Modern Britain

NEWS: The former Odeon Cinema in Morecambe (1937), now operating as a hardware and bathroom supply shop, has been Grade II listed by DCMS following support from C20 Society. With a powerful urban presence that anchors the building as a gateway to the town, its striking and complex massing includes a slender round-ended tower, projecting flat roof and expressed high-level corridor. Though some external features have been boarded over or lost, the auditorium retains its proscenium arch with many original decorative finishes and characteristic Odeon style fixtures thought to remain, concealed by modern partitions, ceilings and floors. The Odeon company was formed in 1930 by Oscar Deutsch. Between 1936 and 1939 it opened 96 new cinemas in England, mostly in a distinctive Streamlined Moderne style influenced by German Expressionism, and usually with an exterior mixing brown brick with cream tiling. This ‘house style’ had been developed by Cecil Clavering and Robert Bullivant in the Birmingham architect’s firm of Harry Weedon and Partners, one of two firms which produced most of Odeon’s designs. Morecambe’s Odeon cinema was built in 1937, during a period of rapid expansion for the chain. The architect William Calder Robson designed seven Odeon’s for the practice Harry Weedon, three of which survive. Morecambe now joins Harrogate (1936) and Blackpool (1938-39) on the National Heritage List for England. Images © 1. Philip Butler (@Artdecomagpie), 2. John Maltby

EVENT: Join C20 for a study day and walk to celebrate the Lansbury Estate at 75 🗓️ Sat 16 May 2026, 10am-5:30pm 📍Cowcross St Gallery, Farringdon - ending at the Festival Inn, Poplar 🎟️Book tickets: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx?t… This special event will consist of two parts: a morning and early-afternoon programme of talks at the Gallery in Cowcross Street – confirmed speakers include John Allan, John Boughton, Catherine Croft, Miles Glendinning, Owen Hatherley, Rosamund Lily West and Claire Titley. This will be followed by an afternoon guided tour, led by the event organiser Thaddeus Zupančič, of all phases of the estate. The tour will begin at Market Square (with its listed clock tower by Frederick Gibberd) and will also visit the Pigott Street phase (designed by Shepheard Epstein & Hunter with John Allan), which in 1982 completed the “Lansbury development,” as the plaque on one of the houses records. The tour ends in the original 1951 pub Festival Inn.

'Cardiff’s first modernist building' Wales Empire Pool (1958—1998) by E C Roberts/John Dryburgh.

Natwest Tower in Birmingham by John Madin, 1974. It was occupied for only 29 years, then stood empty, bar a few peregrine falcons, for more than a decade. It got replaced by a glass-clad 103 Colmore Row. What a waste!

This 1930s aerial shot packs a lot in. The obvious highlights are the Royal Infirmary, Cathedral and Necropolis. Today the area is a chaotic tangle of roads servicing the M8 and only a few tenements remain. 📷 Glasgow City Archives #Glasgow

Wellington Inn and Sinclair's, Manchester, 1974, by Margaret Newbold, @chethamslibrary. Jacked up to fit in with new Shambles Square as part of rebuilding that created Arndale Shopping Centre. Moved again after 1996 IRA bomb.

New illustration! Castle Market in Sheffield was a brilliant structure that housed everything from offices and shops to multiple floors of market stalls and cafes. Designed by Andrew Darbyshire, it was built in stages between 1959 and 1965. It was demolished in 2015.

A postcard from Skegness

Wonderful BBC documentary Living in Britain in 1984 / Forty Minutes: Voices in a City is now on YouTube. Mostly shot in Newcastle upon Tyne.

BREAKING NEWS: Planning permission has just been granted for the demolition of The Point in Milton Keynes (BDP, 1985) - Britain's first multiplex cinema. This decision overturns the previous refusal by MKCC Planning Committee on appeal, and paves the way for a cluster of 21-storey residential towers by Galliard Homes. 1/2

I don't need an excuse to share pictures from my new book on #twentiethcenturyseasidearchitecture but it IS #NationalSeasideDay so it's almost obligatory. A few curvaceous structures from the #1930s at #canveyisland #ramsgate and #hastings @C20Society

This @C20Society book, out in September, is going to be absolutely stonking.

📞 Help save the last two examples of a super-rare 1990s Sheffield Supertram telephone kiosk, and find them a new home in a museum! Back the crowdfunding campaign here: gofundme.com/f/save-the-woo…

A very happy 90th birthday to Sir Norman Foster! Over a remarkable career spanning more than half a century, he has been at the vanguard of modern architecture in Britain and globally; spearheading a practice that has produced visionary, technologically innovative and elegant structures with bravura, flair, and popular appeal.

To mark World Bicycle Day, today's image from the Historic England Archive shows a young cyclist on the Heygate Estate, Elephant and Castle, London, in 1981. You can enjoy lots more bicycle-related Archive records👇 historicengland.org.uk/images-books/p… #WorldBicycleDay #Archives

St Bride’s Church in East Kilbride, designed by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, 1964. The bell tower was removed in 1983.

🎉🎉Congratulations to #llandudno Pier! It has been voted @PiersSociety #pieroftheyear2025! I've just been on @BBCRadioWales talking about the award before a phone-in on favourite piers 😊 Where is your favourite? #piers #seasideheritage

A fantastic Pithead Baths find by C20 member Mike Asworth - those at Morton Colliery in Derbyshire (1937), now home to an engineering firm. Do you know of any survivors in your area? Contribute to C20's Miners' Modernism project via our online database: c20society.org.uk/pithead-baths

4⃣ The fourth case on our #C20RiskList 2025 is Sunwin House in Bradford, by W.A. Johnson (1935-36) Heavily influenced by the German architect Erich Mendelsohn, Sunwin House brought stylish, streamlined European modernism to West Yorkshire. Having stood empty for 15 years, the building is now at risk from creeping neglect. With Bradford in the spotlight as City of Culture 2025, hopes are high it could find the impetus and investment required to dazzle once more. c20society.org.uk/buildings-at-r…

There's a curator tour of RIBA's exhibition 'Difficult Sites' on 29th April! Book on @C20Society website. Alexandra Road Estate © Martin Charles