Context 163 - March 2020

6 C O N T E X T 1 6 3 : M A R C H 2 0 2 0 Periodically With the large number of heritage magazines and journals being published each year, a reviewer has to hunt and pick among the contents. Some cater for a distinctly UK-oriented readership, and while some articles have a more international appeal it does not necessarily follow that Context readers will necessarily find more of interest in the former than the latter. Journal of Architectural Conservation The latest issue of the Journal of Architectural Conservation (Vol 25, No 3, November 2019) is something of a case in point.There is a very long and detailed paper on the architectural decoration of traditional Chinese vernacular dwellings, with wider lessons for data gathering and evaluation; a paper on the sad loss of a significant modernist textile factory inTurkey, with insights into the conservation of recent architectural heritage beyond the UK; and a paper evaluating public perceptions of the authenticity of urban heritage. But readers may be particularly interested in Bath and the wartime fate of its ornamental ironwork. Michael Forsyth from the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath has written an insightful and well-illustrated paper on the removal of Bath’s ironwork in 1942 for war purposes by the Ministry of Supply and the campaign to reinstate it. Railings around garden squares at the time were generally considered elitist and old-fashioned, and although ironwork could be retained on grounds of architectural or historic merit, many fine gates and railings disappeared, and little was reprieved. The author debunks the widespread and persistent myths about scrap metal never being used in the war effort but secretly disposed of by the government after the war, and the official records destroyed. The rumour that it was all dumped at sea seems to have originated from a letter in the London Evening Standard as late as 1984. Forsyth notes that Bath’s 18th-century ironwork has been kept alive by the traditional ironworkers’ skills needed in its restoration and repair, and that none of Bath’s projects would have happened without local involvement and drive. He concludes that it is fitting that something of the fervent community spirit that left the city bereft of its ironwork in wartime has found its echo in a new, gentler determination to see it reinstated. Georgian Group Journal Early spring is the season for annual transactions, several of which I hope to cover in the next issue of Context. Regular readers will be familiar with my exhortation to join the organisations that publish them.This column has not previously covered the periodicals of the Georgian Group and your reviewer is now pleased to be able to do so.The group’s Journal (Vol XXVII, 2019) is a substantial addition to the literature of architectural conservation, running to 240 pages. Usually a miscellany, this particular issue concentrates on the architecture of James Gibbs (1682–1754), one of Britain’s most influential architects. He was born in Scotland, trained as an architect in Rome and practised mainly in England; he is an important figure in the transition between the English baroque and Georgian architecture. His most familiar works include the church of St Martin-in-the- Fields and the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford. He influenced the architectural profession through the two well-referenced pattern books. The Journal has 15 papers covering subjects as diverse as Gibbs’s training in Rome (William Aslet); his work in Ireland (Alec Cobbe); his relationship with ornament and craftsmanship (Christine Casey); and his role in hospital planning (Ann-Marie Akenhurst), to name but four. It is altogether a thoroughly illustrated and referenced volume, a signal achievement for the Georgians and perhaps an invitation to become a member. Construction History Construction History , the International Journal of the Construction History Society (Vol 34, No 2 2019), is another publication with a wide and international focus. As with the Journal of Architectural Conservation, there is invariably at least one valuable and insightful UK-related paper that makes the edition worth tracking down. In the current issue Michael Heaton, an archaeologist and building historian. examines the architectural use of salvaged building materials, sometimes known as ‘spolia’.This is an often a