Matthew Franklin

🕰️ Tick-tock. Clocks change tonight, set ours back to 1951 and Swedish style timepiece at Corelli College, formerly Kidbrooke School, Greenwich. Slater, Moberley, Uren and Pike with Ove Arup (1951-54), Grade II Image (c) James O.Davies, Historic England

NEWS: An update on one of the cases from our 2015 Risk List, the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation Synagogue at Greenbank Drive, Merseyside. Built in 1936-37, architect Sir Ernest Alfred Shennan derived his distinctive language for the synagogue from the Swedish National Romantic style along with Art Deco components. It features a highly unusual reinforced concrete canopied clerestory and a cantilevered segmental curved ladies' gallery, with the materials and craftsmanship employed throughout the building are of the highest quality. Greenbank Drive closed in 2008 due to the declining Jewish community in the Sefton Park area and a dwindling congregation. The building was upgraded from Grade II to II* listing following an appeal to Historic England to C20 Society, where we argued that it is perhaps the finest surviving synagogue in Europe dating from the Interwar period. A plan to convert the former synagogue into 22 apartments with a further 30 flats in its 1.1-acre grounds was approved in 2017, with 20 pre-commencement conditions. However, no works ever began on site and the planning permission is presumed to since have lapsed. Repeated break-ins and vandalism were reported in the local press in September 2026, shortly after which it appeared on a commercial auction site with a guide price of £2,000,000 and marketed as a 'development opportunity'. Though the proposed conversion is potentially reversible, the Society remains extremely concerned at the potential loss of original features and the infilling of the main prayer hall, believing that I would be far better suited as a place of worship by another faith group, a home for a community organisation, or a performance venue. Images (c) Jacob Kelly

NEWS: C20 Society has submitted a listing application for Donnybrook Quarter (2002-06) housing in Bow, Tower Hamlets, in response to consented plans that would see most of the original timber-framed doors and windows removed, to be replaced by uPVC. Commissioned by the housing association Circle 33 and designed by Peter Barber Architects (@PpeterPeter), Donnybrook is arguably the most consequential and lauded social housing estate of the early twenty-first century in Britain, with the Society strongly recommending a designation of Grade II*. Today the estate is managed by Clarion Housing, the successor to Circle 33. Peter Barber has described his client as “fearless”, adding: “Donnybrook Quarter was something of a miracle. In a world of mediocre, corporatised, monetised, quick-fix housing, it was the product of genuine idealism.” Ellis Woodman, reviewing the project for BD, proclaimed: “Donnybrook is one of the most innovative housing projects to be undertaken in the UK for decades. It’s not impossible to imagine that in 10 years time, Donnybrook might be remembered as a significant turning point in the culture of British housing provision.” The estate is defined by a carefully refined palette, with white-rendered walls intentionally reminiscent of North African medinas – a typology of complex spatial planning, and low-rise, high-density buildings. Particularly striking are the dozens of projecting oriel timber framed windows, used on every principal façade. The application from Clarion stated that ‘the like-for-like visual match [of the proposed uPVC windows and doors with a Rosewood RAL 817 woodgrain foil finish] ensures minimal aesthetic impact on the street scene’. The Society does not oppose the replacement of failed, failing, or underperforming windows and doors, but objects strongly to their substitution with lower-quality uPVC windows. The use of dark timber also strongly connects Donnybrook to the estates designed under Camden borough architect Sidney Cook in the 1960s and 70s, such as Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road. Completed in 1978, Alexandra Road was designated Grade II* just 15 years later, in 1993. ➡️Read more: c20society.org.uk/news/listi… Images (c) Morley von Sternberg