ABOUT THE LONDON SOCIETY

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1 ABOUT THE LONDON SOCIETY The London Society helps promote the debate on the sort of London we want; just how do we make it a better place in which to live and to work? With a membership that includes professionals architects, planners, developers and others politicians and ordinary Londoners, the Society is in a unique position to bring together different perspectives. Formed in 1912 by a group of eminent Londoners concerned about the lack of planning in the capital luminaries such as Sir Edwin Lutyens, Raymond Unwin, Aston Webb, Beresford Pite, Frank Brangwyn the Society looked at the key issues facing the city - housing, roads, railways, the channel tunnel, bridges and even airports - all high on the agenda today. Our motto: antiqua tegenda, pulchra petenda, futura rolenda translates to Protect the best of the past; Strive for quality today; Plan properly for the future a mission that the Society still tries to achieve through its publications, events and lobbying. We organise debates and lectures, including the annual Sir Banister Fletcher Lecture, addressed in recent years by Tony Travers, Loyd Grossman and Sir Terry Farrell, and arrange visits to a variety of places, buildings and institutions, some not generally open to the public. The Society also sponsors the All Party Parliamentary Group on London Planning and Built Environment. An early leaflet gave the Society s objects as to draw together all Lovers of London. Raffles Davison wrote The chief issue is the good of London, its orderly and beautiful development, its general amenity as a place for business or pleasure and that the Society s role was to think about the Future of London and its improvement as well as the jealous preservation of all that is old and beautiful in London as far as is possible. These aims of the Society hold good even today. Corporate supporters are vital to our work, providing funds to organise debates, talks and other events, and helping to fund campaigns to increase our membership and our reach, so that we can truly engage as many people as possible in the debate about the capital s future.

2 EVENTS The London Society organises events including walks, talks, tours of buildings and developments (often places not open to the general public), debates and lectures, as well as social events such as the Summer Party. A selection from 2017 is listed below. TALK The London Plan: What it means for all Londoners DEBATE House Me London TALK King s Cross: Creating a new Great Estate for London TALK London Icons: The Illuminated River TALK Saturday Morning Planning School TALK 2017 Banister Fletcher Lecture, Loyd Grossman on the Future of the Royal Parks WALK Brixton: From Riots to Recovery TALK London s Great Estates: The City of London Corporation TALK The history and future of tall buildings in London TALK London Icons Series: 50 years of conservation areas APPG Social Housing after Grenfell TALK Great Estates Series: Cadogan and Chelsea the making of a modern Estate, with Hugh Seaborn, Chief Executive TOUR Behind the Scenes: the Interchange Atrium in Camden with architects Barr Gazetas TALK London Icons Series: Jonathan Glancey celebrates the Routemaster TALK London s Great Estates: Will Bax of Grosvenor Estates TALK Saturday Morning Architecture School. A series of five talks looking at the evolution of London s architecture DEBATE Making the Green Belt fit for the 21st Century TOUR Behind the Scenes at the Design Museum with Deyan Sujic TALK Smart Technologies: can they meet London s environmental challenges? DEBATE The Big Debate: The Next London Plan

3 CORPORATE SUPPORTERS Help us to promote the debate on the future of London. Organisations wishing to support the objects and activities of the Society may apply to be Corporate Supporters and help the work of the Society by providing much-needed funds for our administration and marketing. Corporate Supporters pay 1000 a year. In return Supporters receive: up to five free tickets for all talks, lectures, debates and social events (including the Summer Party) an unlimited number of members rate tickets for all walks, tours and other events five copies of each issue of the London Society Journal and of each new Society White Paper your company logos on the Society website and within the Journal invitations to attend the regular All Party Parliamentary Group on London s Planning and Built Environment (usually held at Westminster) a digital copy of Planning in London, the quarterly magazine produced by the London Planning Forum the opportunity to organise events such as building tours for members, to host talks or lectures, or to sponsor drinks at the Society s other events To be come a Corporate Supporter, please contact the Director on director@londonsociety.org.uk Current Corporate Supporters include: Colliers International Group Inc. HTA Design LLP Grosvenor Britain and Ireland Derwent London plc Cadogan

4 ALL-PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP As a Society that brings London together, we lead debates about the future of the city. This includes various publications and high-profile events which allow people to engage in the discussions that affect them. London s parliamentarians have, historically, been very much at the heart of this. In the 1920s, the Society had its own Parliamentary Committee which included the majority of London MPs and Peers. Yet, until recently, no such opportunity to specifically debate the future of the capital existed, either within the Society or beyond. For this reason the Society worked to convene the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on London s Planning and Built Environment in October 2015; the first-cross party group to focus on London in nearly 50 years. The APPG exists to provide a forum for discussion and a coherent national voice for everyone who lives and works in London. In doing so, it brings together those from both Houses of Parliament to explore the things that really matter in shaping a better city; Housing, Infrastructure, Economy and Places amongst these. The London Society provides the secretariat for the APPG. It is an active group which meets several times per year. The Chair is Rupa Huq MP (Labour) with Mike Scully MP (Conservative) as Vice Chair. The Honorary Secretary is Helen Hayes MP (Labour) and the Lords Liaison is the Bishop of London. In 2016 the APPG commissioned Jonathan Manns and Dr Nicholas Falk to prepare an independent report on improvements to London s planning. In 2017 the APPG looked at the implications of social housing in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire. Corporate Supporters receive invitations to all meetings of the APPG (which are usually held in Parliament).

5 THE JOURNAL The Journal of the London Society looks at what is happening in contemporary London with opinion pieces on the challenges facing the city, features on interesting buildings, profiles of individuals who have made significant contributions to the appearance or development of London, and with reviews of books, exhibitions and events which are London-centred. Contents of issue 472 include: Boom Town: London s past great population booms Michael Paterson Urban Theorist Nikos Salingaros in conversation with Jonathan Manns Mark Prizeman on the opportunities of the denser city Photographs by Kwame Ohene-Adu Emily Gee of Historic England on the role of the past in the future Zoe Green on why tech needs a place in the growing capital Michael Bach on neighbourhoods John Myers of London YIMBY on making infill work Polycentric Cites by Sarah Yates Mark Swenarton looks at Cook s Camden Lettie Mckie examines co-housing