C O N T E X T 9 7 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 6 to a new (presumably) pull-out section of what one suspects will be a series, similar to the former green pages in the RICS Building Conservation Newsletter. It deals with ensuring successful implementation of projects by a planned approach to risk management. It is a very valuable addition to the literature. Last year, controversy stalked Stratford upon Avon, where opinion was sharply divided about the merits of refurbishment or redevelopment of the listed Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. Theatres, the magazine of the Theatres Trust (Issue 9, Autumn 2006) looks at the original international architectural competition of 1928, won by Elizabeth Scott, and illustrates five of the shortlisted designs (out of 74 submissions). They were divided between those in the gothic or Tudor manner, and those that were distinctly modern. The article describes Scott’s incorporation of continental technical innovations and the close match between her vision and wider hopes for the theatre. But it points out that the competition assessors, with the exception of Robert Atkinson (who had designed the Regent at Brighton), knew little about theatre design and so applied generalised architectural preconceptions in making their choice, perhaps favouring the functionalism and efficiency generally popular with architects at the time. The issue also discusses the recent £15 million redevelopment of the listed Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton. The theatre’s chief executive describes the listed building consent process as ‘frightening’ and the complexities and some of the requirements as ‘baffling to understand, and sometimes impossible to deliver’. But he acknowledges the close working with the local authority’s listed buildings officer and with the Heritage Lottery Fund. ‘The detailed and painstaking analysis which is required had actually resulted in a more credible scheme,’ he says. The Theatres Trust’s role as a statutory consultee is well known. This issue also sets out how the trust intends to ensure that local development frameworks include policies to protect theatres. If you have concerns about this issue, track down this helpful article. The latest issue of the RICS Building Conservation Group Journal (No 43, September 2006) devotes space to an interview with Bob Bennett, driving force behind the Lime Centre in Winchester. He explains how a house was erected in a day following the 17th century custom of erecting a dwelling on common land (to take possession before sunset and become the owner), using the clothes and tools, and fortified by the food and drink of the era. Thirty volunteers organised into four teams began at 4.40am and completed the task in 16 hours 40 minutes, with the help of some rush-light illumination. A further pair of articles explains the practical management of the £11 million, recently refurbished Cardiff Castle, both by John Edwards, surveyor to the fabric. The second examines the works in relation to conservation philosophy, conservation management plans and the Burra Charter. Also of note is a response by Ronnie Clifford, managing director of Pudseybased fibrous plasterer Ornate Interiors, to the extensive BRE sustainability research into the technical, economic, environmental and social implications of retaining houses of the period 1840– 1914. Clifford bemoans the sacrifice of quality for cost in refurbishment that is condemning many such dwellings to unsuitable alteration and modernisation or demolition. Cornerstone, the newsletter of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (Volume 27, No 3, 2006), celebrates the HLF’s grant support of £645,000 for training volunteer churchwardens about maintenance. This will begin in 2007 and run throughout England andWales for five years. The issue is devoted mainly to celebrating 75 years of campaigning by the society’s mills section to save windmills and watermills. One outrageous, illustrated news story concerns the recent internet auction of an entire historic, probably Georgian house (in apparently good condition) in north Essex close to the Suffolk border by owners wishing to demolish it and build a new one ‘designed to mirror the old, using some of the old materials and details’. The house was unlisted, not uncommon even now in rural parts of East Anglia, and the Georgian Group was considering a request for urgent spot-listing. The advert on the net had been met by derision and anger by some. ‘For your next project, how about selling off one-square-inch pieces of a Gainsborough painting?’ wrote one, but the vendor was unmoved.Watch this space. Finally, restoration projects continue to feature prominently in Natural Stone Specialist. In the August 2006 issue there is a description of the repairs to the Corinthian Arch at Stowe Landscape Gardens in Buckinghamshire by E Bowman and Sons of Stamford for the National Trust. The stone industry and heritage training groups presented an exposition of progress on clearer career paths, including introducing an NVQ Level 1 for a mason’s mate and the designation of master masons outside the NVQ system. The article also identifies the ten practical stonemasonry higher education courses currently available. The September issue highlights the securing of supplies of Great Tew stone in north-west Oxfordshire (actually called the Marlstone Rock Bed in geological terms) following an extension to the quarry on the Great Tew Estate, and the huge lion and unicorn sculptures reinstated on the stepped pyramidal steeple of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s St George’s Church, Bloomsbury. Bob Kindred MBE
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