C O N T E X T 1 7 4 : D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 7 but rather an alteration to an essential characteristic at this important civic space’ and works that require a far greater degree of sympathetic treatment. There may be some lessons here for British public transport heritage assets, where failures to preserve the original design have resulted from poor communication among different parts of the same organisation, where suitable repair and reinstatement result in partial shutdown, daily inconveniences for thousands of users, and costly precious resources in maintenance, repair and rehabilitation for the authority. In such specific cases there should perhaps be a debate about whether the patina of age on modern heritage assets designed to remain pristine is aesthetically pleasing or charming, and whether or at what level intervention is appropriate to effect reinstatement. The debate on contested heritage has come to the fore recently, resulting in revision to national planning policy guidance. Readers will be aware that this issue is not a uniquely UK phenomenon, and is equally contentious in the USA, and the debate on problematic monuments is certainly not a new one. In the USA the development of the Black Lives Matter movement has resulted in discussions about monuments that are not necessarily intrinsically historic but are physical representations of political, cultural and power structures of the era. They are meant to send a message and they can become lightning rods for discussion of big issues. In October 2021 the Association of Preservation Technology convened a virtual conference in Washington DC to discuss the issue, examining several different approaches for communities evaluating how to deal with public art, statuary, and racial/ hate-based graffiti. The debate is not limited to black-related issues but to all ethnic groups, including (in North America) indigenous people who feel their history is not appropriately represented. The paper, authored by five of the participants, represents an interesting parallel perspective on the debate underway recently in the UK. In promoting the considerable intellectual, professional and practical value of several sets of annual transactions published by national heritage organisations in the previous issue of Context, space did not permit the inclusion of the review of two others, from Historic Buildings and Places and the Georgian Group. Journal of Historic Buildings and Places The Journal of Historic Buildings and Places is the first to appear under the guise of that eponymous organisation, replacing the Ancient Monuments Society and its series of Transactions (the last having been Volume 65). Under the stewardship of the editor, John Bold, the scholarship remains undiminished and there is much of diverse interest within its 166 pages. Gary Winter and Alan Brody write about England’s heritage from the air and the value of photographs from the Aerofilms Collection, providing a unique archive of Britain from 1919 onwards. The well-illustrated essay explores the types of images in the collection, which range from ancient monuments, historic landscapes and ruined abbeys to industrial heritage, funfairs and football matches. The earliest part of the collection, dating between 1919 and 1953, has been scanned and is available online at the Britain from Above website. A fascinating essay by Amy Bettinson discusses infill housing in post-war London, concentrating on Kensington and Chelsea. Nestled in London streets there is an untold story of post-war modernism in boroughs where lighter bomb damage left gaps in terraced housing. These might appear to be isolated incidents in the street-scene, but examples of this particular housing form of development can be found across the capital, often as high-density modernist blocks of flats inserted into the gaps in stuccoed, 19th-century terraces. These projects were controversial in their time (and remain so today), as architects considered how modernist buildings could fit into historic settings, seizing the opportunity to experiment in their design. The discussion around post-war housing is heavily focused on largescale schemes, and smaller-scale, high-density blocks of flats have generally been overlooked. These are not localised, isolated incidents in the townscape, but examples of a particular type of development found across the city but never previously properly documented as a group. The author considers that their relatively unobtrusive nature has left them extremely vulnerable, and few are listed. She suggests that a further study across the whole of London would be invaluable, as would examination of other cities where bombing was light and infill was scattered, so as to compare strategies. It is hoped that they are all documented properly soon, so that this chapter of English modernism is not left without protection or lost without trace. While there are professional, academic and scholarly sources of information that may be usefully applied in heritage management, those within popular culture should not be overlooked. In an essay entitled ‘London on JOURNAL OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND PLACES JOURNAL OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND PLACES hbap.org.uk 2022 VOLUME 01 COVER
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