Context 152 - November 2017

C O N T E X T 1 5 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 7 Greenbacks was the civil parish. The selection criteria were revised simultaneously and the valuable concept of the subject’s group value was greatly strengthened. InAugust 1980Michael Heseltine, as secretary of state for the environment, took action to accelerate the resurvey following the demolition of the art-deco Firestone Factory in Brentford, London.That resurvey work was managed first by 22 local authorities, and then through the private sector, notably with 11 architectural practices. This resurvey, the second survey, took a more inclusive approach, considering a wider range of structures for listing, and introducing a ’30-year rule’ to enable the inclusion of more modern designs and building types. A fresh review of urban areas from 1989 led to ‘the Bluebacks’, the last of which was completed in Bath in 2010. When English Heritage took the responsibility for listing from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2005, it improved further on the format and content of the list entries, including sections on history, details and the bullet-pointed reasons for designation, which help to distil the subject’s significance. The need to make the lists more robust – and to serve more effectively as a tool within the planning system – has led modern lists to evolve further, and set out the subject’s narrative and description more fully.As wider audiences and easier public access to the list were sought, so too came the introduction of the advanced search facility and the map search, offering even broader routes in to this encyclopaedic body of planning and cultural information. Now, with a global audience through the online and searchable treasure house that is the National Heritage List for England, launched in 2011, these individual nuggets of accessible learning on our buildings are open to all to view and enjoy: for use by everyone from planners to developers, genealogists to journalists, and owners to tourists. The list will continue to evolve.Although the Heritage Protection Bill of 2008 failed to pass into statute, the Enterprise and Regulatory ReformAct 2013 saw through some key intentions, and it is now possible to set out precisely whether attached or curtilage structures are protected by a listing. Responding to the public appetite for and interest in the list, since June 2016 it has been possible through our Enrich the List initiative for anyone to contribute to this remarkable resource, bringing their own images and narrative to enhance our collective knowledge and understanding of listed fabric.This innovative, inclusive approach to heritage management helps expand our heritage knowledge and appreciation of listed fabric, both within our communities and into our planning considerations.As such, Enrich the List binds listing – as a management system for one of our most accessible, if easily overlooked, community resources – into the most inclusive statements of what we value in the places and fabric for which we all care.² To celebrate the 70th anniversary of listing in 2017, Historic England invited a range of views on the success or failure of the act to provide a heritage debate online.³ These incisive articles – with contributions ranging from conservation practitioners such as Bob Kindred, a regular contributor to Context, to David Lovell, listed building enthusiast and top contributor to Enriching the List – offer lively coverage and tasters of the journey from 1947. Today we see local planning authorities striving with diminished resources to fulfil the powers available to manage and protect the listed stock, enforcement being recognised more in the breach than the observance, for example (a hard reality that Bob Kindred and the IHBC have exposed⁴). Meanwhile, the recent loss of a Jacobean ceiling at 15 Small Street, Bristol, has led to calls for interim protection to be brought into the toolkit. It seems that we could usefully remind ourselves just how the 1947 act shaped and protected the calibre of our towns, villages and cities, and why we must build on its achievements. Hugh Ellis, head of policy at the Town and Country Planning Association, has concluded that the 1947 act ‘created a system capable of fulfilling the social, environmental and economic objectives of reconstruction and long-term land management. There is a logic and clarity to the structure of the systemwhich has never been matched, and it delivers on housing and conservation objectives in an unprecedentedly successful manner.’⁵ Happily, a digest of the anniversary’s overviews shows the resounding conclusion that the 1947 act is something to be celebrated across England and beyond. It had, as Ellis explained, a radical heart, and was elegant in structure and poetic in outcome.⁶ The act can be credited as one of the great successes of the post-war period, securing the protection of our built and historic environment and its character at a time of unprecedented change in our places. Its principles are even more relevant and vital to society today, as we face drastic climatic and environmental change, unimagined 70 years ago. References ² See https:// historicengland.org.uk/ listing/enrich-the-list/ ³ Launched in August 2017, 70 years after the passing of the act. See https://historicengland. org.uk/whats-new/ debate/ and https:// historicengland.org. uk/whats-new/debate/ mother-of-all-planning- acts/ ⁴ Bob Kindred, Heritage Protection Enforcement, Historic England Heritage Online Debate, https://historicengland. org.uk/whats-new/debate/ enforcement/ ⁵ Hugh Ellis, ‘The Rise and Fall of the 1947 Planning System’, Historic England Heritage Online Debate, https://historicengland. org.uk/whats-new/debate/ rise-and-fall-of-1947- planning-system/ ⁶ Hugh Ellis, as above Deborah Mays is head of listing advice, Historic England. The Grade II listed former Mechanics Institute, now LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) (Photo: PeterWilliams, Historic England Archive)