14 C O N T E X T 1 4 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 changed way in Belgrave Road. What andwho are thus reconciled through a process of local representation and participation. The where in both these cases is located somewhere in between the local and the national. The saga concerning the retention of the Southbank Undercroft is more contentious; it demonstrates the confusion surrounding who is an expert andwhere expertise is located.This area has been enjoyed by successive generations of skateboarders since it opened in the 1970s but was recently threatened by plans to redevelop the Southbank Centre.The site is known as the world’s oldest surviving skate spot and it was this that enabled the skaters tomount their campaign to prevent its loss.This campaignwas thus framed around ‘evidential’ and ‘historic’ value under the tag line ‘You Can’t Move History. You Can Secure the Future’. However, it was the powerful connections to the site developed and expressed by generations of skaters that was remarked on by Historic England as it realised that ‘communal heritage values can emerge and become as powerful as more formal architectural or historic ones’.5 These were connections that could not be surveyed or unlocked through desk-based research, but that were powerful expressions of how generations of young people both held, and felt compelled to express, heritage values. Their campaign was successful as the site remains open, yet it is not ascribed with any official heritage value despite being recognised as a historically important place.The where in this case lies with the local experts, the skateboarders whose intricate knowledge of the skate spot was used to prevent the loss of the historic site.The challenge for the sector is how to ensure that these values are embedded as a part of the ‘formal’ system in the same way as are architectural and historic values, both in the context of listing and in decisions surrounding the future of historic places. Two challenges to be overcome are, first, to understand why the skate spot, ClockTower and Belgrave Road – and places like them – become centres of meaning and memory; and, second, to incorporate this within the existing legislative and heritage management systems. Understanding why historic places matter to local people is the next challenging stage in the evolution of the heritage sector. Fundamental questions will need to be asked: can we make better use of organisations, neighbourhoods, focus groups and social media to capture these communal values? If so, should the expertise be broadened to include sociologists and anthropologists? English Heritage’s Conservation Principles make a start to this conversation by recognising that the value of the historic environment is vested in ‘people’ and by making reference to ‘diverse communities’ and to popular participation in the management of the historic environment among its six core principles. Conservation Principles has been criticised for its density of language and level of abstraction, so can this also be made more accessible to the general public through further attention to the way in which the sometimes complex ideas in Conservation Principles are expressed. Recent changes on both a national and international scale demonstrate the increasing awareness that expertise can exist outside the traditional confines of the heritage sector. John Ruskin, after all, was not a ‘heritage professional’. This issue of Context explores some of the many ways in which people relate to heritage and take part in its management. The challenge now is to harness this energy. If heritage values are indeed held and legitimated by ‘everyone’, do all value categories not belong to the population at large? If so, how can the varying views of different communities and the diverse range of relationships with heritage be reconciled? And if heritage values belong to ‘everyone’ as a group or groups where does that leave the role of the heritage professional? Are they still the ‘expert’, or do they become one of a number of ‘experts’ who have both the ‘expertise’ and capacity to understand that where heritage is located is as important as who ascribes value andwhat is of value? The heritage sector has continually evolved, but finding the tools to unlock and recognise other forms of expertise will be challenging, especially within a changing planning system and in a society in which identity is increasingly complex and historic consensus increasingly fragile. References 5 Nigel Barker of Historic England inThe Farrell Review Being known as the world’s oldest surviving skate spot enabled the skaters to mount their campaign to prevent the loss of the Southbank Undercroft. Rebecca Madgin is senior lecturer in urban development and management at the University of Glasgow. Michael Taylor is an independent practitioner in planning and conservation.
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