Where heritage and nature meet Life, death and Highgate Cemetery Birkenhead Park shows the way Shaping the Northern Forest Exploring ‘adaptive release’ No 180 June 2024 Institute of Historic Building Conservation
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CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 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 Mike Brown, president@ihbc.org.uk Vice President Rebecca Thompson, vicepresident@ihbc.org.uk Chair David McDonald, chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair Lone Le Vay, vchair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary Jo Evans, 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 4 Letter 4 Out of context 5 Periodically 8 The writer’s voice 9 Legal update 11 Editorial 12 Value transitions between heritage and nature Imogen Wood 14 Life and death at Highgate Cemetery Ian Dungavell 17 Shaping the Northern Forest Sian Atkinson, Liam Plummer and Emily Sloan 20 Everyone needs trees Erika Diaz Petersen 23 Saving traditional orchards Anthea Jones 26 Birkenhead Park shows the way Marie Le Devehat and Urmila Jha-Thakur 29 Don’t take British stone for granted Mark North 32 Heritage management plans and historic landscapes Ben Cowell 35 Bats in churches Diana Evans, David Knight, Sarah Robinson, Diana Spencer, Lisa Worledge and Kate Jones 39 Hardwick Old Hall, Derbyshire Dorian Proudfoot and Tom Bromet 42 Heritage, industry and slavery Ian Wray 45 Developing the UK world heritage tentative list Chris Blandford 49 The battle for Cambridge’s Mill Road Free Library, part 2 John Preston 52 Heritage building skills and live-site training Sean Knight, Sophie Norton, Dorian Proudfoot and Joseph Tong 55 Restoring Alexander Pope’s Grotto Ayaka Takaki 59 New member profile 60 Notes from the chair 61 Director’s cut 63 Inter alia 64 Vox pop 65 New members 66 Book reviews 69 Products and services 72 Specialist suppliers index
Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Michael Taylor, ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com Editorial Board Nigel Crowe Aimée Felton Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Rebecca Madgin Duncan McCallum Fiona Newton Jonathan Taylor Michael Taylor (chair) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2024 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 £60.00 Elsewhere £90.00 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: Urban housing, September, issue 181 (12 July) Heating and ventilation, December, issue 182 (11 October) Wellbeing, March, issue 183 (10 January) Please contact Michael Taylor at ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com to discuss any editorial submissions or for information about the Context editorial board. 2 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 Briefing Where heritage and nature meet Life, death and Highgate Cemetery Birkenhead Park shows the way Shaping the Northern Forest Exploring ‘adaptive release’ No 180 June 2024 Institute of Historic Building Conservation Cover: Heritage and nature are inseparable at Highgate Cemetery (see page 14). The Tipperary pub on Fleet Street has reopened to the public after three years of closure, following repairs and preservation works by developer Dominus. The Tipperary first opened in 1605 as the Boar’s Head and was renamed after it was bought by Irish pub group JG Mooney in the 1800s. An aerial view of the Town Hall and surrounding area in St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly. Led by the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the Grade II-listed Town Hall will be brought back to life with the creation of a cultural centre and museum. The project is one of seven industrial heritage projects supported by £14.8 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. (Photo: Council of the Isles of Scilly)
CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 3 A comprehensive refurbishment of Exeter College Library at the University of Oxford, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and built in 1857, has been carried out by Nex and Donald Insall Associates. The Grade II-listed library sits next to the 17th-century walls of Convocation House, the Grade I-listed historic court room of the Bodleian Library, separated only by a sliver of ground between buttresses. (Photos: Will Pryce) Selsey Pavilion, a 1913 art-deco theatre hall in the seaside town of Selsey, West Sussex, has been taken into ownership by the Selsey Pavilion Trust, prior to restoration. Artworks and other heritage building material are to be conserved as part of the redevelopment of the Grade II-listed former Queensgate Market building in Huddersfield. The metal relief sculpture called Commerce, by Fritz Steller (1941–2015), featuring semi-abstract figures representing agriculture, trade and products, will be cleaned before being packed away, in the hope of later re-use. Cliveden Conservation is the specialist subcontractor on Kirklees Council’s Our Cultural Heart project. The City of London Corporation has launched a retrofit toolkit (supported by Purcell), seeking to empower owners of heritage buildings to initiate the adaptations necessary to reduce carbon emissions and build climate resilience. Pictured here is Mansion House, official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, designed by George Dance, and built between 1739 and 1752.
4 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 Letter Conservation and climate From Robin Uff Ben Cowell (‘Power houses’, Context 178, December 2023) argues that it should be made easier to install solar panels on or in the vicinity of listed buildings. Some of his article seems deliberately confrontational. Given the dire state of the climate emergency response, every reasonable effort should be made to encourage sustainable energy production. This could include (where reasonable and unobtrusive), photovoltaics on the roofs of some listed buildings. Fortunately, we have in place (creaking badly, but just about) a sound planning system and defined conservation principles that can (at least theoretically) assess and mediate the proposed developments in an informed fashion, despite Cowell’s views, with especially demanding criteria for Grade II*- and Grade I-listed buildings. That system and those principles, however, still allowed photovoltaics on King’s College Chapel roof (‘A worldwide precedent for solar panels?’, John Preston, Context 176, June 2023), via a planning committee committed to sending a message rather than giving sufficient weight to expert conservation advice. What is needed is a high-profile appeal against a refusal of solar panels on a listed building roof, so that the impact can be properly weighed against economic, social, technical, environmental and cultural objectives. With the strong emphasis on sustainable development, conservation principles need to be emphasised within a transparent moral, ethical, philosophical and political framework. Robin Uff ‘THE IDEA you can stick a 42-storey tower block over a Georgian mansion is ridiculous. ‘It’s a listed building, so the idea it was even dreamt up is, quite frankly, ludicrous.’ Birmingham councillor Gareth Moore commenting on a proposal for a ‘floating’ tower rising above Islington Villa, the former Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, a Grade II-listed building. ‘THE KIRKGATE Shopping Centre is a huge, imposing building built in pre-cast concrete that occupies an entire city centre block in the centre of Bradford. It lacks the architectural flair, design or technological innovation found in exemplar brutalist buildings of this period. ‘It has a bulky, monolithic appearance due to the uniform elevations, repetition of key features and continuous flat roof line of the rooftop car park. ‘The ribbed concrete panels, projecting towers, plum brickwork and tinted/mirrored windows provide some texture and detail, together with the cantilevered metal-framed roof over the market hall, but these features fail to enliven a building of this size and scale.’ Historic England rejecting calls by the 20th Century Society and others for a certificate of immunity from listing for Kirkgate Shopping Centre in Bradford to be refused. ‘VOICES are growing to establish a separate, arm’s-length entity to take the rebuild forward. I have every sympathy for the school, but moving the responsibility for this enormous construction project to an independent body allows them to shake off some of the baggage of the past decade, to focus on what they provide for students, while a building preservation trust might have tax advantages and offer a fresh appeal to sponsors and funders.’ Liz Davidson, who directed the restoration of Glasgow’s Mackintosh School of Art after the first fire in 2014, telling the Guardian why the responsibility for restoring it after the second fire should be taken out of the hands of the art school. ‘WE ARE very, very happy with the work that the council has done so quickly. ‘I think it will ultimately be rebuilt, but we have to wait and see what happens.’ Paul Turner, campaign leader of the Save the Crooked House group, reacting on BBC News, West Midlands, to the serving of an enforcement notice ordering the owners of ‘Britain’s wonkiest inn’ to rebuild it.
CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 5 Periodically In my last column, I drew attention to the increasing numbers of back copies of journals, transactions and newsletters becoming accessible via the web. Attention was drawn to the Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society (now Historic Buildings and Places) and ASCHB Transactions online. For those interested in the Bulletin of the War Memorials Trust, which has now reached No 100 (February 2024), all the back copies have been uploaded to www.warmemorials. org/bulletin-back-issues. Heritage Now If heritage is about appreciating, understanding and interpreting the past, it may also be about learning from triumphs and disasters. The latest issue of Heritage Now (No 8, Spring 2024), the magazine of Historic Buildings and Places, helps kick off the centenary of the society by reviewing the direction of travel of building conservation. As the society is looking forward as much as backward, in the current issue director Liz Power gives an insight into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, but the 100-year landmark deserves some narrated retrospection. Giles Quarme, the society’s chairman, reviews a century of caring for buildings and places, including several notable early AMS successes such as the prevention of the erection of a huge power station in the immediate vicinity of Durham Cathedral. This intervention was even more meritorious because the society’s witness presented evidence at only three days’ notice, in midwinter in wartime conditions when travel was severely restricted. The arguments the society put forward in the era before effective heritage legislation attracted considerable public support. The society had a proud record of attending public inquiries and objecting to unsuitable proposals. In 1974, representations were made at no fewer than 36 public inquiries, a particular need at that time when conservation was still on the back foot. Paul Holden looks back at the work of the first 50 years of the society up to 1974, when it had no statutory role. The founder of the society was a Mancunian, John Swarbrick, an architect and dedicated activist. His campaign to save the Elizabethan manor house Hough End Hall from the impact of a new main road led him to form the AMS. This was at a time when the country had only just begun to accept responsibility for its heritage, and when one of its early supporters, Thomas Tout, claimed that without immediate action ancient monuments would become ‘extinct’. Another positive contribution to heritage protection was forged in 1952 when the society became a founder trustee of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust. One of the trust’s initial purposes was to raise £4 million over a decade to put neglected churches into good repair. It might be easy to think that all the heritage battles have been won, notwithstanding the present diminished resources available for heritage protection. But it is instructive to look back at the battles that were fought before the current legislation came into operation, and to see how much of the heritage of Britain might have retained had more positive attitudes prevailed and more effective protection been introduced decades earlier. Now that the AMS Transactions are all online, it is worth looking at LM Angus-Butterworth’s review of the early history of the AMS in Volume 20 (1973) and RW Brunskill’s review of the first 70 years in Volume 39 (1995). Also of interest in the current issue is a reassessment of resort architecture by Kathryn Ferry, a founder member of the Seaside Heritage Network. This new body has been established to connect people around the coast, sharing best practice and celebrating everything that makes the British seaside great. She notes that, despite the lockdown trend for staycations, it is telling that national news stories still tend to focus on the negatives, such as sewage spills and inexcusable levels of social deprivation. Ferry HERITAGE NOW The Magazine of Historic Buildings & Places | www.hbap.org.uk NO. 8 (SPRING 2024) info@midlandlimeplasterwork.com Mobile 07971 532596 Heritage Plastering Contractors • Lath & Plaster • Solid Plastering • Mouldings & Stucco • Commercial & Private clients welcome
6 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 wants the network to help balance the narrative, because historic resorts need interest from new visitors. She concludes positively that perceptions about the British seaside are changing, with a recognition of the rich heritage of pleasure resorts, and that this can be a force for change in places that have been overlooked. More information can be accessed at ‘The neglected heritage of the seaside holiday’ in Coastal Studies and Society by Duncan Light and Anya Chapman. C20 The second 2023 issue of C20, the magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, marks the passing of Sir Michael Hopkins with a fine, illustrated survey of a number of his key buildings, noting which are already listed and which deserve to be listed but are not. It is pointed out that, when it comes to preserving the legacy of Britain’s high-tech trailblazing architects, some assurance can be gained from Hopkins’ work having an edge over some of his contemporaries on the basis that some were commissioned by establishment clients for their own long-term use and constructed with very high-quality materials. The society notes with regret its failure to persuade the DCMS to list Portcullis House, Westminster (‘one of the most ingenious and highly crafted design solutions of the late 20th century’), and that 22 Shad Thames in London (built for the designer and manufacturer David Mellor and subsequently acquired by Sir Terence Conran as his company headquarters) has faced the threat of a substantially harmful extension. This demonstrates to the society how vital it is that it continues to lobby on behalf of all such modern buildings of merit. The issue’s eclectic range of material includes a photographic essay about the forgotten brutalist architecture of mid-20th-century Hong Kong; an article about the beautifully crafted, meticulously detailed and unaltered Grade II*- listed 1930s home of Lucy Archer, the daughter and biographer of the architect Raymond Erith, and an exquisite restrained Soanian design by her father in Suffolk White brick; and an article entitled ‘Going Gaga for Modernism’ by Carlos Finley, who suggests that, although architecture has always had a role in pop music aesthetic, recent releases suggest a modernist revival. Finley has produced a short playlist of both album art and music videos, identifying associated locations. He concludes that a new generation of stars continues to push 20th-century architecture into the foreground, and to vast audiences, giving these buildings the limelight they deserve. SPAB Magazine In the Spring 2024 issue of the SPAB Magazine, SPAB director Matthew Slocombe meditates on the considerable concerns aroused by the proposed redevelopment of Liverpool Street Station, London. Although it falls outside the date range for casework notifiable to the SPAB, Slocombe makes an interesting observation about heritage campaigning and the need for collective responses to significant threats. He notes that redevelopment of the massive Broadgate office complex close to the society’s headquarters at Spital Square came at a time when the SPAB’s focus had been distinctly rural. The then secretary, Philip Venning, wrote of the enthusiasm of the public response to the SPAB Barns Campaign, concluding that the society had chosen the right campaign at the right time. Slocombe states that many lessons can still be drawn from that campaign. Foremost, perhaps, is that one organisation alone cannot expect to turn the tide, and that this is likely to be true at Liverpool Street. Residential barn conversions became increasingly common in the 1980s, despite SPAB objections, and they dominated the SPAB’s case work throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. SPAB was able improve outcomes, with the best examples of barns protected; design guidance introduced; and repair and maintenance grants secured. This issue also addresses another campaigning issue in the making: the question of the selloff of churches in Scotland. The SPAB considers that it applies the lessons of the Barns Campaign to campaigning in the coming years. With Church of Scotland churches having lost around 80 per cent of their attendees since the 1950s, the closure of some churches is becoming inevitable. The magazine highlights Scotland’s church sales, and explains the collaborative work being undertaken to offer informed and pragmatic solutions to the problem. The disposal of churches throws up many wider questions for religious observance and its place in society. Most pressing
CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 7 from a heritage perspective is the buildings and properties in its care, as there are simply too many churches in Scotland for the sizes of the congregations. This was the case even before the decline after the second world war, when there were many more church buildings than might ordinarily be expected, exacerbated by schisms within the established church. The article also presents comments from Craig Stanford, strategic heritage project officer for the Places of Worship Project for Historic Environment Scotland. Construction History For those interested in brickwork, Construction History, the international journal of the Construction History Society (Vol 38, No 2, 2023), has two relevant papers. Coated brick is relatively uncommon in the UK, but its use as an ersatz for limestone is a phenomenon found in France and Sweden. Linnéa Rollanhagen Tilly explores the influence of French methods of construction. She has attempted to identify the differences and points of conversion between two urban construction programmes of the 18th century in two geographically distinct cities: Toulouse and Stockholm, both thought to have been based on the common model adopted in Paris. Tilly’s analysis draws on three distinct research projects, involving the study of a wide range of archive documents and historic publications, notably published by the Swedish Academy of Science, and specifications within contracts for public buildings and urban programmes. She has concluded that informal networks were created by contemporary construction professionals on tours across Europe, then considered an essential part of the education of the gentry. Not only could those on tour study buildings first hand, but they would also purchase books and models relating to construction. The author’s research demonstrates numerous similarities in these two very different cities, especially in the use of bricks with stone-like coatings as a substitute for stone, either as a more affordable material, or in locations that lacked an adequate source of limestone. In the second paper of interest, Catherine Rangel Cobos, Felix Lasheras Marino and Javier Pinilla-Mello of the Department of Construction and Architectural Technology, Madrid, discuss a divergence of practice between American and English technical texts published up to the 1930s regarding the composition of brick walls. Before the 20th century, numerous solid brick facades in both Britain and the USA featured stretcher bond (without cavities), although the differentiation of the bonding types only became clearer in the 1940s with the assignment of specific terms. For example, ‘structural bond’ was called ‘the method of overlapping bricks to give the wall a greater strength’, while ‘pattern bond’ referred to ‘the arrangement of the brick in the wall to give a pleasant appearance’. In other words, the latter referred only to the method used to arrange and tie the face bricks on the front, while the former referred to the method of doing so on both the front and the cross-section of the wall. Under these terms, in a wall made in any of the basic bonds (English, Flemish, American, and so on), these bonds worked both for structural and aesthetic purposes. Pattern bond deals with the concerted laying of bricks in the front wall, while structural bond deals with the method of tying the front to the backing construction. The traditional methods used for the external appearance of brick walls, widely applied throughout the second half of the 19th century, are now largely forgotten as a consequence of cavity wall construction (especially where the inner wall is not brickwork). The paper helpfully illustrates numerous bonding configurations in threedimensions with an insightful exposition of the term ‘bond’. The Construction Historian In the sister publication The Construction Historian (Issue 13, Spring 2024) of greatest interest is a well-illustrated article by Nick Hill dealing with the Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel in Leicester, where a recent programme has brought to light an unusual early roof structure from 1708. Pevsner noted that the chapel was one of the earliest brick buildings of any ambition in Leicester. Although major alterations were undertaken in 1866, including a new chancel and portico, investigations have shown that the original roof structure of 1708 survives in almost complete condition. This is of an extraordinary form and possibly unique for this early 1 The Construction Historian | Issue 13 | Spring 2024 Construction Historian THE Issue 13 Spring 2024 The Magazine of the Construction History Society
8 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 From The Anatomy of the Village by Thomas Sharp (1946) The situation of a village (as well, of course, as its function) was an important determining influence on plan-form in the past – as it must be in the future. A situation on a knoll might mean that, on the limited amount of high ground which was available, the buildings had to crowd together. At a crossing of roads, the plan of the village would be determined by the angles at which the roads meet; and the existence of a small common or green, of a pond or a pound or other feature, at or near the crossing, would again modify the plan. And so on, and so on. And since there is an infinite variety in sites and a wide variety of functions, since original siting factors have often become unimportant in subsequent additions and original functions have changed, and since nearly all villages have grown naturally and for the most part slowly, there is to-day no set pattern to which village plans conform. In the ten thousand villages and hamlets of England there are ten thousand variations. Shape, size and character vary greatly. No village is quite like any other. And this, of course, is the glory of it, that every village is an individual place. date. Although the designer of the roof is unknown, its form suggests a connection to a leading architect or carpenter of the day. An article by Chris Kolonko examines the construction of second world war pillboxes. Some typical examples are now listed, but very little is known about how they were constructed. The author notes that every pillbox (listed or otherwise) can supply a great deal of information: the expected avenue of approach; the number of soldiers who would have defended a given area; and the weapon systems used from within. But the methods used to build a pillbox can easily be overlooked. Even after 80 years, little is still known about surviving pillboxes, other than their general locations and broad types. A great deal of research is still required to fully understand and appreciate not only the structures but also the effort that went into building them. This five-page illustrated article may help in assessments for inclusion in schedules of non-designated heritage assets. Best practice on conditions Finally, I would like to raise a matter unrelated to periodicals. Despite all the effort invested in processing proposals affecting listed buildings, ample evidence suggests that the same cannot be said regarding conditions attached to many subsequent approvals. Some practitioners clearly need to re-read Circular 11/95 when many conditions are not necessarily ‘relevant, enforceable, precise and reasonable in all other respects’. Readers are also reminded that the current best practice National Standard Set of Listed Building Consent Conditions dating from 2016 is accessible via the IHBC’s online Toolbox. A further element of best practice worth highlighting is the inclusion in the top right-hand corner of the notice of the initials of the author of the conditions. Regrettably, this is by no means common, but in the light of the circular it enables a recipient to query any infelicities, whether written by the case officer or the heritage advisor. It also useful where staff in the local authority have changed. Bob Kindred MBE
CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 9 Legal update Alexandra Fairclough writes: The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is consulting on aspects of ‘An accelerated planning system’ (details on the DLUHC website): 1. The introduction of a new accelerated planning service which would offer a new application route with accelerated decision dates for major commercial applications and fee refunds wherever these are not met. 2. Changes in relation to extensions of time agreements, including a new performance measure for speed of decisionmaking against statutory time limits and an end to the use of extension of time agreements for householder applications and repeat agreements for the same application for other types of application. 3. An expansion of the current simplified householder and minor commercial appeal service to more written representation appeals. 4. Details on the broadening of the ability to vary a planning permission through section 73B applications and on the treatment of overlapping planning permissions. Fixtures or fittings The offer for sale of stained glass roundels from a listed building has been reported. The 16th-century stained glass, associated with Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was put on sale at auction by the owners of a Dorset manor, Grade I-listed Sandford Orcas. It was withdrawn from sale following a visit by Historic England because listed building consent had not been obtained for its removal. Section 1(5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 provides that a ‘listed building’ includes any object or structure fixed to the building. This means that listed building consent may be required for its removal. The auctioneers handling the sale have said the stained glass roundels were suspended from wires, so were not ‘fittings’. Case law has always relied on two tests of whether objects are considered fixtures or fittings. First, what is the degree of annexation of the object: is it firmly fixed to the building or can it be easily removed? Second, what is the purpose of annexation? Is wit the for the better enjoyment of the object itself, or to improve the building or make it more beautiful? Removing an object from a listed building without consent could result in a criminal offence punishable by an unlimited fine and, in the most serious cases, imprisonment. The local council could use its powers to require an object to be returned to the building (see Dill v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and another [2020] UKSC 20). Relevant case law is at Idlicote House Urns Supreme Court v3 Legal Panel GN2020_1_ v200720.pdf (ihbc.org.uk) Case law Marks and Spencer, Oxford Street: In February 2024, Judge Lieven allowed an s288 challenge and quashed the decision by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and the Community regarding the dismissal of an s78 appeal for the construction of a nine-storey, mixed office and retail store, redeveloping Marks and Spencer’s flagship store. There were six grounds of appeal. Lieven J considered that the secretary of state had failed to give adequate reasoning for disagreeing with the inspector and erred in the interpretation of policies in the National Planning Policy Framework and the London Plan. See Marks and Spencer PLC v SOSLUH&C & Others [2024] EWHC 452. Stonehenge: The High Court has dismissed another legal challenge brought by campaigners opposing the government’s plans to build a tunnel near Stonehenge, a world heritage site. The proposed A303 Stonehenge Improvement Scheme has been the subject of both political and legal challenges. Historic England has been focusing on the heritage issues and the importance of the world heritage site. The government argues that the proposed improvements will restore the internationally important landscape by creating a longer tunnel than in previously granted schemes. There is concern that the UK could lose another world heritage site as a consequence of the proposals. On 5 April 2024, Save Stonehenge applied for leave for appeal but National Highways appeared to have begun preparatory works. See Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site Limited and Andrew Rhind-Tutt v Secretary of State for Transport Defendant and (1) National Highways Limited (2) Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England (‘Historic England’) [2024] Ewhc 339 (Admin).
CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 11 WHERE HERITAGE AND NATURE MEET Opposite: Stone-cutting machinery at Albion Stone’s Jordon Mine on the Isle of Portland (see page 29) Editorial We are all doomed, but… Buildings and nature met in the first cave that people adapted as shelter, and in the first hut that they made from whatever materials were growing around them. The local vernacular developed from what the natural world provided close at hand: timber in sufficient spans to make a roof; stone, mud or brick clay to make roofs and walls. Later, there were leisure and resources to make formal gardens and landscapes that demonstrated how nature could be tamed. ‘There’s nothing wild and uncultivated about us,’ was the message. Later, gardens and landscapes that looked less formal showed how the natural world could be shaped to a refined sense of beauty. Dominating nature, through landscapes and buildings, became a habit. In time, some people came to value what had been built and became less sure that it could be replaced by something better. Focusing on taming nature perhaps blinded us to the effects that development can have on the natural environment even when we do not notice it. Only recently has promoting biodiversity become an aim of the planning system. More than that, we have come to realise that what we build has a fundamental effect on the planet and its climate, and vice versa. The changing weather has always been the favourite topic of conversation. We can cope with weather. A changing climate is something else: just as unpredictable as the weather, but with potentially catastrophic consequences. That means, as far as historic buildings are concerned, that conservation is becoming more difficult. As ever, we have to decide what we value most, and where we are willing to invest our scarce resources. We are finding that the changing climate’s heat, cold, wind, rain, sea levels and other extremes are making some of those decisions unusually painful. ‘We are all doomed,’ Imogen Wood writes in her article in this issue (page 12), ‘but in the short term, some places and assets are more doomed than others.’ Responding creatively to that predicament will involve, she rightly suggests, asking some difficult questions about how we balance what we value in heritage and nature.
12 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 IMOGEN WOOD Value transitions between heritage and nature If the act of preservation may sometimes be futile, why are we resisting so hard the inevitable future shift instead of embracing the change and the value this may bring? ‘Adaptive release’ is a term that developed during a piece of research undertaken by Exeter University, the National Trust and Historic England, published with full explanation in The Historic Environment: policy and practice1. The idea centres around the concept of some heritage values transitioning to other values, retaining significance but perhaps bringing other benefits to a place or asset, as opposed to being lost, destroyed or overly preserved. The conversation around this idea needs to be brought across to the building conservation space as so many sites are at risk from transition and loss, and the options surrounding these circumstances are sometimes very limited, with potential for value transition usually not considered. Stepping back to look at the big picture: first, we are all doomed (climate change, meteorite, sun going supernova, and so on). We know that, but in the short term, some places and assets are more doomed than others. While the proportion of heritage assets affected by (for example) coastal erosion is small compared to those affected by heat and pluvial flooding in the future, the rapidity of change is something that will impact many assets and places simultaneously, to the point where archaeology and finances may preclude the saving/moving/ rebuilding of absolutely everything threatened in this short-term manner. Climate hazards, geological stability, isostatic and eustatic movement affecting coastal sites: these are a few reasons why the act of preservation may sometimes be futile. Why then, in some cases, are we resisting so hard the assimilation of things into their inevitable future shift? Why don’t we embrace the change and recognise the value this may bring? The climate has always changed. We are not working towards a fixed point in the future where we can dust our hands off and say that we have satisfactorily adapted to climate change: it is an ongoing process. It is the rapidity of change and climate impacts on systems that cannot adapt in short timeframes. Since around the time of the industrial revolution that caused the issues, mostly for nature, but also for our ability as a species and culture to cope with hazards and impacts. Health and safety may be raised as one issue: we cannot just let things weather and degrade, and fall on people. Sometimes, though, it is that Bedlam Furnaces with their canopy that, once installed, helped remove them from the Heritage at Risk Register. The car park surrounding the base of the monument could be argued to have more of an impact on the setting of this heritage asset than the canopy that now protects it. (Photo: Imogen Wood, National Trust) 1 DeSilvey, C, Fredheim, H, Fluck, H, Hails, R, Harrison, R, Samuels, I and Blundell, A (2021) ‘When Loss is More: from managed decline to adaptive release’, The Historic Environment: policy and practice 12 (3–4)
CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 13 WHERE HERITAGE AND NATURE MEET we all as conservation practitioners are trying to stymie change to some extent, and indeed may even hate change if it is considerable and particularly where we might feel something has been lost. For the National Trust, our own Act (1907) specifically states that we should preserve our heritage assets (‘as far as practicable’). Well, that minor phrase in parentheses is quite an important one, and as climate hazards increase and as we begin to find that some things just cannot adapt, and on such a large scale, what are the alternatives? What if we begin to recognise the values that might be brought about from certain types of change? What values are there? Value to people? To access? To nature and ecosystems? To art and beauty? To archaeologists of the future (we have to leave them something to find)? How do we begin to deal with shorter-term changes associated with loss and with what might be termed adaptive release, as in that journal article? We can start by looking at where it has already happened, perhaps. In order to write this article, I visited the Ironbridge Gorge – a geological force of nature that industrial archaeology in situ cannot possibly hope to contend with over the long term. The Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust runs a fantastic suite of museums in this landscape, amid a steep-sided, tourist-filled honeypot site that is absolutely jam-packed with archaeology. The upstanding material across the landscape is vast, with everything from landscape planting associated with the Derby Houses to lovely limekilns and infrastructure: industrial archaeology associated with this wellknown industrial melting pot. Where these threats are becoming overwhelming to the heritage values associated with evidential and aesthetic values in particular, what should be done? If capital injection or remedies involve quite severe interventions, do we transpose these structures to another location less affected by the geomorphological changes? That is, after all, what Blists Hill Victorian Town (one of the most popular museums) is – a collection of saved buildings mostly rebuilt into an existing appropriate setting. Is that realistic? Is it possible over the longer term to move an extensive incline plane or a tar tunnel? Would that be appropriate, given the interrelation of such assets to the river or the canal infrastructure they were built to serve? Possibly not – and why would you want to? It would certainly harm the world heritage status of the site. What might not harm it, if the option were to be considered, would be the transition of an individual asset, or a collection of associated assets, in terms of their respective values from purely typical heritage values to ones with more value to people, access, or perhaps nature, and they may also reflect the wider majesty of the context; the geological immaturity of the setting and the reminder that it is still being born and remade as landslips continue and movement crushes the rigidity of such features, bending them to its will. It is beautiful, but do we see this as something that needs capital injection to be preserved, or can we embrace that transition and recognise it for beauty above and beyond historical, architectural and archaeological interest? The Bedlam Furnaces, so significant to the story of Ironbridge as the birthplace of industry, have been protected by a large purpose-built canopy to help them dry out and prevent further extensive weathering. If the concept of adaptive release had been used at the time on these, would they still have been covered? Perhaps their historical and evidential values are too considerable to allow nature to take over these structures. What would they have looked like in the future if their deterioration had continued? Can we feel compensated with the heritage loss by the gain for nature/access/beauty? Would the picturesque movement have developed artistically in the way that it did (going on to inspire a whole new movement in landscape design, for example) if industrial landscapes, buildings and structures had not been subjected to some form of adaptive release? There are a lot of questions here, and not many answers, but we need to start asking a few more questions as such problems arise, however different the responses may be, especially in the face of climate and other pressures on sites. The Hay Incline Plane between Coalport and Blists Hill canals, somewhat disfigured by the gradual shifts in the ground (Photo: Imogen Wood, National Trust) Acknowledgement Thanks to Simon Robertshaw for contributions to this article, following his involvement in the original research. Imogen Wood is the senior national consultant for heritage and climate at the National Trust, and chair of the IHBC West Midlands Branch.
14 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 IAN DUNGAVELL Life and death at Highgate Cemetery Successfully managing what is perhaps the most famous cemetery in England depends on balancing burials and tourism, heritage and nature, and the past and the future. Highgate Cemetery, opened in 1839, is perhaps the most famous cemetery in England and one of the world’s finest examples of the picturesque garden cemetery. From its earliest days visitors were attracted by its spectacular hillside setting and unforgettable funerary architecture. A guidebook was published only five years after it opened, pointing out interesting monuments, and no doubt prompting visitors to think about where they might end up when death came for them too. The London Cemetery Company, the private, profit-making enterprise which set it up, would be more than happy, for a fee, to provide space in their beautiful sepulchral garden. From visitor accounts we know that the rich aesthetic interest came not only from reading epitaphs and looking at sculpture but also from their journey through the landscape: the experience of strolling along the serpentine paths superimposed on a rolling landscape, breathing in the chill air of the Egyptian Avenue. Visitors experienced the crunch of their footsteps on the gravel path, intensified by the darkness, before emerging, to make their way up to the great terrace, past the Lebanon Circle to just beneath St Michael’s Church. From there could be had one of the finest views of London. Looking over the dead resting peacefully at their feet, the visitor could see a growing mass of houses, towers, spires, domes and crowds of shipping on the Thames, all spread out in front of the Surrey hills in the distance. Much more than just a view, the contrast between the city of the dead and the city of the living was a poignant reminder of where one’s future lay. Although graves were sold in perpetuity, nobody had really planned for what would happen when the cemetery filled up. In the 1960s, as it became unprofitable to run, the asset-strippers The entrance to the Egyptian Avenue (Photo: Michael Eleftheriades)
CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 15 WHERE HERITAGE AND NATURE MEET moved in, selling off the Dissenters’ Catacombs and the Superintendent’s House and a large chunk of land, which had been used as the works yard, all the while spending next to nothing on maintenance. In the 1980s the founding company finally folded and the Friends of Highgate Cemetery took charge, plucking it from the jaws of the receivers and then pursuing a pragmatic and affordable policy of ‘romantic decay’, which avoided over-restoration on the one hand and utter ruination on the other. That aesthetic, in seeking also to promote biodiversity, prioritised ivy and self-set trees over the historic landscape design and the memorials which furnished it. Monuments to the fashionably disparaged, pompous middle classes, in any case the responsibility of the families, were more easily disregarded at a time when anti-Victorian sentiments were still pervasive. It turned out that the condition of both landscape and the monuments was declining: nature will not flourish shrouded with ivy beneath a solid tree canopy and decay, after all, is decay, however alluring. That is not to say that the friends were neglectful: far from it. Their achievements were impressive by any standards, but especially for a small voluntary group with limited funds. They repaired the boundary walls and railings, the chapels, the Terrace Catacombs and the Cuttings Catacombs. Their work on the Egyptian Avenue and Lebanon Circle got a Europa Nostra award in 1998 for ‘the inspiring conservation by a voluntary organisation… using the best principles of minimum intervention’. And after a programme of restoration, no monuments were left on the Historic England heritage at risk list. Through a landscape plan, patchwork improvements were secured but the trees, ivy and bramble grew faster than they were removed. Some of the eroding gravel paths were resurfaced (practically, but unattractively, with tarmac), as was the courtyard with paviors made of repurposed council slabs. But there was no overall shared vision. Greater progress was hampered by a convoluted corporate structure which left three separate charities squabbling over the site. This was only resolved in 2010 by their merger to create the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, which owns and operates the cemetery today. Even then a lack of shared management objectives continued to cause problems. The task was too big and the allure of the cemetery too mysterious for any solution to be straightforward. Smaller, manageable projects were preferred over the much more difficult question of an overarching plan: the chapel interior was lavishly restored, for example, and monuments facing the main paths put back together again. It took some time before the advice to commission a conservation plan, first from David Lambert and then from Richard Griffiths Architects, was acted on. Produced by Alan Baxter, this was adopted in 2019. It set out the history and significance of Highgate Cemetery and explained how the trust proposed to look after it in the future. At last there was a solid way forward based on comprehensive research and understanding, drawn up after consultation with members, volunteers and the public. It was not the sort of conservation plan that was produced with a development proposal in mind, but rather an open exploration of how the significance of the place could be protected and enhanced. One fundamental conclusion was that the cemetery should continue as an active burial ground. By reclaiming grave space that had never been used, or by reusing graves that were no longer wanted, the continuing burial needs of current and future generations could be accommodated without negatively impacting the historic environment; indeed, this would enhance the significance of the place and provide a much-needed source of income. The trust successfully secured the legislation it needed to do this in the form of the Highgate Cemetery Act 2022. The first of the reclaimed graves will become available later this year, but the grave-renewal programme will not transform the appearance of the cemetery. Implementation will be cautious and incremental. One of the trust’s charitable purposes is conservation, but even if that were not the case, with half of its income coming from visitors, the trust must be careful to look after what they come to see. As well as the constraints of the Act, all monuments erected before 1925 are protected by virtue of being within a conservation area and new monuments are subject to a design code to ensure that they sit happily in their surroundings. The other two main strands of the conservation plan are that trees, monuments and buildings would be better looked after, and that visiting would be easier and more rewarding. The trust is working on a full planning application for the resulting project called ‘Unlocking Highgate Cemetery’ with a team including West Scott Architects, Hopkins Architects and Gustafson Porter + Bowman. The trust has secured a Heritage Fund development grant of £105,000 towards a delivery phase grant of £6.7 million. This will be supplemented by £10 million of the trust’s reserves, leaving £1.2 million still to be raised for the first phase. Heritage works include the conservation of the Grade I-listed Egyptian Avenue and Circle of Lebanon and the Grade II*-listed Terrace Catacombs and restoring public access to the
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