Institute of Historic Building Conservation No 186 December 2025 Infrastructure and industry Scotland’s uplifting heritage Reusing large industrial structures Industrial conservation areas Railway infrastructure
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CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 1 www.ihbc.org.uk @IHBCtweet Registered as a charity in England and Wales number 1061593, in Scotland number SC041945, and listed in Northern Ireland Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England number 3333780 Registered Office: Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA Officers President Rebecca Thompson, president@ihbc.org.uk Vice President Torsten Haak, vpresidentth@ihbc.org.uk Chair David McDonald, chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair Lone Le Vay, vchair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary Dave Chetwyn, ihbcsecretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasurer Jill Kerry, treasurer@ihbc.org.uk National Office Director Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk Operations Director Fiona Newton, operations@ihbc.org.uk, consultations@ihbc.org.uk Administration Officer Lydia Porter, admin@ihbc.org.uk Education,Training & Application Support Officer Angharad Hart, training@ihbc.org.uk Membership Services Officer Carmen Moran, membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk Professional Services Officer Michael Netter, services@ihbc.org.uk Committee Chairs Policy Roy Lewis, policy@ihbc.org.uk Membership & Ethics Andrew Shepherd, membership@ihbc.org.uk Education Chris Wood, education@ihbc.org.uk Communications & Outreach Dave Chetwyn, communications@ihbc.org.uk Branch Contacts North north@ihbc.org.uk North West northwest@ihbc.org.uk Yorkshire yorkshire@ihbc.org.uk West Midlands westmids@ihbc.org.uk East Midlands eastmids@ihbc.org.uk South south@ihbc.org.uk South West southwest@ihbc.org.uk East Anglia eastanglia@ihbc.org.uk South East southeast@ihbc.org.uk London london@ihbc.org.uk Scotland scotland@ihbc.org.uk Wales wales@ihbc.org.uk Northern Ireland northernireland@ihbc.org.uk Republic of Ireland republicofireland@ihbc.org.uk Rest of the World overseas@ihbc.org.uk 2 Briefing 5 Out of Context 6 Periodically 9 The writer’s voice 9 Letter 10 Law and policy 13 Editorial 14 The protection and reuse of large industrial structures Peter de Figueiredo 18 Historic England and infrastructure LukeWormald 19 Reflections on railway heritage Simon Hickman 23 Scotland’s uplifting heritage Miles Oglethorpe 26 Power for the people Wayne Cocroft 29 Industrial heritage in the Ruhr John Pendlebury 32 Industrial conservation areas Diane Harvey-White 37 Housing and heritage Dave Chetwyn 40 Celebrating brick gothic David Andrews 42 Notes from the chair 43 New member profile 44 New members 45 Inter alia 46 Vox pop 48 Reviews 53 Products and services 56 Specialist suppliers index
Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Michael Taylor, ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com Editorial Board Nigel Crowe Aimée Felton Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Duncan McCallum Fiona Newton Jonathan Taylor Michael Taylor (chair) Cartoons and illustrations by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2025 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA 01747 871717 context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to corporate bodies at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £65.00 Elsewhere £100.00 Context on-line archive Past issues of Context can be viewed on the IHBC website. The archive provides a searchable database and reference for key articles. See www.ihbc.org.uk/page55/context_archive. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. Context themes and copy deadlines Context is published four times a year in March, June, September and December. The next three themes and copy deadlines are: Regional: Wessex, March, issue 187 (9 January) The listing process, June, issue 188 (10 April) Threatened materials and crafts, September, issue 189 (10 July) Please contact Michael Taylor at ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com to discuss any editorial submissions or for information about the Context editorial board. 2 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 Briefing Institute of Historic Building Conservation No 186 December 2025 Infrastructure and industry Scotland’s uplifting heritage Reusing large industrial structures Industrial conservation areas Railway infrastructure Cover: The Sasebo Crane lifting pre-fabricated tanks in 2015. Built in Glasgow, it was transported to Sasebo Dockyard in Kyushu, Japan, and erected in around 1912. (Photo: Miles Oglethorpe) See page 23 Egypt and Vanbrugh at the Soane A major exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum (running until 18 January 2026) explores the ‘profound and enduring impact’ of ancient Egyptian culture on British architecture and design. The exhibition showcases neverbefore-exhibited drawings from the collection of Sir John Soane, alongside influential architectural designs from the last 200 years, and a collection of historic decorative items heavily influenced by Egyptian architecture and aesthetics. New work created by Cairo-born artist Sara Sallam accompanies the exhibition, exploring the legacies of ancient Egypt in the west. Centred around architecture and interior design, ‘Egypt: influencing British design 1775–2025’ features a wide range of objects, including books owned by Soane and the lecture drawings he commissioned on Egyptian themes, design drawings by renowned architects such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Robert Adam, Owen Jones and John Outram, decorative objects including Wedgwood ceramics and Regency silverware, and affordable homeware from an art deco biscuit tin to a Singer sewing machine. Displayed together, they trace the huge influence of Egyptian style on British architecture and interior design, from the Georgian era and through the industrial revolution to art deco and postmodernism. The museum notes that Soane had conflicting thoughts about the widespread fascination with ancient Egyptian culture of his time, which he both railed against and yet participated in. Increasingly seeing it as frivolous, Soane noted with disdain the ‘rage for novelty’ that resulted in ‘Egyptian mania’. The exhibition also charts the British fascination with Egyptian style through a number of buildings, both well and lesser known. These range from those Soane knew, like the Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly (1812), and others such as Temple Works in Leeds (1838–40) and Arcadia Works (the Carreras Cigarette Factory, A design for a chimneypiece in the Egyptian manner by George Dance the younger, Lansdowne House, London, 1778–94
CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 3 1926–8) in London. George Coles’ Carlton Cinemas (1928 and 1930) and John Outram’s Sphinx Hill (1999), a Grade II listed house on the banks of the Thames in Oxfordshire, are presented as testament to the continuing appeal of Egyptian style. The exhibition includes a range of mass-produced decorative items which demonstrate how the desire to display Egyptian-themed objects in the home extended far beyond the wealthiest members of society and, in the wake of the industrial revolution, how an everbroadening range of commodities was available. In Britain, the association between commerce and Egyptian style begins with Liberty, whose Egyptianinspired silks are represented in the exhibition and continues through examples such as the now demolished Earl’s Court Homebase (1988), with its huge, witty relief sculptures showing Egyptian gods clutching power tools. Another exhibition at the Soane Museum, ‘Vanbrugh: the drama of architecture’ will run from 4 March to 28 June 2026. Three hundred years after the death of Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726), it will feature drawings from the collections of the V&A, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the National Portrait Gallery and Sir John Soane’s Museum, including many in Vanbrugh’s own hand. The exhibition will highlight Vanbrugh’s enduring architectural ideas and influence, including two of the most influential architects of the 20th century, Robert Venturi (1925–2018) and Denise Scott Brown (b1931). The 2025 winning schemes by category include: • Restoration of a Georgian country house: Gorhambury House, Hertfordshire, 1777–84, designed by Sir Robert Taylor (Inskip Gee Architects with Conservation Planning) • Restoration of a Georgian building in a landscape: Beckford’s Tower, Bath, 1826–27, designed by Henry Edmund Goodridge (architect: Clive England and Sophia Robson with Bath Preservation Trust) • Restoration of a Georgian interior: The Tapestry Drawing Room, Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, a completely new architectural treatment to a room which was destroyed by fire in 1940 (architect: Francis Terry and Associates, with interior designers Alec Cobbe and Remy Renzullo) Sir John Vanbrugh’s Blenheim Palace, drawn by the Soane office Georgian spirit The 2025 Georgian Group Architectural Awards, sponsored by Savills, celebrate ‘those who have demonstrated the vision and commitment to restore Georgian buildings and landscapes, and to create new work in the spirit of the Georgian era across the UK.’ The Tapestry Drawing Room, Castle Howard (Photo: Christopher Horwood)
4 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 • Restoration of a Georgian building in an urban setting: St Stephen Walbrook, City of London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren (Caroe Architecture) • Re-use of a Georgian building: The Rising and Gardens at Raby Castle, County Durham, where a suite of 18th century equestrian buildings has been restored as part of a wider regeneration project (architect: Donald Insall Associates) • The Diaphoros Prize: Poundbury (Phase III), Dorset, where ‘in contrast to the earlier Poundbury phases, the designers had complete control over the design which is reflected in a higher level of architectural detailing and quality’ (ADAM Architecture and Ben Pentreath Studio) • The Giles Worsley Award for work in the spirit of the Georgian era: Newnham Paddox, Warwickshire (Giles Quarme Architects) Call for members of the Context editorial board The board’s job is to persuade other people to write for Context, but members do make occasional contributions as authors and pitch in to help with book reviews. Some of us can count our membership of the editorial board in decades but membership need not be a lengthy commitment. Members who have been with us for just a few years have made valuable contributions and brought fresh perspectives. Membership of the editorial board will take a few hours of your time. That can be a problem in a busy professional and personal life but, to keep Context moving forward, it is essential that the journal reflects the views and experiences of working heritage professionals. In return for some of your time you will widen your range of contacts, gain experience of publishing and be credited in each issue of the journal. You can also claim Context work as IHBC CPD. If you think you can make a contribution, I would be pleased to hear from you at ihbceditorialboard@ gmail.com. I will send a job description and we can then talk through how you might fit into the Context team. Michael Taylor, editorial co-ordinator of Context St Stephen Walbrook, City of London (Photo: Caroe Architecture) Working with glass Manchester Cathedral’s stained glass Conserving the Great South Window The greenhouse at Felton Park The long reign of Vitrolite No 177 September 2023 Institute of Historic Building Conservation Michael Taylor writes: Do you enjoy reading Context? Does the journal support your professional life? Would you like to help to produce it? The Context editorial board would welcome new members to help shape the future of the journal and to keep it steadily evolving to reflect the changing world we work in. We are looking for people with knowledge and contacts in the various disciplines represented in the IHBC. At the moment we would particularly like to find an architect, but other skill sets are also welcome. The board works closely with our editor, Rob Cowan, and with Jonathan Taylor of our publishers, Cathedral Communications. We meet up to five times a year online, with meetings usually lasting one-anda-half to two hours. At meetings we plan themes for future issues, identify topics within those themes and fit possible authors to the topics. Then board members approach potential authors and, if they get a positive response, advise the authors and keep them on track as they produce their article. We normally try to recruit authors at least four to five months ahead of deadline dates. The board then reviews each published issue and so helps to shape the general development of Context. Hadrian’s Wall What happened to the stones? Cumbria’s vernacular architecture Renovating Union Chain Bridge Bastles on the border No 179 March 2024 Institute of Historic Building Conservation Leaders of conservation thought The influence of Ruskin and Morris Lord Kennet’s achievement Inspired by John Ashurst Institute of Historic Building Conservation No 184 June 2025
CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 5 ‘THERE’S a lot of history that has taken place in the East Wing, and it was just destroyed without any conversation in the American public, without any consent of Congress. It was absolutely illegal… you are essentially watching the destruction of the rule of law happen as those walls come down.’ Senator Chris Murphy commenting on President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom. ‘I DON’T OFTEN post about the poor rates of pay in the heritage sector. But I just came across a freelance opportunity for a heritage assistant that pays only £110 per day, which is one of the lowest rates I’ve seen in recent years. Considering the ongoing cost of living crisis, this is totally unacceptable. The job listing includes 11 essential criteria and an additional 10 desirable criteria. On top of that, the successful candidate will also be responsible for managing volunteers on a long-term basis. ‘Freelancers have to cover their own taxes and national insurance, pay for work-related expenses like travel, materials and office equipment, and they don’t receive sick pay, maternity leave or holiday pay. At this rate, the role is simply not financially viable. What’s particularly frustrating is that this position is part of a National Lottery Heritage Fund activity plan.’ Laura Owen, freelance oral historian, heritage consultant and project manager, writing on LinkedIn ‘THE TRANSITION to a greener, cleaner energy network is a profoundly positive step for the UK and one that must be welcomed. However, by eradicating our post-war cooling towers we are in danger of obliterating the most awe-inspiring legacy of a vanishing era – “the Stonehenge of the carbon age”, as Sir Antony Gormley has described them. ‘Whether they are imaginatively repurposed – as has happened with many international examples – turned into giant art objects, educational science parks, or simply left as enigmatic markers in the landscape, time is running out to save these cathedrals of our industrial heritage.’ The C20 Society commenting on the rejection of the listing application for the eight cooling towers at Britain’s last coal-fired power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire. ‘I’VE JUST BEEN reading through the new guidance on Part L of the Building Regulations, published by Historic England. It’s quite a useful and wellrounded document. However, there is no mention of the fact that the majority of traditionally constructed buildings relied upon cast-metal heating sources such as ranges to provide infra-red heat. These old ranges are often of architectural, aesthetic and design interest in their own right, and in my experience are one of the most threatened elements within the internal environment when it comes to “modernisation”… ‘The document correctly cites the contribution to thermal mass from chimney breasts, but not much else. The infra-red heat from stoves and ranges kept the fabric warm, rather than just heating the air using convected heat from radiators, and in particular maintained chimneys in a damp-free condition.’ Matthew Crook of Nordmark Consulting writing on LinkedIn ‘THE ONLY criteria on which listing decisions should be made are architectural and historic interest. Wider questions on social benefit and operations issues should be covered in subsequent listed building consent, and we’re concerned the latter may have unduly influenced the listing decisions in these cases.’ The C20 Society commenting on the rejection of the listing application for Bath Fire Station
6 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 Periodically The Historic Environment In another wide-ranging, 170-page issue of The Historic Environment: policy and practice (Vol 16, No 2, 2025), of particular interest is a paper by Xiaohan Lu of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. Lu focuses on group value in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, using case studies from the Merchant City, Glasgow. He highlights an issue regarding some properties in the Merchant City not qualifying for listed status in the past but then being protected shortly after they had been restored. This somewhat controversial phenomenon is seen as reflecting tensions inherent in legislation on the one hand with appropriate and sympathetic rehabilitation on the other. The paper defines existing heritage policy applied to some specific cases in order to identify what the associated key concept of group value actually involves, while also noting the limitations of the current listing system. There seems to have been little recent analysis or review where the concept of harmonious or homogeneous context has been applied to townscape, other than to accept it unquestioningly. The paper provides both a theoretical and practical understanding of the opportunities that recognition of group value creates in the adaption of historic buildings. Lu identifies the emergence of the concept of group value from the passing of the Civic Amenities Act 1967, with its shift of focus from individual buildings to a broad-based area approach, looking more widely at the merits inherent in the character and appearance of townscapes. While it became common practice in the last third of the 20th century to define precise sequences of buildings contributing to group value in statutory list descriptions, this is no longer exercised, in order to define the contribution new listings play as part of an existing larger townscape group. As the Glasgow Merchant City is invoked, the relevant regulation in Scotland stems from the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, but only with an indirect legislative exposition of the concept. The recent city block-based adaptations and conversions of buildings in Glasgow, together with sensitive infilling, have received a positive response for their contribution to regeneration, enhanced quality of the public and semi-public realm and the demonstration of economically viable uses for former commercial buildings. The notable contributions to area regeneration have thus raised the perceptions of special architectural or historical interest and its recognition for statutory protection. Lu identifies a widening debate stemming from conflict within the context of innercity regeneration. This is where the redefinition of historic urban spaces can extend the concept of historic area management beyond the principle that preservation is merely maintenance of historic fabric when it may encompass much needed revitalisation. The paper may reinvigorate discussion about mediating change in historic areas, and about whether historic building and area management are about preservation or conservation. When it is the latter, that appears to have become widely accepted for many years, despite not necessarily being reflected in the criteria for statutory protection. Journals with an international remit seem currently to be dominated by papers from China and Turkey, and The Historic Environment seems to be no exception. Merve Akyaziki and Sirma Turgut of the city planning department of Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, present their systematic review of the effectiveness of international cultural heritage law, highlighting the uncertainties and complexities of heritage impact assessment (a term unrelated to that used in UK heritage management) under the 1972 Unesco World Heritage Convention. They explore broader challenges, looking at the subject areas of published papers, their research methods, the number of papers published and their country of origin. The authors conclude that while the integration of
CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 7 international cultural heritage law into national legal frameworks is essential, alone it seems insufficient for effective sustainable heritage management where conflicting interests are at play. Also from Turkey, Hatice Aysegül Demir and Hülya Yüceer of the department of conservation and restoration of cultural heritage at Izmir Institute of Technology have examined ‘New buildings in historic settings: revisiting Renzo Piano’s design approach’. This is a controversial issue involving a ‘starchitect’. The authors outline their review of the designs inserted into the historic environment to provide preliminary insights into design strategies. These have been adopted for recently completed Renzo Piano schemes for Paris, Valetta, Athens, Beirut and Istanbul, six of which are within the settings of Unesco world heritage sites. A seventh, set within a historic site in Beirut, is described individually to trace the architect’s design approach. Seven categories have been identified: the use of an existing square, the scale, form, view creation, transparency preferences, design openings and the colour choices that the authors consider Piano has found compatible with their historic settings. They suggest that these factors could form the basis for future policy guidelines regarding new buildings in historic urban settings, and they set these out in two tabular appendices. Construction History Hannah Kašpar contributes a paper in Construction History: the International Journal of the Construction History Society (Vol 40, No 1, 2025). Kašpar’s recent PhD at the University of Leeds focused on the Scottish neoclassical architects Robert and James Adam, exploring their subcontracting networks and supervision of building works. Her paper ‘From Quarry to Country House: Thomas Carter and the eighteenth-century Portland stone trade’ examines the trade networks and business practices of Thomas Carter the younger (c1720–95), a prosperous stonemason and merchant who managed a busy London workshop that specialised in chimney pieces, funeral monuments and other forms of architectural sculpture. Carter is not a well-known figure, and his reputation is often overshadowed by his peers. Kašper aims to put this right with a detailed and well-sourced paper that examines Carter’s relationship with the Portland stone trade, the contracting, loading and shipping elements, and how the stone was delivered, installed and paid for. In discussing the supply of Portland stone to St Paul’s Cathedral, the important part played by stone merchants, factors and agents is generally under-acknowledged, and the perceived value of Portland stone is underscored by the complex and costly task of importing it to the capital. Carter’s letters consistently highlight the stone’s bulky, unwieldy properties as freight, and the physical and financial resources needed to move it between sites. Equally apparent is the fragility of the supply chain, with Carter’s trade easily disrupted by a couple of delayed or subpar shipments. Carter’s letters give instructive insights into his decision-making processes, complicated at times by his remoteness from the site. Anyone wishing to better understand the preliminary stages in the construction of 18th-century buildings will find this 15-page paper highly informative. A paper by Tom F Peters of Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, deals with Louis-Joseph Vicat’s publications. Vicat’s role in the understanding of the hydraulic behaviour of cement is well known. His initial study of 1818 is recognised as an important step in the development of modern concrete and a seminal study in the development of the field of material science. The balance between science and empiricism facilitated the 19th-century pre-eminence of concrete construction in France. This can be traced to a hitherto unrecognised ‘virtual’ treatise reconstructed from Vicat’s 12 articles published between 1834 and 1846, combined with two rare volumes of statistics in 1839 and 1853. These, when taken together, show the scientific and statistical aspects of Vicat’s life, and how he combined analytical and empirical approaches to material study, providing a more complete picture of his role in the development of modern material science. SPAB Magazine The Autumn 2025 issue of the SPAB Magazine provides a fascinating historical and international perspective by reviewing the lessons learnt (including those perhaps for presentday heritage campaigning) from the society’s intervention in 1879 in
8 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 the debate over the proposed major restoration of the west front of St Mark’s Church in Venice under the supervision of Giovanni Battista Meduna. This prompted the ire of both Ruskin and Morris, with public meetings in Birmingham and Oxford; national press coverage; and a petition signed by the most influential and celebrated figures of the day, including Gladstone, Disraeli, Charles Darwin, Octavia Hill, Thomas Carlyle, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Tennyson, academics from major institutions, senior clergymen and those in Morris’s immediate circle. Ultimately the works did not proceed, but the St Mark’s campaign was dogged by missteps and unfortunate timing. While it raised the profile of the SPAB in a way that no quiet protest could have done, the SPAB learnt from its mistakes and thereafter adopted a far more sensitive and diplomatic approach to campaigns outside Britain. Mills News In my last column I referred to the excellent SPAB Mills Section magazine Mills News, inadvertently referring to it appearing twice a year when in fact it is published quarterly. Valuable insights on current heritage philosophy and practice will be highlighted in future columns, of interest to readers whether they are engaged with surviving wind or water mills of heritage value. Bob Kindred MBE The furore about the proposed restoration of St Mark’s Church, Venice, taught the SPAB lessons about international campaigning (Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, Wikimedia) New publisher for Context IHBC publications Context and The IHBC Yearbook are to be taken on by a new publishing house from January 2026, Euromedia Associates. This family-owned company, which has been established for 35 years, will offer exactly the same services to the IHBC as Cathedral Communications has in the past, but with a larger team backed up by broader resources. The Euromedia team will be joined by Carla Winchcombe and Nick Rainsford from Cathedral. Jonathan Taylor, Cathedral’s director and executive editor, will also work with Euromedia on all heritage sector publications, not least as editor of The IHBC Yearbook and Cathedral’s in-house publications and website. Cathedral Communications will close as a company in early 2026, although the name Cathedral Communications will live on as an imprint of Euromedia Associates, bringing together new and existing heritagesector publications, website and publishing services. Contact details will remain unchanged, as the former Cathedral team will continue to work from the same office in Tisbury, Wiltshire, for the foreseeable future. Xendo, the typesetting team responsible for Context for the past 24 years, is also stepping back. With Cathedral, Xendo were responsible for the introduction of The IHBC Yearbook in 2001 and for bringing Context into full colour in 2002. They have maintained the design and layout of IHBC publications meticulously ever since, with subtle refinements over the years. All their good work is set to continue under the new ownership, ensuring the success of Cathedral’s publications and services in the long-term, and providing opportunities for the development of new heritagesector publications and digital resources in the future.
CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 9 Letter The writer’s voice Always return From Bob Kindred MBE Prompted by the observation in Context 185 (page 3, ‘New life for Smithsons’ school’) about fundamental failings from the outset of the lauded, Grade II*- listed Hunstanton School by Alison and Peter Smithson, I have recently been re-reading parts of the monumental 736-page Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William J R Curtis. The book was awarded the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion (1984) by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain for making ‘an outstanding contribution to the study and knowledge of architectural history.’ Apparently, it had also been considered one of the five most significant books on architectural history published between 1982 and 1984. I was struck by the seeming failure by Curtis to have visited many of the key buildings he was so lyrical about, including Hunstanton, and Stirling and Gowan’s Leicester University Engineering Building (also Grade II*), where I have had direct experience of rectifying its huge construction faults. One building that almost immediately started falling to bits, the other that leaked like a sieve. Perhaps architectural historians should revisit more buildings that they so enthusiastically champion to observe their functional failures before promoting them as exemplars? Bob Kindred From ‘Cooling towers are a powerful presence in the landscape – and deserve to be saved’ by Otto Saumarez Smith, Apollo Magazine, 24 February 2020 The Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire is one of the most beautiful places in England. Tourists visit it as the ‘Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution’ and as a Unesco world heritage site. I suspect many of them are surprised to find these historic industrial attractions embedded within such a lushly Arcadian landscape, in which the River Severn carves through steep wooded hills on which dark reddish-brown brick buildings precariously perch. There isn’t a hint of the satanic here; indeed, it is barely urban. Although the focus of visitors is exclusively on 18th- or 19th-century sights, the landscape they experience is in large part a result of a forgotten late 20th-century history. Ironbridge is one of a number of former settlements swallowed up within the sprawling new town of Telford, which was designated in the 1960s to take overspill population from the West Midlands conurbation. The area’s long history of industrial exploitation and subsequent decline had left a blighted hodgepodge of disused mine shafts, derelict pools and abandoned colliery spoil mounds. The new town would transform this unsightly and dangerous mess into what the development corporation called a ‘Forest City’. The landscape plan for Telford harnessed the vigorous forms left by dereliction, merging them with massive projects of earth moulding, tree planting and new grassland. Using its own nursery, the development corporation planted more than five million trees, resulting in approximately 80 sq metres of woodland for every resident of the new city. Telford healed but did not erase the industrial past, as places such as Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale were restored and celebrated as an integral part of the new town project… Visiting Ironbridge for the first time, I clocked that I was in a new town only when I saw a signpost to Silkin Way (Lewis Silkin was the Labour politician most associated with the early new towns). Telford gave thousands of people a decent place to live, and was an astonishingly ambitious and ecologically sophisticated response to deindustrialising landscapes, but these achievements are forgotten because they are largely invisible. You can’t see the new town for the trees. ‘One of the most beautiful places in England’ (Photo: Ironbridge Gorge Museum)
10 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 Law and policy Alexandra Fairclough writes: England’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill (introduced in March 2025) is moving ahead at pace. Its aim is to expedite decisions, unlock housing and major infrastructure, and revamp the system’s resource allocation. In Context 183 (March 2025), I mentioned that ministers had updated the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) as part of the planning reform. The government also launched a review of who gets a statutory say on applications. Worryingly, these subtle changes could alter the balance between growth and heritage. The committee stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (commenced 17 July) continued throughout September. At the time of writing, the bill is in the report stage in the House of Lords. Many late amendments have caused a significant debate and criticism over inadequate scrutiny time. The bill is expected to undergo further debate and potential amendment at the third reading. To keep up to date, see Historic England’s monthly Planning Bulletins. The future position of the Gardens’ Trust and the Theatres Trust as statutory consultees on heritage casework is still uncertain. The government proposed a review of the scope of all the statutory consultees to reduce the type and number of applications on which they must be consulted. With regard to planning, this amounts to 25 organisations. The government’s intention is to make better use of standing advice rather than case-by-case responses. This does not prevent any organisation from responding to planning applications, but they would not be formally consulted, and reduced weight would be attached to any advice given. Northern Ireland In Northern Ireland, the Department for Communities published a new framework for the historic environment, the Heritage, Culture and Creativity Programme Framework. The objectives are to set the direction for future policy, with public consultation before the end of 2025. The proposals include: • Using historic assets to support government outcomes • Investing in the care and adaptive re-use of the historic environment to drive regeneration • Adopting best practice in identifying and safeguarding the historic environment in line with legislation and charters • Ensuring that well-managed heritage assets contribute to highquality rural and urban places, landscapes and biodiversity. • Empowering communities to use their historic environment as a resource to meet local needs. For more information, see communities-ni.gov.uk Scotland Earlier in the year Historic Environment Scotland published a three-year operating plan entitled Heritage for All, setting out actions relating to statutory functions, and refreshing historic environment policy for Scotland. Currently historic environment policy is being driven by the Our Past, Our Future strategy, which is focused on climate action, community empowerment and the wellbeing economy. Case law in England and Wales R (Chidswell Action Group) v Kirklees Council and CC Projects (an unlimited company) and Harworth Estates (Agricultural Land) Ltd, decision date 4 September 2025 Outline planning permission, quashed. This is an application for judicial review on four grounds, with a fifth being added later. This fifth ground was the failure to publish a s106 agreement during the decision-making process. A draft s106 should be published at the earliest time to allow members of the public to view it and comment. The court referred to a recent Court of Appeal decision (R (Greenfields (IOW) Ltd v Isle of Wight Council [2025] EWCA Civ 488), which stated that working drafts of s106 agreements should be published early, rather than final drafts at the end of the planning decision process. R (Wild Justice) v Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and Adventure Beyond Ltd, decision date 5 September 2025 Planning permission sought, quashed. This application was for judicial review for the failure to publish background papers during the decision-making process (as required by s100d of the Local Government Act) on which the decision was based. These cases are a stark reminder that all relevant documents should be published, so that the open process of planning decisionmaking can allow for public consultation. Valerie Maximen v Arc 3 Architecture Ltd [2025] unreported Michael Feeney reported this case in The Planner (November/ December 2025). In a case of Growth and heritage
CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 11 professional negligence, a defendant submitted heritage advice as part of a pre-application advice application for works to a Grade II-listed building. The court held that the submission failed to follow the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework and National Policy Guidance. The claimant was awarded a full reimbursement of all costs. The architect was found to be negligent, based on: • Failure to understand that the entire building was listed and not just the facade • Failure to provide an assessment of significance of the heritage assets as is required by the NPPF • Failure to assess the impact of the proposed works on the heritage asset • Failure to research similar works on a neighbouring building, which would have provided information pertinent to the host scheme. While each application should be considered on its own merits in the light of local and national policy, researching similar applications in the locality would have provided relevant information • Breach of their duty of care by not understanding the heritage requirements as part of the application process. This decision highlights that any person claiming to possess the skills of a professional built heritage specialist will be judged by the standards of a reasonably competent person. To ensure that they meet this standard, they must have a thorough understanding of national planning policy, and they will be open to challenge if they do not apply it rigorously. The pre-application process is considered more formal than just being a matter of testing the waters. The judgement confirms that the professional duties to apply national policy, and to assess significance and heritage impacts, should always apply, even at a pre-application stage; and that the professional duty of a specialist is not different at pre-application and planningapplication-submission stages. It’s still good practice R (Andrew Rickards) v East Hertfordshire District Council and Vladslav Petryk, decision date 5 September 2025 This application related to a prior approval application for the erection of a polytunnel in the green belt. While there is a lower standard of scrutiny for applications for prior approval than for planning permission, this decision was quashed because the council did not consider material considerations such as the impact of the development on a nearby listed building and an ancient woodland. However, the decision is worth further scrutiny as the deputy high court judge, Mr Justice Smith, referred at paragraphs 96–101 of the transcript to Annex E of the now-superseded Planning Policy Guidance 7. He noted that PPG7 (including Annex E) had been withdrawn and superseded by the consolidated NPPF and PPG, and that those documents went into much less detail about how to approach applications of this case. In his judgement, ‘the withdrawal of Annex E does not affect materially the assistance it provides to this case. Good practice guidance does not cease to be that just because the policy document in which it is found is later withdrawn. PPG7 was withdrawn not because it was considered to be no longer applicable but because in 2012 the government had concluded that the lexicon of planning policy should be consolidated, and reduced in size dramatically, by replacing it with the NPPF.’ Appeals Ref: 3363903 Development in the green belt with a s106 for repairs to a listed building, some four miles from development site, was considered to be very special circumstances. Allowed Ref: 3365056 A proposal for six dwellings in open countryside which would result in the loss of a non-designated heritage asset, with poor design not reflecting the rural character of the locality. Dismissed Ref: 3369175 The restoration of a Grade II*-listed building and its residential conversion was considered acceptable, despite being located in the tidal breach zone and subject to flood risk. Allowed Refs: 3359802 and 3359803 Planning permission for the replacement of a shopfront and advertisement within a conservation area, with modern materials proposed (uPVC and aluminium). The inspector concluded that the scheme would cause harm. Dismissed Ref: 3362993 (An appeal relating to design) A new dwelling in the green belt amounted to very special circumstances on the basis that it would be constructed using graphene-enhanced materials, and that the use of these would provide potential sustainability and innovative design benefits that could provide live-testing of its performance, and contribute to meeting housing need. The development would be the basis for continuing learning about its practical use in residential construction. Allowed Alexandra Fairclough, chair of the north west branch of the IHBC, is the cultural heritage and design lead at Bolton Council. Called to the Bar in 2009, she sits on the IHBC legal panel and lectures on heritage planning law.
CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 13 INFRASTRUCTURE Editorial The big picture Gasholders at Kings Cross repurposed for housing (Photo: Jonathan Taylor) Conserving infrastructure can be difficult. It’s often big, making it expensive to maintain or repurpose. It reflects the technology of its time and may be no longer useful. It may be part of a system that is still in use. Remember the Big Dig, the nickname of the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project, which rerouted Interstate Highway 93 from the elevated Central Artery highway through a tunnel after it had cut off the city centre from its waterfront for four decades? When the new road opened in 2003, five years late and wildly over budget, a former director of the project described it as ‘doing open heart surgery on a patient who continues to work and play tennis’. US Representative Barney Frank commented that it would have been cheaper to elevate the city than depress the artery (which was probably inspired by producer Lew Grade’s comment about his film Raise the Titanic: ‘It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic’). Infrastructure consists of the basic physical and organisational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. Building it in the first place is often unpopular, generally due to its size, expense and unfamiliarity. John Ruskin, for example, was a vehement opponent of railways, seeing them as symbols of materialism and greed. It certainly was not worth trying to make them beautiful. ‘There never was more flagrant nor impertinent folly than the smallest portion of ornament in anything concerned with railroads or near them,’ he wrote in The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849). ‘Keep them out of the way, take them through the ugliest country you can find, confess them the miserable things they are, and spend nothing upon them but for safety and speed.’ If he were around today, Ruskin would be considering whether to support the UK’s most expensive infrastructure projects, which probably (‘probably’, because the likely eventual cost of any major infrastructure project is always a mystery) include High-Speed Rail 2, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C nuclear power stations, the Lower Thames Crossing road project, and the Thames Tideway Tunnel super sewer. Time adds a new dimension to our appreciation of infrastructure, like any other type of heritage. We are taken back to the past to marvel at what was achieved with such sophistication and at what scale. Impressive structures – cranes, ironworks, cooling towers or whatever else – become symbols of the industries that shaped places. Sometimes, with imagination, they can provide the structure for a new activity that their hard-headed, original creators never thought of. And a time-travelling Ruskin might be surprised to discover that it is often those unadorned structures for which no one thought it worth paying for a ‘portion of ornament’ that most impress us today with their beauty and power.
14 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 PETER DE FIGUEIREDO The protection and reuse of large industrial structures Adaptive reuse works best on a broad scale, revitalising an entire neighbourhood or area, and promoting the circular economy by extending the life of buildings. The Industrial Revolution that emerged in Britain in the late 18th century and spread across Europe and North America gave impetus to the development of infrastructure. Subsequent scientific discovery fuelled larger and increasingly more complex systems. From steam engines to national energy networks, and from gas to nuclear power, new technological building types and processes became ever more widespread. International ocean transport required deeper ports and taller cranes; road networks increased traffic demand with longer and more complicated bridges, viaducts, tunnels and flyovers; energy provision moved from localised gas supplies stored in gasometers to national grids; and coal-fired electricity provision with giant cooling towers is being replaced by offshore windfarms and nuclear power stations. The pressure to maintain a healthy economy, now accompanied by the need to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, triggers the continued replacement or improvement of obsolete largescale infrastructure. Do such structures have heritage value? When they are no longer used for their original purpose, what should their future be? While some may be symbolic of the communities to which they were attached, often they are regarded as detrimental to the character of the landscape. But, ironically, the re-use of these structures, which are generally high emitters of carbon dioxide in themselves, could be more sustainable than demolition. In essence, is sufficient consideration given to the protection and adaptive re-use of large engineering structures and, if so, how might they be successfully conserved? In September 2021, the Dorman Long Coal Tower on the former Redcar Steelworks site in Teesside was blown up overnight, two days after the decision to list the building had been quashed by the newly appointed culture secretary, Nadine Dorris. Erected in the 1950s, the huge reinforced concrete tower stored 5,000 tons of coal and was described by Historic England in its short-lived listing description as ‘a rare surviving remnant of the coal, iron and steel industries, standing as a monument to Teesside’s, and England’s, 20th-century industrial heritage.’ Cottam Power Station in 2023 after the partial demolition of the turbine hall (Photo: Isaac Bee, Wikimedia) Dorman Long Steelworks coke ovens (Photo: Reading Tom, Wikimedia)
CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 15 INFRASTRUCTURE Also controversial was the loss of the Ironbridge coal-fired power station with its four pink cooling towers, turbine hall and chimneys, which were demolished between 2017 and 2021. The Twentieth Century Society has called for the protection of cooling towers, described by artist Sir Anthony Gormley as ‘Man-made volcanos… a memorial to Britain’s great, 200-year-long romance with the second law of thermodynamics’. In the 1960s there were approximately 250 cooling towers across the UK, but with the rapid closure of coal-fired power stations this number has diminished to fewer than 30. Since a certificate of immunity from listing has been granted to all that remain, and the last coal-fired power station has recently been closed, it seems unlikely that any will survive. Such losses are likely to continue, but the growing interest in adaptive re-use of industrial structures and the need for sustainable development have resulted in some significant achievements. The transformation of the Lingotto, the legendary Fiat Factory in Turin, was a pioneering venture. Built in 1917–23, demolition was never considered when the production line was moved to other sites in the 1960s and 70s. In the hands of Renzo Piano, a successful scheme for multi-use commercial and cultural activities, including the retention of the famous roof-top testing track, was completed in 1997. The conversion of the Bankside and Battersea Power Stations in London have shown how historic infrastructure can be a catalyst to large-scale regeneration, and recent projects in the UK and other European countries have used large historic structures as landmarks in environmental regeneration. A prime example is the Kings Cross redevelopment programme, which has resulted in a network of public open spaces, streets, squares and parks providing connections with the wider city. Twenty historic buildings have been restored and given new uses, each one an integral element of the townscape. These include the three Grade II-listed gasholders that have been converted into apartments, and the neighbouring Coal Drops Yard, also Grade II listed, which is given over to retail, restaurants and cafes. The drums of the three gasholders dating from the 1860s have been adapted by architect WilkinsonEyre to stand at different heights, replicating the movement of the Camley Street Natural Park, the Regent’s Canal, the converted gasholders, Coal Drops Yard and Central St Martins (Photo: Crookesmoor, Wikimedia) The repurposed gasholders at Kings Cross (Photo: Peter de Figueiredo)
16 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 original holders, which rose and fell depending on the pressure of the gas within. The central space between the three frames forms an open courtyard, revealing the cast-iron structures at their point of intersection. The coal drops consist of two long threestorey blocks, one built in 1851 and the other in 1860, as part of a system of distributing coal from Yorkshire and the north-east to the London market. Originally the structures carried high-level railway tracks from which waggons discharged coal into storage bins on the middle floor above cart-loading bays. Thomas Heatherwick’s adaptation ingeniously took the two converging sheds and connected them with the twisting ‘kissing roof’. The Normandy U-boat bunkers, relics of the second world war Atlantic Wall, represent a very different building type, the epitome of brutalism before it gained its name. Built on five major sites in occupied France to accommodate 90 submarines, they were the largest structures erected by the Nazis outside Germany. With seven-metre-thick reinforced concrete roofs surmounted by concrete beams which acted as blast chambers, the buildings were virtually impregnable, and for that reason none has been demolished. The largest, Saint-Nazaire, with a length of 295 metres, stands as a monstrous barrier between the city and its harbour. Undaunted by its size and inflexibility, the municipality converted part of the structure into a cultural and music centre, with associated recording studios, bar and museum. Recent development of Liverpool’s historic maritime infrastructure has focused attention on some of the challenges when dealing with large-scale heritage structures. Liverpool’s earliest surviving dockland formed a major element of the city’s world heritage site inscription, but the combination of an approved masterplan for Liverpool Waters, the north docks redevelopment which included tall buildings, and the proposal to build a new Everton Football stadium in the Bramley-Moore Dock, led to the world heritage status being revoked. Whether this was a reasonable act is still a matter for debate, but since none of the proposed tall buildings have been erected and probably never will be, the issue rests principally on the impact that the stadium has had on the significance of the historic dockland. The physical impact is minimal since the listed dock walls and adjoining infrastructure have not been affected. Nor is the visual impact great, since the stadium is a surprisingly refined building, subservient to the nearby Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse, which is one of the primary heritage assets. The replacement of the water in the dock with a large building changes the landscape New Everton Stadium under construction in 2024 (Photo: Rob Farrow, Wikimedia) Saint-Nazaire submarine base, built by the Germans during the second world war (Photo: Rama, Wikimedia)
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