Love Me Do...

Post updated 17th September: Secretary of State Eric Pickles joins the campaign!

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/09/16/secretary-of-state-eric-pickles-weighs-into-liverpool-welsh-streets-row-100252-27277819/

As for Mary Huxham, I'd suggest that if you don't want to live there don't, but others do.

Mary Huxham - Liverpool Welsh Streets from ciara leeming on Vimeo.

If you remove the gloss paint from the walls, and ensure the building can breathe in other ways, eg lime mortar (see SPAB for how to make that work) you might find the claimed damp disappears.

As for the claim of £150,000 to renovate? I doubt that very much! It's so much hogwash.


Post updated 2pm 9th Sept Latest SAVE News, with details of this, the wider Pathfinder and other SAVE campaigns:

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/docs//newsletter%20april%2010%20final.pdf


PRESS RELEASE 9 SEPTEMBER 2010

SAVE IN DRAMATIC BID TO LIST BEATLES HOUSES

AS BULLDOZERS CLOSE IN ON RINGO STARR’S CHILDHOOD HOME, SAVE AND THE MERSEYSIDE CIVIC SOCIETY APPEAL FOR THE IMMEDIATE GROUP LISTING OF BEATLES HOUSES

National preservation charity SAVE Britain’s Heritage has joined forces with the Merseyside Civic Society (MCS) to apply for the listing of 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool, the birthplace and childhood home of the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, together with five other buildings in Liverpool with intimate connections to the Beatles. The appeal comes in response to the City council’s bid to demolish Ringo’s birthplace in the Welsh Streets area of the city. Currently, none of the former Beatles homes in the city are listed, although two houses are owned and operated by the National Trust.

9 Madryn Street, where Ringo was born and lived until he was four, is earmarked for clearance as part of the government’s controversial Housing Market Renewal (Pathfinder) Initiative, described by the Urban Task Force as a 'crude, insensitive and wasteful' return to mass housing clearance, and criticised as ‘high risk’ by the National Audit Office. The programme has already resulted in the demolition of large swathes of northern towns and cities, leaving communities decimated and whole neighbourhoods destroyed.

Nowhere has this insensitivity and waste been more apparent than on Merseyside where entire districts of the well planned Victorian and Edwardian inner suburbs of Liverpool, a UNESCO World Heritage city, have been laid waste by blight imposed at immense public expense. Edge Hill, Toxteth, Kensington and Anfield have been subject to long term land banking, with communities, businesses and urban fabric forced to make way for acre after acre of vacant lots.

SAVE and the local Civic Society are calling for the immediate listing of Madryn Street, together with 10 Admiral Grove, Ringo’s subsequent childhood home; 12 Arnold Grove, the birthplace of George Harrison; Mendips, Menlove Avenue, where John Lennon lived from 1945 to 1963; 20 Forthlin Road, childhood home of Paul McCartney, and the ornate iron gates and stone piers of Strawberry Field, all that remains of the house and gardens which inspired one of the Beatles’ most famous songs.

William Palin, Secretary of SAVE says ‘This is a bid for national recognition and statutory protection for a group of buildings which are intimately associated with the four men who, together, became the greatest cultural phenomenon of the 20th century.

‘In 1973, Liverpool’s celebrated Cavern Club, birthplace of the Beatles, was demolished because of a council compulsory purchase order, to make room for a ventilation shaft that was never built. The destruction of Madryn Street would represent another tragic loss and a further assault on the heart and spirit of the city.’

‘It is astonishing and distressing that Liverpool City Council retains such a callous disregard for its cultural heritage, and sad that it should fall to organisations such as SAVE and the MCS to protect and promote buildings within the city that have such huge historic and socio-economic importance.’

Marcus Binney, President of SAVE says ‘From the very start of listing in 1945 the Act provided for listing buildings for their special historic interest as well as their architectural quality. The earliest guidelines for listing specifically mention buildings which are associated in the public mind with famous people. The Liverpool sites associated with the Beatles including their childhood homes are clearly of the strongest interest to the British public as witnessed by the thousands of visitors to the Beatles homes owned by the National Trust’.

Merseyside Civic Society planner Jonathan Brown says: ‘20th-century Liverpool and its port helped shape the Beatles phenomenon; in the 21st century their global stardom illuminates Liverpool’s place on the world stage.’

‘The international public have an almighty appetite for sites and buildings associated with the band’s early story, a blessing city authorities have been slow to acknowledge.’

‘If allowed, demolition of their homes and birthplaces will eclipse loss of the Cavern Club as an act of crass cultural vandalism. In fact, it would be far less forgivable, because of what we now know about the importance of music and tourism to economic revival. We appeal to the Secretary of State to stop the bulldozers unleashed by Mr Prescott’.

‘Of course, the listing application is about much more than the birthplaces of four individuals; it is also about protecting the inner city communities of Liverpool from being sold out to narrow developer interests by public officials. The Pathfinder clearances have wiped out swathes of entire historic districts like Edge Hill, Anfield, Bootle and Toxteth; demolition of Beatles’ heritage is just a symptom of the scheme’s indifference to social values beyond land assembly.’


NOTES

SAVE and the MCS have written to English Heritage to request the listing of the following buildings at Grade II:


9 Madryn Street, Liverpool, L8

The birthplace of drummer Richard Starkey (b. 7.7.1940), best known by his stage name, Ringo Starr (coined when he joined the Beatles in 1962). He lived here until the age of four.

The building is a two-bay, two-up two-down ‘back of pavement’ terraced house in the ‘Welsh Streets’ area of Toxteth, Liverpool developed in the late 19th-century to house migrant Welsh workers, most of whom were employed in the building trades.

The house and the area have been often recalled by Ringo during his career. ‘I was born at Number 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool 8’ are the highlighted first words in his section of the Beatles Anthology, the band's authorised autobiography. And his valedictory solo album Liverpool 8 features the single Liverpool I Love You and the lyric ‘Said goodbye to Madryn Street’. The house is visited daily by coach tours on the city’s Beatles trail, and plans for its demolition have attracted international press attention.

Photo: Marc Loudoun

10 Admiral Grove, Liverpool, L8

Ringo’s single Liverpool I Left You also referred to this house where he lived after moving from Madryn Street: ‘Liverpool I left you, said goodbye to Admiral Grove’. Two-bay, two-up two-down ‘back of pavement’ terraced house.

12 Arnold Grove, Liverpool, L15

The birthplace of Beatles guitarist George Harrison (b. 25.2.1943 d. 29.11.2001). He lived here for the first six years of his life. A two-bay, two-up two-down ‘back of pavement’ terraced house close to the iconic Penny Lane.

Photo: Mark Getty

Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Liverpool, L25

This semi-detached house, built in 1933, was the childhood home of John Lennon (b. 1940) from 1945-1963. It is recorded with a blue EH plaque. Lennon lived at Mendips with his Aunt Mimi after the separation of his parents. He was here during the formative Beatles years, and a number of early songs were composed at Mendips with Paul McCartney. It is now owned by the National Trust and, like Forthlin Road, is a successful tourist attraction.

Photo: Mark Getty


20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool, L24

This semi-detatched post-war council house in Allerton was the childhood home of Paul McCartney (b. 1942) from 1955. It is owned by the National Trust and is a successful tourist attraction. John Lennon and Paul McCartney are known to have composed and practiced here.

Photo: Mark Getty

Strawberry Field, Beaconsfield Road, Liverpool, L25

Ornate iron gates and stone piers of 19th-century Gothic villa and gardens demolished c.1970, immortalised by Strawberry Fields Forever, one of the Beatle’s most famous songs, written by John Lennon in 1966.

Photo: Mark Getty

SAVE Britain’s Heritage has been campaigning for historic buildings since its formation in 1975 by a group of architects, journalists and planners. It is a strong, independent voice in conservation, free to respond rapidly to emergencies and to speak out loud for the historic built environment.

SAVE has been one of the strongest critics of the demolitions proposed as part of the government’s Housing Market Renewal (Pathfinder) Initiative. SAVE’s hard-hitting report on Pathfinder, published in 2006, highlighted the devastating effects of these clearances on both the communities and the architectural cohesion of towns and cities. SAVE has also drawn attention to wastefulness of demolition. SAVE’s position has been vindicated by a report by the Commons Committee of Public Accounts published in June 2008. The report warns of ‘…a risk that demolition sites, rather than newly built houses, will be the Programme’s legacy’ and concludes that ‘the needs of those who wish to remain in an area should not be overlooked in developing more mixed and sustainable communities.’

SAVE continues to support communities threatened by Pathfinder clearances and highlight the social, and environmental cost of demolitions. Its latest report, Reviving Britain’s Terraces: Life after Pathfinder, SAVE has teamed up with architect Mark Hines to look at how housing earmarked for demolition can be adapted, upgraded and remodelled to a high standard of energy efficiency, creating a range of accommodation and forming exemplar 'eco-communities' of the future. For more information and to purchase the report, visit the SAVE website

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/

For more information contact:

William Palin (Secretary), SAVE Britain’s Heritage, 70 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EJ. Tel: 020 7253 3500. Email: office@savebritainsheritage.org

Merseyside Civic Society was established in 1938 out of a concern for the built environment of the Liverpool City region. As a registered charity, the Society is dedicated both to preserving and celebrating our rich built heritage, and to campaigning for new schemes to be of the very highest standard. Membership of the Society is open to anyone sharing these ideals.

For more information contact:

Jonathan Brown

www.liv.ac.uk/mcs/mcshome.html


The Save Madryn Street Facebook Campaign: http://www.savemadrynstreet.co.uk/

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY SAVE Britain’s Heritage, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ. Registered Charity 269129

See also the blog and website of EMPTY HOMES  @emptyhomes :

http://www.emptyhomes.com/

the national charity which campaigns for the re-use of empty homes; it too has been campaigning to stop the demolition of the Welsh Streets and other wasteful demolitions. In a country where there is a desperate shortage of housing, and a housing market which has collapsed, it makes no sense to demolish houses which are capable of re-occupation with a small amount of cash and effort.

http://unlockingthepotential.blogspot.com/2010/09/last-days-of-welsh-streets.html

http://unlockingthepotential.blogspot.com/2010/08/last-chance-to-save-welsh-streets.html

For every two families that need a home there is one property standing empty. This isn't just inefficient it's unjust



Nina Edge - Liverpool Welsh Streets from ciara leeming on Vimeo.

Nina Edge is fighting to save her beautiful Victorian villa on Kelvin Grove, in Liverpool’s Toxteth neighbourhood, from the bulldozers. The house, along with all the other properties on her side of the street, is down for clearance under L8′s controversial Welsh Streets regeneration scheme, a Housing Market Renewal-funded project which aims to tackle what the authorities say is a failing housing market. The grand houses on Edge’s street have been lumped into a demolition scheme which mainly deals with small two-up, two-down terraces, and which will create a tempting plot of land for future redevelopment. Edge is convinced there would be demand for the houses on her street if the market was allowed to operate normally, and believes the other homes could also be saved and refurbished to a decent standard using modern techniques. More than five years after demolition was agreed in principle by Liverpool council, there has been no CPO and little substantial progress.

Another view:

http://www.liverpoolcultureblog.co.uk/2008/07/ringo-and-liverpool-saying-goodbye-to-madryn-street/comment-page-1/#comment-986

Past post on Pathfinder and Liverpool:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/02/elizabeth-pascoe-is-finally-evicted.html

More from Elizabeth Pascoe:




To take people's homes, for no good reason, is despicable... Elizabeth Pascoe


 Nem

St John & St James: more Liverpool at Risk

UPDATE May 7th

The church has, sadly, now been demolished; see SAVE link for pictures:

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=135

More Pathfinder madness as landmark Liverpool church is flattened.

Liverpool has just lost another important landmark building. St John and St James, a finely detailed and pleasingly quirky Edwardian church by James Francis Doyle, was demolished at the end of April, the victim of a deal struck between the Diocese of Liverpool and a property developer. The site, which is part of a Pathfinder 'regeneration' area, is to be developed as 16 dwellings.

The furnishings and fittings of the church were stripped out in advance of a listing inspection with many items sold at auction. The church, distinguished by its octagonal bell tower and good Gothic detailing, was a building of real quality in an area which has all but lost its identity and community. Even the leader of Liverpool Council recently conceded that the Pathfinder clearances had 'ripped the heart out of local communities'. Yet, his penitential words have come too late to prevent the tragic loss of St John and St James.

Further information can be seen on this dedicated website:

Save Bootle's Heritage; St John and St James Church http://www.monfaroad.info/

Original post:

I have been asked to give this campaign some publicity. So here it is.

A website and Facebook campaign have been set up in a last ditch attempt to save an historic Bootle church from demolition.

http://www.monfaroad.info/ (warning - the site has music, so if that's a problem, press the mute button)
Pictures, Youtube videos and a great deal of further history on the website.

The Church of St John and St James in Monfa Road, Orrell, was dedicated to two brothers, Sir John and Mr James Wilcox, who were proprietors and editors of the Daily Post and Echo.

Built in 1910 to the designs of Liverpool architect James Francis Doyle, the church also has a link to the famous Liver Buildings, whose designer was a pupil of Doyle. He worked with the celebrated Richard Norman Shaw on the White Star Line HQ on James Street, where news of the Titanic's sinking was first announced to a shocked world, and built the gold-domed Royal Insurance building on North John Street. 

Now the building has been stripped of its features and is facing the bulldozers, with planning permission granted by Sefton Council for 16 houses.

Conservation experts have criticised church authorities for abandoning heritage buildings to pursue land sell offs, and questioned English Heritage's decision not to grant emergency listing status by suggesting the Liverpool designer is 'not of national interest'.

Planning specialist Jonathan Brown from Merseyside Civic Society said:

"This church was the work of a man associated with some of Liverpool's finest mercantile buildings, and dedicated to the owner and editors of our great city newspapers, the Post and Echo. If English Heritage accept James Doyle is 'regionally important', from what is after all  World city, why isn't that of 'national interest', the criteria for listing? Would the same be true if the connection was with famous buildings and newspapers in London? Of course not - these are simply double-standards. It's one rule for Bootle and another for Bromley."

The website's designer Jonathan Wild, whose partner lived in the adjacent Klondyke terraced streets until recently moved out under the New Heartlands (Pathfinder) demolition scheme said:

"This is another case of a church losing its congregation to  a misguided clearance programme while the Diocese washes its hands of the building. As with the listed St. Cyprian's on Edge Lane and St.John's in Fairfield, church authorities have stood by while so called regeneration evicts families, draining community facilities of their life-blood. The result is loss of character and civic pride."

National campaign group SAVE Britain's Heritage have also expressed their alarm at the state of some churches in Liverpool's clearance areas. Secretary Will Palin said:

Bishop James Jones's chairmanship of the Stop the Rot campaign has given real focus to the city's historic environment, so it is very disappointing to see his Diocese still overseeing church closures that lead to demolition of well-loved local landmarks like this, and failing to speak out over the wasteful return to sixties style housing clearance."

For further information, contact SAVE http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/

Merseyside Civic Society has an excellent website:

http://www.liv.ac.uk/mcs/mcshome.html

The campaign:

http://www.monfaroad.info/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=321731792630

Forum discussion:

http://www.bootlehistory.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11115

As regular readers of this blog will know, SAVE has been concerned about destruction in Liverpool for many years. Last year it staged an acclaimed exhibition to highlight the neglect and destruction.

The review from the Indie is below.  This picture is of a small section of the exhibition at the milkand sugar gallery, Liverpool RIBA (click to enlarge):

The book which accompanied the exhibition is still available from SAVE:

Triumph, Disaster and Decay: The SAVE survey of Liverpool's Heritage

as is the SAVE Pathfinder report, which also features Liverpool, and which has of course been highlighted in this blog a number of times, especially with the campaign to save her home from the bulldozers by Elizabeth Pascoe.

see Publications

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/

A comprehensive Flickr set, Lost Liverpool:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44435674@N00/sets/72157623086033785/


Nem


Triumph, Disaster and Decay, milkandsugar, Liverpool

Reviewed by Anthony Quinn

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

No city, with the possible exception of Jericho, has suffered such a dramatic collapse as Liverpool. Within 100 years, it has gone from being one of the wealthiest in the world to one of the poorest in Europe. The Second World War, the decline of its port trade and the rise of containerisation all figured in its economic perdition, to say nothing of its wildcat politicians and other wilful saboteurs – even in 1935, the Communist Party were calling the place “an organiser’s graveyard”.

Yet Liverpool’s agony has also been an internal one, witnessed by residents and visitors alike, in the unceasing destruction of its architectural heritage. A bomb-site necropolis long after the Luftwaffe had visited, the city began an extraordinary programme of self-mutilation, starting with the demolition of John Foster’s magnificent Customs House in 1947, despite the fact that its war damage was quite reparable. This story of a disappearing city, which continues to the present day, is chronicled in a superb exhibition of photographs, Triumph, Disaster and Decay, at the milkandsugar gallery.

Liverpool Customs House, demolished post-war a 'job creation' scheme

Laid out in two sections – the first an account of lost Liverpool, the second a report on those buildings under threat – its cumulative effect is at once heartbreaking and deeply shaming. That whole swaths of late-Georgian and early Victorian terraced houses still survived in suburbs such as Toxteth and Everton into the 1960s is almost as startling as the mass clearances that would soon condemn them. The city’s population crashed by half in the next 30 years. Jonathan Brown, in his catalogue essay “Liverpool Betrayed”, interestingly argues that the accepted history – people left because the docks closed – got it the wrong way round. The economy stalled because working people were cast out and marooned in distant housing estates.

Individual records of philistinism and neglect unfold across the gallery walls. Of the 19 churches in Everton described by Nikolaus Pevsner in 1969, only six remain. A photograph of Abercromby Square shows Foster’s church St Catherine’s, demolished in 1966 to make way for the university’s Senate House. More heartbreaking still is the fragment of wrought ironwork from a gallery inside the Old Sailors’ Home, a beautiful neo-Jacobean marvel senselessly destroyed in the 1970s.

The Old Sailors' Home

Canning Place, where it stood, itself no longer exists, swallowed up by the huge (and controversial) Paradise Street shopping centre, Liverpool One. It echoes another outrageous scarring, of elegant old Clayton Square, flattened to make way for another mall in 1986. By whose decree? The answer isn’t always clear, but a combination of rapacious property developers and incompetent councillors have usually done for it.

That legacy of near-criminal negligence seems to have been handed down through the DNA of Liverpool City Council. One might leave this exhibition feeling indignant and deeply depressed, for the disasters of the 1960s are returning, in the shape of the Government-sponsored Pathfinder schemes. Hearteningly, campaigns are being fought against further depredations. Elizabeth Pascoe still battles a road-widening scheme that would destroy 400 perfectly good family houses in and around Edge Lane.
(Alas, a battle now lost http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/02/elizabeth-pascoe-is-finally-evicted.html) Florence Gersten also continues a valiant rearguard against municipal vandalism, having helped to save the Lyceum building in Bold Street back in the 1980s. Save Britain’s Heritage itself deserves immense credit for supporting the fightback, and for mounting this exhibition, splendidly curated by Robert Hradsky.

Why does it matter? Because when you obliterate familiar buildings and street patterns, you cut people off from a sense of belonging. The writer Iain Sinclair recently described landscape as a “refracted autobiography”. If we keep losing that landscape, we lose our sense of self. It’s a bitter lesson that Liverpool, even after the infamy it has endured, still seems reluctant to learn.

World Heritage - who cares?

A small section of the SAVE exhibition, snapped at the preview by Nem

Liverpool (a World Heritage Site) featured in this blog a week ago, with news and a report of a SAVE exhibition and book:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-dont.html

and on Feb 12th here:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/saving-britains-heritage.html

and I am delighted to report that in today's Independent there is an excellent review of the SAVE exhibition:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/triumph-disaster-and-decay-milkandsugar-liverpool-1630252.html

Liverpool’s agony has also been an internal one, witnessed by residents and visitors alike, in the unceasing destruction of its architectural heritage. A bomb-site necropolis long after the Luftwaffe had visited, the city began an extraordinary programme of self-mutilation, starting with the demolition of John Foster’s magnificent Customs House in 1947,

http://conservationofficer.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

despite the fact that its war damage was quite repairable. This story of a disappearing city, which continues to the present day, is chronicled in a superb exhibition of photographs, Triumph, Disaster and Decay, at the milkandsugar gallery....

...Individual records of philistinism and neglect unfold across the gallery walls. Of the 19 churches in Everton described by Nikolaus Pevsner in 1969, only six remain. A photograph of Abercromby Square shows Foster’s church St Catherine’s, demolished in 1966 to make way for the university’s Senate House. More heartbreaking still is the fragment of wrought ironwork from a gallery inside the Old Sailors’ Home, a beautiful neo-Jacobean marvel senselessly destroyed in the 1970s. Canning Place, where it stood, itself no longer exists, swallowed up by the huge (and controversial) Paradise Street shopping centre, Liverpool One. It echoes another outrageous scarring, of elegant old Clayton Square, flattened to make way for another mall in 1986. By whose decree? The answer isn’t always clear, but a combination of rapacious property developers and incompetent councillors have usually done for it.

That legacy of near-criminal negligence seems to have been handed down through the DNA of Liverpool City Council. One might leave this exhibition feeling indignant and deeply depressed, for the disasters of the 1960s are returning, in the shape of the Government-sponsored Pathfinder schemes. Hearteningly, campaigns are being fought against further depredations. Elizabeth Pascoe still battles a road-widening scheme that would destroy 400 perfectly good family houses in and around Edge Lane. Florence Gersten also continues a valiant rearguard against municipal vandalism, having helped to save the Lyceum building in Bold Street back in the 1980s. Save Britain’s Heritage itself deserves immense credit for supporting the fightback, and for mounting this exhibition, splendidly curated by Robert Hradsky...

Caltongate in Edinburgh as a place does not of course exist, apart from in the mind of whichever PR drone thought it up as the adspeak new face of ruining a World Heritage Site (see yesterday's blog and the movie The Canongate Project as well as http://www.eh8.org.uk/ and the related blog, linked to from this site). Currently, it is still a hole in the ground in Edinburgh, following the demolition of a bus garage. Under threat of demolition are listed buildings, with facade schemes for others, and the sale of 'common good' land, a peculiarly Scottish concept, for buildings whose future planned contribution to the 'common good' is baffling many. The council seem to think that selling off these public assets to a private developer for pennies in order to hugely enlarge the development site was sound sense. That says a great deal about the council.

Of course, mega businesses have megabucks to spend on selling their schemes to gullible (or worse) councillors and naturally they have the cash to spend on PR agencies to help overcome any little local difficulties and carefully manipulate the entire process. And indeed Mountgrange was able to take advantage of a spin company called Invicta PA, whose blurb on its website carries with it a sickbag warning before you read it:

http://www.invictapa.co.uk/casestudy_mountgrange.pdf

A little past history is worth reading:

http://www.eh8.org.uk/pps_in_the_news

'Organised and determined' campaign group - militant? Dear me yes! Armed to the teeth with only a love of their community and city and the concept of Word Heritage, into battle they went.

Oddly, many more of the citizens of Edinburgh were not too happy about having thrust upon them yet another crappy scheme of second rate architecture, the city has had too many of those in recent times, with little heed taken of objectors (the planning 'consultations' by the developer Mountgrange carefully avoided taking much note of objections from local residents, Edinburgh World Heritage, ICOMOS, etc). So they joined in the protests, and when local politicians aided by Historic Scotland (whose role in this affair has surely yet to be fully explored and exposed) passed the plans and the Scottish government scandalously declined to call them in for public inquiry, they took their protests to UNESCO, a body to which the UK is a state party and signatory to the World Heritage Convention. UNESCO duly sent a mission to investigate matters.

The mission arrived last November. It first visited Bath, then Edinburgh. The council wined dined and generally schmoozed the two delegates, presumably in the hope that a full belly and copious amounts of alcohol would blur their vision and make them see the Emperor's magnificent suit of spankingly new attire. Such profligacy with cash seems not to have had the desired outcome however, as a draft of the (confidential) report was apparently sent to the council, Historic Scotland and the government last week. Confidentially too no doubt, but apparently forgetting to say so, the Convenor of the Planning Committee 'Sunny' Jim Lowrie (see him in action here:)


managed to spill a few beans to a Scotsman journalist, who felt duty bound to allow the wider public to know that UNESCO seems to not have been entirely delighted by the scheme, and is waiting for the culprits to come clean about what on earth they were playing at.

http://www.eh8.org.uk/unesco_saltes_caltongate_the_scotsman_17_feb_09

It should also be pointed out that 'Sunny' Jim is on the Board of Edinburgh World Heritage Trust (a registered charity); quite how he squares that role with his desire to vote through anything and everything which EWH seems to feel not appropriate for the city is possibly a puzzle to many. Let's see how he votes when the plans for the St James' Centre redevelopment come before his planning committee. Heritage and other bodies have all objected, but naturally the council planners have recommended passing the plans.

Latest critical comment is Wilson's Weekly Wrap, on the Architecture Scotland website today:

http://www.architecturescotland.co.uk/news/1250/Wilson%27s_Weekly_Wrap%3A_You_and_me_and_rain_on_the_roof%2C_The_best_is_yet_to_come_%26_Trumped.html

Given that Mountgrange (one of its Directors serves as a commissioner for English Heritage) seems to have (allegedly) gone financially tits up, and rumoured as trying to get cash to keep the sinking Caltongate afloat from that rock of the finance world the Royal Bank of Scotland, I cannot think many will shed a tear really for its demise.

As Mr Wilson says: Time then for a proper (i.e. not developer-led) appraisal of what this site really needs and what this part of the Old Town can actually absorb. In other European cities such a study would form the basis for an international design competition: here we can only dream of such things.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh City Council apparently has cash in trust to 'temporarily' landscape the site until such time as something can be done permanently. No doubt it will be rushing to spend it. Possibly it can look at the buildings standing empty also, and consider re-letting those.

Edinburgh World Heritage Trust continues its good work in the teeth of such problems, and news from its website is that a Conservation Plan has now been drwan up for Riddle's Court, also in the Old Town:

http://www.ewht.org.uk/Riddles-Court-secrets-revealed.aspx

The conservation statement prepared by consultant Andrew Wright brings together for the first time a combination of archival sources along with a detailed site inspection. His research throws a new light on many aspects of the building.

There is some archival evidence that the lime harling of the exterior walls had at one time been a startling yellow with window margins tinted a pinkish red, some of which still survives on site.

Of particular interest is a stone hood on the south wall of the inner court, considered to be a rare survival from a hoist, suggesting that the upper storey was used as a merchant’s warehouse.

Additionally, a fresh appeal for funds has been launched in order to complete the excellent conservation work at Well Court:

http://www.ewht.org.uk/Well-Court---the-finishing-touch.aspx

See also the Related Links section at the bottom right of that page for more.

It's not all bad news!


Nem

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

In fact, just damn.

Sad news yesterday from Caius Plinius http://caiusplinius.blogspot.com/2009/02/suitable-case.html about the loss of so much grant aid for conservation. As I said in the comments section of his blog: when it's boom time, conservation gets it in the neck as developers claim such ideas as 'heritage' and 'conservation' stand in the way of 'economic development' and 'regeneration'. When it's bust, there are always other things to spend the cash on.

I visited Liverpool last weekend, for the opening of the SAVE Britain's Heritage excellent exhibition (see: http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/saving-britains-heritage.html)TRIUMPH,DISASTER AND DECAY: The SAVE survey of Liverpool's Heritage


Frankly, rather too much 'regeneration' has been going on there and too little note taken of saving 'heritage' for my taste. What is happening adjacent to the magnificent Albert Dock defies description, the hemming in of the Three Graces with 'iconic' lumps unbelievable, I will in the near future post links and pictures. Some of the most crass development I have ever viewed is crammed into a tiny area along the waterfront in and adjacent to the World Heritage Site. However, don't miss the exhibition, if you can't make it call SAVE and order the catalogue. Now.

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=56

The pic top of me blog is of SAVE President Marcus Binney and exhibition curator for SAVE Robert Hradsky smiling through. The other above is of Will Palin, SAVE Secretary, modelling the SAVE publication, also baring his gnashers. Maybe it was the free wine wot did it, as certainly a great deal of the exhibition was tearjerking stuff.

One piece of good news from Liverpool is that at last the Lutyens crypt under 'Paddy's Wigwam' is now open to the public for the first time, although I have reservations about the architectural merit of the new addition. Judge for yourselves, see the pictures here:

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/dailynews/2009/02/nightingale_finalises_liverpool_cathedral_redevelopment.html
Crypt pics:

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/dailynews/2008/03/liverpool_crypt_readied_for_corb.html

I also note that the government has now published its draft strategy for saving the planet, as reported in the AJ:

"Energy-saving refurb planned for all UK homes

Green campaigners have welcomed plans to give every UK home a green refit by 2030 – but the source of funding remains undecided

The government's draft Heat and Energy Saving Strategy, released for consultation (12 February 2009), sets out a framework to bring existing houses to a level 'approaching zero carbon' by 2050.

It admits further financial support may be needed 'to encourage people to act now', but offers a series of suggestions in place of firm commitments. These include changes to the building regulations requiring energy saving measures to be fitted, and loans and grants funded by further levies on energy suppliers...

The strategy proposes fitting cavity wall and loft insulation in all suitable properties by 2015. Solid wall insulation and further energy saving measures will be added to another seven million properties by 2020, cutting household energy emissions by a third.

By 2030, all properties will have received a 'whole house' package including, where possible, the addition of renewable heat and power equipment such as biomass boilers and geothermal heating..."

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/dailynews/2009/02/energy_saving_refurb_for_all_uk_homes.html

So no new cash then. Oh well.

However, I ponder, how many of these measures will in a wider sense use more energy than they save? Keep it simple and suitable where period buildings are concerned, is my view. Interior cladding may well not allow the building to breathe, and no doubt the uPVC double glazing purveyors (see: http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/breathing-deeply-trash-plastic.html) are rubbing hands with yet more glee. I read a comment on a recent national newspaper site by a homeowner crowing how she had replaced a small number of small windows in a Conservation Area with double glazing to 'save the planet', at a cost of around twelve thousand pounds. The cash might have been better spent on some simple secondary glazing, or roller blinds. I wonder how many years it will take to recoup that outlay?

Here's the government blurb and the documentation:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/consultations/hes.html

No doubt those whose gravy train is running dry developing 'iconic' buildings and 'regenerating' historic areas will simply shift focus to 'greening the planet'. After all, as the government states, one of its aims in introducing these measures is:

"to take advantage of the economic opportunities presented by the shift to a low carbon economy in the UK and in the rest of the world, helping us during the current economic downturn and over the long term"


Read this and be afraid:

http://markbrinkley.blogspot.com/2009/02/eco-bollocks-award-heat-and-energy.html

Nem

Up in the air

Apologies people for short blog, a family emergency occurred this morning and I don't know how things will pan out over the next few days, however I hope to keep this updated. Welcome also Jon and Craig, and thanks for the comments. It's nice to feel I am not alone here.

Interesting stuff in the comments about the Victorian Farm prog from last night, if you wish to really live life in the raw it seems you can stay in the cottage:

http://www.actonscott.com/henleycottage.php

although as it seems about like life chez Nem (even slightly more luxurious in fact) I suspect I will save the cash and stay at home.

Possibly we should have paying guests who wish to sample the simple life, flagstones, pantry and all? They could sleep in the bothy and work in the garden?

Some sort of good news on the conservation front:

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=426&storycode=3130981&c=1

However, the reality is slightly more complex, and I could explain in detail but this link does it so why should I?

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=114371

The sad part is how much was bulldozed before SAVE stepped in; thankfully, at least several of the buildings are now protected. The picture above is the interior of one of the historic wind tunnels.

This is a larger version:

http://www.airsciences.org.uk/image24footfan.html

The SAVE report, Save Farnborough, The Cradle of British Aviation, is still available from SAVE publications:

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/

More:

http://www.airsciences.org.uk/

Short but hopefully of interest?

Nem

STOP PRESS Just arrived, Press Release from SAVE:

TRIUMPH, DISASTER AND DECAY THE SAVE SURVEY OF LIVERPOOL’S HERITAGE

AN EXHIBITION AT THE RIBA GALLERY IN LIVERPOOL FROM 16 FEBRUARY TO 6 MARCH 2009

As Liverpool emerges from its year in the limelight as European Capital of Culture, a new exhibition, mounted by SAVE Britain’s Heritage, takes a sobering look at the state of the city’s architectural heritage. As ever-taller apartment buildings spring up along the waterfront, countless historic buildings are still being left to rot, or demolished in the name of ‘regeneration’.

Less than a hundred years ago, Liverpool was a city of phenomenal wealth - its great dock system one of the wonders of the world. In the wake of World War II, changing patterns of industry and shipping led to steep economic decline, and in the decades that followed, the city’s built heritage was to come under terrible assault. In 1958 the bombed-out shell of one of the city’s finest landmarks, the monumental Custom House, was torn down to ‘relieve unemployment’ and countless Georgian and Victorian terraces were to follow - swept away for new housing estates.

Shockingly, large clearance schemes were to continue into the 1970s and 1980s, with Grade II-listed Clayton Square in the heart of the city demolished in 1986 to make way for a shopping centre. Today, whole terraces of good-quality Victorian houses are being cleared again, for the Edge Lane road-widening project, and for the Government’s Pathfinder housing scheme. In 1984, SAVE’s report The Agony of Georgian Liverpool documented the plight of dozens of Georgian houses. 25 years on, it is sad to report that many of the buildings featured in the report have been demolished, while others still cling on today in a desperate state of decay. Encouragingly, a number of fine inner-city Georgian terraces were saved in the 1980s through refurbishment programmes grant-aided by English Heritage, which more recently has conducted extensive research into Liverpool’s heritage and helped to fund a much-needed Buildings at Risk Officer.

Marcus Binney, SAVE's President says, ‘We have fought two of our most memorable campaigns in Liverpool, first rescuing the beautiful Regency Lyceum Club after consent to demolish had been granted and, second, taking legal action to stop the imminent demolition of the spectacular church of St Francis Xavier’.

This new exhibition will highlight the importance, as well as the vulnerability, of Liverpool’s architectural heritage - drawing attention to the alarming number of historic buildings still at risk in the city, as well as celebrating recent successes. Contemporary and historic photographs will be accompanied by commentary from leading historians, conservation experts and residents of Liverpool. The exhibition will run from 16 February to 6 March at the RIBA Gallery, 82 Wood Street, Liverpool L1 4DQ. It will be open Monday to Friday (9am-5pm), and on Saturday 21 February (11am-5pm). Further info from SAVE: http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/.

Full release including pictures:

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/docs/articles/liverpool%20SAVE%20expo%20press%20release.pdf