Institute of Historic Building Conservation No 131 September 2013 IHBC Annual School in Carlisle Spotlight on skills
Crittall Windows Ltd, Francis House, Freebournes Road, Witham, Essex CM8 3UN Tel: +44 (0)1376 530800 Fax: +44 (0)1376 530801 Email: hq@crittall-windows.co.uk www. crittall-windows.com T i m e l e s s O u r h e r i t a g e i s o u r s t r e n g t h Front cover of an original Crittall catalogue circa 1911
C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 1 Cover: Kate Kendall carves her niche at the IHBC/ NHTG Heritage Skills Fair (Photo: Robert Walker) www.ihbc.org.uk Registered as a charity in England andWales number 1061593 and in Scotland number SC041945. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England number 3333780. Registered Office: 3 Stafford Road,TunbridgeWells, Kent TN2 4QZ. Officers President Trefor Thorpe, president@ihbc.org.uk Chair Mike Brown, chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair Emilia Hands, vchair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary Eddie Booth, secretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasurer Richard Morrice, treasurer@ihbc.org.uk National Office Director Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk Projects Officer Fiona Newton, projects@ihbc.org.uk Consultant Consultations Coordinator James Caird, consultations@ihbc.org.uk Membership Services Officer Carmen Moran, membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk Administration Officer Lydia Porter, admin@ihbc.org.uk Committee Chairs Policy David Kincaid, policy@ihbc.org.uk Membership & Ethics Paul Butler, membership@ihbc.org.uk Finance & Resources Richard Morrice, resources@ihbc.org.uk Education David McDonald, education@ihbc.org.uk Communications & Outreach Charles Strang, communications@ihbc.org.uk Branch Officers North Geoff Underwood, 0191 433 3435 NorthWest Crispin Edwards, 0161 474 2620 Yorkshire David Blackburn, 01943 603479 West Midlands Charles Shapcott, 0121 7044312 East Midlands Roy Lewis, 01623 756623 South Julia Foster, 01296 585888 SouthWest JamesWebb, 01202 732849 East Anglia David Andrews, 07760 208231 South East Sean Rix, 01483 523379 London JohnWebb, 020 8871 6645 Scotland Stuart Eydmann, 01506 775279 Wales Nathan Blanchard, 01492 583443 Northern Ireland Colin Hatrick, 028 9064 1126 Republic of Ireland Cormac O’Sullivan, 00353 5677 62907 Institute ofHistoricBuildingConservation No 131 September 2013 IHBC Annual School in Carlisle Spotlight on skills 2 Briefing 5 Letters 5 Out of Context 6 Periodically Bob Kindred 8 The writer’s voice 10 Legal briefing Fiona Deaton IHBC ANNUAL SCHOOL 2013 REPORT 13 Spotlight on skills 14 An overviewNaomi Atherton Thursday tours 15 Carlisle historic quarter city Chloe Oswald 15 Carlisle Castle Stephen Rickards 16 Brampton conservation area action plan, and the arts-and-crafts church of St Martin Elizabeth Mayle 17 Kirklinton Hall and Warwick Bridge Corn Mill Graham Darlington 18 Reception at Tullie House Museum Chezel Bird IHBC Day School 19 Legislation and policy Scott McGibbon 20 Resources for skills Liz Bates 20 Skills development for a low-carbon world Crispin Edwards 21 Skills for change (1): outreach, education and training during construction projects Kate Kendall (née Borland) 22 Skills for change (2): practical approaches to design in historic environments John Yates 22 Apprenticeships: skills development for professionals David Blackburn 23 Digital technology: skills in a changing world Paul Butler 24 Skills in community engagement Charlotte Dodgeon Saturday tours 24 Carlisle city: the historic quarter Tom Hunter 25 Clay buildings of the Solway Plain: vernacular architecture in a local, regional and national context Richard Wilson 26 Brougham Hall and Lowther Castle Sheila Stones 27 Arts-and-crafts in Broad Leys, Blackwell and Moorcrag Helen Parvin 29 Working with communities David Lovie 31 Annual school notes from the chair Mike Brown IHBC/NHTG Heritage Skills Fair 34 Fitting it all together Jules Brown and Kathryn Banfield 34 Lime working Kate Jefferson 35 Pole lathe turning John Preston 36 Blacksmithing Jayne Boldy 36 Slate and lead roofing Mike Williams 37 Stone carving Tobias Vilhena de Morae 38 Voice of the people David Burton-Pye 40 The main train shed roof at King’s Cross David Sorapure 45 The Lincolnshire HER21 project Sarah Harrison 47 Director’s cut 48 Vox pop 50 Book reviews 53 Products and services 56 Advertisers index
2 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Fiona Newton, 01507 602567 editorial@ihbc.org.uk Editorial Board Nigel Crowe Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Rebecca Madgin Fiona Newton (chair) Michael Taylor Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2013 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA 01747 871717 context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to corporate bodies at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £60.00 Elsewhere £90.00 The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication.While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. Briefing Context Copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November. The next five copy deadlines are: November, Issue 132 13 September March, Issue 133 17 January May, Issue 134 14 March July, Issue 135 16 May September, 136 18 July Signal boxes listed Twenty six of England’s rarest and best preserved signal boxes have been given Grade II listed status by the Department for Culture Media and Sport as a result of a joint English Heritage and Network Rail project to safeguard the nation’s railway signalling heritage. The listings come as Network Rail decommissions many mechanical signal boxes to consolidate signalling into 12 regional centres. Installed from the mid-19th century onwards, there were around 10,000 signal boxes at the peak of their use in the 1940s. Today fewer than 500 are still in use by Network Rail. They were built in highly visible spots at stations or level crossings to an enormous variety of designs, sometimes with beautiful detailing and embellishment far beyond what was needed for their practical function. They were constructed both by specialist contractors like Saxby and Farmer and by individual railway companies, each developing its own distinctive style. English Heritage has worked in close partnership with Network Rail to identify and protect a representative sample of the most significant designs, especially those within groups of historic railway buildings. From Cornwall to Kent and Sussex to NorthYorkshire, the newly listed signal boxes date from the 1870s to the 1920s. Many still retain their original operating equipment. The box designs range from imposing structures, like the enormous Saxby and Farmer designed box at Eastbourne, to simple single-storey timber buildings, like the diminutive Stevens and Sons box at Grain Crossing in Medway, Kent, the last survivor of a once numerous design. In the North of England, Hebden Bridge signal box, built in 1891, is one of only a handful of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway boxes to survive in anything like original condition. Both it and nearby listed station buildings still retain their original 1914 signage. The East of England has wellpreserved boxes built for the Great Eastern Railway like the one at Downham Market, which complements one of the most attractive small stations in East Anglia, and the elaborate example at Brundall which was built in 1883 and unusually is built of wood blocks cut to resemble stone. At Totnes in Devon, the large signal box, built to the Great Western Railway’s standard design used between 1896 and the 1920s, has striking, contrasting blue brickwork and what are in effect a series of bay windows to give the signalman a clear view down the line.With the removal of the original operating equipment, the building has found a new use as a café. Decommissioned signal boxes have Signal boxes (clockwise from top left) at Downham Market, Canterbury East, Skegness and Hebden Bridge
C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 3 been reused as cafés, museums or holiday lets and, in some cases, moved to new locations, often on heritage railways. The signal box is a building type unique to railways, although with a precursor in the shape of the semaphore towers erected during the Napoleonic Wars. Signal boxes originated in the 1840s, with signalling platforms accompanied by a basic hut or cabin provided for the men operating railway signals. The signal box as we know it today – a covered and glazed structure housing levers which control both signals and points – was the invention of John Saxby, who pioneered the mechanical interlocking between points and signals which he patented in 1856. £45,000 fine for cinema SimonWent writes: The owner of a listed cinema has been fined £45,000 for unauthorised works (reduced from £50,000 due to a guilty plea, therefore negating the need for a trial). He also had to pay £28,000 costs and if he does not pay within eight months he will serve 18 months imprisonment. The former 1930s Regal Cinema on the Richmond Road in Kingston upon Thames is a fine Grade II listed building to the designs of the well-known cinema architect, Robert Cromie. In January 2012, I was contracted by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to write an expert witness statement in relation to unauthorised works without listed building consent. The works consisted of the entire removal of the raked auditorium floor to an approximate depth of 200cm. The main floor of the whole building had been the subject of some major and extensive excavations. This was clear by the fact that the floor was now bare earth and the bottom of the plaster on the walls could be seen. The floor of the building is specifically mentioned in the statutory list description: ‘Five bay hall with sprung floor’. This was an intrinsic part of the character of the listed building, as it contributed strongly towards its historic development. Now that it had been completely removed, it was impossible to analyse this floor, and the bare earth floor inside the listed building and the large step down has caused an extensive level of harm. Several features of the building make significant contributions to its historic character; the floor was a striking characteristic of the building. The excavations have resulted in a loss Historic buildings in theYorkshire Dales have featured in an exhibition in theYorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Bainbridge office.The photographs, selected from the Yorkshire Dales Historic Environment Record, were originally taken to illustrate the day-to-day work of the authority’s historic environment team. The former Regal Cinema in Kingston upon Thames: its floor was a striking characteristic of the building.
4 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 The Canons’ Cloister, one of the oldest parts ofWindsor Castle, was built around 1350 to house the chapel’s resident canons, a purpose that has remained unchanged ever since. A two-year programme of external and internal refurbishment has included replacing roofing, repairs to stonework and timber, and work to address damage caused by earlier, clumsier attempts at building conservation.The work has been overseen by Martin Ashley Architects (Martin Ashley is surveyor of the fabric at St George’s Chapel). of historic material in the form of the material that made up the floor surface. The actual historic fabric can not now be recovered, nor can a precise match in terms of materials be made. A cement or concrete replacement floor, with or without impermeable damp proof membrane, would be aesthetically and technically inappropriate within a building of this age, and construction and could lead to problems with damp and altered flow of moisture through the fabric of the building. The unauthorised works fundamentally alter the scale and character of the rooms within the building, which had variable floor levels. This space now has a markedly different character and would previously have felt more enclosed. The space now feels damaged and has a negative character. Works being urgently necessary in the interests of safety or health, or for the preservation of the building, may be a defence to proceedings brought for in respect of a contravention of Sections 7 and 9 of the 1990 Listed Building Act. But there was no indication of any structural problems with the building prior to works beginning, and at no point had the owner raised any concerns over the building’s safety or stability. The 2007 English Heritage publication Culture and Entertainment Buildings Selection Guide describes the special historic and architectural importance of this unusual and important building type. It states: ‘Buildings in this category are extremely diverse. Some make a strong impression in the street, as a statement of their cultural and often civic aspirations, or to attract patrons inside.Yet it is often their interiors that are the determining factors when considering them for designation, and any listing will normally be based on the quality, rarity and/or good survival of the interior.’ SimonWent, currently a conservation officer for the States of Guernsey, is a director of Quatrefoil Consulting. Cold turtle An ice well has been uncovered in the basement of the Grade II* listed Royal Victoria Arcade in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Bricked up since the 1950s, the egg-shaped ice well (20ft in height with an 11ft diameter) could be unique in the British Isles. Of 2,099 ice houses and wells listed in The Ice Houses of Britain (Beamon and Roaf, 1990), only two are integral to a building. One, of a completely different design, is in a house near Northallerton. The other was destroyed during the second world war. The arcade’s ice well served the soup proprietor Charles Dixon in 1836. He sold turtle soup at 15 shillings (75p) a quart. Later the well was used by a fishmonger, and later to a confectioner to attend to the increasingly popular demand for confectionery in early Victorian Ryde. If you would like to know more about the ice well or have examples of similar ice wells, visit Historic Ryde Society’s website: www.historicrydesociety. com or email Diana Wood at admin@ historicrydesociety.com . Lee Byrne, project manager, Ryde Town Heritage Initiative The Mausoleum of Sir James Tillie in Saltash, Cornwall (top) and Saltaire United Reformed Church are among 17 heritage rescues shortlisted for the English Heritage Angel Awards, backed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.The awards celebrate the efforts of individuals and local groups to save derelict and severely damaged historic landmarks.
C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 5 Developing local lists From JohnWinstone, Conservation Architecture Some very interesting presentations of protocols were made at the recent English Heritage/HELM local management day on Developing Local Lists in Bristol earlier this year. English Heritage’s opening presentation contained no particular recommendations for ratification (aka validation) strategies. It suggested a reliance on historic environment records (why, when some HERs contain patchy information?) over an architectural assessment of historic fabric that is the essential of fieldwork, and apparently English Heritage is not expecting all lists to be ‘the same’. It was not so much the listing criteria that were novel; the diversity of approaches was. One metropolitan borough list of 366 entries had been funded by grant; another had had grant declined (English Heritage needs to step up here); another relied on volunteers from a civic society – with 78 items on a draft list for a town of 10,000 people, including some non-designed views as assets, whereas another small medieval city of national importance had a draft list so far of 12 items (35 individual properties in all) after three years in gestation. On full survey by a group of experts anxious to ensure that the same city does not lose out to incomplete coverage, these returns are shown to be short by a factor of 10. Another presentation stressed the work involved post-ratification in databases, GIS mapping and maintaining the lists. Some local planning authorities were excluding buildings in conservation areas but we were not told how this was justified. Another, a metropolitan borough with a population of 153,000, had received proposals for 322 assets, and ratified 194 for their draft list (a total of some 260odd individual assets). Another historic city of national importance of 450,000 population, with English-Heritagefunded GIS historic mapping already online, is proposing to rely on the public to nominate assets to their map base, and only where nominations proliferated would the planning department consider the local list nominations for their ‘place-making’ qualities. The local planning authority would ratify solely within the planning department and take credence of an asset only if the group value element in the place-making process indicated that the asset(s) should be retained. This would risk an individual asset not being afforded its own intrinsic merit and protection, even if this innovative use of social media does manage to engage the experts. The necessity for Article 4 directions as a means of protection was discussed, and two instances of prior demolition during pre-application negotiations were highlighted in question time.What was missing was any mention of the need for all lists to be the result of comprehensive surveys by experts in order that property owners could not claim the process had been partial, undemocratic and detrimental to positive property values. Planning inspectors will take a dim view of this when local listing enters public consciousness. The question of uniformity is one that may well come back to haunt us.Where comprehensive coverage can not be shown, it seems likely that such lists will be deemed unfit for purpose. JohnWinstone Letters ‘WEWALKED the hundred yards from our house to the sea to find cars parked along both sides of the coast road and a large crowd waiting in the dusk. It seemed unlikely that this stretch of coast had seen such numbers since the Edwardian era, when it had its own steamer pier, several hotels and boarding houses, and boating stations where elderly fellows smoked clay pipes and hired out rowing boats. All gone – as the chimney was soon to be. ‘At 10pm sharp, the top third of it shivered and leant sideways, and suddenly all of it had vanished. Dust clouds rolled out to sea and then, sound being a slowcoach, the thunder of falling rubble reached us.The crowd turned away, disappointed that it was over so quickly but happy, to judge from the laughter in their conversation, to see the chimney gone.’ Ian Jack describing in the Guardian the demolition of the chimney of Inverkip power station, designed by Sir Robert Matthew. Built in the early 1970s, it was described as Scotland’s ‘tallest freestanding building’. Jack welcomed the demolition:‘some of the Clyde’s ruined beauty was restored’. ‘SO PEACEFUL, so humble.’ The description by Lady Carina, daughter of the 17th Duke of Norfolk, and wife of Sir David Frost, of Michelmersh Court in Hampshire, the Grade II* listed country home that the couple put on the market for £5.25 million shortly before Sir David’s death. ‘THIS IS about as legal as my cat’s motorway driving.’ Martin Akehurst, deputy mayor of Henley, commenting in the Henley Standard on the unauthorised demolition of two chimneys on a listed building in Henley.The developer had applied to South Oxfordshire District Council to replace the chimneys, but when conservation consultant Eddie Booth carried out a site visit, he found that they had already been demolished and rebuilt. ‘HOW DOYOU get rid of parking spaces in the city? Jan Gehl says: “No problem, just do it slowly and don’t tell anyone”.’ Alexander Ståhle (@StockholmCyclo) on Twitter
6 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 Periodically Did you ever expect to read of a paean of praise for sticky-backed plastic in this column? C20, the magazine of the Twentieth Century Society (No 2, 2013) features the material in its Ephemera column. Christopher Garrard rediscovers in a 1959 copy of Practical Housekeeping the wonder of self-adhesive vinyl, a few yards of which would gladden the hearts of industrious husbands and fashionable housewives. If you are old enough, you may remember it as Fablon, as Garrard remarks.That name was trademarked in 1948 by Commercial Plastics of Wallsend-on-Tyne with the curiously prescient use of ‘fab’, which did not come into its own as a word until the sixties. The magazine also looks at the fate of modern library buildings (as the Victorian Society did about 19th century ones in its March issue). KenWorple notes that libraries are still being built, despite cutbacks and technological change. Bernadette Bone looks at postwar provision in Lancashire, where libraries were always a priority from the 1850s onward, highlighting those built in the 1950s and 60s. ChristineWall reminds us that the South Bank Centre should be recognised as ‘an exceptionally important twentieth century structure’. Catherine Croft remarks that ‘the quality of the concrete and the contrast between concrete boardmarked in situ and precast panels is certainly remarkable’.Wall comments that ‘concrete structures… seldom reveal how they were made’ but Croft prefers a slightly different interpretation, ‘that we have forgotten how to read them’.Wall’s article and her research, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, will help people to do this, and so appreciate them more. One generally under-appreciated type of concrete structure is the hyperbolic paraboloid roof (although subject of an excellent study by Rachel Parry for the IHBC GASAs in 2008). An article by Karolina Szynalska highlights the designer Sam Scorer’s work on these striking structures. One of the most memorable of them is the 1961 butterfly canopy of the Markham Moor service station on the A1. Listed Grade II in 2005, it is now sadly closed, boarded up and deteriorating. The issue carries obituaries of three significant men who it might be hard to imagine more different from one another in temperament and career: Sir Lawrie Barratt, Rick Mather and Oscar Niemeyer.Try drawing a narrative between those three! The print version of the latest issue of the Journal of Architectural Conservation (Vol 19, No 1, March 2013) was somewhat delayed by the title moving to Routledge from Donhead. It was worth the wait as it contains a number of interesting papers offering significant insights into policy and practice. Being able to return to a project after a long period and assess the effectiveness of an intervention is a luxury not often afforded practitioners. So it is invaluable to have David Odgers’ paper reviewing work completed on the consolidation treatment of clunch after an interval of nearly 30 years. Clunch has been widely used as a building stone in the south and east of England since the 14th century but is sometimes characterised by its propensity for surface delamination. This was the problem faced on the west elevation of the south stable block atWoburn Abbey. In 1985 half the elevation was dressed back behind the decay zone and the other half was not, and comparative consolidant treatments were applied. In 2011, simple evaluation techniques permitted effective measurements of the impact of the treatments.The results are clearly and succinctly illustrated. While the debate about the future of energy efficiency in historic buildings continues unabated, the National Trust has been applying and demonstrating a variety of new energy-saving technologies at a new visitor centre opened in a Victorian stable block at Morden Hall Park, south-west London. Caroline Pankhurst and Andrew Harris explain how the scheme aims to balance the introduction of a significant number of new and compatible materials and technologies with the minimum intervention to the historic fabric. Where possible, materials were used that had low embodied energy and were from sustainable sources or recycled materials locally sourced or from National Trust estates. Improving the thermal performance of historic churches while retaining their special interest is a particularly fraught issue where scope for physical impact on the special significance is restricted. Ingenuity is required when exploiting solar energy, as in the implementation of a programme of improvements to Hol Church in Norway, described in a paper
C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 7 by Harald Røstvig.The scheme aimed to deliver additional sources of energy from the surroundings of the building, not from the church building envelope alone. This was achieved by using a monolith pylon within the churchyard, acting as a solar absorber and transferring heat to the church via underground ducts. With the benefit of long-sight, many so-called modern solutions to conservation problems are not the panacea they may seem. For over a century the conservation of the wall heads of ancient monument standing remains involved capping them in impermeable materials: concrete, bitumen, lead sheet or stone paving slabs.The techniques were expensive, disruptive, irreversible and inauthentic. In some cases erosion increased rather than decreased. An alternative solution to this, described by IHBC member Robin Kemp, has been the use of ‘soft’ or turf cappings. Regarded as experimental in some professional circles, there have been few notable published examples to further the debate. Soft cappings pioneered at Thirlwall Castle, Northumberland, 12 years ago have enabled a recent assessment of their performance and answered some questions about the technique, well illustrated in Kent’s paper. It is particularly pleasing to welcome the publication of the final paper in the March issue of Journal of Architectural Conservation: the exposition by Grant Prescott of why Moscow’s constructivist architectural legacy is at risk.This question, internationally topical and controversial, was one of the Highly Commended dissertation submissions for the IHBC’s Gus Astley Student Awards 2011. Prescott’s paper laments the effect of recent large-scale redevelopment and a shift from the originating architecture of state socialism by assessing the significance of this early inter-war style. It discusses the condition of constructivist buildings today and presents two case studies of threats posed to them by current socio-economic trends. The future is likely to be defined by conflicting attitudes, which Prescott exemplifies as ranging from passionate advocacy to commercially driven apathy. Your reviewer has not recently developed a recent thing about lighthouses. It is only coincidental that these buildings feature once again, this time inThe Institution of Civil Engineers Proceedings on Engineering History and Heritage (Vol 166, Issue EH2, May 2013), in a paper on the Scottish contribution to New Zealand’s lighthouses. Guinevere Nalder of the Open Polytechnic, Auckland, writes of the 38 major lighthouses built between 1859 and 1941, 30 of which were constructed between 1865 and 1897.These represented the latest technology from Scotland, a firstclass lighthouse system and equipment based on the Northern Lighthouse Board model. In part this stemmed from the close family and work ties between James Balfour, the marine engineers for Ottago province (and ultimately colonial engineer), and the famous Stevenson firm of lighthouse builders. Understanding the personalities and styles of 19th century engineers can give insights into the nature of their engineering structures. Martin Barnes has compared the career of Joseph Locke with that of his contemporaries Brunel and Stevenson.What emerges forcefully is Locke’s project management skills and an approach which emphasised ‘buildability’. Barnes gives several illuminating examples, such as Stephenson’s London and Birmingham railway, costing £46,000 per mile to build, and Lock’s Grand Junction railway, which cost only £25,000 per mile. Lock’s tour de force was the Lancaster to Carlisle railway, using gradients and directness in preference to detours and tunnels, reducing the cost and risk: consequently there are no tunnels between Lancaster and Carlisle. The railway was completed and brought into use in 29 months (quicker than the equivalent length of the M6). Hans Seland chronicles a Norwegian roadmaster’s 1838 tour of Britain and the Baltic to report on the transport infrastructure he encountered.The engineering manual he produced highlighted, among other things, the value of technology transfer.The paper identifies, for example, the influence of the 1830 Kalemouth Suspension Bridge, Kelso, on roadmaster GBD Johnson’s own design for the Norwegian Bakke Bridge of 1844.The paper has some evocative contemporary engraving illustrations. The two remaining papers relate to river-control systems. One was developed in India in the 19th century. The other is of clearer heritage and domestic interest: it is located in North Derbyshire and the Calver Weir is listed Grade II. Built in 1799 and enlarged in 1833, it was damaged just over a decade ago, leaving it in a precarious state and requiring emergency repairs in 2004.The subsequent full repairs and reinstatements are described. As this is such an uncommon protected heritage asset, the paper will be invaluable to anyone contemplating similar repair projects. Your reviewer agrees with Matthew Slocombe’s post mortem in the SPAB Magazine (Summer 2013) on the BBC4 series ‘Heritage: the battle for Britain’s past’, which promised much but delivered little.The best episode was the first.There were other enjoyable moments, but Slocombe identifies the most disturbing aspect as the conclusion that the conservation movement’s chief goal is the reinstatement of the lost arch at Euston station. Well worth celebrating, however, was the grant of £907,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to encourage volunteer maintenance of places of worship by establishing maintenance cooperatives. This latest exciting initiative, already under way, will run for three years. Training, freely available to volunteers interested in learning heritage-related skills, will include topics such as building maintenance; understanding traditional building materials; working with professionals; project planning; and welcoming visitors. In something of a departure from the usual fare, Sara Crofts has written extensively on the complex issues surrounding the conservation of the historic buildings in Jamaica as a result of the SPAB being asked to assist with the development of a short version of its wellrespected Repair of Old Buildings course. Unsurprisingly this is a tale of passionate local enthusiasm for unstable and derelict 18th century buildings which are of high quality but susceptible to neglect exacerbated by seasonal hurricane damage. Fortunately. local landowners are willing to tackle the underuse and neglect with support from heritage bodies in the UK and USA.While there is much to be done, Crofts remarks that it is
8 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 surprising what can be achieved through dedicated voluntary effort, well-planned training and awareness-raising initiatives. In my recent abstraction fromNatural Stone Specialist for Context, I noted the overview of limestone by Barry Hunt. He has now followed this up (June 2013) with a similar article exploring the characteristic of sandstone. As before, this concentrates on this stone’s general applications; fitness for purpose; and durability. It provides a table of some standard tests for its classification. Can there be ‘Young’Victorians? The Victorian (No 43, July 2013) thinks so. It highlights five young members whose interest in the period has shaped their lives in different ways. All of them have found Victorian and Edwardian architecture a boundless source of inspiration and delight.The five, a gallery curator, a ceramic tile maker, an English Heritage listing advisor, an architect and a ceramicist, demonstrate the diversity of the heritage sector. Bob Kindred MBE From an article by Peter Buchanan (‘The big rethink: farewell to modernism − and modernity too’, Architectural Review, 30 January 2012) comparing two houses by the same architect in different phases of his career: Villa Fallet (1906–07) by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret and Villa Savoye (1928–31) by Le Corbusier, as he by then styled himself. What accounts for the differences between these villas? Specifically, what new material facilitated the profound shift in forms and sensibility? What do the history books say? Reinforced concrete? Plate glass? The answer is neither of these, nor any of the other usual explanations, but abundant and cheap fossil fuels. These powered the weekend commute to the house and kept warm in winter the large, flowing spaces enclosed in thin un-insulated concrete walls and slabs, with vast expanses of single glazing. It was also a related material − and later, oil derivatives − which waterproofed Villa Savoye’s and all other flat roofs and terraces. Later too, petrochemicals provided the neoprene gaskets, epoxies, mastics and sealants, as well as the synthetic carpets and fabrics. And it was fossil fuel-derived electricity that lit and air-conditioned modern buildings, which often spurned natural light and ventilation. Modern architecture is thus an energyprofligate, petrochemical architecture, only possible when fossil fuels are abundant and affordable. Like the sprawling cities it spawned, it belongs to that waning era historians are already calling ‘the oil interval’. Although histories of modern architecture still overlook this critical fact − failing to note what is, literally, blindingly obvious − any future history must surely begin by noting this relationship, which is axiomatically unsustainable. With its disconnect from nature and neighbours, its material fragility and the frieze of people partying or doing calisthenics displacing the statues of gods on the classical entablature, Villa Savoye emphasises a related flaw at the core of modern architecture and modernity in general: the hubris, turbocharged by fossil-fuelled technological power, and a corresponding lack of acknowledgement, even denial, of our ultimate dependency on nature, its cycles and regenerative capacities. Archetypal modern man and woman preferred − and still prefer − not to be rooted in place or community nor to be concerned with the longer cycles of time and the obligations they inevitably incur... Total life-cycle costing, a key discipline in sustainable design, requires that we understand efficiency and ecological impacts in a very different way to modernity. This dismissed much of its negative impacts (particularly those of industry and corporations) as mere externalities or collateral damage. Now we understand that what is critical is not the efficiency, lightness and strength of a material or component when in place: it is the total amount of material extracted from the Earth and the disruption caused by this, as well as the energy and pollution from transport and manufacture, and then the costs and impacts of eventual recycling or return to the Earth. Thus what were once seen as highly efficient high-tech materials or components are now seen to be very inefficient − indeed, with building, it is almost the rule that the more efficient the product when in place, the less efficient it is in process terms. For real efficiency, as the concept is now understood, nothing can beat mud and thatch, although Walter Segal’s timber self-build system scores highly as do traditional tropical construction techniques in materials, such as bamboo and palm-frond matting − which might be lightweight but are natural, local and renewable. Design for sustainability will thus inevitably be centred on the shaping of processes, such as flows of material and energy, as much as on the eventual products. This requires vastly expanding the temporal and spatial range of the designers’ concerns to include the total life-cycle costs mentioned above, which would typically span decades, and the global impacts of, say, using a material in short supply, which might have profound consequences on the other side of the planet. What are now dismissed as mere externalities for others, usually the taxpayers, to deal with, must now all be factored into the design process. Miniaturisation and ephemerality can be very destructive, as evidenced by the horrendous and too little publicised consequences of mining for rare earth metals used in computers, cell phones (of which Americans discard 130 million a year) and other electronic equipment, such as that used in monitoring and adjusting conditions within buildings. All this will profoundly influence the design and making of architecture. And just as green design has already elevated the status of the services engineer as a key creative member of the design team, so too will it lead to the inclusion, as another key creative discipline, of production engineers, who are devising more efficient and benign ways of manufacturing materials and components.
Tel: 01621 818155 Email: sales@mumfordwood.com www.mumfordwood.com Visit us at The Building Centre, London or our Essex showroom. QUAL ITY BE YOND COMPA R E uality and longevity - attributes at the heart of every Mumford & Wood window, door and garden room. Our bespoke collection combines technical expertise with modern manufacturing techniques to deliver market leading performance, superior aesthetics and the highest levels of customer satisfaction. To enhance the authenticity of period restorations and traditional new build projects, our award-winning Conservation™ range now includes: Wider range of glass unit sizes NEWslim 12mm double glazed Box Sash window with original putty glazed appearance NEW24mm triple glazed Box Sash window achieving an excellent 0.8 W/m²K U-value NEWinternal glazing for enhanced aesthetics and improved security BSI energy ratings, BSI Kitemark, Energy Saving Trust recommended, Secured by Design accredited Whichever Mumford & Wood window, door, garden room, orangery or roof lantern you select, you can be certain of quality that is beyond comparison. T H E F I N E S T T I M B E R W I N D O W S & D O O R S B E W A R E O F I M I T A T I O N S SINCE 1954 Q
10 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 LEGAL BRIEFING Judicial review of planning decisions Recent planning appeals have highlighted the need for local communities and advisory groups to question the planning process through the courts, writes Fiona Deaton. Conservation advisory bodies need to ensure that they have clear and effective communication with their planning authority if their representations are to be taken into account in planning decisions.More than a year since the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), its critics may be justified in claiming that it favours developers to promote economic sustainability in a climate of austerity. Recent planning appeals have highlighted the need for local communities and advisory groups to question the planning process through the courts, with judicial review increasingly used as the mechanism to get their voices heard. Planning consent for the redevelopment of Twickenham Railway Station was granted in March 2012 but delayed while the council’s decision-making process was examined first in the High Court and then again in the Court of Appeal.A local resident and campaigner tried to obstruct plans for the redevelopment, claiming that relevant considerations had not been taken into account by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames before granting planning consent for the project. Objections were based on an alleged lack of regard given to a report produced by the Twickenham Advisory Panel (TAP), specifically set up by the council to advise on development matters. The claim for judicial review of the grant was based on the lack of material consideration given to the report when considering the planning application. While theTAP report was submitted on the same date that the officers’ main report to the planning committee was published, it had been sent to the leader of the council and other officers, who were aware that the report had been prepared in time for the planning committee meeting 10 days later.At the meeting, an addendum to the officer’s report had been included on the TAP report. It stated: ‘This response has not been submitted against the planning application or formally to planning officers and as such the comments therein are not considered material to the consideration of this application’. However, Lord Justice Richards stated that it was clear that the TAP report did relate to the planning application and he was ‘deeply unimpressed by the way the council handled theTAP report’ and ‘very surprised that the council officers advised members of the planning committee to leave theTAP report out of consideration’. Despite these comments, Lord Justice Richards dismissed the appeal in April, surmising that there was no real possibility that the planning committee would have reached a different conclusion if they had taken the TAP report into account. It therefore was not a failure to have regard to a material consideration and did not render the grant of planning permission unlawful. This begs the question in the planning process: what weight should be given to reports from advisory bodies, and when? PPS5, paragraph 59, encourages engagement with local authority specialists as it ‘can be particularly helpful in developing an understanding of significance and in identifying the level of information needed to support an application’. It also advocates consulting with national amenity societies, groups or individuals and conservation area advisory committees as sources with links to a site’s past and valuable local knowledge. That does not mean that the opinions of advisory bodies will be taken into consideration, especially if they are not statutory consultees.As Lord Justice Richards pointed out in theTwickenham case, the views ofTAPwere worthy of respect but ‘its role and remit did not give it anything like the status of a statutory consultee’. Other judicial review cases would appear to highlight the marginalisation of statutory consultees concerned in planning applications entailing regeneration developments. Another Court of Appeal case, heard inDecember 2012, rejected a challenge by the Bermondsey Village Action Group to the London Bridge station redevelopment. One of the claims alleged that the environmental statement had failed to consider alternative proposals to the redevelopment proposals, which include demolishing buildings within the conservation area. The court determined that the validity of the environmental statement was not undermined, regardless of its shortcomings. The most notable building affected by the development proposals is the South Eastern Railway Office, known as London’s flat-iron building. Despite English Heritage agreeing that its features were compatiblewith commercial properties of the period with some historic significance, making a positive contribution to the character of the conservation area, it was turned down for listing in 2011. A judicial review case has been brought by Westminster City Council and English Heritage objecting to the controversial Elizabeth House development at London’sWaterloo.
C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 11 Notwithstanding objections by theVictorian Society, the building remains earmarked for demolition. More recently, a judicial review case in London has been brought byWestminster City Council and English Heritage objecting to the controversial Elizabeth House development. Permission was granted for the scheme by the London Borough of Lambeth in November 2012 and the secretary of state, Eric Pickles, confirmed in March that he would not call in the application for his own determination, despite objections that it would cause substantial harm to the setting of theWestminster world heritage site. As a result, UNESCO is considering whether to place the site on its endangered list, the first step in the removal of international heritage status.The review will focus on the decision-making process and the reasons given, potentially questioning the level of protection afforded heritage under the NPPF. In March of this year, the secretary of state failed to call for a public inquiry on Sheffield City Council’s decision to allow the University of Sheffield to demolish Jessop Hospital. In June, judicial review proceedings were issued by theVictorian Society and SAVE Britain’s Heritage to save the Grade II listed Edwardian building. Approval was granted by the council despite strong local opposition and objections by the Victorian Society, the Sheffield Sustainable Development andDesign Panel, the Ancient Monuments Society, the Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings, the Sheffield Conservation Advisory Group and the Hallamshire Historic Buildings Society. Justification for the council’s decision was based on the ‘substantial public benefits’ provision in the NPPF, with jobs and the anticipated boost to the local economy deemed prevalent over the loss of the heritage asset.The judicial review attempt was turned down by the High Court and a further attempt to appeal the judgment was made to the Court of Appeal in July.The appeal hinged on the interpretation of paragraph 133 in the NPPF: ‘Where a proposed development will lead to substantial harm to or total loss of significance of a designated heritage asset, local planning authorities should refuse consent, unless it can be demonstrated that the substantial harm or loss is necessary to achieve substantial public benefits that outweigh that harm or loss.’ Representing the claimants, Richard Harwood QC argued that SheffieldCity Council should have considered the substantial public benefits achievable by the demolition only, rather than those of the whole scheme. In other words, would the demolition be a greater public benefit than a scheme retaining the listed building or its facade, thereby justifying its demolition? While accepting the point of law, the Court of Appeal held that the public benefits of non-demolition had been taken into account by the council.The appeal was rejected, allowing demolition of the Edwardian wing of Jessops Hospital. The ruling is an important test case of the NPPF, setting precedent on the weight given by councils on the public benefit when considering the loss of listed buildings in development proposals. Fiona Deaton is a freelance heritage consultant, Maisna Heritage Award-winning architects giving old buildings a new future Civic Trust Award Community Recognition IHBC North West Award for Conservation Purcell. Thoughtfully designed evolution. www.purcelluk.com MOLA We discharge planning conditions speedily and cost effectively providing a range of built heritage services from historic building assessment to on-site recording, measured survey and professional photography www.mola.org.uk business@mola.org.uk 020 7410 2200 Mortimer Wheeler House 46 Eagle wharf Road London N1 7ED MUSEUM OF LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY OLA Independent advice and professional services for archaeology and built heritage MOLA ad aug13_Layout 1 13/08/2013 11:10 Page 1
12 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 l Cambridge & Chelmsford MSc Conservation of Buildings Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford Are You… • A Property, Surveying, or Architecture Graduate? • A Non Cognate Graduate with Heritage Experience? • A Professionally Qualified Property Specialist? • Passionate about Heritage and developing your Career in Conservation? Our two year part-time, seven trimesters, course includes: • Conservation & Legislation (Philosophy and Implementation) • Facilities Management of Heritage Buildings • The Science & Economics of Historic Buildings • Surveying the Historic Building (Interpretation of Architectural Evolution) • Research Methods and Major Project (Dissertation) Start January or September Tel: 0845 271 3333 Email: FST-Answers@anglia.ac.uk Visit: www.anglia.ac.uk/context13 West Dean College, Chichester,West Sussex PO18 0QZ A programme of courses on the repair and maintenance of historic structures validated by English Heritage which include: MASONRY CLEANING THE STRUCTURAL REPAIR OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC CONCRETE PRACTICE AND THEORY: MANAGING CHANGE IN HISTORIC BUILDINGS For more information email: cpd@westdean.org.uk or go to www.westdean.org.uk/bcm BUILDING CONSERVATION MASTERCLASSES
C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 13 The annual school organising committee (top: David Lovie, Graham Darlington, Jane Jackson, Naomi Atherton and Stewart Ramsdale; bottom: JamesWoolgrove, LeeWall, Richard Majewicz, Jules Brown and Ian McCaffery; missing: SarahWoodcock) Spotlight on skills IHBC Annual School 2013 The heritage sector is at the edge of a precipice, Scott McGibbon (page 31) reports IHBC chairman Mike Brown telling the annual school in Carlisle. Is it time to move forward? Not exactly. Precipices are for stepping back from, except for well-equipped BASE jumpers. A rather more considered strategy is needed. Brown noted that heritage in the UK had been described as having a first-world legislative and policy system combined with third-world resourcing. The annual school focused on skills: on some bright spots, where individuals’ capability and creativity is being unleashed through skills development programmes; and on the yawning gaps, where opportunities are being missed every day through building conservation being regarded as a costly luxury that can not be afforded in or near a recession. As Jules Brown and Kathryn Banfield point out (page 34), building conservation is a profession whose practitioners need not only their own specialist skills, but also an understanding of a wide range of related skills. Brown and Banfield highlight the annual school’s sessions on digital recording, community engagement and mixing mortar as the sort of skills that might not be traditional core subjects for the profession, but which many building conservationists will need to be familiar with if they are to be fully effective. The worrying background to the profession is a world in which there are too few skilled craftspeople equipped to work with heritage buildings, and where local authorities are struggling to exercise their conservation function with ridiculously low levels of expert staff. This is all discussed endlessly at conferences and around office water-coolers, and in pubs whenever the redundancy pay is called on to buy a round. So it was good to see the issue out in the open air at the mini skills fair in Carlisle Market Place on the Saturday of the school. More than 50 school delegates impressively avoided burning themselves blacksmithing, cutting themselves wood turning, damaging themselves lime pointing, poisoning themselves lead working or submitting to the hazards of various other skills. No one ever said that this wasn’t a risky profession. Delegates enjoying the annual dinner and (below) one of the lectures (Unless otherwise credited, all annual school photos are by Jonathan Taylor.)
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