Context 164 - May 2020

6 C O N T E X T 1 6 4 : M A Y 2 0 2 0 Periodically In my most recent column I noted that spring is the season of annual transactions. Once again these show the added value of joining the organ- isations that publish them, not least because of the depth of coverage of heritage activity within the UK, usu- ally at greater length and detail than is possible in their associated regular newsletters or magazines. Such sup- plementary publications are a bonus beyond supporting and informing their readership about their activities and deserve wide support. ASCHB Transactions The latest ASCHB (Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings) Transactions (Vol 42, 2020) runs to 80 pages. With one notable exception it concentrates on specific historic English building projects in depth. All provide valuable insights and often instructive pointers to wider professional practice. The transactions begin with the contentious issue of statuary, its significance for place and the issue surrounding potential relocation. Hannah Parham and Sarah Bridger explain the initial difficulties of establishing a permanent monument to Emmeline Pankhurst, the pre-eminent suffragette, the political sensitivities regarding positioning in Victoria Tower Gardens immediately south of the Place of Westminster in 1930; the controversy surrounding relocating it in 1956; and dismissal, on appeal of further relocation in 2019, at which point the statue was upgraded to Grade II* listing. The paper provokes an interesting meditation on heritage significance and historical association with a specific time and place. Time had not been kind to Sir John Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing. After he vacated it in 1810 the building suffered extensions, unsympathetic alterations and municipalisation as a public lending library to the point where appreciation of Soane’s fine design had been degraded. In 2010 the manor’s owners, Ealing Borough Council, embarked on a 10-year restoration project described by Judy Allen of Julian Harrap Architects. The paper helpfully describes and illustrates the unpicking of the inappropriate additions and how master planning of the reinstatements was informed by the extensive archive of original drawings and notes held at the Sir John Soane Museum. Thomas Pearson describes the conservation of the ‘Red Trilogy’: three Grade II* post-war university buildings in Leicester, Cambridge and Oxford by Stirling and Gowan. All were considered sensational designs in the 1960s, but all have raised problems in their use and maintenance, leading to solutions of which Heath Robinson would have been proud. The author explains that these complex and visually spectacular buildings required different conservation techniques applied in different ways to seemingly similar buildings. Other interesting contributions include an explanation of a replacement storage building at the Grade-II-listed Alexandra Palace in north London, and the restoration of derelict and under-used spaces. The building, conceived as a People’s Palace, was begun in 1863 but beset by financial problems. Part was converted by the BBC in 1935 for radio studios but suffered a catastrophic fire in July 1980, and had been on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register until the recent works were undertaken. Lyall Thow describes an ambitious 10-year renovation project at 6 Burlington Gardens to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Academy of Arts, focusing on the heritage issues and well-illustrated including commendable contemporary solutions to questions of better disabled access and a link bridge between Burlington House and 6 Burlington Gardens. Karen Butti of Thomas Ford and Partners gives a well-illustrated overview of the repairs to Pugin’s St Augustine’s Church, Ramsgate, including works to the tiled roofs, masonry and stained glass, and the reinstatement of encaustic floor tiles. The exception noted above, emanating from the USA, is a particularly interesting paper by John Fidler on the technical challenges and innovations aschb transactions volume 42: 2020 ASSOCIATIONFORSTUDIES INTHECONSERVATIONOFHISTORICBUILDINGS