BBC shows C20 Society at work in Oxford Street

Last week the work of the C20 Society was featured in the BBC documentary series Oxford Street Revealed. C20 conservation advisors Henrietta Billings and Clare Price, with photographer Sarah J Duncan, were filmed documenting the handsome 1929 department store at  69-89 Oxford Street, which is about to be demolished to make way for new development.

Clare talked about the fine materials and detailing of the building and how sad it was to see it for the last time. She had tried to persuade the developers to preserve the façade, but this was judged to be not financially viable. You can see from Sarah’s photographs, above, what we are losing.

Henrietta discussed the happier outcome of another nearby case, that of Seifert’s Centre Point, which is being converted internally from offices into flats, but preserving the striking and innovative exterior of this landmark building.

The interviews do a great job of explaining what the C20 Society does and why it is important, and we hope it will have introduced our work to a wider audience. The programme is available to watch for the next few weeks – the piece on the C20 Society is at 31′ minutes, if you don’t want to watch the whole thing.