Context 161 - September 2019

Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Michael Taylor, ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com Editorial Board Tom Copp Nigel Crowe Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Rebecca Madgin Andrew McLelland Fiona Newton Gordon Sorensen Jonathan Taylor Michael Taylor (chair) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2019 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA 01747 871717 context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to corporate bodies at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £60.00 Elsewhere £90.00 Context on-line archive Past issues of Context can be viewed on the IHBC website. The archive provides a searchable database and reference for key articles. See www.ihbc.org.uk/page55/ context_archive. 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. Context themes and copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November. The next three themes and copy deadlines are: New Towns , November, issue 162 (13 September) Republic of Ireland, March, issue 163 (13 January) Damp , May, issue 164 (13 March) Please contact Michael Taylor at ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com to discuss any editorial submissions or for information about the Context editorial board. 2 C O N T E X T 1 6 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 Briefing Nottingham’s urban room Alice Ullathorne writes: At this year’s IHBC school in Nottingham we were pleased to introduce delegates to Nottingham through their first stop at Nottingham’s Urban Room at 38 Carrington Street. The Urban Room has revolutionised the way we engage citizens and enable them to participate with placemaking in the city. The starting point for the concept of Urban Rooms was developed in the 2014 Farrell review into the built environment. One of the recommendations of the report was that ‘Every town and city… should have an “urban room” where the past, present and future of that place can be inspected’. For over three years an urban room in Nottingham was an unachieved ambition of the city’s built environment community. In 2017 it became one of Nottingham City Council’s heritage action zone programme projects, funded by Historic England. This project identified seed funding to enable the concept to be tested in the city and to challenge the community of built environment professionals to establish a sustainable model for the urban room by the end of the Nottingham HAZ scheme in 2022. The Nottingham Urban Room has developed through a partnership with the East Midlands RIBA, the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Society of Architects (NDSA), both Nottingham universities, Historic England, the Urban Design Group and Nottingham City Council. The shop at 38 Carrington Street was identified for use for activities for the National Lottery Heritage Funded Carrington Street Townscape Heritage scheme.With funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and the NDSA, and sponsorship fromTomlinson’s and Fagerhult, the conversion of the shop was achieved for use for exhibitions, consultations, workshops, events and meetings. The shop had a suspended ceiling and partition wall with numerous poor-quality alterations and a mangled shopfront. Now it is a bright space with high ceilings, flexible space and a beautifully restored shopfront. At the same time as developing a physical space, a digital space that mirrors the urban room has been created at 38carringtonstreet. org.uk . This enables citizens to find out what is happening in the space and how to participate. There is a means for people to book the space for all differed types of activity. The website and final design of 38 Carrington Street have enabled us to develop a great working relationship with artists and designers at Primary, including Joff+Ollie Studio. Since opening with the RIBA President’s Medals in March 2018, the space has gone from strength to strength as a neutral place where community groups feel relaxed,