The revolutionary high-tech London building named one of Britain's most at risk from demolition
Every year the Twentieth Century Society (C20) puts together a list of Britain's most at-risk 20th and 21st architectural marvels. Earlier this month it published the 2025 edition of its Risk List, with the included structures ranging from a Brighton synagogue with a stained glass Holocaust memorial to a Bauhaus-inspired department store in Bradford.
C20's 2025 Risk List intended to highlight 'outstanding twentieth and twenty-first century buildings across the country that are at risk from demolition, dereliction or neglect'. Among the 10 selected structures is one from London – and there's every chance you haven't heard of it.
The Patera Prototype in Newham is the only structure in the capital to feature in C20's 2025 At Risk list. So, what exactly is it? Well, for starters, here's what it looked like back in its 1980s heyday:
The Patera was made as a prototype for a new type of industrial structure designed to be replicable and moveable. It's a significant example of 'high-tech architecture', a style that emerged in the 1970s with the aim of incorporating high tech industry and technology into building design.
High-tech buildings are often identifiable for having visible beams, pipes and cables, as well as for being very flexible in use. Famous examples include stuff like Lloyd's of London in the City or Paris' Pompidou Centre.
Anyway, back to the Patera. The structure that currently sits in Newham was made in 1982 by Michael Hopkins Associates and Anthony Hunt Associates and it's one of only two remaining prototypes (the other is part of the Hopkins office in Marylebone). C20 describes it as being 'a prefabricated off-the-peg industrial structure… envisaged as a form of 'High-Tech Nissen hut''.
The Patera Prototype is undeniably a fascinating piece of design – but it could soon be lost as a document of architectural history. C20 says that the structure is currently threatened by the redevelopment of the Royal Docks.
The Patera sits in a boatyard workshop on Albert Island, which is earmarked for a major £300 million development. The structure was rediscovered in 2020, and C20 had a listing application rejected in 2021. It has sat semi-dismantled since 2022.
C20 isn't suggesting that the docks' redevelopment is halted by the Patera – just that it is relocated and restored. The charity reckons that 'this early relic of the High-Tech movement [could] become a cultural or creative venue'.
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