Context 158 - March 2019

C O N T E X T 1 5 8 : M A R C H 2 0 1 9 5 ‘ITWAS designed as a showcase and playground of captive penguins, and I can’t see that it would be suited to anything else... ‘Like all areas of human endeavour, knowledge about animals and their habits is constantly changing and evolving, so in all probability what was the latest thinking in the 1930s has long been superseded.’ Sasha Lubetkin quoted in the Camden New Journal suggesting that the disused Penguin Pool at London Zoo, the modernist icon designed by her father Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group in 1934, should probably be demolished. ‘DIDYOU know that over 70 high streets are designated conservation areas and are designated “at-risk” by Historic England and only 10 of these areas have an up-to-date conservation area appraisal? ‘Communities are key to the future of conservation areas.’ CivicVoice @civic_voice on Twitter ‘WEWORK hard to ensure the reason Edinburgh is such an attractive destination – our extraordinary historic environment – is conserved and remains a joy for all. Through almost 1,500 projects, large and small, we’ve helped to ensure our historic tenements, shops, major buildings and public spaces are cared for and conserved to a high standard. ‘This summer we began to find a sustainable use for the Tron Kirk and have welcomed over 250,000 visitors to our exhibition, which explains what’s special about the city through the views and opinions of local people... ‘For Mr Robertson to imply that EdinburghWorld Heritage “hates tourists” in a highly public setting is at best ill-judged, and at worst, an outright slur. It suggests a simplistic view of this city’s complex challenges. ‘We formally request a public retraction.’ AdamWilkinson of EdinburghWorld Heritage quoted in the Scotsman after Gordon Robertson, chair of Marketing Edinburgh, accused heritage campaigners of wanting the city ‘preserved in aspic’ and suggested that the ‘Disneyfication’ of Edinburgh would not be a bad thing. ‘HERITAGE… is now a curse rather than a blessing for many places whose inhabitants’ lives are overrun by a mass tourism... ‘For architects, it increasingly means having to negotiate, not so much history’s mystical palimpsests, but an onerous legislative patchwork of conservations areas... ‘God forbid that we suggest Georgian houses, with their dubious provenance and leaky, jerry-built envelopes, be extended upwards to accommodate expanding populations or radically retrofitted to meets today’s meteorological needs. And as for knocking a few of them down to make way for the new, such is our pathetic obsession with nostalgic and biased visions of our collective history, the mere suggestion of such is likely to have one transported to an island colony for the criminally insane. ‘…if the comprehensive redevelopment of the 1960s did indeed go too far, it is the conservation lobby whose wings are now in need of an urgent manicure.’ The architect Sean Griffiths writing on the dezeen website system in Wales; simplifying the law as to when planning permission is required; clarifying the status of outline planning applications; tightening the law on pre-commencement conditions; enabling planning obligations to be entered into by prospective purchasers; rationalising penalties for breaches of planning control; simplifying the authorisation of works to listed buildings; enabling landowners to discover when they need various special consents; enabling authorities to remove unauthorised advertisement hoardings; tightening control over works to protected trees; simplifying the law on High Court challenges; and clarifying the definition of some technical terms. The commission hopes that the proposed reforms will form part of a new Planning (Wales) Bill, possibly alongside a new Historic Environment (Wales) Bill. They will replace the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the Planning (Wales) Act 2015, the Listed Buildings Act 1990, the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016, five other acts, the relevant parts of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and parts of another 25 pieces of legislation. For further information, contact Charles Mynors charles. mynors@lawcommission.gov.uk