From Small Beginnings – The London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies

The first initiative to bring London-based amenity societies together as a federation was the brainchild of two prominent and environmentally-committed members of the Blackheath Society, Neil Rhind and Tony Aldous. Neil, whose expertise was on the history and social development of Blackheath, had been the Society’s press officer and later its President from 2016 to his death in 2023.

Neil Rhind (left) with Tony Aldous

Tony, a journalist, wrote on environmental issues for The Times and The Independent. He published many books on environmental matters, one of which was “London Villages”. Tony was also a member of the Blackheath Society. As co-editor of the Civic Trust’s bi-monthly magazine Heritage Outlook, he was a regular visitor to its headquarters at 17 Carlton House Terrace.

The Civic Trust was an independent national environmental charity set up by Lord Duncan Sandys in 1959. Sandys, as Minister for Housing and Local Government between 1954-1956 in the post-war Churchill government (Churchill was also his father-in-law), had been greatly alarmed at some of the proposed post-war changes to central London being proposed at that time. Some were aiming to sweep away the old to make way for the new.

As a keen architectural historian, Sandys held the reins against what could be described as futuristic fantasies requiring the demolition of many of London’s heritage buildings that had survived the bombing. One proposal by the GLA, the Sir William Holford Plan, would have required demolishing most of the Victorian buildings in Piccadilly Circus, replacing them with 20-story tower blocks connected by raised walkways with a seven-lane carriageway encircling a piazza below.

Sandys decided these concerns were best vocalised outside government from a community base, and so in 1959 he decided to set up the Civic Trust. It had its offices at 17 Carlton House Terrace, on the top two floors of one of the Nash terraces overlooking The Mall. Its Patron was HRH Prince Charles.

When in 1986 the Thatcher government abolished the Greater London Council, Tony Aldous wrote:

It had left London as the only capital in Europe without its own city government and without a democratically elected strategic authority

Arthur Percival MBE

Arthur Percival was Assistant Director at the Civic Trust at that time. He was senior adviser to the 1000+ civic societies nationally that were registered with the Civic Trust. He was promoting the formation of federations to represent their interests regionally.

Arthur had co-founded the Faversham Society in 1962 (Kent) and its iconic ‘Fleur di Lis Heritage Centre’ which continues to flourish today. Neil and Tony discussed their ideas about forming a London federation with Arthur.

I had recently joined the Civic Trust as its Societies Development Officer in July 1987, to assist Arthur with his already-overwhelming commitments to expand the amenity society movement. After a lot of debate we decided that the best way to assist Neil and Tony was to organise a conference at the Trust’s headquarters, inviting key speakers to address an audience of London-based amenity societies.

The conference took place on 23rd Jan 1988. It was well attended, the hall was full. One of the key speakers was Ashley Barker, Head of the London Division of English Heritage. He spoke on the important role the London amenity societies played in the conservation of London’s heritage buildings.

Ashley Barker addressing the audience alongside Nigel Woolner: Bedford Park Society (seated) who also spoke. Neil Rhind can be seen next to wall smoking his pipe!

Another speaker was Jack Woolford chairman of the Kent Federation of Amenity Societies. Jack had years of experience in setting up the federation and running it. He was chairman for over ten years

I spoke about the importance of taking the London-wide view, and asked those who were interested in forming a London federation to submit the form they had been given, before leaving the conference.

After the conference, the twenty society representatives who had expressed an interest were contacted and invited to return to a meeting at Carlton House Terrace to discuss how they should go about forming a federation. Martin Bradshaw, Director of the Trust at the time, lent us his palatial office overlooking the Mall to hold these meetings.

At this point I thought it best to be an observer rather than participant. The Civic Trust had given Neil and Tony and the other interested groups the facilities. Now it was now up to the newly formed committee to organize itself into a London-wide federation.

Deirdre Clenet, addressing the conference, with Jack Woolford seated

Initially things got off to a slow start, but the evening meetings continued at Carlton House Terrace. It wasn’t until Marion Harvey, a highly committed and dynamic member of the Islington Society, was elected as chair of the group that positive things started to happen. Marion held the reins for many years and steered it in the right direction. Under her leadership and determination the membership increased year by year so that by 2009 it represented 130 amenity societies across London and had 45 non-voting associate members.

The Forum continues today as the largest federation of amenity groups in the UK playing a vital role in keeping London a good place in which to live, to work and enjoy. Sandys idea of ‘the local voice’ is still alive and thriving!

It would take another fourteen years until London regained its strategic planning authority when the GLA became functional on 3rd July 2000.

Deirdre Clenet