Context 161 - September 2019

C O N T E X T 1 6 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 7 Historic Environment If there is a common thread to the latest issue of The Historic Environment: policy and practice (Vol 10, No 2), it is to emphasise the need to quantify and understand the implications of policy before its application, especially in areas of policy that have implications for the historic environment, without taking it into account at the outset. The example given is a paper about the implementation of the Swedish government’s energy improvement and modernisation programme from 1984 to 1990, to enhance the energy-saving capacity of houses through loans and subsidies. Martin Tunefalk and Matthias Legnér describe how government policy, initially presented as a solution for unemployment in the building sector and social improvement for the poor and elderly, ignored the historic environment. Competition between stakeholder interests developed. There is a salutary assessment of the ad hoc approach, and the failure to consider heritage values while aiming to promote other progressive policies. In a similar vein, Fredrik Berg and Anna Donarelli review how heritage considerations should have been more properly assessed under a policy to promote energy performance certification (EPC) in Norway and Sweden, where excessive and unqualified recommendations in pursuit of energy efficiency risked harm to the special interest of historic buildings. The authors conclude, unsurprisingly, that a better level of guidance and improved communication was required. A lack or under-appreciation of the heritage significance of working-class housing in the north of England is the theme of a paper by Joanne Harrison. She argues that there is a real problem concerning the conservation of such housing where this continues to exist in large numbers but has no formal heritage protection; where there is insidious erosion of significance through alterations and demolitions; and when the loss of their defining qualities becomes difficult to reverse, especially in larger cities such as Liverpool and Manchester. Despite the demise of the discredited Housing Market Renewal programme (2002–2011), when communities were confronted by massive demolition programmes, the author also forcefully argues that clearance is a problem that has never really gone away. The growing complexity of managing the historic environment is the subject of a paper by Diamantino Raposinho and Luis Mota, who look at the Portuguese world heritage sites of Évora, Guimarães, and the historic centre of Porto. The argument advanced here is that complexity itself often stands in the way of effective policy.While the Portuguese local authorities are the biggest public funders and promoters of world heritage status, these could be better managed if this aspect was more thoroughly evaluated. The authors consider that there would be more effective management decisions if they were concentrated in a single agency or department, rather than through a multi- agency structure with shared responsibilities. The authors detect, however, that the lack of analysis has sapped any impetus to improve management arrangements. A paper by Hana Morel, based on interviews and recent research, looks at the influences that have profoundly shaped planning and archaeology in London against a background of successive changes to local governments over the past 50 years. Her examination of the negotiations between stakeholders is a pertinent example of how economics and politics have dictated archaeology structures and organisations. The final paper, by Gemma Tully, Chiara Piai, Jesús Rodríguez-Hernandez and Elodie Delhommeau, compares public perceptions of three ‘optimum’ landscapes, including Salmonsbury in England and sites in Spain and France, to illustrate how limited the public understanding is of heritage management, and exposes the wide gap in knowledge transfer between those managing cultural landscapes and the communities they serve. SPAB Magazine As your reviewer remarked in a recent column, one of the most interesting features of the SPAB Magazine (Summer 2019) is the feature ‘On Site’, describing practical conservation issues and the approaches adopted to particular forms of appropriate repair. This issue has two highly contrasting cases. In the first, Sarah Khan of Roger Mears Architects describes innovative solutions to retrofitting a small brick- faced, timber-framed Grade II listed cottage in Hampstead. The