Context 165 - August 2020

4 C O N T E X T 1 6 5 : A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 ‘THE BUILDINGS along William Brown Street, together with St George’s Hall, form one of the finest groups of neoclassical civic buildings in the country. The consistently high quality of the architecture has few equals in Europe, let alone in England, and St George’s Hall is deservedly the centrepiece of this part of Liverpool’s world heritage site. The proposed zip wire will trivialise the setting of this magnificent group of buildings and seriously harm the reflective and dignified character of St John’s Gardens. ‘Liverpool’s 19th-century architectural heritage is of international renown and one of the greatest contributors to the city’s success. Liverpool City Council has demonstrated over a number of years that it does not take this heritage sufficiently seriously and has given listed building consent to various insensitive proposals that cause unnecessary harm to the historic environment. This proposal will bring very little public benefit and will result in disproportionate harm.’ Tom Taylor of theVictorian Society deploring the decision of Liverpool City Council to grant planning permission for a zip wire between St John’s Beacon and the Central Library building. ‘THE MASONS who built the medieval cathedrals exploited the compressive strength of stone to an extraordinary degree. The way they used columns, vaults, arches and flying buttresses to enclose massive and complex volumes while avoiding tension was highly sophisticated. ‘They understood very well stone’s lack of strength in tension. Lintels were treated not as beams but as flat arches, packed tightly at the ends, sometimes even voussoired, and often helped by more or less formal relieving arches above them. ‘These traditional stone structures were built with lime mortar. It was permeable, sufficiently strong in compression but even weaker than the stone in tension, which is ideal for a mortar.Wall surfaces were commonly brought to a flat face to minimise the surface area and avoid water-holding ledges. Or they were protected and decorated with lime plaster or limewash to an extent that is neither recognised, except by a few archaeologists, nor widely understood today… ‘In the areas where stone was quarried, buildings were constructed of stone and lime, and their surfaces were commonly decorated inside and out. The appearance of the stone wasn’t seen or valued in the modern way. It was often covered with lime plaster and white or coloured limewash. Sculptures would often be painted…With routine and timely maintenance their life was indefinite. They were easily improved and re-purposed and, if they became terminally redundant or had to be replaced, their components and materials were easily re-used or recycled… ‘“Traditional building” and “modern construction” are entirely different systems. Modern construction depends on materials that are hard, strong, inflexible, impermeable, processed and assembled with the aid of machinery with as little labour and skill involved as possible. Traditional paving at risk The prospective compilers of the proposed atlas of traditional paving (see Briefing, Context 164, May 2020) have expressed alarm about the possible fate of traditional paving details at kerbs and gullies, in the face of the laudable aim of widening pavements and creating cycle lanes in response to the conditions created by the pandemic. They suggest that before committing to a new-build scheme, it is advisable to install temporary solutions not requiring disturbance to the in situ paving. Permanent solutions should be built only when the extent of road closures, traffic management, footfall and increased spill-out from restaurants, bars and shops have been established. They urge that designs should as far as absolutely possible incorporate existing details. If not, the historic materials and detailing should be reused in the widening scheme. In the last resort, if that can not be done, the materials should be recorded, taken up and stored for later use – not sent to landfill as has happened with so much of the heritage of paving. The pandemic-related threats to traditional paving could add to the damage that is already being caused to paving by poorly conceived works to accommodate charging points for electric vehicles. Ragstone setts and cubes at Sutton Valence, Kent (Photo: Robert Huxford)