4 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 Letter Conservation and climate From Robin Uff Ben Cowell (‘Power houses’, Context 178, December 2023) argues that it should be made easier to install solar panels on or in the vicinity of listed buildings. Some of his article seems deliberately confrontational. Given the dire state of the climate emergency response, every reasonable effort should be made to encourage sustainable energy production. This could include (where reasonable and unobtrusive), photovoltaics on the roofs of some listed buildings. Fortunately, we have in place (creaking badly, but just about) a sound planning system and defined conservation principles that can (at least theoretically) assess and mediate the proposed developments in an informed fashion, despite Cowell’s views, with especially demanding criteria for Grade II*- and Grade I-listed buildings. That system and those principles, however, still allowed photovoltaics on King’s College Chapel roof (‘A worldwide precedent for solar panels?’, John Preston, Context 176, June 2023), via a planning committee committed to sending a message rather than giving sufficient weight to expert conservation advice. What is needed is a high-profile appeal against a refusal of solar panels on a listed building roof, so that the impact can be properly weighed against economic, social, technical, environmental and cultural objectives. With the strong emphasis on sustainable development, conservation principles need to be emphasised within a transparent moral, ethical, philosophical and political framework. Robin Uff ‘THE IDEA you can stick a 42-storey tower block over a Georgian mansion is ridiculous. ‘It’s a listed building, so the idea it was even dreamt up is, quite frankly, ludicrous.’ Birmingham councillor Gareth Moore commenting on a proposal for a ‘floating’ tower rising above Islington Villa, the former Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, a Grade II-listed building. ‘THE KIRKGATE Shopping Centre is a huge, imposing building built in pre-cast concrete that occupies an entire city centre block in the centre of Bradford. It lacks the architectural flair, design or technological innovation found in exemplar brutalist buildings of this period. ‘It has a bulky, monolithic appearance due to the uniform elevations, repetition of key features and continuous flat roof line of the rooftop car park. ‘The ribbed concrete panels, projecting towers, plum brickwork and tinted/mirrored windows provide some texture and detail, together with the cantilevered metal-framed roof over the market hall, but these features fail to enliven a building of this size and scale.’ Historic England rejecting calls by the 20th Century Society and others for a certificate of immunity from listing for Kirkgate Shopping Centre in Bradford to be refused. ‘VOICES are growing to establish a separate, arm’s-length entity to take the rebuild forward. I have every sympathy for the school, but moving the responsibility for this enormous construction project to an independent body allows them to shake off some of the baggage of the past decade, to focus on what they provide for students, while a building preservation trust might have tax advantages and offer a fresh appeal to sponsors and funders.’ Liz Davidson, who directed the restoration of Glasgow’s Mackintosh School of Art after the first fire in 2014, telling the Guardian why the responsibility for restoring it after the second fire should be taken out of the hands of the art school. ‘WE ARE very, very happy with the work that the council has done so quickly. ‘I think it will ultimately be rebuilt, but we have to wait and see what happens.’ Paul Turner, campaign leader of the Save the Crooked House group, reacting on BBC News, West Midlands, to the serving of an enforcement notice ordering the owners of ‘Britain’s wonkiest inn’ to rebuild it.
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