Showing posts with label Simon Thurley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon Thurley. Show all posts

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Normal service will be resumed...

II* Listed Park Hill, Sheffield, by Chris Downer http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/793583


...as soon as possible, as they used to say when the Beeb broke down.

It rarely does now; I wonder what sort of fevered activity went on to find the blown fuse in those far off days when telly was still all new and exciting.

Thankfully, the Republic computer has been repaired, returned and lives again. As one who learned to type (two fingers only) on an ancient Imperial, black, glass sides, and extra long cork carriage (legal docs and accounts, I believe) the laptop I was loaned for a short while daily, with its flimsy keyboard, simply wasn't up to Grumpy Old Blogger style bashing.

A short post then for now, to say thank you to the Society of Antiquaries for the very kind mention of the Republic in SALON, although the sex change came as a surprise I can assure all I never felt a thing.

http://www.sal.org.uk/salon/#section20

If the august Fellows of the Soc of Crocks are liable to keep dipping in to the Republic, possibly I had better cease mixing metaphors.

Sadly, I can't say I thought that last Friday's English Heritage prog showed conservation as being A Good Thing. I can't say anything terribly good about what seems to be happening at Park Hill, Sheffield, much as I would like to, beyond the fact it wasn't bulldozed. I appreciate Urban Splash's desire for a marketable product, but surely conservative repair, not wholesale destruction, should have been rather more to the fore? William Morris, where are you now?

I did think that listing was the right thing to do; I actually find a great deal of twentieth century (and earlier) concrete construction, and its history, interesting; shame EH and DCMS got it so very wrong in refusing to list the equally as architecturally exciting (for Gateshead) and in my humble opinion, although not that of those who exist in the terracotta tower that is EH, iconic 'Get Carter' car park, destined for the wrecking ball.

The reasons for refusing to list are increasingly sounding less than convincing for that rare car park/shopping centre combination (the fact the restaurant never functioned seemed to loom large, that may be because Gateshead folk's idea of eating out was Friday at the chippie, haddock, chips and mushy peas for health) but sense and listing don't seem to go hand in hand. The more you learn about the inner workings of the DCMS and English Heritage listing and delisting lot, the more risible it all becomes. See also the link to SALON and the delisting of the Colin St John Wilson / Arthur Baker house, not an isolated incomprehensible incident I believe, but more on that at some other time.

(It's worth perusing the correspondence released under the FoI Act on the DCMS website relating to the refusal to list the car park. As someone who took some small part in the campaign to try to save it, I say a loud thank you, to that person who is still arguing the toss with the powers that are, and who take not one jot of jobsworth's notice.)

However, what is happening at Park Hill now seems to fly in the face of the listing. I wonder, if faced with a new application to list a building with so much of it comprehensively junked, what EH's recommendation to the Secretary of State would be?

The 'squint test'? What was all that about then? Hell, let's demolish St Paul's but leave the dome? 'Constructive conservation' is all very well, but reducing a building to what is perceived as its important part (in this case the concrete framing, and possibly the more intangible cultural significance) is a dangerous road to meander along.

Sure, the interiors required some refreshing and rethinking, but I watched with growing horror as the carefully considered, subtly coloured and sound brickwork and fenestration of the II* listed building was attacked with hammers and consigned, presumably, to a landfill hole, or worse. Sustainability, anyone? Conservation of the earth's resources? I even recall a whole heap of EH documents on the very subject.

English Heritage’s three-fold responsibility is set out in our Sustainable Development Strategy:
  1. to ensure that the historic environment is recognised as a finite and non-renewable environmental resource in its own right
  2. to ensure that the value of the other environmental capital embodied in the historic environment is not wasted
  3. to ensure that our own activities, actions and advice are fully sustainable
    Our climate change policy forms an important part of this.

    Does one part of EH not ever link with the other parts? This is the same EH, and the same Simon Thurley, currently carrying out a campaign on Conservation Areas (see blog entry:



    Flats and maisonettes. 1957-60 by Sheffield Corporation City Architect's Department under J L Womersley, designed by Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith with F E Nicklin and John Forrester (artist); Ronald Jenkins of Ove Arup and Partners, engineer. Formally opened in 1961 by Hugh Gaitskell. Reinforced concrete frame, partly board marked, with concrete balcony fronts and brick infill in four shades - a progression of purple, terracotta, light red and cream. Continuous flat roof of even height throughout the estate. 995 flats on 17 acres (total site 32 acres) at density of 192 ppa and a unit cost of £2,800 each (total cost £2,158,591). The scheme includes 31 shops, 4 pubs, a laundry boiler house, Garchey refuse station and garages....


    Park Hill is of international importance.


    It seems I wasn't alone, as reported in this week's AJ:

    Shown on Friday night at 9pm, English Heritage is comedy gold - albeit unintentionally so on the part of those filmed - and frankly wasted at a time when most architects are discussing the woes of the recession in the pub.

    This week saw Simon Thurley and his spiffing tweedsters (surprisingly) take on the overhaul of Park Hill, the 1950s brutalist flats in Sheffield, with regeneration darlings Urban Splash. Few come across well - with perhaps the exception of Christophe Egret, who keeps on smiling through the buffonery as the scheme slowly goes awry...

    If you missed it, here's a chance to watch again:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00k89m5/English_Heritage_Romancing_the_Stone/

    It seems also that great minds etc as a reader has posted this comment:

    Taken together with previous weeks offering on Apethorpe Hall (EH as developer), they are classic investigative and unconsciously humorous TV. Particularly liked the squint test applied to a concrete frame when all the subtle colours of brick and fenestration had been just chucked away as if it wasn't part of the original concept. It was also interesting to see the caretaker driving around the streets in the air past what looked like sensitively restored front doors and lots of friendly residents....

    Totally baffling. Conservation Officers throughout the land must have been crying into their half pints watching that. How on earth are they supposed to explain to yer average listed building owner just why they can't rip out original windows to replace with nice, easy to maintain, modern uPVC, and why 'historic fabric' should be treasured?
    Here's the much admired PPG15, and Annexe C:
    http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/142838.pdf
    It's worrying that an update is being prepared. Let's hope Park Hill is not the shape of things to come.
    Good news is that Caius Plinius, Being the inconsequential witterings of a builder-cum-conservation project officer has come out from the lambing shed, and has posted on his blog again:
    http://caiusplinius.blogspot.com/2009/05/quem-pastores.html

    A reminder that the SAVE Liverpool exhibition is now in London at the gallery at Cowcross Street, if you have so far missed it at its previous two venues (one Liverpool, one London) then this is another chance to catch it.
    http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=47

    Triumph, Disaster & Decay from 5 - 22 May at The Gallery, Alan Baxter Associates, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ. OPEN DAY 14 May (9am - 8pm), otherwise by appointment only.
    See also:
    http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/02/world-heritage-who-cares.html
    A reminder also from SPAB Mills' Section, of which some at the Republic are keen supporters, that it is National Mills' Weekend this weekend, May 9th and 10th:

    Good luck, too, Save Dreamland campaign, with the applications for Heritage Lottery and Sea Change funding, the most worthy of causes.

    If anyone wishes to view the latest plans for the Heritage Amusement Park (which includes the II* listed Dreamland cinema, as well as the newly listed Sanger animal cages and the Scenic Railway) and the applications here they are:


    Reminder number three that the hugely historic and rare rides at Pleasure Beach, Blackpool, are not covered by any listing; the Grand National was refused a listing for the most bizarre of reasons in 2000ish, then the Scenic was listed... with similar 'flaws'. Noah's Ark, the finest collection of 'woodies', Hiram Maxim's Flying Machine...


    If Amanda Thompson could do what she did at Southport Pleasureland and bulldoze the Cyclone woodie, and a great deal else besides, (another EH and DCMS cock up meant a last ditch campaign to have it listed was foiled) then I doubt much would stand in her way at Blackpool either if she thought she could make a faster buck.

    Rant mode off, a reminder there is a further episode of jolly japes and restoration comedy at English Heritage Friday evening on TV.

    Back soon.
    Nem
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Monday, 27 April 2009

Too Lidl too late?

The now bulldozed Auld Fowler's HQ - click to enlarge


The Republic computer is throwing a hissy fit. While I'm still able to use it before it goes in for repair, it's in short bursts, so here's a briefish blog for today.

As mentioned in the Independent Republic of the Canongate blog at the weekend,




'Not worth keeping' says Historic Scotland'.

'Historic Scotland tell me what to say, and I'm not disagreeing' says The Minister.

For more history of the campaign to save the building, and further pictures:


'We can issue demolition authority as we please' says East Lothian Council Building Control. And we can ignore what the community in Prestonpans thinks.'We're elected to run their town for them. We might say in our political manifesto that we are going to listen to local communities but in practice that certainly doesn't mean we'll take their unanimous views on board. 'We should not stand in the way if Lidl seeks to maximise the profit from the lands they bought from Coeval in The Pans. The fact they said they would retain the Auld Fowler's HQ when we agreed to their present glass store on the site doesn't mean we hold them to their word.'


Historic Scotland may not have decided that it was worth listing, although many disagree, but surely a handsome building, with interesting and high-quality fixtures and fittings, as can be seen in the picture gallery via the link above, a building cherished by the local community, and now simply bulldozed, in order that these can be built:


What price sustainability, eh Lidl?


Who enjoyed the English Heritage programme on Friday?

Although it pains me to say it, as it could have been a great opportunity, and sad though possibly unsurprising that Dr Thurley came over as a tad too precious, which will simply confirm to yer average viewer that conservation is the preserve of an effete elite (when the Restoration Revisited this week showed it certainly isn't), you have to wonder why he allowed the entire thing in the first place. It was always destined to be a hatchet job, if past docusoaps of this type are anything to judge from.


Apethorpe was portrayed as a Dr T vanity project; the reality is that we have laws and planning policies in this country which are too often not put into operation, and here was a long-standing problem, a house of exceptional quality left neglected and seriously at risk. Repair orders were ignored, and the inexorable march of the long arm of the law meant that in the end the DCMS had no option other than to step in and take it into state ownership.

It was never going to be an easy one, as there is little land, a far from grand access, not really in the most desirable location, and it still requires a vast pot of cash spending on it.

The recent history is a difficult one, but really, a house of this importance did not need to be kept in any sort of institutional use, converted into flats, have 'enabling development' encroaching on it, and I have no problem with what has, in the end, happened.


(Take some of that with a pinch of salt...)


The inspector concluded that none of the developer's proposals would safeguard the hall and the order was confirmed.

If the place has to be mothballed until the right buyer is found, considering the current economic climate, then OK, although I understand it is rumoured that there are a couple of seriously interested buyers in the offing. It may be that the buyer will also want to repay the grant aid spent, but if not, the public will have access for 28 days a year, and a piece of history has been retained, beautifully repaired (with more to do I accept) rather than being the target for yet another 'mystery fire'.

For Apethorpe the movie see here:


Summer 2009 tours, and a great deal more info from English Heritage:


So in this humble opinion, the slighting comments about the insistence of using the correct local Collyweston roofing stone, and making it sound as though using lime plaster and wooden floats conservation barminess, were just cheap shots to make the average TV viewer sneer at the 'waste' of public cash. Is this country's leading heritage organisation supposed to have used concrete tiles and Polyfilla? What's wrong with the correct materials and fine craftsmanship? Or should the Lidl approach - pile 'em high sell 'em cheap and to hell with heritage - be what is required in the new soulless Britain of the 21st century?

Memory Lane 1971 for Auld Fowler's HQ
Those were the days . Auld Fowler's HQ looking every bit the part in 1971 - photograph thanks to Sinclair Macleod, whose family were the last owners of The Scottish Salt Company producing Prestonpans Salt. Handsome looking brewery buildings too. Wonder why all our history was demolished? No sign of Lidl's fine new store.


You do wonder though:




http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/fowlers-briefing-oct-08.pdf

And:

http://www.battleofprestonpans1745.org/heritagetrust/html/news/show_news.asp?newsid=2525

All the excitement is about the double-cross proposed from Lidl and Taylor Wimpey's G2 way back in 2007. They applied then for Planning Consent to East Lothian Council to knock down the Auld Fowler's HQ and build 50+ low cost flats. That's the same Auld Fowler's Building as they successfully argued was an integral design element when they applied for permission to build their new glass supermarket next door - which is incidentally a very fine store inside.

Their proposal to demolish led to:

1. An application by the Arts Festival for Listing which Historic Scotland [HS] rejected on very unsafe grounds indeed, point blank refusing to consider historical significance despite the requirements of the Act;

2. That rejection led to a Petition at Holyrood to reform the way Historic Scotland works, which is still ongoing;

3. Requests to the Scottish Information Commissioner [one upheld and the second ongoing] on how Historic Scotland works when it advises Ministers;

4. An application by 800 signatories [10% of the town's population] for Community Right to Buy the property.N.B. The full story so far is documented @ the Arts Festival website linked here


Nem
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