Context 156 - September 2018

C O N T E X T 1 5 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 27 IHBC ANNUAL SCHOOL Heritage, communication and negotiation across communities Speaker: Quintin Oliver, founder and director, Stratagem NI Quintin Oliver discussed proposals for the resto- ration of north Belfast’s Carnegie Old Park and its transfer for use by the local community as a social enterprise. The building, a heritage icon in this part of the city, sits in a flashpoint area, not far from the peace line, which divides the two main communities. The building is entirely within a loyalist enclave identified in a national league table as one of the three most deprived areas in the north of Ireland and the wider UK. Acting as a local benefactor, Oliver’s organisa- tion Stratagem NI secured the building at auc- tion for £90,000 on behalf of the community, with a view to leasing it to the Northern Ireland Foundation. The foundation is an independent charity that develops programmes to support a shared future in the north of Ireland, through local community activism and enabling the exchange of international best practice. Historically, the Carnegie Old Park Library was the first of three libraries built by the Belfast Corporation following a donation from Andrew Carnegie. Built in 1906 to the designs of the local architectural practice Watt and Tulloch, the Carnegie Old Park Library served as a library for over 100 years, closing its doors in 2008. Since then it has been falling into a gradual state of disrepair. The importance of negotiation in heritage-led regeneration was a key theme, with a focus on the problems associated with such a process in former and frozen conflict zones. There was a discussion about the attachment that a particu- lar community has towards a building which it has no historical connection with, and how com- munity interest can be harnessed. In unlocking community negotiations, three distinct phases were identified: positions, interests and needs. Oliver cited the frozen conflict zone of Cyprus as an example where lack of communication has resulted in no negotiation, thereby making progress more difficult. This example was of rel- evance in the regeneration of the Carnegie Old Park Library, where the local community was besieged due to the sectarian interfaces at play, and had suffered a prolonged cycle of decline. The former library building became a heritage pawn in this process, identified as a means of growing confidence in the community through engagement and connecting stories to the wider community. Oliver spoke of the importance of ‘capturing the stories of the past as a pivot for the future’ and the role this can play in com- munity conciliation. The outlook for the Carnegie Old Park Library is positive. The Architectural Heritage Fund has provided a project viability grant, which has been matched with a start-up grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.This will enable the foundation to test the viability of its proposals and complete a condition survey of the building. Oliver highlighted the importance of steering through the process of negotiation with stake- holders, including statutory bodies. Potential future uses include addiction counselling, which would provide an important outreach service in this deprived part of Belfast. Chris Colville Strategic financing: underpinning the benefits of sharing Speaker: Paul Mullan, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Northern Ireland Paul Mullan examined historic places as the setting for past, present and future commu- nity value, highlighting the £8 billion that the Heritage Lottery Fund had delivered since 1994 and its value in harnessing the power of heritage to bring change and benefits to society. In these straightened economic times, though, it was no longer enough to see buildings as stand-alone objects to be protected. ‘A focus on the intrinsic value of the building is never going to be enough in a world dominated by the type of economics driven by the short-term considerations of cost and time, rather than long term sustainability,’ Mullan said. ‘Consequently, we are seeing erosion and obliteration of heritage spaces and buildings that don’t meet the needs of the prevailing winds of economic change’. To counter this, and continue to protect herit- age, he set three key questions for HLF bids: Quintin Oliver: the former library building became a heritage pawn