The core activity of the Twentieth Century Society is casework - campaigning for the preservation of the best buildings of our period. Our events and activities and our publications support casework, both by raising awareness of architects and individual buildings and by raising money to pay for core office staff and materials - essential to our work.

Since the demolition of Wallis Gilbert’s Firestone building and the foundation of the Twentieth Century Society, we have been at the forefront of public taste and knowledge, pioneering the appreciation of buildings, which we believe to be worth saving but which are often extremely unfashionable and undervalued. Whilst a painting may be consigned to a gallery store, and novels slip temporarily out of print, with a building there is no way of putting it away to bring it out later—once demolished a building is lost for ever. Whilst there have been many major losses of extraordinary and wonderful buildings (such as Bryn Mawr Rubber factory by ACP and the Silhouette Factory by Robert Townsend) we have had many successes: Tate Modern, Denys Lasdun’s Keeling House and the Paddington Goods Yard to name but a few.

At the moment we have two part time and one full time caseworkers, based at our office in Farringdon, London. They are Christina Malathouni (Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays), Jo Moore (Mondays and Tuesdays) and Jon Wright. Areas covered are as follows:

Christina Malathouni - North West England, Northumberland, Durham, Scotland and the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster

Jo Moore - South East England, Home Counties, Suffolk and the London Boroughs of Hounslow, Richmond, Kingston, Merton, Sutton, Lambeth, Croydon, Southwark, Lewisham and Bromley

Jon Wright - South West England, Wales, Midlands, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and the London Boroughs of Enfield, Haringey, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Newham, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Bexley, Greenwich Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea.

Their work is overseen by the Director and by the members of the Casework Committee, a broad range of experts in relating fields, who meet on a monthly basis to look at the most controversial and important cases.

We are informed by local authorities of applications for listed building consent for demolition works to listed twentieth century buildings, but this process if not very efficient in many cases and also many of the buildings in which we are interested are not yet listed. This means that much of our casework comes to us via local Twentieth Century Society members who contact us directly and by members of the public and architects.

If you hear of something that you think we should be aware of please get in touch ASAP by emailing us at caseworker@c20society.org.uk or by telephoning us on 020 7250 3857 or writing to the office at 70 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EJ. It is very helpful if you can supply us with background information outlined below.

* Photographs of the building in its current state

* Map showing the location of the building

* Details of the proposals – name of the local planning authority and reference number of any currently applications for planning permission, listed building consent or conservation area consent

* Local press coverage

* Information on the history of the building, its date of construction, architect, original client and any special techniques or materials (please check with your local library if possible

Please use the links on the left to read casework reports, listings reports and press releases.