Casework is at the heart of what C20 is all about. We campaign to save irreplaceable buildings we love and think are outstanding.
Read about our latest Casework news here.
Below are more reflective articles by our Caseworkers.
Our expertise is recognised by our official role in the planning process. The Twentieth Century Society has to be consulted about any application for listed building consent involving demolition, anywhere in England. Although we don’t have the same legal role in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we are often asked to give our views on the future of important buildings of our period there.
We get to hear about threated buildings by lots of other routes too, and our members and supporters are always alert to threats and quick to let us know about them. Most societies like ours (such as the Victorian Society or the Ancient Monuments Society) can reckon on almost all the buildings of their period that should be listed already being safely included on the National Heritage List for England, which is run by Historic England. That’s not the case for us, and putting buildings forward for listing is a big part of what we do, and often a crucial early step in a campaign. We’ve called for much wider recognition for groups of C20 buildings, by designation of conservation areas, but generally our resources mean that we can only lend support to individual buildings if they are already listed, or we think they deserve to be.
If you found this useful, please give what you can afford to help us identify and save irreplaceable C20th buildings and design.
Our Director Catherine Croft talks about C20’s recent campaigning successes, its current efforts such as the Department Stores Campaign and the release of our Buildings at Risk list 2021 including Coventry’s Bull Shard Shopping centre. This rou...
This is an excerpt of the recording of our AGM 2020 where Catherine Croft gave a round-up of our Casework highlights from this year....
A successful example of high-spec system building The close relationship between a building and its context is something the Society often fights to protect. Most post-war architects took care to ensure that a new building referenced the character...
College buildings with a marked resemblance to a Mies van der Rohe scheme survive remarkably unaltered Gollins Melvin Ward were known to be admirers and interpreters of Mies van der Rohe’s architectural style. Their towers in Sheffield and Lond...
Regeneration plans if well carried out could highlight the strengths of the new town’s original design Stevenage New Town was the first of the post-war new towns to be designated, in 1946. Eight new towns were planned in a ring around...
Plans for the listed studio block dash hopes of a fresh attitude to the city’s remarkable post-war history When we heard that Coventry would be the 2021 City of Culture, we assumed that the celebrations would focus on what we think makes ...
Plans to infill the space under the dining hall would have a dramatic effect on the appearance of the college Nestling on the banks of the Cam are a group of diverse domestic-scale buildings which together form Darwin College. Founded in 1964, D...
The latest stage of a long-fought campaign to save key parts of the Alton Estate in Roehampton We have objected to plans for the demolition of a large chunk of the Alton West in Roehampton. We have long fought to save Allbrook House and the Roeh...
A successful example of light-touch adaptation The London Borough of Waltham Forest submitted plans in for a refurbishment scheme for its Grade II-listed Town Hall in August. Philip Dalton Hepworth’s competition-winning scheme underwent severa...
The sculptor’s last commission has been listed – and so has the façade of the building for which she designed it Cheltenham isn’t exactly a hotspot for C20 architecture, so news that the town is home to an unlisted Barbara Hepworth sculptur...
We have recently had plenty of positive publicity for our campaign to save the bus station. Five other heritage organisations also signed our letter to The Times, calling on the Council to re-think their demolition plans; and we have also taken part ...
Sensitive ideas for conversion into a hotel Back in 2017 we were deeply pessimistic about a very fine building. Wood Street Police Station (Grade II*) in the City of London is one of McMorran and Whitby’s masterpieces of classically inspired...
A little church with a fascinating history This church was not only an example of new liturgical thinking, but also a social experiment and a piece of innovative technological design. Unfortunately, it is now under threat of demolition. It’s at ...
A living and shopping complex that showed the promise of high-tech in the 1980s In recent years a slow trickle of listings has recognised the exceptional high-tech factories, office buildings and private houses built in the late 1960s, 70s and 80s...
Every year Richmond House appears on TV as the backdrop to the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. It’s an unusual building – Grade II* listed for its C20 architecture which is far more ambitious and interesting than the retained Georgi...
Pool Court was one of those cases that come to us not through official notification but by word of mouth, when it was threatened with complete demolition. It’s a small 1970s house designed by Francis Pollen and located in the historic Thames-side...
Wherever possible, we encourage appropriate adaptation as a principle of conservation. Sometimes we see original clients applying to adapt a purpose-designed building to allow its continuing use, but we also see many applications for change of use, w...
Recently we have been considering the importance and significance of designed landscapes in the 20th century, and the role that hard and soft landscaping play in creating the setting for buildings of our period. Landscaping and open spaces were o...
Over the summer we submitted a listing application for ‘Underhill’, a house whose name only modestly hints at the sort of building it is. It was designed in 1969 by Arthur Quarmby for the architect and his family; it was completed in 1975 and the...
The current proposals to alter St John’s church Waterloo (Francis Bedford, 1829, Grade II*) are extremely damaging to its post-war interior. After a direct hit by an incendiary device in 1940, the church required substantial reconstruction, and lit...
Become a C20 member today and help save our modern design heritage.