Institute of Historic Building Conservation No 110 July 2009 The rural dimension
Call us now on 01248 604206 or visit www.welshslate.com Welsh Slate, Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 4YG Email: enquiries@welshslate.com Roofing the nation’s buildings for hundreds of years Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay St Pancras Station, London New Cooperage, Royal William Yard, Plymouth
C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 1 Context Cover: Weald Barkfold: a restored 17th century timber framed farmhouse inWest Sussex. (Photo: Jonathan Taylor) Change and tradition in the countryside Editorial What is the countryside, anyway? A place where lucky people who can afford to buy their way out of cities live uneasily alongside the relics of a decayed agricultural economy? Or a place of the future, where resourceful people find new ways of post-urban living in real and virtual communities made inevitable by new technologies and the challenge of climate change? The IHBC is continually making the case that historic building conservation is intimately involved with processes of regeneration. This issue of Context shows that this is as true in the countryside as in urban areas. Terry Levinthal (p14) points to some of the difficulties of bringing new life to rural Scotland, which his personal experience of improving a historic house painfully confirmed. Inflexible regulations are one problem. Scotland’s patterns of land ownership are another. Some large public or organisational land owners allow many buildings to remain unoccupied. Yet there is a desperate need for affordable rural housing in Scotland: ‘largely for single or smallfamily units, not the five-bedroom executive bungalows pushed off the back of a lorry on to a levelled site,’ Levinthal writes. The adaptive repair and rehabilitation of small historic properties offers an excellent means of providing local cheap housing or other accommodation. But first there needs to be a fuller understanding of the potential of the rural heritage in meeting wider government policy objectives. The same is true in England. As Stephen Trow explains (p31), rural communities need a mix of people of different ages and backgrounds if they are to retain their vitality. That depends on a supply of locally-available affordable homes. English Heritage, for one, is campaigning for the adaptive re-use of redundant and at-risk historic buildings to provide affordable homes. Carrying out regeneration sensitively depends on understanding the rural context, and finding new ways of building in the countryside. John Sewell, who is in the business of providing the design advice that should make that possible, is well aware that each generation seems as confident as the next that it at last understands what looks right (p17). Technological advances have always generated new designs. Today we face the challenge of designing adaptations to reduce and mitigate the effects of climate change, without spoiling the harmony between old and new. Sewell is optimistic: vernacular buildings are more robust than we sometimes think, he suggests, and building owners are increasingly willing to correct the past mistakes of others. The Institute of historic building conservation www.ihbc.org.uk Registered as a Charity Number 1061593. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England Number 3333780. Registered Office: 3 Stafford Road,TunbridgeWells, Kent TN2 4QZ. Officers President Eddie Booth email president@ihbc.org.uk Chairman Dave Chetwyn email chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair Sheila Stones email vchair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary Richard Morrice email secretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasurer Michael Knights email treasurer@ihbc.org.uk Membership Secretary Jo Evans email membership@ihbc.org.uk Education Secretary John Preston email education@ihbc.org.uk Publicity Secretary Doug Black email publicity@ihbc.org.uk Law & Practice Coordinator vacant email law@ihbc.org.uk Director Seán O’Reilly email director@ihbc.org.uk Projects Officer Fiona Newton email projects@ihbc.org.uk Consultant Consultations Coordinator James Caird email consultations@ihbc.org.uk Membership Services Officer Devon DeCelles email membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk Administration Officer Lydia Porter email admin@ihbc.org.uk Committee Chairs Policy Mike Brown email policy@ihbc.org.uk Membership & Ethics Jo Evans email membership@ihbc.org.uk Finance & Resources Richard Morrice email resources@ihbc.org.uk Education John Preston email education@ihbc.org.uk Communications & Outreach Charles Strang email communications@ihbc.org.uk Branch Officers North Geoff Underwood Tel 0191 433 3435 NorthWest Kate Borland Tel 0161 2344556 Yorkshire Keith Knight Tel 01904 658482 West Midlands Charles Shapcott Tel 0121 7044312 East Midlands Roy Lewis Tel 01636 653060 South Julia Foster Tel 01296 585888 SouthWest Ian LundTel 01225 477687 East Anglia StaceyWeiser-Jones Tel 01954 713178 South East David Kincaid Tel 01227 862185 London David McDonald Tel 020 8881 6724 Scotland Stuart Eydmann Tel 01506 775279 Wales Nathan Blanchard Tel 01492 583443 Northern Ireland Sharon BrownTel 028 9754 3087 Republic of Ireland Cormac O’Sullivan Tel 00353 5677 62907 Business Office Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA England Tel 01747 873133 Fax 01747 871718 email admin@ihbc.org.uk No stone unturned Tarnia McAlester 29 Affordable housing in the countryside Stephen Trow 31 The secret garden suburb Charles Hippisley-Cox 34 Architecturally speaking 37 Notes from the chair 38 Director’s cut 39 Membership notes 40 Vox pop 41 Book reviews 42 The IHBC responds 44 Products and services 45 Advertisers index 48 Briefing 2 Out of Context 4 Remembering Mickey King 5 The writer’s voice 6 Material matters 7 Letters 7 Periodically 8 Conference report: Cambridge Heritage Seminar Dennis Rodwell 10 Supporting columns 11 Scotland’s rural heritage Terry Levinthal 14 Design advice in the Peak District John Sewell 17 Vehicle strikes to historic bridges Andrew Tegg 22 Restoration through agri-environment schemes Susan Hardwick 27 Institute ofHistoricBuildingConservation No 110 July 2009 The rural dimension
2 C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 Context Briefing Copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November.The remaining copy deadlines in 2009 are: Issue Deadline September, Issue 111 20 July November, Issue 112 21 September Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Fiona Newton 21 George Street, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9JU Tel 01507 602567 email editorial@ihbc.org.uk Editorial Board Fiona Newton (chair) Susan Brook (regular contributors) Nigel Crowe (main features) Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Michael Taylor (main features) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2009 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Published for the Institute of Historic Building Conservation by Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA Tel 01747 871717 Fax 01747 871718 email context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to non-members of the IHBC at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £50.00 Elsewhere £75.00 Subscription orders, together with remittances payable to Institute of Historic Building Conservation, should be sent to the IHBC Business Office at Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication.While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. Pan-professional resource The website www.understanding conservation.org is an on-line resource for professionals involved in repair, maintenance and conservation work on traditional buildings. Over the past 17 years a number of conservation accreditation schemes have emerged. Each has had the intention of improving the abilities and competencies of individual practitioners through a peer-review process of submitted portfolio evidence. Their emergence is also a response to the increasing awareness of the high volume of work in the conservation, repair and maintenance sector of the construction industry. While common in their intentions, sufficient differences existed in their original form to warrant a review of how they might be brought into a common framework. That work was overseen by a pan-professional body, the Edinburgh Group, on which the IHBC is represented. The site is now under the auspices of COTAC (the standing Conference on Training in Architectural Conservation). One of the results of this panprofessional cooperation has been the creation of the website www. understandingconservation.org. The site is fully supported by the architecture, surveying and engineering professional bodies, who are represented on the Edinburgh Group. Incorporating the internationally recognised ICOMOS training and education guidelines, the site is open to all. The website has two purposes. Primarily it aims to support individual practitioners who wish to apply for accredited status from their professional body. A variety of support tools are available for professional users so they can work their way through the material and build up a portfolio of evidence for assessment. This is achieved by directing users to reading lists and web sites, and suggesting suitable evidence for portfolios. The site also aims to test practitioners’ clarity of understanding of the philosophy and practice underpinning conservation by posing rhetorical questions to encourage research. It is fundamentally a selfassessment tool with the intention of assisting practitioners who are presenting for accreditation with a method of testing their approach to conservation, setting this against internationally recognised skill set requirements. In addition to this primary aim, the site will provide educational material for a much broader range of users. This will include students, general practitioners, training and education providers, building contractors and the interested public. In this capacity the site will help those directly involved in carrying out more effective repair and maintenance on the country’s existing building stock. The site, which has been available since April 2007, was updated in June 2009. The Grade ll* listed, Lutyens-designed 1 Finsbury Circus, built in 1925 and recently renewed by Hermes Real Estate and the Property Merchant Group, has won the 2009 City Heritage Award for Excellence in Building Conservation. The award is presented annually by the City Heritage Society and the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers. Economic argument The IHBCWales branch is hosting a conference on 24 September 2009 in Cardiff, featuring Alun Ffred Jones, heritage minister in the Welsh Assembly Government, as keynote speaker, alongside senior professionals such as Cadw director Marilyn Lewis. It will explore the diverse economic benefits of conserving places. The conference also marks the IHBC’s council meeting in the capital. There will be an optional sponsored banquet in Cardiff Castle on 23 September, open to the first 80-odd delegates to book, at no additional cost. Key speakers, including the minister, will attend the dinner.Whether for the day only, or the dinner as well, at £100 for IHBC members (£120 nonmembers) it is exceptional value for CPD and ministerial-level networking. The conference will examine the challenges and benefits of retaining and
C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 3 enhancing the historic environment, with particular reference to Wales. Distinguished speakers will include Rob Colley on economic regeneration; Jonathan Jones on tourism, Tom Woolley on low-carbon issues; and IHBC chair Dave Chetwyn, exploring community perspectives. There will be case studies fromWales. Book at www.ihbc.org. uk/cardiff/index.html. Prosecute them In the current economic downturn National Association for Planning Enforcement (NAPE) and the RTPI believe that levels of unauthorised development will increase. Although local planning authorities are under pressure to cut their planning costs, CLG has advised councils not to lose staff but to switch them to other hitherto under-resourced activities, including enforcement. While levels of listed building enforcement activity are lower than they should be, the IHBC has constantly sought ways to improve the situation relating to prosecutions, especially in terms of additional data. The political profile of this issue has been raised occasionally (such as by the successful prosecution of Teresa Gorman MP in 1996 and following the notorious demolition of Greenside in 2004). Consequently CLG published its Best Practice Guidance on Listed Building Prosecutions in 2006 in furtherance of the secretary of state’s long-standing encouragement to prosecute in PPG15. Nevertheless, prosecutions remain rare. Even when cases are concluded, the IHBC finds difficulty in finding out about them, despite publicity acting as a deterrent. Very little of the foregoing procedural improvement would have been possible (or it would have been more difficult) without the base data compiled by the IHBC, with your cooperation. No data existed at all at the time of the Gorman prosecution. The database continues to rely on volunteered information. The CLG good practice guidance encourages this. Information is constantly sought, irrespective of the success of the case. Please forward details of case outcomes, especially if you have not done so before, to bob.kindred@ ipswich.gov.uk (from whom copies of the database – a Word document – can be obtained). This will help to maintain the usefulness of the database and serve as a cross-reference for the effectiveness of the legislation and policy guidance. Bob Kindred MBE, an external advisor to the 2006 CLG Best Practice Guidance. No consideration Calderdale Council has agreed a six-point remedy to resolve a planning dispute investigated by the local government ombudsman. The council has welcomed the ombudsman’s report, which it says will help it to sort out the longrunning planning issue. It has apologised to residents for the delay in resolving the dispute. The council gave planning permission for an extension and alterations to a primary school next to a Grade II* listed 17th century hall. The ombudsman said that no consideration was given to the setting of the hall when the extension and alterations were designed. English Heritage was not consulted about the impact on the hall. English Heritage says that it would have objected to the planning application as adversely affecting the open, green setting of the hall, and making the school building more prominent to the front and rear of the hall. Plastic is the top threat England has some 9,300 conservation areas, but the latest edition of English Heritage’s annual Heritage at Risk register reveals that one in seven is at risk of neglect, decay or damaging change, and many more give cause for concern. The results of English Heritage’s first-ever survey of the condition of conservation areas shows the top threats to be plastic windows and doors (83 per cent of conservation areas affected); poorly maintained roads and pavements (60 per cent); street clutter (45 per cent); loss of front garden walls, fences and hedges (43 per cent); unsightly satellite dishes (38 per cent); the effects of traffic calming or traffic management (36 per cent); alterations to the fronts, roofs and chimneys of buildings (34 per cent); unsympathetic extensions (31 per cent); impact of advertisements (23 per cent); and neglected green spaces (18 per cent). English Heritage is launching a Conservation Areas at Risk campaign to persuade residents, local groups and councils to work together. See www. english-heritage.org.uk/conservationareas. Fire research The devastating blazes at Hampton Court Palace in 1986, Uppark in 1989 and Windsor Castle The I-Q Farnborough Site, owned by SEGRO, has won the RICS south east award for the restoration work carried out by Julian Harrap Architects.The historic buildings occupy a 125-acre site formerly belonging to the Royal Aircraft Establishment. The site houses some of the most important buildings in British aviation history. The lattice steel frames of the 1912 airship hangar were salvaged and re-erected to create the centrepiece of a new public square. (Photos: Dennis Gilbert)
4 C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 in 1992 were reminders of the special vulnerability of historic buildings to fire, with irreplaceable centuries-old fabric destroyed. The buildings were painstakingly restored but the destruction prompted a re-examination of the problems of fire protection. The Historic Buildings Fire Research Coordinating Committee was set up in 1994 to coordinate research between government agencies and other bodies concerned with fire safety in major heritage buildings. The committee includes the main agencies directly responsible for major heritage buildings in Britain: Cadw, English Heritage, Heritage and Environment Service (Northern Ireland), Historic Scotland, Historic Royal Palaces, the National Trust and the Royal Household, and other bodies with an interest in fire safety issues such as the Fire Protection Association and the fire services. On behalf of the committee, English Heritage set up the Historic Buildings Fire Research Database (FReD) to make current research and expertise relevant to the treatment of historic buildings against fire more readily available. The database, which is open to all, identifies contact details for all reported projects, whether planned, current or completed, and details of published information. Additional submissions are welcome. FReD can be found at www. english-heritage.org.uk/FReD. Paddy Elson, HBFRCC chair The Grade II listed Spanish City dome inWhitley Bay, North Tyneside, has been restored by conservation contractor St Astier, with architects Spence and Dower.The 90ft-high structure, constructed using an early form of reinforced concrete, was the largest dome in the UK after St Paul’s Cathedral when it was built in 1910.The Spanish City, a permanent seaside fairground until the site was largely redeveloped in the 1990s, was named after a visiting Spanish-themed concert group. ‘Asyou all know, the world is in economic chaos. One of the outcomes of economic globalisation is that there are no longer safe havens from international financial crises. Governments, working individually and together, have initiated an unparalleled array of responses to stem the economic decline. ‘The biggest danger, however, is not that this very deep recession lasts another 18 or 24 or 36 months. The biggest danger is that we do not learn from this crisis and apply those lessons to future policies. Governments have two simultaneous challenges: 1) in the short term how to get the economy rolling again and, 2) in the intermediate and long term, how to restructure our economies so that they become sustainable. ‘Heritage conservation has a central role in responding to both of those challenges. ‘Europeans generally understand the components of sustainable development: environmental responsibility, economic responsibility, and social/cultural responsibility. And these three components create three important nexus: for a community to be viable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and economic responsibility; for a community to be liveable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and social responsibility; and for a community to be equitable there needs to be a link between economic responsibility and social responsibility. ‘France has committed 100€ million per year for the next four years to the restoration of heritage buildings.Why? To create jobs, to extend the life of valuable assets, to make sure valuable skills aren’t lost, and to support the local economy. ‘In Hong Kong under the heading of Global Financial Crisis the government is doubling the amount of money made available for heritage conservation, half for investment in government owned buildings, and the other half as grants to private owners of heritage structures. ‘And Norway is perhaps the best example. The national budget of Norway is highly oil revenue dependent. And when the price of oil drops from $140 per barrel to $40, obviously there’s a huge impact. So the Norwegians, too, enacted a financial crisis package. And how did they spend their money? Mostly on long term assets like measures for greater energy efficiency, repairing and developing their railway system, bike paths and walking trails, and 26€ million for heritage conservation – most of which is going for rehabilitation and maintenance of privately owned historic properties and to add fire safety systems to historic wood buildings and churches. In fact over nine per cent of the Norwegian crisis package is heritage related. ‘Why was this the Norwegian approach? Because they learned in their last recession in the 80s that it put people to work and enhanced local skills and local economies. ‘These countries have recognised that stimulus investments should be long term, and that heritage resources are long term assets. Unfortunately, that has not remotely been the case in the US where we are essentially buying Big Macs with a 40-year mortgage.’ Donovan D Rypkema of Heritage Strategies International speaking at a National Trust conference on the role of heritage conservation in a sustainable economy ‘Inthe light of recent publicity, the SPAB regrets that HRH the Prince of Wales was unable to renew his patronage of the society when it expired last year.We share a high proportion of the same objectives on issues like craft training, buildings at risk, traditional materials and energy saving. Indeed we commend him for the various initiatives he has taken. ‘However we do hold differing views on the best way to repair and extend old buildings, arguing for good, new design rather than reliance on past styles. This has been the Society’s view since its foundation byWilliam Morris in 1877. Indeed the society’s manifesto warns against “feeble and lifeless forgeries”. ‘Historic buildings inevitably change and adapt over time. As they evolve they generally contain elements from different historical periods. This adds to their interest and story. We hope that future generations will look back at the extensions and alterations made today, and value them as worthwhile contributions of our own time.’ PhilipVenning, secretary of SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), which had declined to publish a foreword by the prince
C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 5 Remembering Mickey King One of conservation’s greatest characters The diminutive king of the Liverpool wisecrack, the barman’s friend, the indefatigable, loquacious Michael John King – one of British building conservation’s greatest characters – died on 13 May at 71 years of age. King made significant contributions over 30 years as an architect and conservation officer to the conservation, repair and regeneration of historic buildings and areas on Merseyside, in North Wales and the north west of England. In 1995 he moved to Shrewsbury and spent the last 15 years of his life preserving the historic towns and countless listed buildings and ancient monuments along the Welsh Marches. He lived through and influenced the most turbulent periods of recent conservation history: starting with the budding awareness of the UK’s industrial heritage in the 1960s; piloting town scheme ideas in Chester’s Bridgegate revival; pioneering urban regeneration projects; and coping with uncaring Liverpool politicians, post-Toxteth riots, during Thatcher’s battle with the council in the bitter depths of Britain’s last memorable economic recession. King received a degree from the University of Liverpool in 1964. His career in building conservation and his interest in the city of Liverpool, the island of Malta and fortresses were owed in great part to his long association with his tutor there, the late Quentin Hughes. After leaving university, King took a series of jobs: first, with Runcorn New Town Development Corporation responsible for listed buildings, and in 1966 with Cheshire County Council preparing some of the first village plans.When Quentin Hughes was invited to establish a new school of architecture at the Royal University in Malta, King followed. He was appointed as a lecturer in architecture and became responsible for the design of the University Sports Centre and Maintenance Building at Msida. King helped and influenced people throughout his life, most of all perhaps his Malta students, who clubbed together to buy him a painting for his 70th birthday. Returning to the UK, King took up a position as an architect with Flintshire County Council, where he designed Theatre Clwyd in Mold, North Wales. In 1975 he took up the position of conservation officer with Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council and was responsible for the Lord Street Town Scheme grant-aided works programme in Southport. He always said that the point of the conservation officer in local authority planning departments was not to be able to do everything, but to know someone who could. However, if he could not find that person, he would do it himself. This was how he came to set up Bandstands Cast Iron Company that he ran with Martin Perry from Southport. The firm was set up to repair and restore cast iron structures and to provide jobs in foundries on Merseyside. The bandstands in Southport and Battersea Park are both King-Perry jobs. King painted the Battersea Park Bandstand red, white and blue, and was delighted when it featured on a Britannia Building Society advertisement and on another for dog food. In 1985 King joined Liverpool City Council Planning Department as conservation officer, and took charge of both strategy and implementation. This included the Canning Street Area Special Project and the Duke Street Regeneration Area, where he administered £2 million of grant aid from English Heritage and gave Tom Bloxham (founder of Urban Splash) his first grant. For five years he battled against local political indifference, and the apathy and ignorance of his planning colleagues. He spotted architectural thefts and fraud, even reporting an IRA ‘tax’ on local contractors which was paid for, ironically, by special grant funds for building repairs from the British secretary of state for the environment. He brought many conservation experts to lecture in the city, culminating in an influential visit of English Heritage commissioners that contributed gradually to a culture shift in local decision-making. By 1990, King had had enough of local politics and moved into private practice with the architecture firm of TACP Design, and he became a director in Acanthus Associated Architectural Practices. There he was responsible for repairs and the restoration of Grade I and II* listed churches and country houses. He undertook major repairs on Vale Royal Abbey and received Europa Nostra and RICS Urban Regeneration
6 C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 awards for his work in the Canning inner city area of Liverpool. He was honorary architect to the Merseyside Building Preservation Trust. An early member of the Association of Conservation Officers (ACO), King was its first representative for the north west region. Later he became the association’s education officer. He played an important role in persuading the Conference on Training in Architectural Conservation, and others, that conservation officers were professionals in their own right and not an adjunct to the roles of planners and architects in conservation. As a consequence, and after much soul-searching by the ACO, its membership resolved to found a professional institute of historic building conservation, the IHBC. King took part in organising its first annual school in Shrewsbury in 1998. In 1995, King moved back to the public sector as conservation officer for Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council. There he was responsible for urban design, listed building consent and grant programmes, and the joint English Heritage and Heritage Lottery Fund Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme (HERS). Despite his many years in local authority planning departments, King was above all an architect. He was much more than just an historic building architect. His concern about the education and training of some of the current generation of conservation officers stemmed from his recognition that many lack this professional base, and he was generous to a fault in spending time showing novices the tricks of the trade. A prolific conversationalist, King was also an excellent lecturer. He surprised and disarmed generations of colleagues, politicians and developers with his extraordinary quick-witted cocktail of street-smart patter (in English or Welsh), combined with an extensive knowledge of architectural history and vernacular detailing, erudite planning arguments for conservation, and long experience of conservative building repair techniques. He ‘retired’ in 2003 to set up the King Partnership Urban Design and Historic Environment Consultants with his wife Mary, to undertake conservation studies, more Heritage Lottery Fund grant-aided work, and repairs to local buildings and monuments. He was particularly pleased to be working in Wales, as his Welsh heritage was an essential part of him. He worked up until the day he died; on his death bed he asked his wife to ring their clients and apologise that work might be delayed. From A Broken Wave by Lionel Esher (Allen Lane, 1981) As unprecedented historically as the disappearance of the slums is the new attitude to the heritage from the past. Until 1940 educated people were extremely choosy about past styles of architecture. The Antique had a century of adulation; Tudor came in and then went out; Louis XV went out and then came in. But outside these decorators’ fashions, any new buildings were always thought to be an improvement and in designing them no difference whatsoever was paid to old environments. Then, perhaps as a result of the uniquely destructive character of World War II, there occurred a change in human sensibility. By 1950 we loved everything, however hideous. Of course this did not immediately prevent an immense amount of destruction for profit or ‘planning gain’. But as soon as the intelligentsia could get itself organised and rush through the necessary legislation, it became virtually impossible to demolish a listed building except by the underhand trick, soon acquired from private speculators by philistine public bodies, of encouraging it to fall down. This general benevolence (it stops short of true understanding) towards the past, plus clean air and new techniques for cleaning buildings, has spruced up old towns sometimes to the point of vulgarity. The Victorians would have been shocked by the Australian colour fantasies applied to their decent by-law housing, not to mention the tarting up of medieval streets. But by and large, and conspicuously in the north, the transformation has been miraculous. ‘Operation Eyesore’, whereby the black cotton towns of Lancashire washed and revealed their tawny Victorian public buildings, their intricate steeples and grand classical porticoes, while every tiny terraced cottage followed suit in its own fashion, has turned out one of the high points of our 20th-century urban history. The unhappiest aspect of populist preservation is its negativity: ‘anything new is worse.’ In [its] extreme forms... this is a national psychosis with obvious political connections. Deeply humiliated by their decline from greatness, the British look around on their society and do not like what they see – and they take it out on what has always been the mirror of society: its architecture. If you are on the political right, tower flats, council estates and prefabricated schools exhibit all the soullessness and inhumanity of penny-pinching officialdom; if you are on the left, speculative office blocks and multi-storey car parks and motorways symbolise gross capitalist materialism. The last word on Mickey loved the garden I made and loved watching the birds that came (even a kingfisher), and the butterflies. He was deeper and more thoughtful than many realised. I still can not believe he is not just in the next room. Mary King, Shrewsbury With all the tributes pouring in and my own recollections about his public face and career, I forget to say much about Mickey personally rather than professionally. He was such a good friend to so many people, and a fantastic husband to me and father to Marcus, particularly when his son was little. Marcus said he was his best friend. He was certainly mine. After he had retired from practice and come to Shrewsbury, I started to work for English Heritage and Mickey took over running the house. He could always cook but over the last 10 years he developed into a real chef. He had no time for Delia, but cooked Aldo Zilli and Rick Stein recipes to perfection, always served with the perfect wine, of course. After all the ups and downs of his earlier life, he was really happy to live quietly in Shrewsbury at home with the dogs and me. He
C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 7 Patent Victoria stone The photograph shows paving at Clapham North station. This is one of the last places on the London Underground network where patent Victoria stone can still be seen, although it was once quite widespread. There are a few chips and cracks, and the surface is evenly worn and polished, but it has managed to withstand one of the most severe pedestrian environments any paving material can be subjected to, with almost no maintenance at all since being first laid in 1900. The Patent Victoria Stone Company manufactured paving slabs, window sills, stair treads, sanitary ware and other precast items at its works at Groby Quarry, near Leicester, through much of the second half of the 19th century, up to the first world war, and possibly for a few years after. It was wound up in 1927. The material was manufactured in two stages. First, high-quality cement (originally imported from Germany, as English material was at the time inferior) was mixed with finely ground granite, and cast in moulds to the required shape. After the initial cement set had taken place, the various items were steeped in tanks of a saturated sodium silicate solution for seven to eight weeks before finally being washed, dried out and transported to the customer. The second stage is of particular significance, as it acted on the free lime resulting from the original hydration of the cement (forming the calcium silicate hydrate binder) to turn it into yet more calcium silicate, thus increasing the most durable binder component, and sodium carbonate, which is soluble, and could be washed away. Chemically, the result is a true artificial sandstone, rather than a concrete as currently understood. The material has a very unusual mix of qualities, being extremely dense, durable, homogeneous and resistant to wear, while being aesthetically much more pleasant than most equivalent modern concretes. For many years within London Underground it was assumed to beYork stone paving (which it does resemble in many ways), although the addition of perhaps one slab on each platform with cast-in bronze letters giving the company name told close observers that something else was going on. Unfortunately, at Clapham North this name slab seems to have been covered by a large piece of operating equipment, but one can hope that it still exists, even if currently inaccessible. Because it is under-recognised, much patent Victoria stone has been lost, and what little remains is irreplaceable. Its cultural significance as a particularly interesting product of its era really needs to be properly established so that what remains can be preserved and understood for the remarkable material that it is. I am at present researching patent Victoria and other early artificial stones in more detail, and would be very grateful indeed if IHBC members could let me know if they might be aware of any, so that I can compile a gazetteer of examples and possibly carry out some tests (small samples for destructive laboratory testing would be particularly valuable). Broadly speaking, if you know of a dense, cast material which does not appear to be either stone or concrete, but might be either, and dates between, say, 1860 and 1920, it may well be of interest, particularly if it is in a public or institutional building such as a station, asylum or hospital. Digital photos by email with locations will be very welcome indeed. I can be contacted through Julian Bagg, coordinator of the IHBC technical panel at technical@ihbc.org.uk Ian Brocklebank Material matters Letters ‘Temple’ is a mosque From Malcolm Lake, Omagh I write in response to Peter Arnold’s letter (‘Baha’i wear and tear’, Context 108, March) that followed from the announcement of the Bahá’í Holy Places in Israel having been givenWorld Heritage Site status by UNESCO. Arnold seems to have his faiths mixed up. There is no Bahá’í Temple inWilkes Barre: it is a mosque. There are seven existing Bahá’í Houses of Worship in the world: in North America, Germany, Panama,Western Samoa, Africa, Australia and India. They relate to continents and island groups. I would in particular refer to two of these buildings: the ‘Mother Temple of theWest’ (dedicated 1953) is in Evanston (Wilmette), Illinois, at the end of The Loop, the overhead railway that serves Chicago. It employed sculpted, pre-cast, no-fines concrete panels and the brushed aggregate in the mix makes it shine brilliantly. The Indian Temple (dedicated 1986) near New Delhi, made up of nine in-situ concrete petals, is modelled on and inspired by the Lotus flower. The petals are faced in marble. It is a testament to the Indian construction industry that the building was completed on time and on budget. Because of the extremes of heat, ice was used in the water for the concrete mix. The petals were handpoured for a continuous 36 hours. Malcolm Lake
8 C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 Periodically InCornerstone, the newsletter of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (Vol 30, No 1, 2009), Philip Venning addresses a concern identified by the Victorian Society in the last Periodically column about the role of listed building casework, and its cost to the statutory amenity societies. He asks if the SPAB is actually making a difference, and wonders if the society should ‘ignore’ the good local authorities, to concentrate on those without conservation officers where their expertise might be more useful.This presupposes that such expertise carries compelling weight even in those authorities with specialist staff. Venning goes on to state that ‘none of the players in this elaborate and costly system of consultation actually know how effective any of them are’. This is to be the subject of some joint research with English Heritage, where local authorities will be required to indicate the final decision in listed building cases. But the research will need to be very carefully framed to deal with the qualitative as well as the quantitative aspects of the outcomes if the results are not to prove inconsequential. In addition, one suspects that none of this will address the post-approval, compliance and quality assurance (or enforcement) aspects so crucial when schemes are implemented. It is ironic that Matthew Slocombe reports that more than one cash‑strapped council has started charging for discharging condition on listed building consents, despite this not being legitimate under section 16 of Circular 04/08.The government’s wording is slightly ambiguous, but where a fee has been levied and the practice has been challenged, local authority legal departments have instructed that the payment should be refunded. The issue publishes a number of letters criticising home information packs and energy performance certificates, and the confusion between the two. Anyone looking for ammunition about the harmful impact of these ill-conceived measures for historic buildings will find it in this issue. Gillian Darley examines the case of a fine Victorian font at Draycott in the diocese of Bath andWells that could set a drastic precedent for the sale of fixtures and fittings to raise funds for historic churches. She reports on the recent proceedings at the Court of Arches (which declared that the sale would be unacceptable).The font, designed by William Burges, was the subject of an anonymous offer to buy it for £100,000 with funding of £10,000 for a cast copy replacement.This would have solved the parish’s apparent financial problems at a stroke. Fixtures and fittings remain a vexed issue in the secular system, and this article will be useful for anyone interested in the parallel aspects of fixtures in the ecclesiastical system. In the same issue Alan Powers explains the bonds between the society and the ArtWorkers Guild, now celebrating its 125th anniversary, and the important role played byWilliam Morris to both. The latest edition of the Association of Preservation Technology Bulletin (Vol 49, No 1, 2009) covers a wide range of topics.These include climate change and sustainable conservation, insulation in mid-20th century American houses, high-tech, large-scale laser cleaning techniques, and injection grouting on the Villa Medicis in Rome. A special feature is an article by May Cassar who discusses the challenges of heritage conservation and sustainability in the 21st century. Focusing on climate change, which she describes as the greatest challenge of our time, she analyses strategies that have been used in the past to confront this problem. She calls for an alignment of conservation practices with sustainability principles. The article is a good summary, with particular reference to the UK problems of our large legacy of pre-war, energy inefficient housing, the potential effects of the Climate Change Levy, and the evaluation by English Heritage of the contribution of the historic environment to environmental sustainability. One of her examples is a 19th century stucco-fronted house in a conservation area in Camden, referred to as the ‘Low-Energy Victorian House’, where a reduction in carbon emissions of 82 per cent has been achieved. In the same vein, but looking back to the first half of the 20th century, Joanna Dowling provides a historical overview of the thermal insulation industry in the USA. She examines the four main insulation types (rigid or semi-rigid, fill, blanket or batt, and reflective surface) arguing that these developments in American housing construction industry were evidence of wider social and technical trends. This is illustrated by amusing and dramatic product adverts of the period. Another article discusses the use of lasers as an innovative cleaning option for large architectural structures. Andrzej Dajnowski, Adam Jenkins and Andrew Lins use case studies to illustrate what they identify as an excellent cleaning option for many architectural projects. There were significant benefits in terms
C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 9 of reduced waste, high-quality results and cost effectiveness. Two articles explore the use of mortar in circumstances likely to be unfamiliar to UK readers. In the first, Mary Brush and Didier Repellin discuss the French and Italian techniques of mortar injection and use a case study of Villa Medicis in Rome. The building is partly owned by both France and Italy, requiring international agreement on the appropriate approach to mortar injection repair of load-bearing masonry walls. In the second, Dorothy Krotzer and JohnWalsh analyse mortars and stuccos used in three historic buildings at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.They review mortaranalysis methods such as acid-digestion, imaging, and instrumental techniques, calling for greater collaboration between conservators and material scientists when undertaking such projects. Two articles might have particular interest to those dealing with buildings at risk.The first is a study by Janet Null of the environmental deterioration of different materials and structures in the same environment. Null uses a case study of two surviving buildings of the Adirondacks Iron and Steel Company in upstate NewYork: a c1834 timber-frame house and the 1854 stone blast furnace.The second article, by Mark Davis and Dan Eschenasy, is a detailed methodology and evaluation of the condition of 19th century masonry facades of typical four- and five-storey walk-up buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The Twentieth Century Society’s magazine C20 (Spring 2009) is much concerned with controversial listing cases (or perhaps that should be refusal to list and de-listing cases).These include the decisions – widely reported in the architectural press – not to list Robin Hood Gardens, London (by Alison and Peter Smithson 1967–72); and to de-list 24–26 Hereford Square, London (by Colin St JohnWilson, 1958) which enjoyed statutory protection for only two years.The society feels that ‘English Heritage (no doubt principally due to resource constraints) has failed to adequately defend its own views, and there is now the prospect that anyone who has the money to spend on competent consultants will be able to get the result they want’. Society director Catherine Croft also refers to listing issues, and to the proposed public vote on candidate buildings which English Heritage hopes will be fronted by a TV series in 2010 – a sort of ‘Listing on Ice’. Perhaps this will see the unlamentedTessa Jowell’s vox pop approach to heritage adopted at last, with a ‘What do you want listed next?’ thematic methodology. The society’s view is that ‘the modern world’ should be next.This would cover omissions from the 1950s, but also give special emphasis to the 1970s and the buildings that just missed out on the last post-war listing programme by being too young under the 30 year rule. The society is also concerned to highlight the plight of 20th century building in conservation areas, where many are identified as being ‘detrimental’ to the character of the area and therefore effectively constituting development sites.While not all 20th century infill development is good, the society argues that a lot of excellent but under-rated examples should be better recognised (as in the case of the Colin St John Wilson flats referred to above). Elsewhere in the issue, John Allan celebrates the continuing success of Finsbury Park Health Centre (designed by the Tecton architecture practice under the leadership of Berthold Lubetkin, 1938). He emphasises the humanitarian messages embodied in the building: legibility, flexibility, responsiveness and inclusivity.These save the building from the predicament of so many other similar ‘heritage assets’ by retaining its social application and its community of loyal users. Allan, who is also Lubetkin’s biographer, undertook a systematic but partial restoration for Islington Health Authority in 1994-5. But he is concerned about a 21st-century battle between the conflicting claims of social ownership and a narrow calculation of real estate equity within the NHS. Other valuable contributions include one by Chris Rodgers on the death of landmark headquarters buildings – often iconic structures for multinational corporations – which once vacated are the subject of drastic and unsympathetic remodelling. He also addresses the proposal to give greater protection to one of the largest groups of 20th-century buildings in Marylebone by extendingWestminster City Council’s Dorset Square Conservation Area. Finally, this column has not in the past extended its range to cover the many free publications that pass regularly across local authority desks, often consisting mainly of regurgitated press releases from product manufacturers. But one startling item caught this reviewer’s attention (before the APT journal arrived – see above), which seemed so physically devastating in its impact that it is worth highlighting here, especially in the light of the proposed tightening of the Building Regulations highlighted in the previous issue of Context. The article, fromLocal Authority Building and Maintenance (April 2009), is a ‘step-by-step’ guide to the ‘refurbishing’ (sic) of Victorian housing in conservation areas in Camden to meet carbon reduction targets under the Decent Homes Standard. Apparently 60 per cent of housing in Camden is in conservation areas.The project, called ‘Victorian House of the Future’, involves radical internal surgery (the impact of which is well illustrated).The article states that the works show ‘how refurbishment of solid-walled properties can balance high levels of energy efficiency with practical conservation demands’. Furthermore, ‘preserving the heritage of our homes does not have to be an obstacle to reducing carbon emissions’. The conclusion reached is that ‘much of the heritage of the house has been retained, such as the masonry features on the exterior.The interior doors have been retained and the proportions of the rooms are unchanged’ (but smaller because of all the internal insulation). Quite a feat of conservation then? Readers may judge for themselves from the photos if the appropriate balance has been struck.The approach of totally gutting the interior (and, it seems, fitting uPVC windows to the ground floor) shows clearly the pretty drastic impact on the character of buildings in conservation areas that the government may now require to meet its carbon reduction targets by 2020.The APT article states that English Heritage was initially involved in assessing ‘the heritage aspects of the house’, but this is not mentioned here. Bob Kindred MBE
10 C O N T E X T 1 1 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 9 Conference report: Cambridge heritage seminar Historic cities in a globalising world The University of Cambridge is host this year to an intensive and varied programme of events that celebrate the 800th year of its foundation.The theme of the 10th Cambridge Heritage Seminar, hosted at the Department of Archaeology, was ‘The Future of Historic Cities’.With contributions from researchers, policymakers and practitioners, the seminar debated how to preserve the identity and diversity of historic cities and cultural landscapes in a rapidly globalising world. Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, senior lecturer in archaeology at the university, explained that the primary objective of the series had been to facilitate exchanges between people from professions and institutional frameworks that do not routinely interact.The themes of the seminars – from ‘Contested Domains’ in 1997, through ‘The Condition of Heritage’ in 2001 and ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ in 2006, to ‘Packaging the Past’ in 2008 – have sought to reflect the progress of the debate. The debate has evolved from a sense of marginalisation and lack of coordination in the mid-1990s, to a level of maturity today that enables it to embrace the concept of sustainable development, and articulate the complex inter-linked meanings and values at the scale of historic cities. Referring to the qualities of cities as places rather than assemblages of monuments, Sørensen highlighted that ‘the historic city has become a kind of laboratory of socially aware conservation practices’. Maria Costi, architect and resident of the walled city of Nicosia, Cyprus, described restoration projects that have been undertaken there.The municipality’s focus on ‘bringing life to the old city’ was directed at the restoration of historic buildings as museums, cultural centres and exhibition halls.This restoration came at the loss of important parts of a historic centre neighbourhood, and socio-economic transformation came at the expense of community facilities in health, sports and public open space. Costi spoke passionately about the need to address the disappearance of functions, of conflicts between homes and nightclubs, traditional markets and cultural centres, and the priority that should be attached to ‘the immaterial elements: for it is those that preserve the quality of life, not romantic facades’. Costi concluded that ‘the immaterial elements should be studied and restored with the same precision and attention – if not more so – as the material elements: that is the future of historic cities’. Much of the debate concerned the question of heritage as a product of social practices, rather than a management issue focused on the preservation of selected physical objects for their aesthetic or historical value and tourism potential. Several presentations queried whose heritage it was that we were preserving and what we meant by the term, whether in ancient cities such as Xi’an and Beijing in China, coastal colonial towns and villages in Brazil, or historic settlements across the continents that were experiencing the most rapid development and change. How can the diversity of cultural heritage be transmitted to future generations if it is appropriated for image-making and selective socioeconomic advantage to the prejudice, if not exclusion, of the local communities whose traditions forged it? PatrickWright, professor at the Institute of Cultural Analysis at NottinghamTrent University, characterised the heritage industry as ‘a toxic veneer smeared over history, detached from reality’. Lim Jong-Hyun, originally from South Korea and now teaching historic preservation at the Savannah College of Art, USA, urged a distinction between the meaning of the tourist industry in different parts of the world. In Europe and North America it was a means to protect the identity of a place; in south east Asia, the means by which local people could secure the basic necessities of life. The question ‘whose city?’ provided the opening for John Preston, historic environment manager for Cambridge, in his presentation on the seminar’s host city. Cambridge is a city of contrasts: town and gown, history and change, wealth and deprivation, locals and students, residents and visitors, market town and multicultural city. It is a historic city that is both evolving and experiencing dynamic growth. How do we address the ability of such a city to withstand certain kinds of change but not others? Preston described how early townscape analysis in the city had focused on the physical aspects and ignored uses. He compared this to the new historic core appraisal and historic environment supplementary planning document, that addresses vulnerability and the capacity for change, and sets out policies for promoting and managing positive change in terms of land use as well as townscape. Ron van Oers, coordinator of the UNESCOWorld Heritage Cities Programme, described cities as ‘the dispensers of cultural identity’. He emphasised the importance of sustaining and reviving the cultural processes that had developed them.Van Oers spoke of a crisis in urban planning, emphasised that the conservation discipline had not kept pace with the pressures being faced by urban sites, stated that decentralisation was an important component of globalisation, and underlined the role of local governance in undertaking urban conservation. Dennis Rodwell, consultant in cultural heritage and sustainable urban development Cambridge’s historic built environment is characterised by dramatically contrasting architectural styles and scales.
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