, London’s Southbank Centre is a genuine civic wonder The cultural complex’s national importance has belatedly been recognised

www.ft.com/content/93a0... Once reviled, now celebrated, London’s Southbank Centre is a genuine civic wonder.

From Lubetkin’s Penguin Pool and the Barbican, to curating Meltdown at the Southbank Centre - we know a C20 archi-fan when we see one #HarryStyles 🤌🏻

♥️ Happy Valentines from Waddeston Manor in Buckinghamshire, where you’ll find one of the most unusual modern romantic follies in Britain.

Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos’ joyful, 12-metre-high ceramic Wedding Cake pavilion (2023), combining “patisserie, art and architecture as a temple to love”

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🚂 Joy on the Southbank, misery in the Square Mile. Here’s what the City of London’s much vaunted ‘retrofit-first’ policy looks like in reality, as planning permission was granted this week for the £1.2 billion demolition of Liverpool Street Station.

🧵 Scroll down for 8 damning before / after views

Southbank Centre granted listed status after 35-year ‘battle’

London’s Southbank Centre has been granted listed status in a move campaigners have welcomed as the "overdue" conclusion of a decades-long dispute over its architecture.

Read more 👇

London’s Southbank Centre has been awarded Grade II listed status by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, giving the controversial Brutalist landmark statutory heritage protection.

buff.ly/Z2S6CUp

Southbank Centre renews calls for £30m after listing victory - Arts Professional The Southbank Centre has renewed calls for £30 million in government funding to secure the future of its buildings as they attain listed status 35 years after

The Southbank Centre has renewed calls for £30 million in government funding to secure the future of its buildings as they attain listed status 35 years after the designation was first recommended.