Thread by @heritage_lizzie

Good morning from an exciting day ahead celebrating architectural heritage from 1975 to 2025 & ahead to 2075. Hosted by @HTF_ @Historic_Houses @SAVEtoReuse with @ArchHFund Europa Nostra UK @KingsFdn & @Heritage_NGOs - our morning kicks off with Dan Cruickshank. 🧵

Dan says 1975 was an astonishing year for conservation. Council of Europe statement & @SAVEtoReuse report on state of architecture. There were student led riots demonstrating against politics & the established order, big business, big development. General strike. Age of protest.

People mobilised around things they believed was right. This included buildings & places. Public support crucial in unlocking change. Battle to save Covent Garden. Both market & the working communities. Protests on streets. Success. Buildings are able to adapt. Look at it now.

In Paris, there were similar battles & not always successful. Age of new shopping malls. Sites overdeveloped. 1973 “The Sack of Bath”. 1975 the @V_and_A exhibition on the Destruction of the English Country House. Use of statistics & emotive campaigns grabbing attention.

The @SAVEtoReuse report. SAVE partly founded in response to the European Architectural Heritage Year. A warning - 1975 - do not be fooled into thinking any battle was over. Also Spitalfields Historic Trust this year. Students occupying threatened Georgian buildings.

Things have now changed - then it was protest & occupation. Legal frameworks changed but we still need to grapple with market forces pushing inappropriate development. E.g. Liverpool Street Station. This was a hotel in Victoria Street being demolished. SAVE created a threat list.

People reacted more back then to press releases about loss. Novel, unexpected. Led to publicity. 182 buildings of special interest demolished in the first 6 months of 1975. 10k listed buildings set to be demolished by 2000. Town centres losing their hearts. Historic Houses. Piers

Back then - not just to protest but for practical solutions. Time has changed but many points remain. New times call for new methods & approaches. Problems and issues haven’t really changed says Dan. Look at this tax case for buildings open to the public.

Lots of current live points here 50 years on. “Abolish VAT on repairs & maintenance” anybody?

Has activism been constrained by the formalisation of the planning & protection systems? Have to interact with systems in particular way to be heard. A big role for professional heritage campaign orgs who need to operate in the real world achieving balance says @Henrietta_arch

Our second session with @InsallArch @KingsFdn @Ben_CowellDG @gilliandarley - Dorian Proudfoot kicks off the session looking at the Chester Report (Bath, Chichester & York also looked at at the time). What was the future for historic towns? Realistic & affordable way?

1960s Proper surveying & assessment of conservation needs. Proposals for Govt of legislation improvements to support conservation. Phased programmes of action. The draw of successful work to encourage others to follow. Proper fiscal & funding incentives offered. Innovative reuse.

Community engagement. What makes a place and buildings special? Stakeholders invested time & money through understanding tangible steps to achieve the vision for place. Ongoing now - e.g. cathedral projects & reinhabiting space above The Rows. People back to high streets.

Plays out elsewhere e.g. inspirational, tangible, community involved approaches at @Wentworth_House

Next up @Ben_CowellDG looking at challenge to country houses at the time. Deliberately designed V&A exhibition on the destruction of the Country House 1975 connected to the Architectural Heritage Year. 1973 @Historic_Houses founded. 1972-1974 Cornforth Report

Roy Strong’s vision for the exhibition. Would look like a basilica. Bleak unpacking of the situation. In the choir they would be sent off with a call to action via the bookshop. Hall of lost houses. Power of images. Audio visual experience. Tumbling masonry with audio of loss.

Politically sensitive time. Launched in the wake of an election. Labour had plans for wealth taxes. Had big impact. Public drive to save private houses. Huge petition against wealth taxes.

Biggest petition to date. Wealth tax wasn’t introduced. What does this mean for the power of jeopardy? How do we keep raising the flag around change that jeopardises private owners’ ability to deliver the public benefits of heritage protection? Inheritance tax challenges v live.

Next up - @gilliandarley on reasons to be cheerful! Here’s a photo she took of Saltaire in the 1970s & now. Nobody knew what to do with Saltaire. She had written a book about planned villages. Shift in 50 years. The way in which we look at what needs to be saved.

2001 Saltaire & New Lanark got their World Heritage designations. Gracehill Moravian Community next. Saltaire - education, community, shops. Serving public need.

Here’s Hockney displayed in the wonderful exhibition spaces at Salts Mill

BUT then not far away you have the hugely important Temple Works which is still in such need of care. Area is branded as the Temple Area but the asset itself is still in jeopardy at the heart of any plan. Reasons still to be active!

The notion of what you can do with buildings and how they have moved, through restoration, from jeopardy to buildings that communities are proud of is increasingly proven…

Q & A session. How has the understanding of what matters & should be ‘saved’ changed? Mix of politics & local. Originally owner led but later local government ideas about which places should be a catalyst. Now national political decisions about where the money goes.

Ben Cowell notes the importance of public private partnership. People still want to visit. Huge interest. Young people seeking an authentic experience of heritage evidenced in new @Historic_Houses report historichouses.org/gen-z-sees-his…

Ben talks about some tax changes in the 70s. Conditional Exemption saved over 300 houses. Changes to wedding laws have saved these places by allowing them to be successful financially.

Dorian notes that getting funding for the big projects is one thing but the importance of getting funding for smaller ongoing maintenance is critical. CRF saved sites. Places like @ChawtonHouse having to look to new & inventive forms of funding to support ongoing activities.

Sarah from @heritageopenday notes that in their festival people are fascinated by day to day maintenance & ‘mundane’ activities. When you engage people with this, they want to be more involved in supporting. Dorian notes the connection to the problems we have with skills pipeline

Communities getting involved helps get engagement and buy in but also helps reduce the cost of these activities. Eg volunteer forces at @Wentworth_House

Funding for the stitch in time, ongoing activities is critical to avoid bigger costs later.

Conservation area legislation has made real difference. Tours & engagement behind these places are fascinating & people are interested. Public funding is crucial but there will never be enough. Lottery transformative. But not available to all. VAT issue more urgent than ever.

Digital, filming, techniques to engage. We need to move and grow with the public to keep presenting our case. Developers are also catching up and moving into our space. Need to be ahead of danger of ‘heritage washing’. More on the next 50 years this afternoon…

I kicked off the afternoon with a summary of the morning & look back through last 50 years with a look ahead to the next 50. Shifts from intrinsic to instrumental, protest to professionalisation & process, growing environmental awareness, & the interplay between public & private

Themes of environment, adaptive reuse, embracing and managing change. Heritage as public policy good - health, diversity, international, supporting growth & creativity. We have so much to offer in this space.

We are now thinking through the developer’s perspective with Peter Mitchell of Gascoyne Estates. Adaptive reuse, ways to engage & incentivise. Importance of recognising that lots of developers want to do the right thing & working with them.

Some practical areas that help good design to happen that build on & respect the local vernacular.

Tyler Goodwin of Seaforth Land Holdings says it is critical that heritage advocates get better at financial fluency. There are both ethical & unethical developers & we need to speak the language & fully understand issues. Also important - the carrot rather than stick. Engage.

Your mission is to get better engagement with developers, with community & see investment. This isn’t Nimbyism. Not weaponising preservation. Considering compromise, engagement. Maintain credibility. Also avoid weaponising sustainability & carbon when sites really aren’t viable.

We can make a better case for the return on investment that comes from making the right choices for certain buildings. Our sector is great at mobilising the brightest of the development industry. We need to do more problem solving to help unlock problems to achieve compromise.

Points coming out - the need for more analysts who can speak the language & understand & run models. Also the long game of connection siloed parts of development to get everyone considering a sustainable solution that actually works.

Next up @kwilsonlee of @ArchHFund looking ahead for next 50 years. Some great examples of revitalisation of place through regeneration e.g. valley heritage. But it’s not just about heritage. It’s about social & community goods. Need for trade offs. E.g. future of rural churches.

Partnering & working collaboratively. We could save more if we meet the needs of others around buildings. Heritage as the original creative industry & arena & muse of creativity as noted by @heritage_lizzie but @kwilsonlee says yes & also they are the original hubs of community.

@kwilsonlee These are complex projects. Old buildings have seen change and need to adapt to future change to give them meaningful use in the the future. Groups need support eg through @ArchHFund to know how to do this. We also need to champion models for reuse. What works?

Let’s not lose heritage by failing to think creatively & adapting to need and future use says @kwilsonlee “Proactive Realism”

Next @KingsFdn Sarah Robinson talks about the legacy of PRT & current projects for regeneration & community use.

The role of local intangible heritage connections in how people care about the future of buildings that are in their localities, should we broaden the language we use when we think about significance in embodying a pride of place? Future skills agenda also v important.

Building craft programme. Students v climate focused. Understand how traditional materials & techniques can be used on a range of projects inc. retrofit projects. Future proofing our training provision.

Embracing the power of local and regional in this skills & place based agenda. Resilience built locally.

The final section is looking from the perspective of policy making & @nationaltrust Ingrid Samuel talks about the NT’s current approach to management & change. Full audit of coastline. By 2055 well over 100 sites vulnerable. Deliberate plans to manage change eg river realignment.

Some of this will be managed through retrofit. Rationalising & using buildings differently. Switch to renewable energy on estates. Conservation for best collection care and buildings that can be used by people. But there are balances to be made. Impacts on sites/settings.

Respect for heritage NT looks after, communities that love it, need for adaptation to meet challenges, evolution around future uses. Policy reframing of conservation as future facing & future making. How best to carry value into sustainable future. Caring for people + things.

How do we make these decisions & who is involved. Inclusivity, people, community good. Governments back the builders not the blockers. Opportunity here. 670k homes could be created from expiating buildings - retrofit & adaptive reuse. A long way to Labour’s homes target.

Focus on reducing friction or congestion in the system to smooth the way for confident and effective change. Letting go a little, enabling & supporting effective & appropriate change. 80% people think heritage makes their area better. nationaltrust.org.uk/services/media…

Compounding of issues. Urgent maintenance at risk. Funding significant concern. LA funding hitting less affluent areas hard. If our aim is to use the heritage we care for as a building block for a better and more inclusive future we need to get better at working collaboratively.

The @HistEnvForum forthcoming Heritage Sector Resilience Plan will be important part of this. As is the @nationaltrust own 50 yr strategy. We can’t achieve the big change needed alone as organisations. Bold change, ideas, rewiring the sector. Working together for the future.

Finally @Henrietta_arch on interventions making a huge difference from Liverpool Streets to Wentworth Woodhouse to Smithfield at the heart of a new cultural quarter for London. Energy case. M&S, Orchard Street. Growing redundant buildings issue. Reuse & heritage interlinked.

We are dealing with planning policy. The policy & NPPF need to be right to help us get it right on the ground. Alignment needed between climate obligations & planning. Housing agenda could conflict with net zero obligations if we don’t incentivise reuse.

We need a strong presumption to reuse in the NPPF. Need to measure embodied carbon as well as operational use. Need national policy. Permitted development rights need review - especially around demolition - lead to inferior schemes. VAT 50 years on. We need a level playing field.

But we are seeing boroughs come forward with good reuse proposals. Need for well resource & skilled planning officers. Unit delivery - national bodies should place brownfield & reuse at the heart of neighbourhood strategies. Building around repurposed existing buildings.

There should be incentives for good behaviours. Tax reliefs, lower business rates, VAT reduction, quicker planning agreements. Newton Abbot evicting people to demolish & clear a site to get developers to build new on the site devoid of local connection. bbc.com/news/articles/…

Sector can tangibly focus on why buildings matter to people. Value that focuses just on fabric misses the embodied memory & stories. We need to get better at storytelling & risk if this is ripped away. Need evidence of economic benefits of creating high quality places.

How do we spread word of this +ve agenda, comfortable with change. Taking people with us. Central, local govt, working with communities to do real stuff. Relationships with great developers. Shared understanding for future. Practical relationships. Collective power to sea change.

Great discussion throughout the day. Lots of agreement. @sarajcrofts sums up & reminds us about the importance of continued conversation across Europe. We are still part of the Council of Europe. Working across national borders to find solutions.

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