For further information please contact the Conference Secretariat: terra2000 CENTRE FOR EARTHEN ARCHITECTURE, UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH, FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY, DRAKE CIRCUS, PLYMOUTH PL4 SAA tel: + 44 (0) 01752 233 304 lax:+ 44 (0) 1752 233310 e-maiI: terra2000@plymouth.ac.uk I a Terra 2000 will take place between the 11th and 13th of May 2000 in Torquay, Devon. Terra 2000 will be the eighth in a series of major international conferences on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architecture. Previous events have been held in venues such as Iran, New Mexico and Portugal. The conference (linked to The Council of Europe's - Europe: A Common Heritage Campaign) is organised under the aegis of the ICOMOS International Committee for the Study and the Conservation of Earthen Architecture. Terra 2000 will provide the forum to share knowledge and research on the use of earth and the conservation of earthen structures. The aim of the conference will be to ensure the survival of the earthen architectural tradition into the next century. Oral presentations as well as posters and other visual presentations will be presented on the following conference themes of: i architectural monuments and sites ii materials and craftsmanship iii conservation, repair and maintenance iv continuity of tradition: new earth building v political, legal and economic context; promotion and consciousness raising Papers delivered at the conference will be published in pre- prints (included within the registration fee) The Conference venue will also include a Trade Fair and National/ International Exhibition. Pre- conference events will be taking place from 2nd to 10th May. These include a training course, which will offer the opportunity to focus on the earth building technique prevalent in the South West. Master-classes will also be held. Experts knowledgeable in earth building techniques throughout the world will lead these one-day sessions. An Earth Building Festival which is to run alongside the conference will provide an opportunity for local community participation and will include a "hands on" event for children. The conference and associated events are being held in Torquay, with excellent conference facilities and an opportunity to explore the earthen architecture of the region. A series of Post- Conference Tours will also enable delegates to view the varied earthen architectural heritage of the United Kingdom. The three-day conference includes local site visits, all lunches, an evening reception and conference pre-prints.Standard registration fee is £350.00 with Student Registration of £200.00. ;".,,•••,,: ~ ' ,. < ENGLISH HERITAGE I.. l' M 0 University of Plymouth, Centre for Earthen Architecture IC0M0S / UK Earth Structures Committee Under the aegis of: ICOMOS International Committee for the Study and the Conservation of Earthen Architecture
THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORIC BUILDING CONSERVATION http://www.ihbc.org.uk Registered Office: 3 S1:dTordTerrace, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 4QZ Editorial Co-ordinator: Dr Nigel Barker, 119 Stanford Road, London SW16 4PR. Tel: 020 8679 9116, e-mail: editor@ihbc.org.uk IHBC Officers Chairman: Dr Malcolm Airs (Department of Continuing Ecluc:Hion, Oxford University, Tel: 01865 270395), 39 High Street, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxon OXJO 7HN, Tel: 01865 340075, e-mail: malcolmairs@conrcd.ox.ac.uk Acting Vice Cbair: Sarah Higgins, The Cottage, Church Street, Ledbury HRS 1Dl-1. Tel: 01531 635949. e-mail: vicechair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary: Dr Richard Morrice (English· I leritagc, Tel: 01483 304869), 3 Stafford Terrace, Tunbridge \Velis, Kent TN2 4QZ, e-mail: secretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasw·er: Robert Parkinson (West Oxfordshire District Council, Tel: 01993 770247), The Old Priory, Priory Lane, Bicester, Oxon OX6 7BG, e-mail: treasurer@ihbc.org.uk Membe,ship Secretary: Gus Astley (Bath & North East Somersel Council), Manor House, Wells Road, Hallatrow, Bristol BS39 6EJ, Tel/Answerphone: 01761 453047, Fax: 01761 451153, e-mail: membership@ihbc.org.uk Branches Co-ordinator: Julia Smith (Milton Keynes Council, Tel: 01908 252501), 49 Chaucer Drive, Aylesbury HP2l 7LH, Tel: 01296 435187, e-mail: branches@ihbc.org.uk Consultalions Co-ordinator: Graham Arnold (Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. Tel: 0151 691 8197), 13 Sefton Drive, Liverpool LS 3SD F,ducation Co-ordinator: John Preston (Cambridge City Council, Tel: 01223 457166), 90 Histon Road, Cambridge CD4 3JP Tel: 01223 562534, e-mail: johnp@cambridge.gov.uk Tee/mica/ Panel Co-ordinator: Jenny Chesher (Mendip Borough Council, Tel: 01749 341320). Cannards Grave Road, Shcpton Mallet, Somerset \3A4 51:lT.e-mail: chesherj@menclip.gov.uk Publicity Officer: David Davidson, 862 Finchley Road, London NW11 6A\3. Tel:020 8731 8238. e-mail: publicity@ihbc.org.uk Branch Officers North. Ian Goodman, Tel: 01670 519391 Nortb West: Sheila Stones, Tel: 0161 793 3770 Yorkshire: Stephen 13ateman, Tel: 01274 754551 West Midlands.· David Baxter, Tel: 01432 261950, East Midlands: Michael Taylor, Tel: 0116 252 7296 South: Martin Andrew, Tel: 01494 421578, e-mail: south@ihbc.org.uk Soutb West: David Stirling, Tel: 01249 760670 East Anglia: Michael Knights, Tel: 01603 611346 South East: Peter Cobley, Tel: 01622 221547 London: Rosemarie MacQueen, Tel: 020 7641 2455 Scotland: Ronnie Robertson, Tel: 01343 563287 \Vales: Neil Sumner, Tel: 01656 643159 Northern Ireland: Laurence Manogue, Tel: 0280 9067 1114 Eire: 13ernard Dee, Tel: (00 353) (0)1743 7721 Registered as a Charity Number 1061593. C:ompany Limited by Guarantee. Regis1ered in England Number 3333780. Context65 March2000 Context News Letters 4 5 CONSERVATION OF TWENTIETH CENTURY BUILDINGS New Millennium, New Architecture? Elain Harwood 7 9 11 14 17 21 24 26 In search of Vitrolite. Michael Taylor Modern Movement houses in Cambridge. John Preston Post-war listed buildings. Pete S1nith The Luma Tower, enlightened once more. Mike Fraser Points (and slabs) of interest. Sarah Buckingham Sir Titus. Conserving 20th century buildings. David Morton Cast in stone? Melanie Clamp Supporting Columns. Deterioration of 20th century concrete buildings. Brian Morton 28 30 31 Conserving a 120th century college. John Preston The 20th century landscape: heritage or horror? Peter Wake/in Taking the long view. Hilary Roome continues her look at practical applications of sustainable development in the historic environment Recent developments in the law. Charles Mynors Conferences 34 37 39 42 44 47 Technical IHBC news Book reviews Editorial WHENCONSERVATIONCAMEOFAGE The 20th century is vanishing behind us. The bomb didn't go off, the nationstate didn't disappear, the great white heat of technology finally arrived in the 1990s. We made the 20th century and now we must remember, interpret and celebrate it. The first Context of the new millennium does just that. In this issue we look at conserving the 20th century, the centwy that saw conservation grow up, come of age and be counted. Good conservation looks forward as well as back and the Twentieth Century Society has been championing the best of modern British art and design for 20 years. As long ago as the 1980s, the government sanctioned the listing first of inter-war buildings, then post-war buildings and finally buildings up to ten years old where outstanding architectural and historic interest could be demonstrated. It was right to do so. The building programmes of 20th century Britain, which incluclecl 19 New Towns, were unprecedented and amidst the acres of outrageous banality there were real jewels. British post-war schools, universities and social housing were amongst the best in the world. There are particular building types, such as power stations and telephone boxes, and man-made landscapes, such airfields, which never existed before the 20th century. The best of them need protecting now, before the new technology anclthe helter-skelter of change make them obsolete. Change is in the air; already the value and fate of the celebratory millennium architecture are being debated. Is it worth keeping 1 Can we use it or conserve it in the future? Shades of the Festival of Britain spring to mind. Context too is changing. We salute Bob Kindred MBE, who took us to the encl of the 20th centu1y and we welcome Rob Cowan, our new Editor, who, supportecl by an Eelitorial Board ofIHBC members, will take us into the new era with the.June issue. The Editorial Board has already been hard at work planning a new look Context, studying the option of producing six instead of four issues a year and producing this special 'Conse1ving the Twentieth Centu1y' issue. It is a paradox of conse,vation that only by shaking off the past do we start to understand it, reassess it, even cherish it. We shall conse1ve the best of the 20th centuty and, hopefully, leamfrom itsmistakes. For we know already that the 21stcentwywill be faster, more challenging, more exciting and more awesome. 3
Context Editorial co-ordinator: Dr Nigel Barker, 119 Stanford Road, London SW16 4PR. Tel: 020 8679 9116, e-mail: editor@ihbc.org.uk. Production Editor: Jonathan David, Tel: 01582 763415, Fax: 01582 467480 e-mail: jonathan_david@hotmail.com Context is published quarterly and is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2000 ISSN 0958-2746 Published for the Institute of Historic Building Conservation by Hall-McCartney Ltd, Heritage House, PO Box 21, BALDOCK, Herts SG7 SSH. Tel: 01462 896688 Fax: 01462 896677 e-mail: context@hall-mccartney.co.uk Nonmember subscriptions to Context Context is available to nonrnernbers of the IHBC at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdon £40.00 Elsewhere: US$113.00 Subscription orders, together with remittances payable to Hall-McCartney Ltd, should be sent to the Baldock, Hertfordshire, address shown above. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily those held by the IHBC or the publishers. Neither the publishers nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. The products and services advertised in this publication are not necessarily endorsed by the Institute. COVERSTORY To mark the Millennium celebrations, Context temporarily sheds its usual cover design to take full advantage of this photograph of the Millennium Wheel, or London Eye, by Elain Harwood. A feature on conservation of 20th century buildings begins on page 7. 4 NEWS PARISHIONERPOWERWINSOUT St Alban's Church, Stroud Conservationists in Stroud are celebrating news of the judgement in a recent Consistory Court case. St Alban's (1915-16), by local architect Thomas Falconer (1880-1934), is a structurally complete church in the Arts and Crafts, early Christian revival style. It is a small, stone mission church with a domed apse, pan-tiled roof and bellcote. It was listed grade II in 1951. The interior is very simple and un-English with the Rood and Screen having figures on Obituary MARTINCAROE1933-1999 Martin Caroe, who will be known to many members, died on 17 November last year. He was one of the major figures in the conservation world, with a character to match. I remember well being taken up onto the roof at Peper Harow in Surrey, where he was supervising repairs after fire damage to that 18th century house, and watching while, with unconcern, he walked along the parapet balustrade as the scaffold roof thumped from huge gusts of wind coming in the from the east. His delight in buildings was huge and he was always generous in his help. One of his greatest enthusiasms was his house, Vann, near Godalming, a 16th and 17th century building in the Surrey Hills, where his father, the Edwardian eh urch architect, W D Carne, had worked, remodelling it, where Gertrude Jekyll had laid out the garden and where his father, the architect Alban Caroe, had lived. Martin was also very pleased with the repairs he had carried out to Henry Woodyer's little church at Bascombe, nearby. He is best known, however, for his work as a cathedral architect, particularly at Wells, where he developed, with Prof. Robert Baker, the pioneering system of poulticing to extract dirt from the stonework and sculpture of the west front of the building, followed by lime watering as a consolidant and the use of lime shelter coats to protect the stonework against further erosion. This was not a process wholly without interthem painted by Henry Payne. There were a number of objections to a proposal to re-site the Rood and Screen to the rear of the church, shown in plans prepared by Peter Gilbert Scott. The St Alban's Conservation Group was formed by parishioners, Stroud Civic Society and Stroud Preservation Trust to put the case to the Consistory Court in November 1999. Chancellor June Rodgers said in her statement : "The Screen and Rood should stay in their present position so that the integvention, but it has become an integral part of the armoury of those attempting to arrest the decay of important historic buildings, particularly those with exterior sculpture Indeed, Martin used these methods during his work at his other English cathedral commission, Rochester in Kent. Perhaps his other major work was as architect to Kingston Lacy in Dorset where the National Trust had taken into care a house by Sir Roger Pratt, but which had been remodelled in the 19th century by Sir Charles Barry so that it had actually grown by having the original brick encased in stone. Martin was a formative figure in the history of conservation architecture at a time when, with the seemingly exponential growth of legislation, it could be said that conservation was being bureaucratised. He always made plain his huge enthusiasm for that part of the architectural jungle and it is perhaps his example of serious thought on practical matters in combination with energy which will be his main legacy. Richard Morrice Historic Buildings Inspector English Heritage CORRECTION Apologies that authorship of the article 'Conservation of decorative plasterwork -an Irish viewpoint' in Context 64 was incorrectly credited. The author was Andrew Smith not David McClean. Frank Keohane /HBC Republic of Ireland Branch rity of this interesting church can remain. Minor alterations should provide more than adequate flexibility for the current needs of the congregation". For more information • Anne Mackintosh, Stroud Preservation Trust; tel: (01453) 766273. IHBCSOUTH BRANCHANNUAL CONFERENCE A bitter harvest?Thefutureof Englishpubs:newtraditions,new themes,newrealitiesversusthe traditionalpub 8 April A joint conference with CAMRA to discuss all issues relating to the problems of maintaining historic public houses, including preserving the fabric and also the essential character of traditional pubs which are constantly under threat from closure or 'remodelling' to cater for changing consumer demand. Speakers have been drawn from large and small breweries, the Amenity Societies, CAMRA, local authorities and English Heritage representing all sides of this topical and interesting subject. To be held at Reading University. For further details: Martin Andrew 23 Long Furlong, Haddenham, Bucks HPl 7 8DQ, e-mail: south@ihbc.org.uk SURVEYING HISTORIC BUILDINGS 29 March 2000: The Chantry House, Henley-on-Thames More details in !HBC News. Further details: GillHine, Oxley Conservation, c/oManxCottage, Church Road, North Leigh, Witney, Oxo. OX8 6TX, tel: (01993) 883418 NEXTISSUE Copy deadline for the Summer 2000 issue (No.66) will be 20th April Please adhere to this deadline. The theme will be "Connected Conservation - Working with partners and information technology". Contributions (up to 2000 words) on this theme are invited but other contributions, experiences, technical notes, case studies and appeal decisions are welcome (space permitting). Please send them to Nigel Barker. Please submit copy on a 3.5 inch floppy disk in Windows 95 format. Alternatively e-mail text to: editor@ihbc.org.uk Context65March2000
LETTERS AABCREGISTER Sir: I was disappointed to read in the September issue of Context the overall support given by John Preston to the setting up of the Register of Architects Accredited in Building Conservation (AABC Register). I feel that the Institute is missing an important opportunity here. We have progressed from the original Association of Conservation Officers and now have an Institute that should be the main professional body for those involved in the conservation of historic buildings. Membership is no longer determined by the job members carry out but by their qualification and experience. It is also available to a wider range of professionals than those involved in the planning process. We now have members, for example, who are structural engineers. Their membership of this Institute should give confidence to potential clients that they will have a good understanding of the special problems associated with historic buildings and will be able to use their judgement rather than merely quote codes of practice. Similarly, I would hope that we would welcome members of the heating and ventilating engineering professions as well as those of electrical engineering. Heaven knows, we do need professionals in those fields that respect historic buildings and do not act like Philistines. Quantity surveyors with special historic building experience should also be encouraged. We can all think of projects that have suffered from inadequate cost information clue to surveyors not having special knowledge of historic buildings. In the case of the proposed new architectural register, the persons setting it up have no official status even if it is supported by a range of conservation and professional bodies. The Institute, on the other hand, has spent considerable time obtaining official recognition. The architects' own professional institute, the RIBA, has indicated that it does not itself wish to be involved in setting up such a register and is at best lukewarm towards it. At present, Context65 March2000 LETTERS I understand that there is a considerable body of opinion among those in the architectural profession involved in historic building conservation that they do not want to be involved in this register for a number of reasons. Why, therefore, does not the !HBC take up the challenge and welcome architects with suitable qualifications and experience to be full members and effectively create its own register? Through monitoring CPD, the Institute would ensure that the professional abilities of those architects were being continuously enhanced and that they were keeping up-to-elate with current conservation techniques and philosophy. The professional qualifications RIBA + IHBC would then mean architect qualified to work on historic buildings. There would then be no need for an additional register and certainly not one organised by a group without proper official recognition. If the Institute were to take up this challenge, it would mean that it could itself be responsible for the professional standards of all professionals involved in historic building conservation. I realise that this would be a considerable responsibility for a new institute but surely one that it would welcome. It would not have to rely on other bodies with their own (often commercially driven) agendas and could set the standards of education for all historic building professionals rather than merely seeking to use its influence with other bodies. The initials IHBC will then come to mean something really significant. It is my view that the Institute should grasp the exciting opportunity which now exists and set out to become the principal professional body for all professionals involved in historic building conservation, membership of which will be recognised by the public at large as indicating the highest standards of professional competence in the field. Yours sincerely Edward Sargent APPEALFOR INFORMATION Sir: We are currently collating information relating to sustainability issues and listed building maintenance, with a STONEHEALTH LIMITED © 73 London Road, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SNS 2AN, UK Tel & Fax: (0044) 01672 511515 e-mail: co.stonehealth@virgin.net Building Restoration & Conservation can be Easy & Safe - Using Unique Machinery & Products Only Available from STONEHEALTH 0 JJ§!§ 1r0JR(C The only cleaning systems capable of developing the unique swirling vortex - well recognised as gentle, safe & effective Paint removal made possible often without the use of chemicals Sole supplier of both the well established JOSffORC & DOFF systems Register of fully trained & inducted Operators of JOSffORC & DOFF Full range of effective yet safer chemicals to both the user & the environment Capable of supplying products specifically formulated for individual projects ARTE MUNDIT -product for dry interior cleaning LITHOS ARTE - new form of mortar repair product ID) CO) WW Totally different method for the removal of paint & other unwanted coatings • Westminster Abbey(HenryVIIChapel) • RoyalMews,WindsorCastle • AlbertMemorial,BronzeandStonecleaning • RIBAbuilding,PortlandPlace • CambridgeUniversity, KingsCollegeChapel • St.PancrasStation,London • OxfordUniversity,Internalof ExeterCollege • TheKremlin,Moscow • St. Peter's - TheVatican,Rome • St.Jarnes'sPalace,London • Canterbury, Salisbury,Westminster, Hereford,Ely,LincolnCathedrals & manyothers... 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6 LETTERS view to producing an advisory leaflet for listed building owners, Spring/Summer 2000. Have any other local authorities, charities or associations recently produced any such related leaflets ? If so could they send me any copies? In addition, we have a grade II* monument, without an owner, which is in a poor state of repair. Does anyone have any experience of: □ Restoring 'Monuments at Risk' □ Sourcing specific funding for them □ Putting together packages to rescue them Any advice on how to persuade people to take them on. Any case studies or advice on how others have approached this problem would be gratefully received. Information on both topics should be sent to: me at the address below. Yours sincerely Ruth Connolly, ConseivationAssistant, Peak District National Park Authority Aldern House, Derbyshire DE45 JAE, tel. 01629816238, e-mail aldern@peakdistrict.org ENABLING DEVELOPMENT Sir: As the consultant behind the English Heritage Policy Statement Enabling Development and the conservation of historic assets, I would like to offer a personal (rather than English Heritage) response to Dave Morton's review article (Context 64, pp 39-40). I think it impo1tant to correct the misconception, at the start of the article, that the Statement advocates a presumption against all enabling development to support historic assets. Rather, it advocates a presumption against such enabling development which does not meet stated criteria. The final criterion is ve,y simple, but crucial: taken as a whole: do the benefits outweigh the disbenefits? The greatest benefit to be weighed in the balance will normally be securing the future of an historic asset at risk. Why Mr Morton should think that the Policy "does not allow any account to be taken" of it escapes me. The negative tone of the document was an inevitable Bryn Gilby Historical Mortars TRADITIONAL BURNT LIME PROVIDING BEST QUALITY LIME PUTTY. LIME MORTARS, LIME WASHES '&? LIME PAINTS Sole distributor for Wales of St Astier Natural Hydraulic Limes Details '32 prices on request Tel: 0 I 656 659040 Fax: 01656 657313 Mobile: 0410 965549 response to widespread concern about the damaging impacts and perceived abuses of enabling development -not least as a vehicle for circumventing constraints on development in the Green Belt and open countryside. There was overwhelming support from English local authorities for the consultation draft - and many helpful suggestions, borne of practical and often unhappy experience, which were incorporated in the final version. But the criteria themselves can readily be framed in positive rather than double-negative terms. Indeed I did so at the Buildings at Risk: Some Options and Solutions conference in Northern Ireland last October. I fail to see why a document which recommends a structured and transparent process for assessment, which sifts out obvious nonstarters early on, and leads logically to a conclusion, should result in more cases going to appeal. Our aim was quite the opposite, but only time will tell. A planning authority would surely be very foolish to refuse consent rather than face assessing the financial evidence. True, this will almost certainly involve the use of external consultants. However, most authorities routinely accept the need to do so in other regulatory areas, such as checking engineering calculations submitted in support of Building Regulation applications. So why do some seem to have a mental block about doing so in relation to enabling development? Rather than being an alternative to public funding, enabling development is arguably a type of public funding. The idea of the community giving up one asset to acquire a greater one is, after all, not dissimilar to the that of individuals paying taxes to acquire the right to public goods and services - including the conservation of our historic environment. The essential difference is that the community pays in kind which is converted to cash, rather than cash itself. On this premise alone, enabling development should arguably be subject to the same degree of financial scrutiny as cash grants from public funds. And if its use is likely to increase - which I agree is probable - then establishing a generally accepted and transparent basis of assessment is vital. This certainly does not rule out recognising the heritage value of maintaining continuity of ownership, as para 3.4 of the Statement makes clear. As Dave Morton says, successful schemes rarely make news. A ve,y few were mentioned in responses to the consultation draft of the policy statement. I would like to hear in detail about more, to inform the Practical guide to assessment, now being developed - English Heritage hopes to issue a consultation draft in June. The need for such a document was stressed in many responses to last year's consultation. Its value will be enhanced by distilling positive experience from many sources. Yours sincerely Paul Drury Historic environment policy and practice 23 Spencer Road Twickenham TW2 5TZ Tel. 020 8894 4711, fax. 020 8894 4699 ABRC:NEW CHAIRMAN Sir: Alhough some of your readers may have seen the announcements in the national press, you may wish note the Archbishops' appointment of John Newman MA FSA as the next Chairman of the Advisory Board for Redundant Churches as from 1 January 2000. Mr. Newman is a reader in the histo1y of art at the Courtauld Institute, and the author of several books and articles on historic architecture, of which the "Pevsner" guide to the buildings of Kent is, perhaps, the best known. In addition to membership of the English Heritage Historic Areas and Buildings Committee, Mr. Newman was author of a Government report on the Ecclesiastical Exemption. Mr. Newman has been a member of the Council of the Council for the Care of Churches and is currently a member of the Rochester Diocesan Advisory Committee. It may also be of interest to some of your readers to note the death of Michael Gillingham on 22 October 1999. He was 66 years of age and was clue to retire as the Board's Chairman on 31 December after a distinguished period of ten years in office. Yours sincerely Jeffrey West Secretaiy to the Board Context65 March2000
NewMillennium, New Architecture? Elain Harwood is enthusiastic about the prospects for British architecture in the first decade of the new century. There is a partyish spirit down by the Thames these days, as the London Eye or Millennium Wheel nears completion. Photographers are out in force, lying on the pavements or clambering across the mud, all remains of the Jubilee Gardens, for the best shots. Tourists chat with the workmen, as the last sheets of glass are swung into place over their heads on to the entrance kiosk behind the hoardings. Nobody seems to mind that the ticket office is shut, an apologetically hand~written sign referring queries to County Hall. The Wheel has caught the popular imagination as no other new building in London since the Lloyd's Building opened briefly for public viewing back in 1986. If the shuffling scrummage that was this New Year's Eve experience for many of us London dwellers had one plus, it was in our rediscovery of the river. This is one reason why the Wheel is such a success: its open net-like structure forms a visual link between the well known landmarks either side of the Thames and it promises to be gentle fun for those who can get a ticket. Above all it is beautiful. Heading down there, hearing the clunk of cables against flagpoles in the breeze, and watching the sun quiver across the sides of the Royal Festival Hall, I wondered if this was as close as we had come in nearly 50 years to the atmosphere of the Festival of Britain of 1951. Had that show on the South Bank worked, as those of us who could not be there are told it did, not because of its buildings or exhibits, but because it respected and exploited its river setting? All those references to Britain as a sea-going nation, all that steel, canvas and rigging that made up Basil Spence's Seas and Ships Pavilion and its neighbours, seemed suddenly to make sense. Is the Wheel a sophisticated Skylon for our age? And how long will it last? Will it survive the ten years needed before a file requesting its listing can land upon my desk? Well, it is a consoling thought that the Eiffel Tower was supposed to be temporary back in 1889. As there is a great state 'festival': a trade fair, Coronation or special event Context65 March2000 TheLondonEyefromoutsidetheformerCountyHall. only once a generation, or about as often as a football World or European Cup is staged in England, it is easy to forget that there is a tradition of staging exhibitions and events that goes back centuries. Roy Strong wrote of the Festival of Britain that "like all the great fetes in history it solved nothing, but for a brief fleeting moment, it presented a mirage of hope." Willthat be our memory of Millennium night? The reissue of Carol Reed's film, The Third Man (1949) back in September was timely, with its key scene played out in a creaking wooden cabin high above a ravaged Vienna. It was another bit of nostalgia for the post-war, an era in its own right as much as the war itself ... "How long will the post-war last .. . shall we win the post-war, how does it go?" wrote Stevie Smith in the same year, reminding us of the hardships of those austere years. Is this link with 50 years ago so much idle nostalgia, or a desire to return to the collectivism and strange innocence we associate with CONSERVING TWENTIETH CENTURY BUILDINGS those years? My mother recalls friends visiting London for the first time just to go to the Festival, swathed in new outfits specially bought. Architecture and exhibitions now have to compete in a far more sophisticated, cynical world. There isanother association between the Millennium celebrations and the Festival of Britain. It was a magazine columnist's dream to find that Peter Mandelson, bete noire of the Millennium Dome in the first year of the New Labour Government, was the grandson of Herbert Morrison, styled Lord Festival for his promotion of the South Bank show and its related nationwide exhibitions back in 1951. Comparisons between the Millennium Dome and Ralph Tubb's lost, lamented Dome of Discovery were thus legitimised. The Dome of Discovery was designed to house the story of what Edward Millscould in 1953unquestionably call "British predominance in exploration and discovery, not only by land and sea, but also into the nature of the living world and the universe". It was the largest in the world at the time, 109 metres in diameter, 27.9 metres high and 13.5 metres to eaves level, and was designed as a slightly off-set circle within a circle, surrounded by two galleries. It resembled a gentle flying saucer, whose image persisted in sci-fi comics and early BBCTVdramas for the next decade. There is no such innocence about the present Dome, though it too is the largest in the world, at 320 metres, suspended from 12 steel masts each 100metres high. Its circumference is 1 km, and at its centre it is 50 metres high. In other words, it is about three times bigger, and most closely resembles a giant grapefruit savaged by cocktail sticks. Climbing out of the new underground station at North Greenwich, there is no view of the river, only of a bus station and taxi rank, with a distant view of the old tramways station at Greenwich the only familiar landmark. There is a bigger buzz to be had looking at itfrom Charlton, Woolwich or Plumstead, where locals point proudly to the impact it is making on the regen7
8 TheMillenniumDome,Greenwich eration of their area, and to the neat new Millennium Village rising to the designs of Ralph Erskine and others. There are plenty of other 'Capital Millennium Projects' around, and the last year has witnessed more exciting new buildings begun in London than we have seen since the 1960s. The Capital Millennium Projects are, a handy exhibition outside the Dome tells me, the Great Court at the British Museum, being designed by Foster and Partners; a Thames 2000 passenger ferry service, with three new piers; the Docklands Light Railway extension to Lewisham; the Tate Gallery of Modern Art being built by Herzog and de Meuron inside Giles Gilbert Scott's remodelled Bankside Power Station; MacCormac Jamieson Prichard's Wellcome Wing at the Science Museum; and a new shopping centre at White City. The obvious comparison to make is with the Paris projects of President Mitterand, built over a decade ago and already looking surprisingly tawdry when I toured them back in May. But tawdriness was always the risk run by post-modernism. In comparison, one is struck by the relatively modest nature of their London counterparts: a bevy of extensions to our major museums and some long-overdue transport infrastructure. The next question, will the subsidies be there to maintain them? This is why the scale of London's other new building is so remarkable. In particular, we can celebrate the opening of the Jubilee Line Extension, with 11 new stations. The published drawings and photographs do not prepare you for their roughness, nor for their heavy construction in comparison with the lightness of the wheel. The underground stations, from Westminster to North Greenwich, also have the odd, but presumably necessary, device of being enclosed in glass cages; doors on the platform open simultaneously with those on the train to let you on and off. Nevertheless, their scale is breath-taking, as is the wealth of talent employed: Michael Hopkins and Partners at Westminster; MacCormacJamieson Prichard at Southwark; Ian Ritchieat Bermonclsey; Foster and Partners at Canary Wharf; Alsop, Lyalland Stormer at North Greenwich;JohnMcAslanandPartnersatCanning Town; van Heyningen and Haward atWest Ham; and ChrisWilkinson Architects at Stratford, whose open, glazed construction particularly impressed. Here is the galaxy of Britain's finest high-tech talent, present and correct. Add to these the triumph of Future Systems Media Centre at the Lord's Cricket Ground, winner of the 1999 Stirling Prize, and we can see that in the last year of the 1990s Britain at last produced an architecture of which we can all be proud. Commentators wrote of 1951 asking whether the Festival marked a new dawn for British architecture or the encl of an era. In the 1970s, critics such as Rayner Banham chose the latter option, claiming that it brought the contemporary spindly Californian styling, already made fashionable by Charles and Ray Eames, to Britain. Yet today, fragments of that Festival style can be found in High Street buildings built throughout the 1950s, and we can see that what was lost with the destruction of the Festival site in October 1951 was the spirit of post-war optimism and teamwork embodied in the endeavours of the 194551 Labour Government and in groups such as the Hertfordshire schools architects. In 2000 the lesson seems very different. For one thing, buildings such as Benson and Forsyth's Museum of Scotland, and Alsop and Stormer's Peckham Libra1y look well beyond the conventional high-tech, moreover, the Jubilee line extension feels like the last flowering for purely British modern architecture. Hitherto, buildings by American and European architects in Britain have been extremely rare, particularly since the 1960s. But now Skidmore, Owings and Merrill;Helmuth, Oba ta and Sassbaum, and Herzog and de Meuron are among a number of foreign firms which have opened British offices in recent years. Work will shortly begin on Daniel Libeskind's extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum. No longer is architecture one way traffic, with the exportation of designs by Lords Foster and Rogers around the world. Conservationists of the future will have to be much more cosmopolitan in their outlook - and that feels good. Elain Harwood is the Inspector at English Heritage responsible/or its research and listing progi-amme for post-1945 buildings) Context65 March2000
InsearchofVitrolite Michael Taylor tells the tale of a quest for a replacement for a pink 1930s cladding product. Fig. 1. Thefrontof the Kingstonestorefrom BelgroveGate aftercompletionof work. Sir Charles Keene was one of the leading civic and business figures of 20th centu1y Leicester, and served as Lord Mayor in 1953-54. Like some other wealthy people of radical persuasion, his political interests were linked to a progressive taste in architecture and design. This led him to commission Raymond McGrath, then in his early 30s, to design the Kingstone store in Belgrave Gate, Leicester. for his retail furniture business (Fig 1). Kingstone was built in 1937 and two years later McGrath built Carrygate, Keene's house at Gaulby, in the count1yside to the east of Leicester. Raymond McGrath had come to England from Australia in 1926 at the age of 23. One of his interests was in the use of glass and he published Glass inArchitectureandDecorationalso in 1937.1 In this book he described Vitrolite and its Context65 March2000 uses for external and, more particularly internal, cladding of wall surfaces. Vitrolite was a product of Pilkington Brothers at St Helens and was one of a range of glass products widely used in the 1930s and through into the 1960s for largescale cladding and for shop fascias and interiors. It also provided a hygienic wall surface for interiors such as operating theatres, and vitreous cladding products are still in use in environments such as hairdressing salons. Vitrolite itself was produced by the addition offluoridesin the firingprocess to fuse the colour into the glass body. Careful temperature control was necessa1y at all stages in the production process to achieve the required degree of opacity. The product was produced in a range of colours and could be cut accurately to make a range of standard ashlar sizes. CONSERVING TWENTIETH CENTURY BUILDINGS McGrath specified the product for the Kingstone building for cladding both on the front elevation to Belgrave Gate and to the rear facing Bedford Street. The colour he chose was dull pink which was echoed in a pink glazed brick boundary wall to the loading area on Bedford Street (Fig 2). There were vertical strips of black Vitrolite at either end of the front elevation. Kingstone was listed in 1995, after the Vitrolite had been lost from the rear by alterations carried out around 1990 before listing. The listing description of 1995 notes that the building is only the second known example of curtain walling in the UK and the first without the use of intervening mullions. The Leicestershire Records Office holds a full set of McGrath's drawings for Kingstone showing the use of Vitrolite 9
Fig.2 Thepink glazed brick boundarywall at therear (BedfordStreet)of theKingstoneStore. and a change in intention between late 1935 and late 1936 from green colouring to the pink actually used. No large scale fixing details are shown on the drawings. The Vitrolite sheets were secured top and bottom by copper strips and secured back to the wall by dabs of putty. Edges were simply butted to give a clean, sheer appearance. The drawings show details of the proposed shopfront including a marquise device for reflecting natural light from above the projecting canopy into the space of the shop window . At the time of listing in 1995, the Kingstone company were already concerned about the condition of the Vitrolite facing on the builcling. 2 It was evident from a street-level visual inspection that a number of the pink Vitrolite panels, as well as some of the black edging strips, were irreparably broken and had areas missing. The company were anxious about clanger to the public using the footway and it was clear that decisions had to be made about the repair of the curtain walling. There was also widespread rusting and deflection of the metal windows. The companyengagedJ MChamberlain and Son, builders of Leicester Forest East, and a dialogue with the City Council began about the options for repair. An initial idea to replace all the pink Vitrolite with an ICI Perspex product was soon replaced by a proposal to salvage and reuse as much of the Vitrolite as possible and to find a suitable replacement material to make up the shortfall. It was hoped at this stage to identify a modem source of pink Vitrolite oran eql1ivalent vitreous material. From the street itwas clearthatup to 12 of the 70 pink Vitrolite panels had parts missing. It was due to the care exercised by 10 Chamberlains that the eventual total number of sheets lost was as low as 14. The City Council undertook to try to source a replacement material and an initial enquiry to the East Midlands Team at English Heritage set in train a fascinating if frustrating process of telephone investigation. Susan Macdonald, then of the Architectural Conservation Team, responded with a compendium of information about Vitrolite and similar glass products under various trade names in the USAand Britain. Some of the American examples were used to produce spectacular examples of smooth Moclerne design, sometimes with a streamlined, curvilinear theme. Fascinating, and useful though this information was, a source of a suitable material still had to be founcl.3 • 4 The Twentieth Century Society also offered valuable advice and the search led the Council's Conservation Officer through the range of modern Pilkington products, the Pilkington museum at St Helens, Norman and Underwood, and various suppliers of vitreous products. The Twentieth Century Society recommended Adrian Hewitt of London-based Mo Deco who said that he dreamed of finding a supply of pink Vitrolite forgotten at the back of a warehouse somewhere, but alas the dream was so far unfulfilled. Suppliers of materials to hairdressing salons were suggested and tried. John Winter was contacted and gave enthusiastic moral support but knew of no modern supply of pink Vitrolite. Vitreous cladding materials are available in a limited range of colours including black, opal and pale green. A suitable product is made, for example, in the Czech Republic and imported by a limited range of British suppliers. But all enquiries stalled on ... you want what colour? For anyone faced with a similar problem, Rankins Glass Co Ltd of 24 Pearson Street, London E2 SJD,or T & W Ide of Glasshouse Fields, London El W 3JA,would be reasonable first stops but probably not for pink Vitrolite. So an application for listed building consent was submitted and decision time arrived. The specification involved the replacement of the steel window frames throughout exactly like for like. Polished glass fibre was proposed to replace the irreparable Vitrolite panels. The existing panels were carefully removed and stored, each one being numbered for replacement in its exact previous position. The method of fixing using copper strips and putty dabs was to be replicated as the panels were reinstated. The substitute panels were placed in the spaces left by the lost Vitrolite. Black Vitrolite strips to the edge of the fac;:adewere replaced in a modern black vitreous material. A condition on the listed building consent required the safe storage of the fragments of Vitrolite not replaced on the fac;:ade. Much depended on the quality of the replacement material and in terms of colour match and surface polish the glass fibre, made by Premier Glass Fibre Moulders of Oadby, Leicester, was remarkably close to the Vitrolite. The glass fibre panels were also made to the same thickness as the Vitrolite. The weathering qualities of the glass fibre remain to be tested in use. Ce1tainly it is more susceptible to scratching through surface impact than Vitrolite and ladders put up for cleaning could be a problem. In the end the result was visually convincing (Fig 1 shows the cladding after repair) and 80% of the original material was reused. Perhaps by the middle of the 21st century fashions in building materials will have changed again and a pink vitreous cladding material will be available for the next round of repair of a remarkable 20th century building. Michael Taylor was, until February 2000, Senior Building Conseroation Officer in the Urban Design Group at Leicester City Council. He is now Historic Areas Adviser with English Heritage West Midlands. References 1 McGrath, R: 'Glass in Architecture and Decoration' (Architectura I Press, 1937; reprinted 1961) 2 DNH listing description, 31 March 1995 3 Dyson, CJ: Structural Glass' in Jester, T C (Ed) 'Twentieth Century Building Materials: History and Conservation' (US National Park Service), pp 201-205 4 McKinley, R W: 'Spandrel Glass' in Jester, TC (Ed) 'Twentieth Century Building Materials: History and Conservation' (US National Park Service), pp 206-211 Context65March 2000
ModernMovement housesinCambridge CONSERVING TWENTIETH CENTURY BUILDINGS John Preston discusses some conservation issues. Protection- butonlyat thesecondattempt Cambridge has some good Modern Movement houses of the 1930s, notably a group in Conduit Head Road which includes three 'white' houses (White House of 1930, and Willow House - originally Thurso - of 1932, both by George Checkley, and Hugh Hughes's Salix of 1934), and M J Blanco White's weatherboarded Shawms 0938). Willow House and Shawms are both listed grade II*,the others are grade II. Other listed Modern Movement houses include D Cosens' 9 Wilberforce Road of 1937, and Marshall Sisson's 31 Madingley Road of 1932 and 26 Millington Road of 1934 (all grade II). These houses have all been listed since 1992. In 1976, the Council had prepared a list of 45 "architecturdlly important unlisted buildings" (both turn of the century and interwar) which was submitted to the DoE for spot-listing; the DoE rejected the submission on the grounds that the Statutory List for Cambridge had been produced only recently "and was complete". The'white houses'ofConduitHeadRoadacasestudy The Conduit Head Road buildings were set in a rural landscape, with a 'wilderness' to the west of the three white houses in large gardens. This setting, and in particular that of the Checkley houses, has been threatened by a series of development proposals. Conduit Head Road was designated a conservation area in 1984. The site histo1y and outcomes (including a series of appeal decisions) reflect changing attitudes to White House, Cambridge, by George Checkley Context65 March2000 CONDUIT HEAD ROAD, CAMBRIDGE Conservation Area designated 1984 Willow House (II*), Salix (II) and White House (11)listed 1992 f SITE WEST OF WILLOW HOUSE outline for 2 houses approved 198 renewed 1984, 1987 renewed application refused 1990 appeal dismissed 'outline for 1 house refused 1995 appeal dIsmIssed I I I I ' I ~-- ' OUSE , I • ' SITE EAST OF WILLOW HOUSE outline for 1 house refused 1981 appeal allowed renewed 1985, 1988, 1991 (details 1994) 1 house Modece Architects) approved 1995 1 house (revised scheme) approved 1996 BRADRUSHE FIELDS (east of Conduit Head Rd) 15 dwellings approved 1990 WHITEHOUSE \ 12 flats (replacing the house) approved 1972 \ 8 new flats (retaining the house) approved 1975 \ pitched roof and 2 extra flats on new building - refused 1988, allowed on appeal TheConduit Head Roadarea of Cambridge Modern Movement buildings, and the sometimes tenuous threads by which they (and their settings) may su1vive, as well as some important current issues. White Housesaved,butitssettinglost In 1972, the Council granted permission for a block of flats, replacing Checkley's 'White House' of 1930 (Cambridge's first Modern Movement building). The White House's survival is thanks to Nicholas Hellawell, the City Council's then Conse1vation Officer, who persuaded the developers to retain the house and build in the garden; however the new building cuts White House off from Conduit Head Road and from any meaningful relationship with its contempora1y neighbours. He did not manage to get them to provide a building in keeping with the house - a failure magnified by a 1988 appeal decision allowing a pitched roof with two extra flats. He also tried without success to get a new 15 house development (Bradrushe Fields) on the east side of Conduit Head Road to respond to the character of Conduit Head Road's landscape and buildings. Changingattitudes-anddecisions The setting of Checkley's other house, Willow House, had been threatened in 1981 by outline applications for two houses in the garden to the west, and a single house on the tennis court to the south east. The Council granted permission for the houses to the west; this permission was renewed in 1984 and 1987. The application for the house to the east was refused, but allowed on appeal and renewed in 1985 and 1988. The designation of the conservation area did not affect the planning decisions until the next renewal applications. The application for the houses to the west was refused, on the grounds of impact on the conservation area and the 'wilderness' site of nature conservation interest in the western part of the garden. In preparing its case for the subse11
Willow House and gardens from the west quent appeal, the Council reconsidered the status of Willow House in the light of the recently-introduced '30 year rule', and served a Building Preservation Notice in 1992. The appeal inspector took strong account of the character of the building and its protected status (although only temporary and subject to confirmation) underthe BPN; when he visited the site he asked why the nearby Salix and White House were not also listed. The appeal (Q0S0S/ A/91/ 184260) was dismissed, as was the appellants' claim for costs. Not long afterwards, Willow House was listed II*, because of the quality of its interior, and SalixanclWhite House were listed grade II. Settingsaved In the meantime. the outline permission for the single house on the tennis court had been renewed again, and in 1994 a new application for a single dwelling to the west (avoiding impact on the site of nature conservation interest) was submitted. This was refused and dismissed on appeal in 1995. This appeal decision (T/ APP/Q0505/ A/94/24257 /P7) placed the emphasis firmly on protecting the setting of Willow House: " ... Willow House, which is listed grade II*, was designed to have a spacious setting to set off its uncompromising modern design. Its principal rooms and windows face south .. , but it seems to me that the continuum of garden space belonging to it needs to include the unobstructed extension to the west as pa rt of its setting. As it is, the setting will be compromised to some extent by the erection of the approved house to the east, but this makes the western area of the garden even more imprntant to the setting of Willow House .... The erection of the proposed single 12 storey house would, in my view, seriously impair the setting of Willow House. Although the present scheme is reduced in number from the previous proposal which was dismissed on appeal, it would still by implication, if not by any boundary marking, occupy the garden space forming pa rt of the appeal site, and would effectively undermine the relationship of Willow House to the wilderness; the listed house would thus be cramped in its setting .." Problemswithanoutlineapproval The Council had fought off the pressure to develop on the garden to the west of Willow House, which is a vital part of its setting and the conservation area, but we were still faced with the prospect of a new building on the very small but prominent tennis court site immediately to the east. The sketch details provided with the renewals had not been inspiring in their design approach, and the reserved matters submitted (and approved) in 1994 highlighted the difficulty of accommodating any new building satisfactorily on the site: a classic case of the clanger of an outline 'reel line' approval on a sensitive site! New house De Stijl as built 'Keepingin keeping'with theModern Movement? The detailed scheme had been prepared on behalf of the vendor of the plot. The purchaser prepared sketches of her own, then engaged her own architect. This gave a new opportunity to try to get a building of genuine quality and presence to meet the challenges of the site and its context. With our encouragement, Ralph Carpenter of Moclece Architects produced a design of great simplicity and clarity, with a principal living volume, and lower bedroom (projecting forward clown the garden) and garage wings alongside to the west. The main feature of the building was a spectacular and carefully considered picture window facing south. The client wanted a house of 1930s Modem Movement character; some consultees argued in favour of a truly contemporary approach, but this site was so small and so close to Willow House that any contrnst of architectural idiom would have made the new building even more intrusive. I felt that thatthe approved scheme was as good as we could have hoped to achieve, given that the site was too small for any truly satisfactory development. Much to my regret, the client and her architect parted company, and I found myself dealing with a designer/builder producing a series of amended plans. Instead of the detailed development of a strong design concept, we were faced with a progressive dilution of key elements-for example the subdivisions of the picture window (the boldest feature of the design). Perhaps most damaging to the clarity and quality of the building was the client's decision to change her bedroom layout. This led to the bedroom wing wrapping round the front of the living area which upset the approved scheme's clear expression of separate volumes, and 'framing' of the picturewindowbywhitewall. With the architect no longer on the scene to· argue for his concept (or adapt it to meet the new requirements without losing quality), there was little hope of persuading the client to keep strictly to Context65March 2000
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