INTRODUCTION While I was on holiday in Greece during the summer, there was a high quality holiday village next to the hotel at which we were staying. In our terms, the site was in the green belt within the setting of a very ancient monument - a partially excavated town from the third century BC. Everything else about this part of Greece was normal: traffic chaos, policemen blowing whistles, the usual half finished buildings etc. How can Greece's answer to Butlins be attractive in a conservation sense I hear you say. The village was a carefully designed development in a style very much in keeping with the vernacular of the island and of a quality in terms of materials and layout which is rarely seen in the UK. The layout respected and re-created a typical village square, a tight housing layout sheltered from the sun, back lanes etc. The landscaping was of a particularly high quality and well maintained. As far as the concept, location and quality of its design were concerned, I began to think of it as a smaller version of Saltaire with an hotel instead of the mill. A possible future conservation area with some of the buildings listed perhaps? Would it have been built in this country today? It would be fascinating to know the level of public participation in the Greek planning process, how their committees work etc. HISTORIC COMPARISONS Many of the listed buildings and conservation areas which we seek to preserve today in this country might never have been built had the present legislation been in operation at the time they were planned. For those of you who CONTEXT 52 SIRTITUS CONSERVATION, YESTERDAY,TODAY AND TOMORROW fear an attack on local government and the planning and listed building consent processes from an ex employee who is now a consultant working mostly (but not totally) for the private sector and wanting the Greek system, sun-· shine, ouzo and all - please read on. That is not purpose of the article. Saltaire is certainly an obvious example of a group of listed buildings and associated conservation area which might not exist if 20th-century legislation had existed in the mid 19th century. It was a classic case of an attempt by a developer to bust the Bradford green belt for commercial reasons. The local civic society would have had a field day in the letters page of the Bradford Telegraph and Argus. There would have been even more objections than there were at the Bradford UDP inquiry. No doubt the public response at the planning inquiry after the application had been submitted and refused would have made the Aire Valley Motorway Inquiry look like a vicarage tea party. In an era of plan-led planning, there is every probability that Titus Salt's application would have been refused. Even if it had been granted, it would have taken years to get consent. There would have been suspicion about the Italianate designs and the final scheme designs may not have been the pure Lockwood and Mawson which we see today. In the middle of the 19th century, the general approach to the development of individual buildings was very similar. Every time I go to London I turn right outside Kings Cross and admire Scott's St Pancras station, built as a result of the wish of the Midland Railway to have a London terminus which surpassed that of their rivals the London and North Western and the Great Northern Railways. Arguments have raged for more than 100 years over the cost of the station, the extremes of its Gothic styling and the sheer ostentation needed to achieve its basic objective of outdoing the other two companies. Whatever one's views on the various St Pancras issues, it is an exciting and breathtaking building. Even though I am going to catch a high speed electric train which gets me to Leeds twice as fast as the service from St Pancras, I feel a little inferior as I walk into Kings Cross! Although listed and attractive in its own way, it lacks grandeur, and the train shed is spoiled ADVERTISEMENT * FINEST QUALITY * UNBEATABLE PRICES Lime putty - 30 kg - £7.00 Lime mortar - 40 kg - £&.oo Lime mortar - 1 tonne bag -£100 Lime plaster- 18 kg- £3.70 Limewash- 20 Its - £10.00 Cob blocks - 18"x 9"x 4" - £2.20 excluding delivery and VAT We slake the finest Buxton quicklime. All our products are fully matured, with prompt delivery from over 100 tonnes of stock in our warehouse. PRACTICAL COURSES in COB 8 STONE REPAIR £47 for one day course incl VAT & lunch MIKE WYE 8 ASSOCIATES Beaworthy -Devon 0:1409 • 281644 Suppliers to the National Trust 33
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