The Twentieth Century Society

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Put Forward

Blocks C, D and E, Cheltenham Estate, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London; Ernö Goldfinger (1968-75) Requested Grade II

We have put these low-rise blocks forward and have specifically asked EH for them to be included in the list description for Trellick Tower (Grade II*), thereby acknowledging the relationship between the various buildings on the estate. We have asked EH to list them before, but they were turned down in 1999. There is a significant new threat from Terry Farrell’s master plan for the site and changes to the way EH approaches post-war estates have prompted us to put them forward again. 

Five Leicestershire Schools

Five Leicestershire Schools - Richmond School, Hinckley; J N Pitts, County Architects (1968-70), Eastfield School, Thurmaston; Ahrends Burton & Koralek (1966-8), Bosworth College, Desford; Gollins Melvin Ward (1967-9), Countesthorpe Coll, Countesthorpe; Farmer and Dark (1968-70), Wreake Valley College, Syston; Gollins Melvin Ward (1967-71) 

The Society has forwarded these five schools as exemplars of the ‘Leicestershire Plan’. The county was pioneering in its approach to school design in the post-war period. The Plan, devised in 1957 by Director of Education, Stuart Mason, gave rise to a series of innovative schools, both at primary and secondary level. At primary level a move was made away from self-contained classrooms, towards a more open plan, with teaching areas grouped around communal areas or buildings. Richmond Primary School remains an intact example of this shift, with its circular plan form and open teaching areas. A similar shift happened in the comprehensive school building programme of the time, with open-planning according to subject and a communal area. At Countesthorpe, Bosworth and Wreake Valley, despite wide range of architectural treatments and variety of materials, the overall plan form is consistent. English Heritage will be assessing the buildings as part of a wider, thematic schools listing assessment.

Cenotaph, Southampton, Hampshire; Sir Edwin Lutyens (1920) Grade II

C20 has joined the War Memorials Trust in requesting that the monument be upgraded to II*, in recognition of its early design and part in the development of Lutyens’s series of Cenotaphs, as well as its more ornate and symbolic form.  

The Gatehouse (or Founder’s Tower), St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road, Oxford; Howell, Killick, Partridge & Amis (1966), turned down in 2001

An early design by HKPA, the Gatehouse is a project realised under considerable budget, site, and time limitations. The Gatehouse was perceived by Pevsner as ‘the Tudor Gate Tower re-incarnate’ and described as ‘a building of wit’. EH’s initial recommendation for listing was turned down by DCMS in 2001 and the building is now under threat of demolition. The Society has therefore put the building forward again for listing at Grade II.  

2C/D Belsize Park Gardens, Camden, London; Robin Spence and Robin Webster (1978-81) Requested Grade II*

Responding to a threat of demolition of both these Miesian courtyard houses, the Society has put in a spot-listing request. Both single-storey, the open plan houses face each other across an internal courtyard and were designed by the architects as family homes for themselves. The houses to sit quietly in the surrounding streetscape, the roofline hidden from the road.  

Mitcham Methodist Church, Mitcham Cricket Green, London; Edward D Mills with Ove Arup (1958-60)

The modest character of non-conformist churches often makes them a difficult case for preserving. C20 felt that this threatened church, by a leading post-war Methodist architect, had sufficient interest in its folded-slab roof design and high quality interior materials to warrant listing at Grade II. 

‘Southdown’, Pre-fabricated bungalow, Kingsbridge, Devon; architect unknown (1923)

Southdown is a more or less circular (12-sided) timber bungalow which was shown at the Ideal Home Exhibition’s influential ‘Bungalow Town’ display in 1923 and later transported to its current site near the Devon coast. It was built in Cowes by S E Saunders, a firm closely linked with the early days of British aviation, using their proprietary ‘Consuta’ plywood. Although the exterior is altered it has a fine panelled interior and no other intact surviving examples are known. We have put it forward for listing at Grade II for its historical significance and innovative use of new materials. 

The Spinney, 108 Westerfield Road, Ipswich; Birkin Haward (Senior), 1960 (turned down in 2003)

Recommended for listing at Grade II by the Post-War Steering Group in 2001 and indeed put forward for listing by English Heritage, The Spinney was sadly turned down by DCMS two years later, at the advice of CABE. Currently threatened by demolition, the Society submitted a new listing application in July 2009. To provide interim protection Ipswich Borough Council issued a six-month Building Preservation Notice on the building.  

Slough Estates Headquarters, 234 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire; Geoffrey Salmon Speed Associates (1975)

Once the showpiece of the Slough estate, the building has slowly been cleared of its workforce. C20 fears that this striking Brutalist design, finished in high quality Derbyshire Spa stone, is set to be demolished to make way for a new headquarters. 

Mount Royal Hotel (now Thistle Marble Arch), Bryanston Street, London W1; Francis Lorne of Sir Burnet, Tait & Lorne (1932-3)

Included in the Society’s London tour organised as part of ‘The Monumental Twenties’ conference in November 2008, the Mount Royal Hotel is an early project by this significant architectural practice, designed soon after Francis Lorne joined Sir John James Burnet and Thomas Smith Tait, and a unique contribution to the particularly rich streetscape of Oxford Street. The Society has put it forward for listing at Grade II.  

Barbara Jones Mural at former Yewlands School, Creswick Lane, Sheffield; Barbara Jones (1959)

The Society has requested that EH lists this important mural at Grade II, the last surviving public work by Barbara Jones, who produced important murals for the Britain Can Make It Exhibition (1946) and the Festival of Britain (1951). Perhaps more famously, she designed all the artwork for BBC TV’s The Woodentops—a children’s programme from the 1950s. The mural, depicting a man surrounded by a variety of brightly painted animals, including zebras and penguins, is under serious threat. The school (by Basil Spence,) is being demolished and the Society hopes that listing will allow the mural to be part of the new school which is being built on the site. 

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