8 C O N T E X T 1 7 1 : M A R C H 2 0 2 2 from these ever-rising threats. A well-structured paper by Lauren Reynolds Hall on preemptive strategies and crossdisciplinary collaboration for emergency planning presents some useful lessons related to a major historic garden (Vizcaya Museum and Gardens). The author explains the history of this important garden, and indicates how vital is it is to build relationships between conservation professionals, engineers, architects and others to pre-document the site (including maintenance records) and to provide evidence of emergency protective measures taken, and she explains the immense value of photographs recording prestorm conditions. She writes that it is important to introduce training to enable and empower colleagues to be confident and proficient in undertaking annual or biannual emergency preparation and response instructions, and to capitalise on volunteer support. She points to the need to accept the realities that accompany damage as a stimulus to the numerous practical ways in which heritage professionals can help to build up resilience in emergencies. The second paper provides a counterpoint to work being undertaken by both Historic England and Historic Scotland on the question of the potential loss of heritage assets consequent on sea-level rises. Sujin Kim and Morris Hylton III have looked at sea-level rise modelling and impact assessment on historic coastal communities, concluding that there is less time to prepare than they expected. Presently the emphasis of heritage management is on resilience and addressing shortterm, temporary impacts such as storm surges. But sea-level rise will be a permanent change, adding to the hazards of intermittent flooding and weather events. The authors’ work is explained as four phases: data acquisition and processing; geo-referencing; sea-level rise monitoring and timeline visualisation; and impacted property assessment and mapping. Recent APT Bulletin articles have discussed conservation practices related to sea-level rise, and the vulnerability of individual properties and water-table monitoring. Kim and Hylton’s study demonstrates how a much more integrated approach, involving digital documentation, cultural resources using GIS and modelling processes, can inform likely impacts over a much wider area and timescale. In third paper, Sonia R Chao and Benjamin Ghansah look at storm-surge monitoring on vulnerable historic buildings. They ask (and posit some conclusions) whether properties in coastal areas will be resilient to the expected increases in extreme weather events and, if so, what the contributing determinants and attributes are. Also helpful in this issue is No 22 in the series of centre-section Practice Notes. Thomas Boothby provides valuable advice on how a reasonable assessment can be arrived at for stone or brick arches by applying general engineering principles to the specific problem of determining their loading capacity. The Victorian In TheVictorian (No 68, November 2021), Andrew Saint, the doyen of architectural historians, trails his recent book London 1870–1914 and explains the motivation behind it. One aim is to capture the extraordinary story of London’s architecture in the 40 years or so up to the first world war. He notes that progressive histories could hardly be more out of fashion these days. It was not his intention at the outset to impose such a reading on his book, which emerged out of lectures he had organised some years before and picked up again. Another aim has been to combine the rich diet of illustrations that Victorian Society lecture audiences crave with as broad a survey of London’s development and life as could be managed. In the current article, Saint summarises some of the transformative forces in London over the period, including buildings with very specific functions, such as fire stations, public libraries and board schools. In another article that joins the dots, so to speak, Philip Venning, secretary of the SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) from 1984 to 2012, looks at the years before the founding of the Victorian Society and the times when the SPAB did – and did not – take an interest in Victorian architecture. He cites several cases that perhaps today are overlooked. These include whether to take up the matter of the enlargement and reconstruction of Pugin’s chapel at Ushaw College, a Roman Catholic college in County Durham; and the widening of the late-18th-century Magdalen Bridge in Oxford (a structure only 50 years older than Pugin’s chapel VOL . L I I NO. 2–3 2021 BULLETIN The As sociat ion for Preser vat ion Technology Inter nat ional As sociat ion inter nat ionale pour la préser vat ion et ses techniques Asociación Inter nacional para la Técnicas de Conser vación del Pat r imonio T H E J O U R N A L O F P R E S E R V A T I O N T E C H N O L O G Y
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