C O N T E X T 9 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 Periodically… After neglect, one of the biggest causes of loss of historic buildings is fire; and of course, neglected buildings seem somehow to suffer more than their fair share of spontaneous combustions. The Victorian Society recently highlighted such factors in the July issue of The Victorian (No 19). Particularly distressing was the near total gutting of GG Scott’s domestic masterpiece Hafodunos Hall in North Wales to a fire in 2004. The society discusses this disaster within the general problem of historic buildings at risk in NorthWales. Serious concern is also expressed about the fate of the Grade I Kimmel Park in Conwy. This house, described by Mark Girouard as ‘an unbelievably palatial house for a Victorian commoner’, was built for Hugh Robert Hughes (his initials were said to correspond to his ideas of his own status). Between 1868 and 1874W Eden Nesfield dramatically remodelled it in the Queen Anne style. It became a school in 1947. After a fire in 1975, the school used the insurance to move elsewhere. The building has since passed through a succession of owners, including a Christian conference centre. Each successive owner seemed to capitalise on general rising property values but did nothing to save the building. The estate is now the cause of the gravest concern. It is an object lesson in the failings of the application of existing statutory legislation. The issue of TheVictorian does at least have some good news, describing how recent owners have saved Sir Charles Barry’s Grade I listed Gwydir Castle. The society also celebrates something of a victory in reversing Harrogate Borough Council’s intention to turn down a £6 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore Frank Matcham’s Grade II* Royal Hall. The council, resistant to a partial restoration, has now agreed to a reduced scheme and to raising £2 million. The unfunded elements are the subject of a major local campaign seeking a further £1 million. One other item of note in the magazine identifies specialist woodworking firms which can repair or replicate traditional ornamental and perforated bargeboards so idiomatic of Victorian domestic architecture. When is conservation too much conservation? When has the pendulum swung too far? Ian Mackintosh, historian, theatre consultant and begetter of Curtains!!! (the theatres database), argues in Theatres, the magazine of the Theatres Trust (Issue 4, Summer 2005), that the movement to preserve what was left of Britain’s great theatres – which started around 1976 – may have been too successful. He asks if they should be preserved in aspic in their present state, especially when they are so very different from when they were built a century ago. Mackintosh believes that conservation is in danger of ossifying London’s West End if not checked most carefully. While he thinks the best examples deserve grant aid for preservation and accurate conservation, others should be the subject of less inhibition and more imaginative remodelling. He also sees the gentrification of auditoria as an unjustified excuse to raise ticket process. A thought-provoking polemic that might also inform the debate on the treatment of other building types. Other pleasures (apart from several superb full-page photos of theatre interiors) include a whistle-stop guide to some of the outstanding theatres of Yorkshire; a short explanation of the role of the trust’s kindred organisation the Cinema Theatres Association; and the trust’s concern and statutory role in objecting to the disfigurement of theWellington Pier Theatre in Great Yarmouth. In the latest edition of the RICS Building Conservation Group Journal (No 38), the gradual reconstruction of the precincts of Decin Castle in the north-western part of the Czech Republic is described. The process began in 1991 when the local authority assumed control of the complex after 55 years of military use. Although the repairs have been limited by financial constraints, the castle has been successfully reintegrated into the cultural and social life of the area. First mentioned in 993, the castle was reconstructed in the early classical style in the 16th to 18th centuries. It makes an interesting comparison at Bontida in Romania, where the IHBC has been involved. The use of heritage economic regeneration scheme and strategic partnership board funding in the London Borough of Walthamstow to restore and replace ornate late Victorian rainwater hopper heads using Tuscan Foundry in Horsham,
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