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THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORIC BUILDING CONSERVATION http://www.ihbc.org. uk IHBCOfficers President: Malcolm Airs. e-mail: president@ihbc.org.uk Chairman: Eddie Booth, The Conservation Studio, Hill House, Rotten Row, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 lTN. Tel: 01273 475290. e-mail: chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair: Sarah Higgins, The Cottage, Church Street, Ledbury HR8 lDH. Tel: 01531 635949. e-mail: vcbusiness@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair: Ronnie Robertson (North Yorkshire County Council. Tel: 01609 532528), Sion Cottage, Sion Hill, Kirby Wiske, Thirsk, N Yorks YO7 4EU. Tel: 01845 587494. e-mail: vcmembership@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair: Mark Strawbridge (Nottinghamshire County Council. Tel: 0115 977 2168), 16 Promenade, Nottingham NG3 lHB. Tel: 0115 950 0973. e-mail: vcpolicy@ihbc.org.uk Secretary: Dr Richard Morrice (English Heritage. Tel: 01483 304869), 3 Stafford Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 4QZ. e-mail: secretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasurer: Robert Parkinson (West Oxfordshire District Council. Tel: 01993 77024 7), The Old Priory, Priory Lane, Bicester, Oxon OX6 7BG. e-mail: treasurer@ihbc.org.uk Membership Secretary: Gus Astley (Bath & North East Somerset Council), Manor House, Wells Road, Hallatrow, Bristol BS39 6EJ. Tel/Answerphone: 01761 45304 7. Fax: 01761 451153.e-mail:membership@ihbc.org.uk Branches Co-ordinator: Julia Smith (Milton Keynes Council. Tel: 01908 252501), 49 Chaucer Drive, Aylesbury HP21 7LH. Tel: 01296 435187. e-mail: branches@ihbc.org.uk Consultations Co-ordinator: Graham Steaggles (English Heritage. Tel: 01483 252040), 54 Pulens Lane, Sheet, Petersfield, Rants GU31 4DD. Tel: 01730 266653. e-mail: graham.steaggles@english-heritage.org. uk Education Co-ordinator: John Preston (Cambridge City Council, Tel: 01223 457166), 90 Riston Road, Cambridge CB4 3JP. Tel: 01223 562534. e-mail: education@ihbc.org.uk Technical Panel Co-ordinator: Jenny Chesher (English Heritage. Tel: 011 7 975 0686), Jasmine Cottage, Broad Street, Charlton Adam, Somerton, Somerset TAll 7AT. Tel: 01458 224065. e-mail: technical@ihbc.org.uk Publicity Officer: vacant IT Manager: Peter Badcock. e-mail: it@ihbc.org.uk Branch Officers North: Ian Goodman, Tel: 01670 519391 North West: Sheila Stones, Tel: 0161 242 1424 Yorkshire: Stephen Bateman, Tel: 01274 754551 West Midlands: Kathy Baird, Tel: 01939 238433 East Midlands: Fiona Newton, Tel: 01507 601111 South: James Webb, Tel: 01962 846831 South West: David Stirling, Tel: 01249 706502 East Anglia: Michael Knights, Tel: 01603 611346 South East: Peter Cobley, Tel: 01622 221547 London: Jon Finney, Tel: 01895 250536 Scotland: Jim MacDonald, Tel: 01236 616242 Wales: Trefor Thorpe, Tel: 01267 231568 Northern Ireland: Laurence Manogue, Tel: 028 9146 9707 Republic of Ireland: Bernard Dee, Tel: +353 1 473 7721 Registered as a Charity Number 1061593. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered ln England Number 3333780. Registered Office: 3 Stafford Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 4QZ CONTEXT 72 : DECEMBER 2001 Context Briefing 4 Recent developments in the law: Applications: who needs to be Out of Context 6 told. Charles Mynors 19 Conference report: City cultures Laser cleaning of historic in a globalising world. Michael buildings. Martin Cooper 22 Taylor 8 Clay roof tiles in refurbishment Reusing historic hospitals. and new-build. Neil Tobin 27 Will Holborow and Sue Taylor 9 Creating a complete contact Landscapes for the mind and service. Beth Brewster 29 body. Sarah Rutherford 11 Simplifying the planning system. The economics of grant aid. Alexandra Fairclough 31 Jason Neil 14 The government's caretaker. Supporting columns: Questions Alan Johnson 32 of stability. Brian Morton 17 IHBC news 34 Gazebo: Public parks and living cities. David Lambert 18 Book review 38 Editorial Conservingour publicassets This issue of Context focuses on conserving public assets at a time of major changes in how services are run. Railways, hospitals, parks and government buildings are among those whose future is in the melting pot and for whom the care of their historic fabric is generally low on the political agenda. Michael Taylor's briefing on the Railway Heritage Trust's annual report (p4) suggests that important artefacts in transport and industrial history - "witnesses to an age when railways were run as though passengers mattered" - could be vulnerable at this time of confusion in the railway industry. Wil Holborow and Sue Taylor ("Reusing historic hospitals", p9) tell a similar story of historic buildings in times of change. In this case the hospitals are having to survive changes in social and health policy, and in public attitudes. Dialogue between all parties is needed, but that is not enough. "Local authorities," they write, "have a key role in ensuring a successful transition for historic hospital sites to new uses by setting a clear planning framework." Hospital landscapes ("Landscapes for the mind and body", pll) are even more at risk. Planning policy classifies many of them as brownfield sites, ripe for development, however green or remote they may be. The first steps are to recognise their value and importance, Sarah Rutherford writes, and to consider drawing up conservation plans as the basis for sympathetic re-use. David Lambert ("Public parks and living cities", p18) wonders if "imaginative" in the government's parlance in relation to public parks means "cheap". In the end, he suggests, the issue is one of local government's freedom to raise and spend money as it wishes. Alan Johnson, meanwhile, describes the work of the Government Historic Buildings Advisory Unit (p32). That agency and its predecessors have been helping to take care of the government's building stock since 1378 (though some of the staff have changed, no doubt). Precious - or at least potentially valuable - public assets tend to get picked off one by one. First we must understand their common histories and the forces that are putting them at risk. Then we can devise conservation strategies based on the belief that the concept of a public asset is not so archaic after all. 3
Context Editor Robert Cowan Editorial Co-ordinator Dr Nigel Barker, 65 Worplesdon Road, Guildford, Surrey GUZ 9RT. Tel: 01483 562851, e-mail: barker@norbury5 7.freeserve.co. uk Editorial Board Nigel Barker (chair) Catherine Croft (conference and exhibition reviews) Nigel Crowe (main features) Peter de Figuieredo (book reviews) Sarah Higgins Amy Hunt (regular contributors) Richard Morrice Julia Smith (IHBC branches) Michael Taylor (main features) Context is published quarterly and is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2001 ISSN: 0958-2746 Published for the Institute of Historic Building Conservation by Hall-McCartney Ltd, Heritage House, PO Box 21, BALDOCK, Herts SG7 5SH. Tel: 01462 896688 Fax: 01462 896677 e-mail: context@hall-mccartney.co.uk Nonmember subscriptions to Context Context is available to nonmembers of the IHBC at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdon £42.00 Elsewhere: US$119.00 Subscription orders, together with remittances payable to Hall-McCartney Ltd, should be sent to the address shown above. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily those held by the IHBC or the publishers. Neither the publishers nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. The products and services advertised in this publication are not necessarily endorsed by the Institute. Cover Re-using historic hospitals Background: Middlesex Asylum, Banwell, erected 1828-31. Note typical asylum estate elements: lodges, drives airing courts, kitchen gardens, cemetery and farmland. From A treatise on the nature, symptoms, causes and treatment of insanity, W C Ellis, 1838. Top left: The Royal Herbert at Woolwich is of particular importance as the prototype pavilion-plan hospital, designed by Francis Gal ton, a nephew of Florence Nightingale, and begun in 1861. It was empty and in very poor condition for several years in the 1990s following its closure, and threatened with demolition, before being converted to residential use. Photo: English Heritage. Top right: Exe Vale Hospital, Devon, see page 10. Bottom: St Nickolas's Hospital in Great Yarmouth was built as the Royal Naval Hospital between 1809 and 1811. Despite being located in an area which is not economically prosperous, it has nonetheless been successfully converted by Kit Martin for residential use. Photo: English Heritage. 4 Briefing Thetreasuredheritageof a troubledindustry The 2000/01 Annual Report and Accounts of the Railway Heritage Trust provide a welcome counterpoint to the downbeat publicity that has dogged the railway industry recently. The trust's executive director, Jim Cornell, praises Railtrack for its commitment to the repair and maintenance of Britain's historic railway infrastructure, particularly through its Station Regeneration Programme. Railway buildings and structures, of course, provide some of the most significant industrial monuments of the 19th and 20th centuries. The report describes and splendidly illustrates most of the 46 projects the trust has been involved with over the past year. These range in scale from the Waterloo Arch (the Southern Railway's memorial to its employees who fell in the Great War) to repairs to the country town stations of Melton Mowbray, Oakham and Stamford. The last project includes repairs to the delightful Corinthian columns supporting the footbridge. Structures redundant for railway purposes also come within the trust's remit. The remote Shankend Viaduct in the Scottish Lowlands has undergone a programme of trust-· funded stonework repairs. In Yorkshire, the Ingleton Viaduct has been repaired and waterproofed for possible reuse as a recreational path. The report has plenty of examples of the railway person's passion for historical and anecdotal detail. One of the most unusual structures described in the report is the Huskisson Memorial at Newton-leWillows. The memorial pavilion has been largely rebuilt and contains a replica of the original memorial tablet which was destroyed by vandals. William Huskisson, MP for Liverpool, died after being hit by a locomotive at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830. The author clearly relishes the tragic tale of the stricken Huskisson being driven to Eccles at 36 mph by George Stephenson himself. The light and spacious Coventry Station is a post-1945 listed building which is always a pleasure to arrive at, especially if the traveller has come from the Stygian confusion of Birmingham New Street, just up the line. At Coventry the trust has aided stonework cleaning, repair of the vast timber-boarded ceiling in the booking hall, and the repair and replacement as original of fittings and finishes in the first-class lounge. A personal favourite is the 1930s GWR station at Leamington Spa. The trust has funded the provision of lettering in the original font on the station frontage and the reinstallation of art deco door handles on the platforms. If Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson never met in the buffet on the northbound platform, they certainly should have done. Last year the Railway Heritage Trust derived by far the biggest share of its £1. 75 million budget from Railtrack, with a contribution from Rail Property. The buildings and structures listed in the report are key artefacts in transport and industrial history, witnesses to an age when railways were run as though passengers mattered. It would be most unfortunate if the current uncertainty in the industry were to prejudice the Railway Heritage Trust's work. The Annual Report and Accounts 2000/01 of the Railway Heritage Trust is published by the trust at PO Box 686, Melton House, 65/67 Clarendon Road, Watford WDl lXZ. Michael Taylor Lord Cobham's Pillar at Stowe Landscape gardens has been restored 44 years after its statue and cupola were destroyed by lightning. A pre-cast concrete and glass fibre cupola on the 115 ft column has been replaced by a Dou/ton stone copy of Richard Batchelor's 1746-49 original. The worh was carried out by LinfordBridgeman. CONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001
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OUT OF' ~"~CONTE::X.T "LITTLE MORE than a series of overtly partisan statements of the mayor explaining the circumstances in which he wishes to support tall buildings, and in particular to justify and bolster his own support for Heron Tower." English Heritage on the Mayor of London s strategic guidance on tall buildings. "CONSERVATION can become counterproductive and damaging, and in the end it will destroy the things it sets out to preserve .... There is a great constituency of people who don't want historic buildings to be used. It's not just the lack of interest in their re-use, the thing that really gets me is the idea that people have affected the 'original fabric'. What is historic fabric? ... Historic work does attract the feeble designer. There is a tendency for people to retreat into conservation because it's not so competitive and it's smaller scale ... There are such things as charming and original texture, but fundamentally historic buildings are there to be worked on - sometimes radically. If you don't they will die as near as damn it." Donald Buttress, former surveyor of the fabric of Westminster Abbey, speaking at the National Conservation Conference earlier in the year: "THE GENERAL IDEA was to give the conservation award to architects responsible for the painstaking restoration of George Gilbert Scott's Foreign Office. But one architect member of the panel had a tremendous problem with this. Finally it became clear why .... He just hated the work of Sir George Gilbert Scott. I tried to explain that we weren't planning on giving the award to Scott - who after all had died in 1878 - but to the restoration architects, who are alive today. But he couldn't see it." Architecture critic Hugh Pearman telling the Worshipful Company of Architects of his experience as a member of the RIBA awards panel. "THE PAVILION raises a general issue about the future of the sitespecific artworks which are now proliferating. Does the artistic community as a whole task responsibility for them? Could the building be accessioned by the Tate, for example? Could it be the basis for JohnAshdown:a life in conservation The retirement in September 2000 of John Ashdown, former conservation officer for the city of Oxford, has been marked by the award of an honorary MA by the University of Oxford and an MBE for services to conservation. John also received an award from the Oxford Preservation Trust in October 2001, the first ever for an individual. John Ashdown started work with London architects' office in 1951, daily passing the Festival of Britain on the South Bank. After gaining a background in commercial building practice of all types, he completed a London extra-mural diploma course in archaeology at night school before joining the Historic Building Section of the London County Council in 1964. Its successor, the Greater London Council, provided the chance for John to understand London's historic buildings, and to study for the Institute of Archaeology's diploma in the Conservation of Historic 6 Monuments. The effective control by local authorities of works to listed buildings did not, however, begin until 1969, leading to a wider need for specialists in town planning offices, who became known as conservation officers. Chester was the first planning office to use this title and Oxford was the second. new public-art interventions, becoming a sort of open-air gallery itself? Is it appropriate to depend on the listing process to protect works of art, even though a number of postwar sculptures and murals are individually listed?" Alan Powers writing in the Architects' Journal about Victor Pasmore's vandalised pavilion at Peterlee. "A WONDERFUL BUILDING ... that has managed to achieve that difficult balance of being aweinspiring while still being welcoming and accessible." Tony Blair on Tate Modern, to which he gave the first Better Public Building Award. One of two statues in Lister Park, Bradford, wh,:ch were recently repaired by Casting Repa,:rs Ltd. As commuting from Tunbridge Wells to Central London had lost its pleasure by 1972, a move to a quiet historic cathedral city looked a good idea. Oxford turned out to be a vigorous historic city that changed considerably in the subsequent quarter of a century. It saw a constant renewal of its historic fabric as the world changed, and the city and the university with it. John acknowledges that historic towns are made by people. "The planning office in Oxford had its ups and downs, but the support and friendship of dedicated colleagues is what mattered. It was a great place to work." Of his award of the MBE, he comments: "As conservation is really about achieving acceptable or even unnoticed change, this recognition is much appreciated and suggests more notice is taken of a local authority's work than one realises at the time." Edith Gollnast CONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001
Catchingthem young in Essex Temple, will include carpentry joints, rubbed and gauged brickwork, and wattle and daub infill panels. Hampton Court Palace, with Bulmer Brick and Tile, will donate the special rubbing bricks. The palace has also offered a prize of a free visit for the family of the child judged to have made the best brick arch during the day. The daub has been donated by a firm called Traditionally Plastered, the only supplier of daub in Essex. Anne Holden During the highly popular and successful courses run by the Essex County Council for some five years now, a common problem has been identified by both large contracting firms and individual craftsmen: how few young people choose to join the construction industry after leaving school. It is seen as the occupation of last resort, only fit for those who lack academic qualifications. This is leading to worrying shortages in the workforce, even among the most skilled and specialist of contractors. Newarrangementsfor Context The Heritage Conservation branch has decided to run day schools in traditional building skills for primary school children, as well as the normal series. It is hoped to show the pupils just how exciting traditional building methods and materials can be. The sponsor is the well-known contractor Bakers of Danbury, which is providing the tutors. This will enable the council to offer these courses to schools at an affordable rate. Days this year, held in the workshop at Cressing Next year, the annual pattern of four issues of Context and four of IHBC News will be replaced by an edition of the IHBC Handbook and five issues RICS Postgraduate Diploma in Building Conservation This distancelearning courseis designedfor thosewishingto acquire the specialistskills,understandingandsensitivity neededto work with historicbuildingsandstructures. of Context. There will also be a change of publisher. The editorial board and editor would like to give their warmest thanks to Context's publisher HallMcCartney for their excellent service over the years, and to our freelance production editor Jonathan David for his expertise and unfailing support. It has been a pleasure working with them, and the IHBC owes a great deal to their enthusiasm. Please contact the IHBC editorial coordinator, Nigel Barker, at his new address: 65 Worplesdon Road, Guildford, Surrey GU2 9RT. Tel: 01483 562 851. Email: barker@norbury57.freeserve.co. uk The deadline for the next (March 2002) issue of Context is 4 February. Based on the campusof TheUniversityofReading r D 2 yeardistancelearningcoursestarts I June2002 D Integratestheory"'Withpractice " D Recogrised by the !HBCandmeetsthe D Modularchoiceatyear2 Applicationshouldbe receivedby I May2002. academicrequirementsof the RoyalInstitution 1. ""of CharteredSurveyors ,,; Theweb is used to reinforcecourseteachingthroughon-linelectpres,illustratedreportsof site visits and discussiongroups. THE COLLEGE OF ESTATE MANAGEMENT Patron: HRH The Prince of Wales I, Quote ref: CXT 12M \ 1r I (~k_!~s For further information please contact the Director of Student Services, The College of Estate Management, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AW. Tel: 0 I 18 986 I IOI Jax: 0118 975 0188 Email: prospectuses@cem.ac.u~ Visit our web site www.cem.ac.ul< A centre of excellencefor.the propertyand construction sector worldwide CONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001 7
Conferencereport City culturesin a globalisingworld Cultures of Cities, Transformations, Generating New Opportunities: fourth biennial of towns and town planners in Europe. Rotterdam, 20-22 September 2001 Globalisation is not only a potentially benign force; it is here and here to stay. The Anglophone, multi-cultural, and rampantly commercial city of Rotterdam provided an apt venue to consider globalisation, city cultures and the ways in which cities can protect their identities in the face of global forces. The conference brought together urban interests from across Europe and beyond. It was accompanied by an exhibition illustrating work around Europe, including, from the UK, the urban design strategy for Leeds. The Biennial was a multifaceted event structured around optional subject groups, so this review will concentrate on those aspects of most interest to Context readers. Robin Thompson (adviser to the Mayor of London) set out the basic tension which dominated the conference, between the increasing impetus to global uniformity and the need to maintain distinctive cultures and identities in cities. Stephano Boeri (Multiplicity, Italy) seemed optimistic about globalisation. He saw it as holding the promise of new ways of using urban landscapes and new patterns of economic and social life in cities. Ursula von Petz (University of Dortmund) challenged notions of the 'virtual city', exemplified for her by the recreation of St Mark's Square in Venice as a Las Vegas casino. City cultures and heritage strengthen local identity, but in a world of shifting population and cultural values, von Petz asked, whose culture is it? One way in which cities have sought to acquire and underpin local identity is in the design of city spaces. Adriaan Geuze (West 8 Landscape Architects, the Netherlands) identified the twin ideals of the classical European city square and the new gold standard of Olympic Barcelona, which many cities have sought to copy. But Barcelona was 'a special moment in history' and other cities must find their own inspiration. Geuze drew on references from many sources, including the patterns formed by 8 road markings in Japan. Many of his illustrations were playful, even satirical. His design for Schouwbergplein, close to the conference venue, draws on the visual and textural language of Rotterdam's docks with lights in the form of cranes, and surfaces of timber boards and expanded metal: contextual by allusion rather than direct reference. The specialist session on cultural heritage was opened by Milan Turba (City Development Authority, Prague). Prague has taken to mass tourism to the extent that a distinctive experience for visitors is threatened by a sort of generic tourism. The city needs to offer something unique to visitors through performances and exhibitions, as well as through its incomparable collection of buildings. Because of the taxation structure in the Czech Republic, tourism generates little income for the city authorities to aid them in protecting their cultural identity. Prague needs both identity and internationalism if it is to continue to develop as a central European capital. Speakers from Italy and the Netherlands described the use of the historic pattern of development in the city and province of Lucca as the basis for the planning of the city region, while speakers from the Technical University of Eindhoven showed how urban morphology can give meaning to cities such as Tilburg which lack a strong historic identity. Positive planning and design initiatives have marked the history of Vienna. Josef Matousek (City of Vienna) provided a view of the continuation of this proactive approach to the integration of new buildings into historic environments and of regeneration projects which included the conversion of four 1890s brick-built gasometers into housing and mixed uses (another of the exhibited projects). A study visit to the small city of 's-Hertogenbosch gave the opportunity to see some of the Dutch approaches to maintaining the identity of a historic town at first hand. A large streetscape project designed by a Barcelona landscape architect used red and silver granite pavers as well as more typically Dutch brick. Street furniture was strikingly modern. The overall aesthetic impact had been paramount and the use of materials exotic to the Netherlands was not seen as a problem. The real focus of the visit to 's-Hertogenbosch was the historic moat around the old city, originating in the 12th century. Restoration and the provision of modern additions to the historic fabric had formed new facilities, including a departure point for boat trips. The aim was to divert visitor pressure from the central core, around St John's Cathedral, to the periphery of the historic town. There were issues about setting and ecology, as a long section of the walled moat provided a view across an extensive wetland habitat immediately adjacent to the historic city. As with the streetscape scheme, the design approach was bold. Rotterdam itself is a dynamically changing city. Most of its buildings post-date the carpet-bombing of 1940 and the city provides an exhibition of architectural styles, many of them exemplified in the city's Museum Park. Rotterdam's latest initiative, approved by the council while the conference was on, is a masterplan for the Central Station area by Will Alsop. But do city cultures really exist? An answer of a sort was provided by Joost Schrijnen, planning director for Rotterdam. In warning of the dangers of importing concepts regardless of local identity, Schrijnen told the conference how Rotterdam had invited ideas on the planning of its historic but run-down harbour frontage, De Boompjes, from Hamburg, Barcelona, London, and Baltimore. Each city had responded by projecting a microcosm of itself on to Rotterdam. This was proof in Schrijnen's eyes that city cultures are alive and thriving. Michael Taylor CONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001
WILLHOLBOROWANDSUETAYLOR Reusinghistorichospitals TheNHSpropertyportfolioincludesmorethan 500 listedbuildings.Heretwo writersfrom EnglishHeritageandNHSEstatespresenta joint viewof best practicein handlingdisposals. The NHS has one of the largest property portfolios in Europe, which includes 554 listed buildings 1. The majority of these are operational property owned and managed by individual NHS trusts. The remainder (the 'retained estate') comprises mainly surplus property managed by NHS Estates on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health. Over the past 20 years enormous changes in policy and procedures have affected the NHS estate. Since the establishment of NHS trusts in 1991 and the 'Care in the Community' initiative, many hospital services have either merged, closed or relocated. This has led to the sale of many of the older hospital sites, including up to 150 large psychiatric hospitals with their historic buildings and landscapes. Many of these have now been converted successfully to residential uses. The NHS estate includes many specialised types of hospital, for example those designed specifically for the treatment of infectious diseases (such as tuberculosis) or mental illness, as well as former workhouses and country houses adapted for hospital use. Research carried out by the former Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in England (RCHME) has resulted in two publications on the architectural history of hospitals and workhouses 2 . In recent years increasing attention has been given to hospital landscapes, most of which were conceived as a therapeutic environment for the treatment of mental illness. Seven of these have been registered through inclusion on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. (See "Landscapes for the mind and body", pll.) A study of the European hospital heritage is being undertaken in the framework of the Culture 2000 programme. This project brings together the United Kingdom and six other countries 3 . The process of hospital closures and disposals is inherently complex and prone to controversy. Too often, over the past two decades, closures have been characterised by delays, uncertainties and a lack of consensus between the various parties involved, particularly between local planning authorities and the NHS. Time and resources have been wasted by leaving buildings empty, unmaintained and prey to vandalism, while the planning situation has remained unresolved. Many sound historic buildings have been needlessly demolished and the setting of those that remain has frequently been damaged by unsympathetic development in their grounds 4 . In the worst cases historic buildings have been abandoned and their settings irreversibly compromised by insensitive modern development, for example at St John's Bracebridge Heath, a Grade II former psyCONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001 chiatric hospital on the outskirts of Lincoln. The priority for NHS Estates, NHS trusts and their planning advisers is to optimise the development value of surplus hospital sites; however, in doing so they are expected to take note of government guidance 5 , which states that, in the sale of public assets with heritage value, maximisation ofreceipts should not be the overriding objective. Non-financial and wider regeneration benefits including environmental, cultural and long-term economic impacts also need to be taken into account. However, in many cases the inherent quality and attractiveness of listed buildings enhances their disposal value. The closure of hospital sites can arouse strong opposition from local communities. Local amenity groups, residents and conservationists have various agendas in seeking to influence the future of hospital sites, including the conservation of heritage assets, and the maximising of social and community benefits. Local authorities will have their own sets of aspirations, for example in influencing the type and mix of uses on the site. The challenge is to reconcile all these competing agendas, optimising the potential of the site while protecting its environmental and heritage value, yet without excessive delays in the planning process or resorting to public inquiry. The 70-day public inquiry in 1998 relating to development proposals at the former Claybury Hospital at Chigwell in Essex was found by all parties concerned to be a wasteful and frustrating process. This experience has demonstrated the importance of seeking to work in a partnership which involves the NHS, the local planning authority, English Heritage and, in some cases, the NHS's preferred developer, where the latter has been Claybury Hospital, now hnown as Repton Park, is a Grade II listed hospital built 188.993, standing in an earlier parkland setting. Following a lengthy planning inquiry, the appeals were dismissed and the site sold without the benefit of planning consent. The main elements of the original 'echelon' plan are now being converted to residential use, and new housing development is being introduced in phases in some areas of the surrounding landscape. Photo: Crest Homes (Eastern) Ltd. 9
Exe Vale Hospital in Devon is an important complex of Grade JI* listed buildings dating from the I 840s. Following its sale by the NHS, the surrounding land was developed for housing while the historic hospital remained empty. In I 998 English Heritage were authorised by the Secretary of State to serve an urgent worhs notice on the developers who had purchased the hospital. The buildings are currently being converted to residential use. Photo: English Heritage. 10 selected in advance of planning permission being granted. The current emphasis in planning policy on socalled 'brownfield sites' is giving a helpful impetus to the reuse of hospital sites. However, this does not give carte blanche for developers to build all over sites where these include open land. Planning policy guidance note (PPG 3) on housing, issued last year, clarifies this issue. It includes the proviso that "where the footprint of a building only occupies a proportion of a site of which the remainder is open land (such as at an airfield or a hospital) the whole site should not normally be developed to the boundary of the curtilage. The local planning authority should make a judgement about site layout in this context, bearing in mind other planning considerations, such as policies for the protection of open space and playing fields or development in the countryside, how the site relates to the surrounding area, and requirements for on-site open space, buffer strips, landscaped areas etc." A growing number of developers have experience of the risks and opportunities in converting historic hospitals, and an increasing number of exemplar schemes demonstrate how hospital sites can be creatively adapted for new uses in a commercially successful way. Despite the delays in the planning process at Claybury Hospital, this site, now known as 'Repton Park', has been successfully developed by Crest Homes. The main elements of the original 'echelon' plan have been converted to residential use, and new housing development is being introduced in some areas of the surrounding landscape. Schemes such as this demonstrate that former psychiatric hospitals that once carried a stigma in the local community can be transformed into highly sought-after locations. Other successful examples of conversions to residential use include the St Nickolas's Hospital in Great Yarmouth (built as the Royal Naval Hospital between 1809 and 1811) and the Royal Herbert at Woolwich, which is of particular importance as the prototype pavilion plan hospital. The Dreadnought Seaman's hospital at Greenwich (dating from the 1770s) has found new use as part of the University of Greenwich. And in a highly imaginative and unconventional design, the Judge Institute of Management Studies at Cambridge has been created by adapting part of the old Addenbrooks Hospital. In some cases, old hospitals have been adapted and refurbished for continuing use in the health service, for example University College Hospital in Gower Street, London. The old Royal Infirmary in Liverpool, also designed by Alfred Waterhouse, has been adapted to provide accommodation for a number of health and medicine-related uses, following a period of 15 years when it lay empty. Guidance for NHS Trusts on the handling of disposals is contained in Historic Buildings and the Health Service 7 and in the Estatecode produced by NHS Estates 8 . Although NHS Trusts are not government bodies as such, they are required by the Estatecode to follow the guidance on the disposal of historic buildings published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport 5 . The following are key points of good practice to aid the process of disposal: • The use of planning briefs that are shaped by extensive public consultation. • Public consultation and participation in the planning process, for example through open days and community planning exercises. • The use of conservation plans which examine the significance of sites in terms of their history, architecture, archaeology, designed landscape and natural environment. • Planning disposals to ensure that a future for the site has been secured before the buildings are vacated. • An holistic approach to sites, particularly in those cases where hospitals stand in a designed landscape. In the past the sale of such sites in a piecemeal manner has proven highly damaging to the setting of historic buildings. • The use of planning agreements to ensure that heritage assets are secured and repaired to an agreed standard before completion of any enabling development". • Adopting innovative methods of sale, particularly joint ventures between the NHS and a selected private partner which allow development value to be shared by both parties. The handling of disposals is the subject of a current National Audit Office study on managing surplus property in the NHS. This has examined the strategic framework within which disposal activity takes place and the mechanics of the disposal process. In a move towards a greater emphasis on partnership and dialogue, English Heritage and NHS Estates maintain regular liaison through the Historic Hospitals Working Group. This was responsible for drafting the 1995 guidance note Historic Buildings and the Health Service 7 , a practical guide for all levels of NHS management .as well as local authorities, developers, architects and other professionals. One of the purposes of the group is to promote guidance and training for the staff of both organisaCONTEXT 72: DECEMBER 2001
tions. This resulted in the conference at Lincoln in May 2000 'Health vs Heritage', organised jointly by English Heritage and NHS Estates. For the future it is essential that there is a continuing dialogue between all parties involved in the disposal and reuse of surplus hospitals. Local planning authorities have a key role in ensuring a successful transition for historic hospital sites to new uses, by setting a clear planning framework and ensuring that development is carried out without damage to the historic environment. Notes 1 There are currently estimated to be 554 listings on the NHS estate in England, 377 owned by NHS trusts, 177 owned by the Secretary of State for Health. 2 English Hospitals 1660-1948: a survey of their architecture and design, edited by Harriet Richardson, published by the former Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments for England, 1998. The Worhhouse: A Study of Poor-Law Buildings in England by Kathryn Morrison, published jointly by English Heritage and the former Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments for England, 1999. 3 Present and future of European hospitals heritage SARAHRUTHERFORD (PAPHE). Details of the project can be found at www.europaphe.aphp.org 4 These concerns have been expressed most articulately by the campaigning conservation group SAVE Britain's Heritage in their series of four reports going back to 1987, devoted specifically to the problems of redundant hospitals (Mind Over Matter: a study of the country's threatened mental asylums; Hospitals: a medical emergency; Hospitals: a suitable case for treatment (out of print); Health Warning: historic hospitals at rish (out of print). 5 The Disposal of Historic Buildings: guidance note for government departments and non-departmental public bodies, issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 1999 following consultation with HM Treasury (available from the Stationery Office). 6 English Heritage's policy statement Enabling Development and the Conservation of Heritage Assets, June 2001. 7 Historic Buildings and the Health Service, NHS Executive/ NHS Estates/ English Heritage, published by HMSO, 1995. Historic Buildings and the Health Service in Wales, Cadw/Welsh Office/Welsh Health Estates, published by HMSO, 1997. 8 Estatecode: essential guidance on estates and facilities management, NHS Estates, 2001. The Estatecode is available from the Stationery Office and on the NHS website at www.nhsestates.gov. uk Landscapesfor the mindand body Hospitallandscapes,not the most obviousexamplesof the Englishlandscapetradition, representa rich heritagethat needsprotection. Until recently there were 200 or more significant designed hospital landscapes throughout England, each providing a carefully structured therapeutic environment for healing damaged minds and bodies. 'Until recently' because over the last ten years many of even the most significant of these sites have been lost or severely damaged, their problem being that few people have recognised their historic interest as designed ornamental landscapes. Most urban hospitals have never had much landscape to speak of, but several specialist hospital types were sited in rural areas, with extensive, purpose-built designed landscapes. Some, which originally stood just beyond the edges of towns, have been engulfed by suburban development, but have until recently resisted large-scale development, and come to be regarded as essential green lungs within the urban environment. Many rural hospital sites survived remarkably well until the end of the twentieth century, and even where new hospital facilities had been inserted the original design was usually not irreparably damaged, and retained its integrity. Many historic hospital sites are of significant local historic interest, and eleven have so far been recognised as being of national historic interest in England and have been added to the Register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in England. There are further sites which should be added but the Designed Landscapes Team at English HerCONTEXT 72 : DECEMBER 2001 itage has not yet assessed all of them. The trend for designed hospital landscapes extended beyond England and there are significant hospital sites throughout the UK, several of which have been included in the Scottish Inventory and Welsh Register. Work has recently been carried out by the Designed Landscapes Team to research and identify landscapes associated with historic hospitals. Such work provides the national context for these sites when considered for addition to the Register. As a result, supplementary Register criteria have been adopted for these landscapes which are available on the English Heritage website and have been published in Conservation Bulletin (number 41, September 2001). The most significant hospital landscape type was that of the lunatic asylum, which could occupy several hundred acres ofland, and formed a novel variety of the English landscape park, developed from the end of the eighteenth century. The Retreat in York, built in the 1790s, was the earliest example where the landscape around a lunatic asylum was laid out and used for therapeutic purposes (and still is). The Retreat, together with Brislington House, Bristol, significantly influenced British and foreign asylums, particularly the county asylums in England, which were constructed mainly during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By the mid-nineteenth century many pauper patients with mental illness and disability were admitted to purpose-built asylum sites set away from Will Holborow is a historic buildings architect in the Govern,nent Historic Buildings Advisory Unit in English Heritage. Sue Taylor is Editorial Services Manager for NHS Estates 'll·ading Fund, an executive agency of the Department of Health. 11
Plan and projected bird's eye view of Essex County Lunatic Asylum, Brentwood, Essex. Th is illustrates well the complexity of the airing courts and other designed spaces which immediately surrounded asylums. The courts were provided with ha-has on their outer sides to allow the patients to appreciate the view, while achieving good security. From The Builder, 16' May 1857. 12 busy urban areas, with landscapes designed to help cure their condition. Whether the asylums did help effect cures or not is another matter. Nevertheless there was a very strong movement towards the therapeutic use of the landscape. Almost every county had its own public asylum, and those with a large urban population nearby were blessed with several; over 120 were built eventually. Occasionally large private asylums were also built, along similar lines but more lavishly, including the Royal Holloway Sanatorium (Surrey) and Coton Hill (Stafford). Usually in the 19th century asylums were built on virgin agricultural sites, but some reused earlier landscape parks, including Bexley (Kent) and Claybury (Essex). By the mid-nineteenth century the landscape elements of the standard asylum were formulated. Whether for paupers, for the 'middling classes', or for the rich, the formula was largely based on the landscape park, but adapted to fit therapeutic needs. Sometimes even a major landscape designer was employed so that the patients had the best restorative environment possible. The typical 19th-century asylum landscape had the whole range of ornamented drives, lodges, avenues, parkland, home farm, kitchen gardens and glasshouses, pleasure grounds, estate walls or fences, and often its own cemetery and cricket ground. In fact it contained most of the usual paraphernalia of the traditional rural estate. The male patients who were capable were persuaded to work on the farm and in the parkland, and the pleasure grounds and parkland were used for supervised recreational activities such as games, picnics and walks. The main difference between the landscape park and the asylum estate was the presence next to the asylum building of enclosed exercise yards, or airing courts, which replaced the typical Victorian formal terrace which surrounded so many country houses. Male and female patients were, as always, segregated, and for each sex there were several airing courts allocated to different medical classes of patients. The airing courts were laid out ornamentally, usually to enhance a pleasant, elevated view out which was perceived to calm and cheer the patients, and contained benches and shelters, and perhaps privies. From 1950s the airing courts were often opened up by the removal of boundaries, in order to provide a less confined atmosphere for patients. However, it is still possible in some sites to find traces of the airing court outlines. Occasionally some of the boundary structures still remain, but more frequently found are the attractive little shelters (sometimes even thatched), path systems and planting. A development of the 1920s and 1930s was the socalled mental deficiency colony, often using dispersed villa buildings scattered through and respecting an older landscape park. The earliest of these was at Prudhoe, Northumberland, begun c1914, another CONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001
being at Meanwood Park, Leeds. Others appeared throughout the country, based on an idea developed from the 1890s for self-contained communities for epileptic workers. The idea was to provide a pleasant and therapeutic environment in which to live and work, although in the reasoning behind the segregation of residents away from their homes there were also unpleasant eugenic undertones. Other hospital types which had significant landscapes were the large military hospitals, the isolation hospitals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the tuberculosis sanatoria of the same period. Many isolation hospitals were sited well away from the urban population where contagious diseases spread like wildfire. Most were modest, but one of the greatest of these landscapes, built in the early 1900s, was Joyce Green, Dartford in Kent, which was recently demolished. Its extensive grounds leading down to the Thames were carefully laid out by the landscape firm Messrs HE Milner and embellished with a wide range of plants by its Kew-trained head gardener. Sanatoria sometimes had extensive grounds including pleasant 'measured walks' to ensure that patients obtained just the right amount of therapeutic exercise and fresh air, and gardens in which they undertook gentle husbandry activities. Workhouses, which enjoyed a building boom from the 1830s, were often sited at the edge of towns. Their landscapes were similar to but seemingly more compact than those of the asylums, with exercise yards, farm and kitchen garden areas. Many workhouse landscapes were lost when they became NHS hospitals after 1948, so in few cases can the sense of their original layout be made out. Thurgarton, Southwell, is a particularly complete example, recently acquired by the National Trust. The National Health Service's recent estate rationalisation and care in the community policies mean that many historic hospital landscapes, in particular those of former asylums, are under threat from development, or have been destroyed. The NHS itself estimated in 1995 that over 120 large historic hospital sites were likely to become surplus nationally by 2005. However, the NHS has issued advice to its trusts that during the planning process 'the wider context must be considered as part of any programme of management and special regard should be given to the desirability of preserving gardens of special historic interest, in particular those which appear on the English Heritage register of parks and gardens of special interest in England.' (Historic buildings and the health service, HMSO, 1995). This is useful, but unfortunately such consideration is not often in favour of the landscape. Hospitals are regarded as brownfield sites in the planning system, and so the open areas of the landscape, at least, may be identified as a prime location for new development, even if the main buildings are listed and the trees have tree preservation orders. Some sites have been designated as conservation areas, which of course helps their survival CONTEXT 72 DECEMBER 2001 dramatically, but these are few and far between. The main need now is for the recognition of the remaining hospital landscapes as locally, and sometimes nationally, important assets for the community. Conservation plans for these extensive and complex sites can be invaluable in helping to identify the particular historic importance of the landscape. They can also help in identifying which historically sensitive areas should be retained, and in which less sensitive areas new development may be sited without major detriment to the historic design. In this way we may achieve the healthy re-use of some hospital landscapes. Hospitalsiteson the Register At present there are 11 purpose-built hospit_al sites on the Register, all at grade II. There may well be others which should be on the Register, but which we have not yet managed to address. Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Hampshire, the earliest naval hospital, 1746-62. Brislington House, Bristol, the earliest purpose-built private asylum, 1804-6, and influential on the structure of later county asylums. Cheadle Royal, Manchester, built 184 7-49 as a private asylum for the middle and upper classes. Broadmoor, Berkshire, built 1860-63 as the state criminal lunatic asylum. Fairmile, Oxfordshire, built 1868-70 as the Berkshire pauper asylum; work by Robert Marnock. Graylingwell, West Sussex, built 1894-97 as the West Sussex pauper asylum. Rauceby, Lines, built 1899-1902 as the Lincolnshire pauper asylum; landscape by William Goldring. High Royds, West Yorkshire, built 1884-88 as the pauper asylum for the West Riding of Yorkshire. Napsbury, Herts, built 1902-4 as the Middlesex pauper asylum; landscape by William Goldring. King Edward VII Hospital, Sussex, built 19058 as a private tuberculosis sanatorium for the middle classes; landscape by Gertrude Jekyll. St Mary's Stannington, Northumberland, built 1910-14 as the pauper asylum for Gateshead. One of the women's airing courts at Broadmoor State Criminal Asylum. Late C19/early C20 postcard. Sarah Rutherford is acting head of the Register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in England at English Heritage. Information about the register in general and, in particular, hospital and workhouse supplementary criteria are available at www.englishheritage.org.ukl knowledge/ conservation/ registercriteria.asp 13
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