Heritage Now

HERITAGE NOW (01/2021) AUTUMN 2021   21 CASEWORK er extends above the three to four storey roof line of the existing 1960s buildings and is visible, as it has been for centuries, in key views from Bristol Bridge and Welsh Back. It is part of an important cluster of towers and spires that define the skyline of this part of the conservation area. The appli- cation argued the new buildings would recreate the pre-war dense enclosure around the church. However, they would be eight to nine storeys and extend well above and around the church tower, causing considerable harm to its standing on the local skyline and to its setting, as well as over- shadowing the listed buildings on the west side of High Street in the surviving medieval core of the city. We also noted it would be more sustainable to refurbish and sensitively extend the existing buildings to improve their relationship with the church than to demolish and build a new, more harmful development. LAND ADJACENT PARADISE CIRCUS, BIRMINGHAM CITY CENTRE In terms of new development affecting historic sites, we objected to a proposed 49-storey tower in the heart of Birmingham next to the Grade I listed Birmingham Town Hall and Hall of Memory, the Grade II* Council House, City Museum and Council House Extension, the Grade II Edward VII Stat- ue and Baskerville House. The development site at Paradise Circus directly borders the Jewellery Quarter and Colmore Row and Environs conser- vation areas, as well as the important public civic spaces in Centenary Square, Victoria Square and Chamberlain Square. Despite strong objections from the amenity societies and Historic Eng- land about the impact of the tower on views and vistas of this iconic civic buildings and places, the claim the tower would be the ‘World’s first purely residential octagonal high-rise building’ won the day with the council granting consent, subject to a s106 agreement. ECCLESIASTICAL CASES BY MATTHEW SAUNDERS ABERDARE, GLAMORGAN, FORMER SILOA CHAPEL, GREEN STREET, GADLYS Situated in The Rhondda, South Wales, Pevsner notes the pulpit and set fawr of c1880 which this proposed scheme for conversion to a house ejects, together with the original seating of c1855 in the galleries. There is little justification for such drastic action and we have registered a holding objection which we hope will lead to a more sensi- tive approach. ALLENDALE, NORTHUMBERLAND, FORMER WHITELEY SHIELD CHAPEL Built in 1857, by local lead miners, this Primitive Methodist chapel presents a simple symmetrical shell giving little or no preparation for a quite remarkable intact interior. The chapel closed in 2015 and was sold, Zoopla tells us, for some £26,000 to the present owners who seek to create a three-bedroom house within. Hardly anything of the wonderful boarded interior would survive in their application and we joined Historic England in lodging a strong objection. The building is Grade II listed despite Peter Ryder’s suggestion that it might be upgraded to II* because of the interior – the listing description seriously underplays its interest and rarity (a general complaint that runs through The Saunders Report on Listing Policy, just published on the Historic England website). BUCKFASTLEIGH, DEVON, BUCKFAST ABBEY Buckfast has few rivals as a manifestation of the 20th century revival in monasticism. A proposal to exclude draughts within the north porch by fitting sliding glass doors is regrettable, both visually in the way that the insertions rise to abut the porch vault and with an introduced dominant trans- verse lintel that appears to fight with the curve of the Romanesque arches. The Southern Historic Churches Committee of the Catholic Church which decides such matters under the terms of the Ec- clesiastical Exemption agreed with us and a more Buckfast Abbey, Devon. Designed by Frederick Walters, it was constructed, in good medieval fashion, by the brothers themselves. (Matthew Saunders)