Endangered species? The World Monuments Fund Watchlist 2010

Stone in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh (click to enlarge pics)

The World Monuments Fund Watchlist of the world's most endangered buildings and sites has been published.

An interesting mix!

The full list is here:

http://www.wmf.org/watch/project-map?list=1

UK photos (and the one in the Irish Republic, Russborough) here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/8293467.stm


The UK sites are:

CARLISLE MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH
Belfast, Northern Island, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/project/carlisle-memorial-methodist-church


EDINBURGH HISTORIC GRAVEYARDS (Edinburgh World Heritage Site)
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/watch/project-map?list=1


SHEERNESS DOCKYARD
Sheerness, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/project/sheerness-dockyard


ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST PARISH CHURCH, SHOBDON
Leominster, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/project/st-john-evangelist-parish-church-shobdon


TECTON BUILDINGS AT DUDLEY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS
Dudley, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/watch/project-map?list=1


The Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo have been on the Twentieth Century Society's radar for a considerable time. Here's the 'Risky Buildings' entry, which gives a great deal of further information about them:

http://riskybuildings.c20society.org.uk/docs/22zoo/index.html

In 2004, the group of buildings featured as Building of the Month; here's the entry, with more information and photographs:

http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/building/dudley.html

The nominations procedure for the Watchlist and reasons the buildings are selected can be read here:

http://www.wmf.org/content/nomination-guidelines

And what, you say, is the point of yet another list of things in danger? Does it help to highlight these?

Well, this one does at times bring help. As it says on the WMF website:

Launched in 1996 and issued every two years, the World Monuments Watch calls international attention to cultural heritage around the world that is threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict, or disaster. The 2010 Watch continues this tradition of identifying endangered sites, while also encompassing sites with compelling issues or progressive approaches that could inform the field at large.

Watch listing provides an opportunity for sites and their nominators to raise public awareness, foster local participation, advance innovation and collaboration, and demonstrate effective solutions. The Watch nomination process also serves as a vehicle for requesting WMF assistance for select projects. Since the program’s inception, 544 sites have been included on the seven Watches. Nearly half the listed sites, representing 79 countries, have received WMF grants totaling $50 million. These WMF monies have leveraged an additional $150 million in assistance from other sources.

So a listing for these buildings and monuments and sites will hopefully focus minds and make these a priority re applications for other funding.

Indy

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/five-uk-sites-on-watch-list-of-endangered-monuments-1798550.html

Now that so much lottery cash has been diverted to the bluddy Olympics, every little helps

Ars longa, vita brevis? Greyfriars Kirkyard again. More on that here:

http://www.ewht.org.uk/EWH-grant-for-Greyfriars-Kirkyard.aspx

http://www.ewht.org.uk/Edinburghs-historic-graveyards-added-to-Watch-list.aspx

and Edinburgh graveyards in general:

http://www.ewht.org.uk/Finding-a-future-of-Edinburghs-historic-graveyards.aspx

World Monuments Fund:

http://www.wmf.org/

More pictures worldwide

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33197708/ns/news-picture_stories/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1

Nem

UPDATE Sunday 11th October 2009: a splendid piece by Kevin McKenna in the Observer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/11/kevin-mckenna-scotlands-graveyards

...The Canongate kirkyard is a jewel in the firmament of Edinburgh's many enchanted spaces and I had cause to be grateful for its ability to restore a flagging spirit when I worked for the Scotsman newspaper, whose HQ was a two-minute walk away.

Is there anything better in the world for a troubled soul than to set himself down on a bench contemplating a row of quiet headstones with a packet of cigarettes and fortified by a few lunchtime Bacardis?

...Robert Burns acknowledged the sanctity of the grave and was heartbroken when he saw how poorly Robert Fergusson had been buried in Canongate Kirkyard. In 1787, three years after his friend's death, he paid for the lovely tombstone that marks the final resting place of the great poet and penned this tribute:

O why should truest Worth and Genius pine
Beneath the iron grasp of Want and Woe
While titled knaves and idiot-greatness shine
In all the splendour Fortune can bestow.

If I am granted the privilege of a decent burial, I'd be happy to leave with the words of the great Birmingham rock-poets Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler whose oeuvre inspired the music of Black Sabbath, echoing in the breeze. Perhaps they were inspired by Burns the great egalitarian when they wrote in 1980:

The world is full of Kings and Queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
It's Heaven and Hell.