10 C O N T E X T 1 3 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 4 heritage advisor to the Greater London Authority, examines the saga of three inter-war market hall arcades in Brixton, rejected for listing in 2008 as being of insufficient significance. The process was reversed initially in two of the cases after an intensive campaign by the local community, councillors and MPs. Following further protests about all three, all of them were listed Grade II in 2010 because of their cultural significance, representing perhaps the most widely known manifestation of the West Indian community in England. The case may have interesting implications for interpretation of significance and perhaps for future designation initiatives under the National Heritage Protection Plan. Other valuable articles in Transactions include a clear, incisive explanation by Jill Channer of how to recognise and record historic plain glazing, and why it is as important as concerns about the framing that contains it; the wisdom of hindsight with which Alastair Glass identifies the problems and issue that have occurred since the major repairs were undertaken to the Albert Memorial in 1998 (Glass explains the particular challenges for the memorial’s continued inspection and maintenance); a short overview of the current priorities of the Churches Conservation Trust by Sarah Robinson, Peter Aires and Neil Rushton; and an explanation of the management of change at Old Sarum Airfield, near Salisbury (this first world war training site, now partly in other uses, needed a conservation management plan). Cornwall is the theme of the latest issue of TheVictorian (No 45, March 2014), timed to coincide with the revision to the Cornwall edition of Pevsner. It seems astonishing that the first edition was published 60 years ago. Peter Beecham, formerly much concerned with heritage protection reform at English Heritage, and author of the revision, identifies some of the highlights of the new volume. One notable building type at risk in Cornwall is Methodist and nonconformist chapels. Like South Yorkshire and SouthWales, the county is a stronghold of non-conformism. Uncertainty about the chapels’ future has prompted English Heritage and Cornwall County Council to help in the assessment of significance, as explained by Jeremy Lake and Francis Kelly. Currently only one-third of the chapels remain in use for worship. The remainder are either vacant (10.3 per cent), residential (35 per cent) or (the rest) in a wide range of commercial and community uses. The Victorian Society, which extends its remit to the Edwardian era, ending in 1914, marks the commemoration of the cataclysm of the first world war with a review of books and exhibitions about architecture related to or affected by the war. This year also marks the century span of the remit of the Twentieth Century Society. In the current issue (No 1, 2014) of C20, the director explains that it is intended to mark this with a ‘100 Buildings’ project. One building year will be selected to illustrate how diverse and fascinating 20th-century buildings can be. This is not a competition to find the best buildings or identify the top architects, but a celebration of talent and achievement since 1914. A book of the final 100 will follow. If you think you know what ‘black granite’ is you should read Natural Stone Specialist (March 2014). Geologist Barry Hunt explains at length why there is no such thing, even though it is promoted as such in the stone industry and seems to describe most kitchen worktops. In his director’s notes in the latest SPAB Magazine (Spring 2014), Matthew Slocombe points out that one of the consequences of a declining number of local authority conservation officers is the greater need for police involvement in addressing heritage crime. He comments that perhaps the hardest issue for the police to tackle is crimes committed by owners against their own listed buildings. He notes that the rise of heritage crime is clearly reflected in disturbing statistics in Heritage Counts 2013. The magazine was one of the few in the sector, reviewed here, to comment on the overall balance and general conclusions about the proposed dismemberment of English Heritage, such was the deadline for the submissions. Such concerns have been amplified by the lack of adequate information in the DCMS consultation. There is an eclecticism in the selection of subjects in the issue. They include various methods of external decoration recently trialled by English Heritage at Kenwood House; the paint analysis conducted in the interior of the SPAB headquarters at Spital Square, prior to the recent extensive repairs and redecoration; concerns about one of the most at-risk elements of Berlin’s cultural and technical heritage, its extensive network of gas lamps, and the campaign to retain them; and, perhaps inevitably and topically, the great loss of building craftspeople who died fighting in the first world war. Bob Kindred MBE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=