In pictures: English Heritage celebrates post-war architecture
- Published
Capel Manor, in Horsmonden, Kent, is one of four post-war buildings to be listed by Heritage Minister Ed Vaizey on the advice of English Heritage. The announcement coincides with the opening of the 'Brutal and Beautiful' exhibition at Wellington Arch, London. Almost 700 post-war buildings have been listed in the past 25 years.
Capel Manor was designed by Michael Manser (above), in the style of Mies van der Rohe the architect responsible for the 1929 Barcelona Pavilion. It was commissioned in 1971 by John Howard MP, then parliamentary private secretary to Edward Heath.
The steel frame of Capel Manor is exposed and the glass walls are bronze-tinted with a flat timber roof. The house has been listed at Grade II*, joining just 5.5% of listed buildings.
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Sheffield's Moore Street substation was designed by Bryan Jefferson in 1968. An English Heritage spokesperson said: "The scrupulously finished concrete of the Brutalist electricity substation gives this bold building a dramatic, sculptural feel."
The Moore Street substation was an important component of the radical post-war regeneration of Sheffield, helping to revitalise the city after it was badly bombed. Illuminated in 2010, it has been listed at Grade II.
Designed by Sir Norman Foster, the Spectrum Building (formerly the Renault Distribution Centre) in Swindon has been listed at Grade II*. It was built in 1980 to designs by Foster Associates for the French vehicle manufacturing company.
The bold and distinctive building features yellow steel ‘umbrella masts’ and a yellow roof around the single-storey glass-walled warehouse. It provided a futuristic backdrop to scenes in the 1984 James Bond film, ‘A View to a Kill’.
Gravesend Civil Defence Bunker was a purpose-built civil defence control centre designed to operate as a command post in the event of a Soviet air attack during the Cold War. It was operational from 1954 until 1968.
The bunker was staffed by around 35 people working to collect information from air raid wardens of an attack and issue orders to civil defence and emergency services. The building, which doubled as the Cabinet War Rooms in the 2011 film Age of Heroes starring Sean Bean and James D'Arcy, has been listed at Grade II.
The Roman Catholic Church of English Martyrs in Wallasey was built in 1952. It was designed by the 20th Century ecclesiastical architect, Francis Xavier Velarde. Originally listed at Grade II in 2003 it has been reviewed and upgraded to Grade II*.