context

C O N T E X T 1 7 9 : M A R C H 2 0 2 4 7 Heritage Fund pilot with Newham, co-produced by the GLA, Historic England, the council and local stakeholders. The outputs are policy, designation and archive. Less desirable areas are redeveloped and long-established communities can be overlooked and displaced. The strategy’s aim is to engage, identify, care and cherish, giving valued assets weight in redevelopment. The engagement has five outcomes: inclusion, trust, agency, accessibility and post-project engagement. It aims to build new organisations and knowledge, as well as hearing usual voices. The next step is rolling this out to all the London boroughs. Each local authority is different, so one size will not fit all. The second pilot will be delivered through a regional capacity building grant. The author and lecturer Alec Forshaw presented a case study of the Welsh Streets, Liverpool, 1860s by-law housing built by and for the Welsh community employed in the dock industry. Developed by builder David Robert and architect Richard Owen, they were solid houses with good architectural detail. The population hollowed out with the decline of the docks and a working-class aspiration for suburban housing in cul-de- sacs. The government’s solution was John Prescott’s Pathfinder scheme of housing renewal, which saw compulsory purchase and the demolition of around 400,000 such homes in northern towns, leaving large sites for redevelopment. Other properties were left to deteriorate. Following objections from the Liverpool Society and SAVE, the Welsh Streets scheme was called in by then secretary of state Eric Pickles. SAVE brought in the Morton Partnership, which assessed the houses’ condition as bad but reusable. SAVE won the case and the secretary of state overturned the inspector’s advice. Replace First, a private rental provider, undertook phased repair and street planting with some new build. It was too early to say whether the Welsh Streets scheme would contribute to a new phase of gentrification, Forshaw said. Suzanna Prizeman and Judy Owens spoke about Our Hut, an architectural educational charity delivering heritage projects such as townscape heritage initiatives and heritage action zones for local authorities. Working with children in schools was a good introduction to whole communities, including the hard to reach. Children’s activities with the Peckham and Brixton townscape heritage initiatives included mapping and judgement work, culminating in an exhibition for parents and the wider community. Our Hut has also worked with NQT teachers developing resources for schools. For the Woolwich heritage action zone, the London Borough of Greenwich and Historic England funded outreach. A new conservation area was designated to help the community connect. There was a marked divide and little crossover between the two communities of Arsenal riverside new neighbourhood and the High Street. Karen Phimister of Swindon heritage action zone explained that this was one of the original round of HAZ schemes. Swindon had the UK’s best-preserved railway village with the Great Western Railway dividing the town. The HAZ sought to bring the two sides together, joining it to the town centre, adding cultural assets and bringing forward sites. In the 1970s, sites were sold to the council for demolition and regeneration, but following a public outcry they were refurbished as social housing. The HAZ masterplan developed with Historic England in 2018 spread the funding to various projects and the programme was promoted through engagement events such as heritage open days, mural projects and working with schools. The tenure is social housing; gentrification is where people are priced out. Darren Barker, CEO of Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust (see ‘Preserving Great Yarmouth’s cultural heritage’, Context 175, March 2023), told of how Great Yarmouth developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, away from the seafront by the river, old town and a series of narrow alleys. The trust aims to repair buildings, train and employ local people, provide housing and build community resilience. Its business model is to buy properties by borrowing from the local authority which is willing to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire sites. The trust de-risks the process for the council and enables other funds to be levered. The loan and building maintenance are serviced from end users. Eva Branscombe of UCL presented a case study of London’s Kensington and the place of architecture in social injustice. The heritage process both changed and fossilised, she said. The Booth map showed that there were pockets of poverty among new 19th-century housing development; older buildings were occupied by the margins of society and migrants. Post-war regeneration saw the likes of Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower (1968–72) become a place of crime but, ultimately, a sought-after Grade II* building. Gentrification was associated with artists, counterculture and young professionals, Branscombe said. New residents had no cultural association with local events. Ethnically, a monoculture was created with diversity left only in the council estates. Being located close to the city centre remained important to rich and poor alike. Robert Sakula of conference sponsor Ash Sakula Architects described case studies of developing in desirable areas as reverse gentrification: infill housing schemes in Southwold and Chatham delivering social homes, for example. He showcased cultural community-led elements such as Deptford Museum of Slavery and Freedom, a museum-without-walls project and the Deptford Market Yard scheme, delivering affordable housing, movement permeability and local, independent trading opportunities. Christine White, IHBC London Branch events coordinator