C O N T E X T 1 3 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 29 HERITAGE AND NATIONHOOD The Secretariat Conservation and Development Strategy Prepared for Yangon Heritage Trust November 2012 PhilipDavies The threat: dismal new high-rise architecture Far left: Custom House (1912–16) by John Begg, consulting architect to the Government of India: detail of the central roof pavilion Philip Davies, a former planning and development director at English Heritage, is the principal of Philip Davies (Heritage and Planning) and a founder member of the International Advisory Group of theYangon Heritage Trust. His book Echoes of Empire: the architecture and monuments of the British Empire and Commonwealth is due for publication in 2015. has a central to play in saving Burma’s heritage. In a country with only a rudimentary legal and planning system and little conservation expertise, it is leading the way by showcasing international best practice and drawing in selected institutions to help to enhance local capacity. These institutions include the Prince’s Trust for Building Community, the Getty Foundation, theWorld Monuments Fund andTurquoise Mountain, which has done such excellent work in the regeneration of the old city in Kabul. Aided by Sarah Rooney’s book Thirty Heritage Buildings ofYangon,(reviewed inContext 130, July 2013), there is now widespread acceptance that important historic buildings should be kept.The trust has carried out a rapid survey of the centre of the city and recommended that the current (1996) list of heritage buildings should be increased from 187 to over 2,500, coupled with the designation of conservation zones around key areas of the downtown city. Fuelled by speculation and over-ambitious expectations of making a quick killing, land prices are now comparable to those of NewYork. The real challenge is to maintain the unique low-rise, multicultural character of the downtown city as a whole in the face of intense development pressure for high-rise buildings. Britain is a world leader in the quality and sophistication of its conservation skills and expertise, yet for a country which built so much of the modern world and, uniquely, left its mark on the farthest corners of the globe, we are still extraordinarily anglo-centric in our attitudes to our heritage. Britain’s heritage does not end at Dover. Some of the finest British buildings and monuments of the past 250 years can be found across the Commonwealth and in the former empire and beyond, some in urgent need of advice, guidance or funding.Yet there is still no effective mechanism in the UK for supporting the conservation of this spectacular legacy. Is it not time that the Heritage Lottery Fund earmarked a small amount of money each year to safeguard this unparalleled global heritage? In the process, by working more closely with the British Council, Department for International Development, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, it could help promote British skills and expertise in some of the fastest growing markets in the world.
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