Context 159 - May 2019

C O N T E X T 1 5 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 9 13 Building services Editorial Hidden worlds A tour of the bowels of the Palace of Westminster reveals an astonishing array of steam, gas and water services laid on top of each other, often alongside high-voltage cables and other vulnerable equipment. Whenever anything had become redundant, the solution was to patch and mend. Today the corridors of water, waste and power are patrolled day and night by fire wardens, in the hope that they will detect the smoke that might herald what might otherwise be as great a disaster as that which paved the way for Barry and Pugin in 1834. Whatever this might be a metaphor for, it highlights the challenge that every historic building faces: how to keep the building serviced in the face of decay, changing technologies and many other challenges. Visitors may expect to see a building as it was a few hundred years ago, but they may also expect it to be well lit, warmly heated, humidity-controlled, securely protected, properly plumbed, energy efficient and, at the very least (with the images of Notre Dame in mind), protected against fire. All this must be accommodated, somehow, in the historic fabric, and installed in a way that will allow the services to be altered when, inevitably, new challenges arise and new technologies offer themselves. This issue of Context takes a look at some projects that highlight what can be done. Hugh Griffiths (page 14) describes the servicing project that will enable Flaxmill Maltings – celebrated as the world’s first iron-framed building – to thrive as a workplace, despite no one knowing exactly what it will be used for. As with many building conservation projects, the future is uncertain. Nick Hill (page 17) describes a project – one of the most complete surviving historic factories in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter – where there was very little scope facilitating re-servicing by removing material of historic value and putting it back later, and where the old services themselves were considered to be of historic value. Rhys Brookes (page 24) writes about replacing the lanterns and overthrows of the houses in Bath’s Great Pulteney Street. Recreating the historic infrastructure took some painstaking detective work, and the skills of a wide range of craftspeople. Louise Priestman (page 28) describes the servicing work behind Durham Cathedral’s Open Treasure project, which has widened public access to the cathedral’s hidden architectural spaces and collections. Christina Sinclair, Rebecca Stone and TomWaterson (page 31) tell an equivalent story in relation to the building services for the restoration, repair and alteration of Alfred Waterhouse’s Manchester Town Hall. And Sir Kent Woods (page 21), writing about the development of Victorian Leicester’s sewerage system, reminds us that services, at the scale of a city as well as an individual building, can be a matter of life and death. B U I L D I N G S E R V I C E S Opposite: An overthrow light bracket taking shape (Photo: Rhys Brookes)