The first entry of C20’s Building of Month was published nearly 25 years ago, in October 2001. Then chairman, Gavin Stamp, decided to write about a derelict building instrumental to the foundation of C20 as the Thirties Society in 1979 – Oliver Hill’s modernist Midland Hotel, Morecambe (1933). In 2008, this vast sea fronting complex was refurbished and restored to its original use.
Since Stamp’s article, Building of the Month has developed into an invaluable platform to document and ultimately help save countless twentieth century buildings in the UK and globally. In the archive below, you will find over 250 entries spanning more than 30 countries.
For pitches, or to discuss ideas, please contact: mark@c20society.org.uk
Mark Bessoudo is editor of Building of the Month. He is a writer, researcher and architectural historian and a C20 volunteer.
Words and pictures by Eddy Rhead Since the merger of the two television companies Carlton and Granada, rumour has been rife in Manchester as to whether or not Granada will move operations to London. If Granada, for whatever reason, does leave its ho...
Text by Hannah Shaw Images taken from the Alexander Buchanan Campbell Collection, courtesy of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) Alexander Buchanan Campbell (b. 1914)’s most significant project is t...
Formerly known as the Commercial Union Tower Text by Ian McInnes Pictures by M.J. Worland Early in 1961 the Commercial Union Assurance Company acquired the former Shell headquarters building in Great St Helens intending to refurbish it and build an e...
Text by Kenneth Powell Photographs by Guyan/Worland ©2004 Ian Nairn, the most perceptive post-war British critic of architecture writing for a broad audience, described the architect Raymond Erith (1904-1973) as "a Georgian designer - genuinely Geor...
Text and pictures by Hawksmoor Hughes Those taking a walk past no. 7 Walter’s Way in Lewisham, South-East London may well be puzzled as to the origin and style of this small three-bedroomed detached house set in a leafy suburban cul-de-sac. The arc...
Text by Alan Powers Pictures by Harriet Atkinson The reopening of the Thomas Coram Foundation earlier this year drew attention to the important civic and artistic history of the Foundling Hospital. Sadly, the original building of 1742 by Theodore Jac...
Upper Lawn Pavilion, Fonthill Estate, Tisbury, Wiltshire (1959-62) Text by Dirk van den Heuvel and Max Risselada, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology Images courtesy of the Smithson Family Archive, featured in edited by Dirk van d...
Words by Aidan Turner-Bishop. Pictures courtesy of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. High on St. James’s Mount, the great Cathedral of Christ in Liverpool dominates the city centre and the Mersey estuary marking ’ (Sharples) A hundred years ago this ...
The Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead Words and pictures by Barnabas Calder Hidden behind a Leatherhead street-front of commercial mediocrity is one of the best theatres of the 1960s. It was the product of an ideal pairing of architect and client: an ar...
The Engineering Research Station, Killingworth, Newcastle upon Tyne Text by Rutter Carroll, Image by Photo-Mayo. The precision designed architectural sculpture that is the Engineering Research Station (ERS) dominates the skyline of Killingworth in Ne...
Erich Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower at the Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam Words and pictures by Regine Jaszinski In 1920 the young architect Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953) was given the opportunity to design an observatory for the purpose of making m...
Patrick Gwynne's The Homewood Text by Harriet McKay, Curator of 2 Willow Road, Hampstead Pictures by Harriet McKay, courtesy The National Trust Giving a lecture recently on The National Trust's opening of 2 Willow Road, Erno Goldfinger's Hampstead ho...
Tecton's Dudley Zoo Text and photographs by Ben Flatman Tecton and Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990)'s roles in the history of British modernism have long been recognised, yet not all of their work receives the attention that it deserves. Far removed fro...
The Woodland Cemetery, Stockholm designed by Erik Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz (1915-40) Text and photographs by Harriet Atkinson A short metro ride from the centre of Stockholm, set within a hundred hectares of heavily-planted pine forest and...
Text and photographs by Jonathan Duff An olive stone’s throw away from the jet-set haunt of La Colombe d’Or restaurant on the tourist-infested Cote d’Azur, lies an oasis of cultural calmness. The Aimé and Marguerite Maeght Foundation constitut...
Text by Claire Barrett These large, looming discs, which locals fondly call "concrete ears" but which are perhaps better known as sound mirrors, sit facing out to sea at Greatstone, Kent. In a perilous condition, following years of gravel extraction ...
Listed Grade II* Text and images Ian Rice The University of London’s imposing Senate House was constructed to last for hundreds of years, and it remains in near- original condition to this day, yet its style makes it one of Charles Holden’s less ...
FX Velarde, Architect, 1955-1957 Text by Dr Jennifer M Freeman, Director of the Historic Chapels Trust Images courtesy the Historic Chapels Trust The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes was opened in May 1957 as a thanksgiving offering for the preservation...
Smithfield Poultry Market, architect T. P. Bennett and Son, engineer Ove Arup, 1961-3 Nothing special from the outside, the Smithfield Poultry Market is just a row of loading bays, but the interior, with its single, vast, shell concrete dome roof nev...
The Brunswick Centre, Marchmont Street, London, WC1 Designed by Patrick Hodgkinson, 1966-71, listed Grade II Text by Stuart Tappin Patrick Hodgkinson began to develop the concept for the design of The Brunswick Centre with his study of the Loughborou...
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