Context 154 - May 2018

8 C O N T E X T 1 5 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 8 the Forest of Dean. Most paving stone comes from India and China, but in 2016 there was an increase in stone coming from Europe, thanks to the popularity of Italian porphyry, and Spanish and Portuguese granite. According to HMRC, paving accounts for six per cent by volume of the stone being landed in the UK from overseas. One wonders if sufficient supplies of matching replacements are held in store for what would be, one would hope, the eventual seamless reinstatements necessary in the afterlife of public utility works. The basis on which some of this imported stone is being quarried has led to the establishment of an Ethical Stone Register. This response by the Stone Federation to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is an attempt to eradicate modern slavery from the supply chains of some of this imported paving stone. The March issue of Natural Stone Specialist has a most interesting report on the restoration by Cliveden Conservation of the splendid and elaborate alabaster-and-marble reredos, designed by the writer Thomas Hardy for All Saints Church,Windsor. Hardy had trained as an architect and in the 1860s worked as a draughtsman, making designs for a number of churches. The altarpiece had been covered over with wooden panelling in the 1920s and forgotten. It was rediscovered almost by accident in 2016, along with a brass crucifix decorated with semi- precious gems, dating from 1902. Bob Kindred MBE Cool down about Liverpool From Professor IanWray, Civic Design, Department of Geography and Planning and Heseltine Institute for Public Policy and Practice, University of Liverpool In an otherwise well-balanced piece, IHBC chair James Caird suggests that, in Venice, strict planning rules mean that the biggest danger to the world heritage site is the lack of action, whereas in Liverpool it is the positive actions of regeneration projects themselves which are the biggest threat ( Context 153, March 2018). Well, yes and no: if you mean the positive actions of regeneration projects actually implemented in Liverpool over the last two or three decades, the answer is that these have been hugely beneficial. Look at the once- derelict buildings now refurbished as historic hotels and housing, like the Stanley Dock complex; look at the complete reconstruction of the public realm; look at the waterfront; look at the quality of new development in Liverpool One; look at the Georgian quarter. Only 2.5 per cent of listed buildings are now at risk in the city, down from 13 per cent in 2000. What worries Unesco is the potential risk from the construction of very tall buildings on derelict sites, in the so-called ‘LiverpoolWaters’ proposal (north of the city centre), an entirely speculative development proposal, conceived before the 2008 financial crash, and within which not a brick has been laid since outline consent was granted several years ago. Letters Development is now coming forward for detailed consent on the Liverpool Waters site, not for the 60-storey office towers in the artists’ impressions, but for low-rise buildings and for residential blocks which are half (or in one case the same as) the height of existing buildings in the adjacent 1960s and 1970s office- expansion zone – which were there when the world heritage site was designated. Everyone needs to cool down about Liverpool. Otherwise the world heritage site will be lost for no good reason and the conservation movement as a whole could suffer a serious setback in public esteem. IanWray Isle of Man From Dave Martin, Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society Thank you: the journal itself and its coverage of matters Manx ( Context 153, March 2018) are greatly appreciated. Some of the material we have published on Manx built heritage, mentioned by several of the Context authors, is available on the web site of the Alliance for Building Conservation (which the IOM Natural History and Antiquarian Society founded). Although the press entitled the series ‘Buildings at Risk’, it highlights buildings currently at risk, buildings lost, and buildings sustainably saved; and from time to time the alliance pushes policy issues as well. The articles can be found at www.ABC.org.im Dave Martin Liverpool’s waterfront (Photo: Alex Liivet, flickr)