
Listed building attempt for Central London YMCA building
A heritage charity and a London campaign group have applied to list the building formerly home to the world's first purpose-built YMCA, following its closure earlier this year.The Twentieth Century Society and the ExY Club have filed submissions with Historic England in an effort to protect the Brutalist structure on Great Russell Street.A spokesperson for the Twentieth Century Society said the listing would ensure that "whatever the future may hold, [the building's] undeniable architectural qualities would endure".The former YMCA was closed in February after being sold late last year to real estate firm Criterion Capital. The company was contacted for comment.
The Central YMCA had been operating from its Great Russell Street base since 1977.A petition to save the premises received more than 8,000 signatures however it shut as planned on 7 February.
The Twentieth Century Society and the ExY Club, formerly the Save the YMCA Club Committee, applied to Historic England to have the building listed.The ExY Club's detailed submission, which is intended to complement The Twentieth Century Society's submission, focuses on the building's design and purpose as a community and leisure complex."The building is the subject of a recent sale which may alter the interior layout and change the purpose and nature of the buildings [sic] historic function – a function that is intrinsic to its historic, communal and architectural value," the application stated.The Twentieth Century Society's submission said the "Brutalist concrete megastructure" had "considerable historic and architectural interest".
'Clear historic interest'
A spokesperson for The Twentieth Century Society told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "Bloomsbury's Brutalist landmark has clear historic interest as the site of the world's first YMCA, and its status as an Asset of Community Value demonstrates its importance to the members and community that frequented it until recently."Recognising the building with national listing would ensure that, whatever the future may hold, its undeniable architectural qualities would endure."A Historic England spokesperson confirmed they were in the process of assessing the building for listing."In due course we will submit our advice to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), who will then make the final decision on the case," they said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Rachel Reeves only has herself to blame for this recession
Companies were hammered by a steep rise in employment taxes. Business rates went up sharply as reliefs were wound down. The living wage was pushed up, and stamp duty breaks were slashed. Against that dismal backdrop, it is probably a miracle that the GDP figures for April published today recorded only a 0.3 per cent month-on-month decline in output. The Chancellor Rachel Reeves will shamelessly try to blame that on the tariff war started by president Trump. But the blunt truth is this. The unfolding recession was entirely predictable – and she has only herself to blame. April was always going to be a tough month for anyone struggling to run a business in the UK. Employer National Insurance went up, and we saw the initial impact of that in the annual loss of 274,000 jobs in the employment data reported earlier this week. Likewise, one of the biggest rises in the living wage was imposed, and we saw the effect of that in declining hours worked in sectors such as shops and restaurants, which need lots of modestly paid staff. Business rates went up sharply, as reliefs were wound down, with many pubs facing an extra £12,000 or more in the amount that they have to pay to the local council, and closures are now running at 100 a month. Stamp duty went up as reliefs were phased out, and we have already seen the consequences of that in the 0.4 per cent decline in home prices reported by Halifax last week. In the background, industrial electricity prices have remained by far the highest in the world, forcing factories to close their doors. One by one Reeves has taken the major sectors of the British economy – property, hospitality, retailing and manufacturing – and whacked them with huge extra charges. Sure, it didn't help that the US imposed tariffs on the UK along with its other major trading partners. And yet, in reality, the sharp fall in output witnessed in April was entirely self-imposed. It took an extraordinary level of incompetence, and a breath-taking level of arrogance, to sequence such a punishing round of tax increases so that they all kicked in at the same time. It is not as if Reeves was not warned of the devastating impact of her tax rises on businesses. The M&S boss Stuart Machin called for the NI rise to be phased in back in February but was ignored. The British Beer and Pub Association called for help with business rates, but no one at the Treasury paid any attention. Rightmove called for stamp duty relief to be extended, and so did many other estate agents, but the Government didn't listen. The list goes on and on. Time and time again, businesses have told the Chancellor that her policies are killing their trade, only to be ignored. As it has turned out, however, they were completely right, and today's GDP figures have proved that. It is going to get much worse over the next few months. We have only seen the start of the fall in employment after the NI rise. After all, if your wage bill is out of control, it takes time to slim staff numbers. There are procedures to follow before you dismiss someone, and most small companies will rely on natural wastage, and simply not replace people, instead of risking the cost of an employment tribunal. Stamp duty has only just gone up, and it will take buyers a while to figure out they can no longer afford to move. Meanwhile, retail sales are falling again, and the inevitability of more tax rises on business in the autumn is deterring investment. Reeves chose to ignore the warnings that her tax raids would crash the economy. She will now have to reap the consequences of those decisions – and unfortunately so will the rest of us.


Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Reeves dismisses Khan in row over police funding
Rachel Reeves has rejected claims made by Sir Sadiq Khan that her spending review will result in the number of police officers being cut. In her spending review on Wednesday the Chancellor announced a 2.3 per cent real-terms increase in police spending power. But the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said the funding settlement 'falls far short of what is required to fund the Government's ambitions and maintain our existing workforce'. Sir Sadiq, the Mayor of London, said he was concerned the spending review 'could result in insufficient funding for the [Metropolitan Police] and fewer police officers'. Asked if Sir Sadiq was wrong, the Chancellor told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'I really don't accept that there needs to be cuts when we are actually increasing the money that the police force gets.' Told about the NPCC's warning, Ms Reeves said: 'The police have been allocated a budget which has a real-terms increase of 2.3 per cent a year and they now need to live within those budgets.' Making 'sums add up' Ms Reeves said the police were getting a 'substantial' increase in spending power. She told BBC Breakfast: 'That [2.3 per cent] is a substantial increase and that is for every year of this spending review period, so for the next three years. 'So there is no reason for those numbers to decline. The spending power of police is going up substantially and the spending that we set out yesterday was an average across all parts of government of 2.3 per cent a year, and so policing are in line with that average across other government departments. 'But look, I wasn't able to say yes to everything that people asked for in the spending review. People always are going to want more whether it is in health, education, defence or indeed for policing. 'But my job as Chancellor is to make sure that the sums add up and we can't spend more than we have coming in.' Senior officers have warned that a lack of funds will put at risk Labour's promises to deploy an extra 13,000 neighbourhood police officers, as well as their pledge to halve violence against women and girls and reduce knife crime. The extra funding for the police is expected to amount to just £200 million in real-terms by the end of the decade.


Telegraph
31 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Live Gatwick-bound plane crashes in India with 242 on board
An Air India flight bound for the UK has crashed in India's western city of Ahmedabad, the airline and police officials said on Thursday. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner headed for London's Gatwick airport was carrying 242 people, including 230 passengers and 12 crew members, local media reported. 'Flight AI171, operating Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, was involved in an incident today, 12 June 2025,' an Air India spokesperson said in a statement on X. 'At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates at the earliest.' The crash occurred when the aircraft was taking off, television channels reported. Police did not specify whether there were any casualties, saying that it crashed in a civilian area near the airport. Visuals showed debris on fire, with thick black smoke rising up into the sky. They also showed visuals of people being moved in stretchers and being taken away in ambulances.