Context 153 - March 2018

C O N T E X T 1 5 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 8 5 ‘WE STRONGLY believe in the benefits of removing the pews. It will enable us to open up the abbey’s nave and side aisles to all, and make it possible for people of different physical ability to sit where they choose. ‘Stackable chairs mean that the nave can be used for a wide variety of traditional and contemporary worship, and restore the abbey to the community use for which it was first designed.’ The Reverend Edward Mason of Bath Abbey quoted in the Daily Telegraph, welcoming the ruling by the chancellor of the Diocese of Bath andWells that the abbey may remove its 19th-century pews. ‘THE NAVE pews are unique to the abbey and are excellent examples of [Sir George Gilbert] Scott’s work, with the carved pew ends modelled on surviving medieval examples in other 16th-century Somerset churches. ‘The Victorian Society believes that their loss will significantly diminish the abbey’s architectural and historical significance.” James Hughes, churches conservation adviser to theVictorian Society, regretting the decision about Bath Abbey’s seating. ‘WHILE THE planning officer and councillors noted that they could not refuse it on the grounds of the destroyed ceiling, they nonetheless demonstrated a clear desire to send a strong message to developers that such vandalism would not be tolerated in Bristol.’ Campaigning architect Neil McKay commenting on the decision by Bristol City Council to refuse planning permission to a proposed development of student flats whose developers destroyed a 400-year- old Jacobean ceiling to make way for it. ‘I HAVE NEVER been very certain as to the value of tangible links to the past. As to Birmingham’s buildings, there is little of real worth in our architecture. Its replacement should be an improvement, provided we keep a few monuments as museum pieces to past ages.’ Sir Herbert Manzoni, city engineer of Birmingham from 1935 to 1969, quoted in 2007 by the writer and conservationist Gavin Stamp, who died recently. ‘ONE STATISTIC made Athena splutter over her cornflakes. Since 2010, the number of conservation officers in England has fallen by more than a third. Scandalously, more than 30 councils don’t employ one at all. Conservation officers are responsible for representing heritage interests in the planning decisions affecting listed buildings and more than 10,000 conservation areas. It’s in everyone’s interest that we have enough of them. Also, that the officers themselves arc pragmatic, experienced, trained to understand why heritage matters, and knowledgeable about the history of their locality. ‘The heritage consultant Bob Kindred has compiled further statistics that paint a more nuanced picture of what’s going on. At the start of the century, he recorded advertisements for about 120 conservation-officer posts every year. In 2008, however, that number collapsed, reaching a nadir of just 26 advertised posts in 2010. Since that time, there has been a slow increase in the numbers appointed, rising to 72 in 2016. Perhaps Robin Hood Gardens (Photo: Steve Cadman [CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 ], Wikimedia Commons) there’s a slight recovery under way. ‘Whatever the case, Athena has heard good anecdotal evidence that some councils have cut costs by replacing experienced conservation officers with inexperienced staff or planning officers. In instances, an apparent continuity of staffing masks a massive loss of expertise and, what’s worse, a potential change of emphasis in the planning advice they receive from heritage to the public and economic benefits of development. By any measure, therefore, we remain desperately short of conservation officers and we do so at a moment when central government is putting unparalleled pressure on the planning system.’ The columnist Athena writing in Country Life ‘TO MY MIND it justifies our position in trying to save Robin Hood Gardens. These were fantastic flats. It would have been nice to have saved the whole thing but it’s better than nothing. ‘It’s also very much in the tradition of the V&A in taking bits of a building.’ Architect Simon Smithson commenting in the Architects’ Journal on theV&A’s decision to buy and display a three-storey piece of Robin Hood Gardens, the east London housing estate designed by his parents, Alison and Peter Smithson