C O N T E X T 1 4 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 3 ‘I COULDN’T disagree more with letters bemoaning the stunning skyscrapers shooting up in London. At last the city is beginning to look like something and no one has torn down a single listed building to do it. ‘Nor will they replace our palaces, monuments and museums – the Cheesegrater was slanted to avoid blocking views of St Paul’s and it looks great as a result. I am growing bored with blackened masonry covered in pigeon droppings.We could build 10 more Shard-like skyscrapers and I’d still be envious of Shanghai.’ A letter from Nick Rougier in the London Evening Standard ‘VALUE comes from giving the building what it needs, not what that particular owner at this moment needs.’ John Sell, chairman of the Joint Committee of National Amenity Societies ‘IN JUST these few years, philistines on the council have obliterated more Grade I important places in Beatles history, including the Nems shop and Beatles office (demolished), Litherland Town hall (completely altered) and Aintree Institute (demolished). ‘I was driving past the Institute one day – glancing up to see it, as I always did – and it was gone, a hole in a terrace to match the shape of my mouth, and this on the eve of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year. The Beatles played this atmospheric dance hall 31 times, including a string of Saturday nights where things really kicked off… and now the place is gone, for no justifiable reason. ‘Council madness exists everywhere, and they do it particularly well in Liverpool – the Cavern to which tourists flock from around the world is a re-creation because the real one was demolished and filled in to make way for precisely nothing. Here and now, I urge all Merseyside councillors to commit publicly to a moratorium, so that demolition of these historic landmarks, this mad slashing of the city’s own heritage, can at least be discussed first.’ Mark Lewisohn writing in 2013 in The Beatles Tune In, the first of three volumes on his history of the group. every day, affecting over 70,000 listed buildings and three in every eight churches. According to the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group’s latest data, more than 6,700 churches and 42 commercial heritage properties, such as museums and country houses, have fallen victim to metal thieves in the past five years, costing nearly £12.5 million. Beyond the buildings The IHBC London branch hosted a conference on 8 October at the Royal College of Physicians on identifying and conserving historic landscapes, asking ‘What exactly are historic landscapes?’, ‘How do we recognise their significance?’ and ‘How should they be protected?’. The underlying message was that too often consideration of the heritage value of parks, gardens and landscapes came second to the appreciation of buildings and structures. The conference aimed to redress the balance by examining the range of historically important landscapes from urban parks to open countryside, and considering how they should be protected and conserved. Scottish heritage angels The winners of the inaugural Scottish Heritage Angel Awards have been announced. Funded by the Andrew LloydWebber Foundation, the initiative celebrates remarkable individuals and their efforts in helping to better understand, appreciate and protect Scotland’s heritage and history. Awards went to Friends of Glasgow Necropolis for their work to digitally capture and create a permanent record of some 3,500 graves, memorials and mausolea throughout the 37-acre site; Forres Heritage Trust for restoring and bringing back into community use two local historic landmarks, Nelson Tower and the Tolbooth, Moray; Scottish Fire and Rescue Service volunteers for their Scottish fire heritage project in South Lanarkshire and throughout Scotland; and the ScottishWaterways Trust and Canals College for their canal and waterways heritage work in Falkirk. The Scottish Heritage Angel Awards are delivered in partnership between the Andrew LloydWebber Foundation, the Scottish Government, Historic Scotland, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, the Scottish Civic Trust and Archaeology Scotland. Excellence from the 1970s Computershare’s Bristol offices and surrounding grounds have been listed. The Pavilions building in Bedminster Down is one of 14 post-war buildings to be recognised. The financial services firm is the second largest private sector employer in the Bristol City Council local authority area, with over 1,300 people working at The Pavilions. The building, begun in 1975, was designed by Arup Associates, influenced by principles of Frank LloydWright and the arts-and-crafts movement. The building originally housed the former Central Electricity Generating Board. Computershare recently invested £13 million in a refurbishment. In its report, English Heritage describes the building as ‘an excellent example of a low-energy commercial building of the 1970s’. Nelson’s Tower (Photo: Forres Heritage Trust) Arup Associates’ Pavilions building in Bedminster Down is one of 14 post-war buildings to have been newly listed.
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