Aims

The Twentieth Century Society exists to safeguard the heritage of architecture and design in Britain from 1914 onwards. One of the Society’s prime objectives is education, with education comes appreciation. With conservation, another prime objective, comes the continued opportunity for extending our knowledge about those buildings or artifacts, whether important or humble, rare or commonplace as the red telephone kiosk, that characterise the Twentieth Century in Britain.

As a result of our lobbying over the past twenty years, many buildings have already been saved. A notable success in 1993-4 was our campaign to persuade the National Trust to take on the Hampstead house of the Hungarian emigré architect Ernö Goldfinger, at 2 Willow Road, NW3, making it available for visitors. We hope other important modern houses will also be opened to the public in this manner in the course of time.

The new Tate Gallery, housed in a spectacular Thameside building by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott at Bankside opened in 2000 and contains the Nation’s collection of modern works by non-British artists. Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron of Basle won the competition for the design of the new building in 1997. Bankside Power Station, as it was known until decommissioning in 1970, is a powerful work by Scott, dominating the Southwark skyline. The Conservative government turned down our request for listing the building several times, despite the clear merits of the building. Finding this new use for it has saved it for the Nation.