No 188 June 2026 Consent orders for listed buildings Reviewing the listing process Listing modern buildings Listing Lutyens The listing process in England
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CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 1 www.ihbc.org.uk @IHBCtweet Registered as a charity in England and Wales number 1061593, in Scotland number SC041945, and listed in Northern Ireland Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England number 3333780 Registered Office: Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA Officers President Rebecca Thompson, president@ihbc.org.uk Vice President Torsten Haak, vpresidentth@ihbc.org.uk Chair David McDonald, chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair Lone Le Vay, vchair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary Dave Chetwyn, ihbcsecretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasurer Joanna Saady, treasurer@ihbc.org.uk National Office Director Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk Policy & Membership Executive Officer Fiona Newton, operations@ihbc.org.uk, consultations@ihbc.org.uk Administration Officer Lydia Porter, admin@ihbc.org.uk Education & Outreach Executive Officer Angharad Hart, training@ihbc.org.uk Services and Support Executive Officer Sarah Homer, support@ihbc.org.uk Membership Services Officer Carmen Moran, membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk Professional Services Officer Michael Netter, services@ihbc.org.uk Committee Chairs Policy Roy Lewis, policy@ihbc.org.uk Membership & Ethics Andrew Shepherd, membership@ihbc.org.uk Education Ian Baxter, education@ihbc.org.uk Communications & Outreach Dave Chetwyn, communications@ihbc.org.uk Branch Contacts North north@ihbc.org.uk North West northwest@ihbc.org.uk Yorkshire yorkshire@ihbc.org.uk West Midlands westmids@ihbc.org.uk East Midlands eastmids@ihbc.org.uk South south@ihbc.org.uk South West southwest@ihbc.org.uk East Anglia eastanglia@ihbc.org.uk South East southeast@ihbc.org.uk London london@ihbc.org.uk Scotland scotland@ihbc.org.uk Wales wales@ihbc.org.uk Northern Ireland northernireland@ihbc.org.uk Republic of Ireland republicofireland@ihbc.org.uk Rest of the World overseas@ihbc.org.uk 2 Briefing 3 Letter 4 Out of Context 5 Periodically 9 The writer’s voice 11 Editorial 12 Listing in England: a National Heritage Service Charles O’Brien 15 Reviewing the listing process Matthew Saunders 19 Listing: a view from two places Roger Bowdler 22 Consent orders for listed buildings Charles Smith 25 Piloting a national listed building consent order Nigel Crowe 28 Listing modern buildings Catherine Croft 31 Listing Lutyens Deborah Mays 35 Compiling a register of gardens and other land Jenifer White 38 Protecting unconventional heritage assets Diane Harvey-White 43 Notes from the chair 45 Director’s cut 47 New member profile 48 Inter alia 49 Vox pop 51 Reviews 53 Welcome to new members 54 Products and services 56 Specialist suppliers index
Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Michael Taylor, ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com Editorial Board Matthew Crook, Nigel Crowe, Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews), Deborah Mays, Duncan McCallum, Alison McCandlish (vice chair), Fiona Newton, John Pendlebury, Sheila Stones, Jonathan Taylor, Michael Taylor (chair) Cartoons and illustrations by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2026 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Cathedral Communications (part of Euromedia Associates Limited), 10 Ashfield Road, Chorley, Lancashire PR7 1LJ. Tel: 01747 871717 context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to corporate bodies at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £65.00 Elsewhere £100.00 Context on-line archive Past issues of Context can be viewed on the IHBC website. The archive provides a searchable database and reference for key articles. See www.ihbc.org.uk/page55/context_archive. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. Context themes and copy deadlines Context is published four times a year in March, June, September and December. The next three themes and copy deadlines are: Threatened materials and crafts, September, issue 189 (10 July) Non-themed issue, December, issue 190 (9 October) Regional: North Wales, March 2027, issue 191 (14 January) Please contact Michael Taylor at ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com to discuss any editorial submissions or for information about the Context editorial board. 2 CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 Briefing Cover: The pilot Canal & River Trust draft national listed building consent order covers a variety of types of infrastructure. This cast-iron milepost is on the Trent and Mersey Canal (see page 25). Demeter, Triptolemus and Persephone back at Olympia London It was Demeter, not Britannia The plinth and three lost figures at Olympia London’s Grand Hall entrance have been reinstated. The project has returned the entrance to its original Victorian grandeur, recreating statuary removed in the mid-20th century. DBR was the specialist conservation contractor. The project began with a challenge: identifying the figures that once stood above the Grand Hall. Historic England’s records referred to a ‘seated figure of Britannia’ removed in the 1950s, yet archive photographs revealed a standing central figure flanked by two seated companions. The building’s origins as the National Agricultural Hall were examined. The original 1886 statuary had been executed in Portland stone by a Mr Seale, with modelling directed by William Cave Thomas. The investigation identified the figures as Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture and harvest, standing proudly between Triptolemus, God of sowing and milling, and Persephone, goddess of growth and spring. This trio, often portrayed together in classical mythology, suited a building originally dedicated to agricultural innovation. Master carver Simon Smith and his team carved each figure based on historical photographs and classical references.
CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 3 Forty years on, former staff meet to celebrate the GLC historic buildings division (Photo: Polly Stock Photography) GLC historic buildings reunion Sixty elderly stalwarts of the Greater London Council’s historic buildings division (comprised of historians, archaeologists, architects, surveyors, planners, illustrators and administrators) gathered to mark the 40th anniversary of the abolition of the GLC on 31 March. The GLC was created in hopefilled 1965 and thrived for 21 years until Margaret Thatcher’s government abolished it. The council’s heritage powers for London were both forceful and effective, helping to save swathes of the capital from demolition, including Covent Garden Market and much of the east end. The GLC pioneered rescues of historic theatres and numerous great churches, including Hawksmoor’s Christchurch, Spitalfields. The division was the first and largest metropolitan body devoted to historic buildings and area conservation. Building on the small cadre of expertise inherited from the London County Council, it combined the older topographical Survey of London, the Museum of London’s Sites and Monuments Record (now renamed Historic Environment Record) and the fledgling Heritage of London Trust. It recorded, restored, repaired and maintained numerous landmarks, ranging from York Watergate in Embankment Gardens to venerable almshouses and great country houses such as Kenwood, Ranger’s House and Marble Hill. Statues and monuments, including the South Bank Lion and Cleopatra’s Needle, were also within its purview. In its time and in later diaspora, the division’s staff created many hundreds of publications; developed new county conservation planning services after local government re-organization in the rest of England; and took an important role in founding professional bodies such as the Association of Conservation Officers, which became the IHBC, and the Theatres Trust. As the GLC had a budget twice as large as that of Belgium, a little largesse under both the Conservative and Labour party administrations went a long way, enabling staff to pioneer technical studies of the behaviour of castiron structural columns in fire; testing then current town planning legislation to breaking point; and prominently defending the city against unthinking development. When the GLC was dissolved in 1986, many functions and staff were transferred to English Heritage and resided in its London Region. In 2015, Historic England was created following a restructuring and maintained the statutory functions, while the English Heritage Trust was established to run the propertiesin-care. Please stop it! From Bob Kindred MBE It is concerning to note that some local planning authorities continue to advertise heritage officer posts requiring the processing of conservation area consent, suggesting a serious failure to review the job specification. Would applicants be confident in the council’s own competence when this measure was abolished on 1 October 2013? Bob Kindred has been monitoring the job specifications for conservation officer posts for IHBC since 1998. Letter The writer’s voice Always return From Bob Kindred MBE Prompted by the observation in Context 185 (page 3, ‘New life for Smithsons’ school’) about fundamental failings from the outset of the lauded, Grade II*- listed Hunstanton School by Alison and Peter Smithson, I have recently been re-reading parts of the monumental 736-page Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William J R Curtis. The book was awarded the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion (1984) by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain for making ‘an outstanding contribution to the study and knowledge of architectural history.’ Apparently, it had also been considered one of the five most significant books on architectural history published between 1982 and 1984. I was struck by the seeming failure by Curtis to have visited many of the key buildings he was so lyrical about, including Hunstanton, and Stirling and Gowan’s Leicester University Engineering Building (also Grade II*), where I have had direct experience of rectifying its huge construction faults. One building that almost immediately From ‘Cooling towers are a powerful presence in the landscape – and deserve to be saved’ by Otto Saumarez Smith, Apollo Magazine, 24 February 2020 The Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire is one of the most beautiful places in England. Tourists visit it as the ‘Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution’ and as a Unesco world heritage site. I suspect many of them are surprised to find these historic industrial attractions embedded within such a lushly Arcadian landscape, in which the River Severn carves through steep wooded hills on which dark reddish-brown brick buildings precariously perch. There isn’t a hint of the satanic here; indeed, it is barely urban. Although the focus of visitors is exclusively on 18th- or 19th-century sights, the landscape they experience is in large part a result of a forgotten late 20th-century history. Ironbridge is one of a number of former settlements swallowed up within the sprawling new town of Telford, which was designated in the 1960s to take overspill population from the West Midlands conurbation. The area’s long history of industrial exploitation and subsequent decline had left a blighted hodgepodge of disused mine shafts, derelict pools and abandoned colliery spoil mounds. The new town would transform this unsightly and dangerous mess into what the development corporation called a ‘Forest City’. The landscape plan for Telford harnessed the vigorous forms left by dereliction, merging them with massive projects of earth moulding, tree planting and new grassland. Using its own nursery, the development corporation planted more than five million trees, resulting in approximately 80 sq metres of woodland for every resident of the new city. Telford healed but did not erase the industrial past, as places such as Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale were restored and celebrated as an integral part of the new town project… Visiting Ironbridge for the first time, I clocked that I was in a new town only when I saw a signpost to Silkin Way (Lewis Silkin was the Labour politician most associated with the early new towns). Telford gave thousands of people a decent place to live, and was an astonishingly ambitious and ecologically sophisticated response to deindustrialising landscapes, but these achievements are forgotten because they are largely invisible. You can’t see the new town for the trees.
4 CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 ‘I STOOD on Bond Street over the weekend looking up at the remnants of Fenwick – that beautiful classical facade suspended on a cradle of temporary steel, the building behind it completely gone – and felt something I wasn’t expecting. Not outrage. Melancholy. ‘This is facadism. And I’ve always had mixed feelings about it. What it keeps is the surface. The ornament without the structure. The face without the building that gave it meaning… ‘Facadism doesn’t feel like preservation. It feels like the construction of a false memory.’ Architect Dominic Chapman writing on LinkedIn ‘NO PLAINTIFF can remember an instance in which so many national and regional organisations have coalesced to defend a single historic building and its grounds, reflecting both the Kennedy Center’s significance and the breadth of concern that the administration’s approach could weaken longstanding federal protections for historic sites nationwide.’ A coalition of conservationists commenting on their lawsuit which contends that the Trump administration must adhere to the processes in the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Protection Act before proceeding with planned renovations to the Kennedy Center ‘THE development of the multiplex represents a relatively late stage in its wider evolution and is not of national significance. As a building type and way of enjoying entertainment, the multiplex was pioneered in the United States rather than Britain.’ Historic England explaining its decision to grant immunity from listing to The Point, a 1980s BDP-designed landmark in Milton Keynes ‘LONDON’S brutalist Southbank Centre has been listed at Grade-II by Historic England. The centre itself is visited by around 3.4 million visitors a year. Modernist aficionados are cock-a-hoop. This, they claim, is evidence that Britain now loves brutalism… ‘This is not a serious argument. First, the reason the Southbank Centre has been listed is for its architectural and historic significance, not any measure of popularity. British buildings are listed either for their architectural or historic interest. While the “appearance of a building… is often a key consideration in listing”, it is not necessarily so. Public popularity (sadly) is irrelevant… ‘The modernist mafia seized their moment with judicious aplomb. Well done them in persuading the government to list a loveless lump.’ Nicholas Boys Smith of Create Streets writing in The Critic ‘THIS WEEK [the Southbank Centre] was finally listed Grade II, the UK’s designation for a structure of “special architectural or historic interest”, now protected from the kinds of changes and ill-considered additions that have been proposed for it for decades. It really is about time. This concrete cultural complex, which takes in the Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, along with acres of public space and riverside terraces, is the apex of British brutalism… ‘It was not designed by a bigname architect but by a local council designer, Norman Engleback of the London County Council. With his Edwardian beard and twirling moustache, floppy hair and pipe, Engleback was a pivotal figure in London architecture. He travelled widely in Europe to look at other new concert halls in Germany, Switzerland and Italy and created something understated, elegant and effective, which improved on the Festival Hall’s acoustics… ‘The buildings are intriguing: chunky, massive, strange and creating a memorable silhouette. It looks entirely different from wherever you stand, the ribbon window of the Hayward Gallery like a sinister fortress, yet standing on spindly concrete legs… The heavy concrete treasure chest of the Queen Elizabeth Hall (1967), with its beautiful, carefully wrought interior of mushroom columns and triangular coffers and a warm, timber-lined auditorium with concrete balconies and boxes, offers a softer, more seductive brutalism. ‘The sheer concrete mass of the exterior, once so hated, was functional, protection against the noise; the traffic, the truck deliveries, the car park and the helicopter route along the river… ‘For decades there have been attempts to tame or contain this concrete beast... All have failed and this tough brute of a building has outlived every one.’ Edwin Heathcote writing in the Financial Times ‘THEY’RE GOING to be handcarved, and they’re beautiful, top of the line. They’ll be Corinthian, which is considered the best, most beautiful by far.’ President Trump quoted in the Dezeen website on his determination to replace the Ionic columns on the main portico of the White House.
CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 5 Historic Environment Policy and Practice The latest issue of Historic Environment Policy and Practice (Vol 16, No 4, 2025) features the thorny issue of contested heritage: how it is defined (sometimes having different meanings in different cultures, and to different generations); and how it is interpreted and managed. While Historic England has done some work on this in a secular context in relation to listing (and has provided a checklist to help local authorities deal with legislation and the National Planning Policy Framework), and the Church of England has provided guidance on the ecclesiastical issues, there has been less opportunity to stand back and look at this from a world heritage perspective. The authors of a study from the department of heritage science and technology studies at the Korea National University of Heritage, Young Jae Kim and Byung Wan Kim, have provided a useful structure for an integrated model of heritage interpretation. They compare two cases that examine the practical implications for Unesco policy, in particular paragraph 108 of the 2024 Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. This calls for participatory management strategies that safeguard outstanding universal value. The model contributes to more ethically grounded, inclusive and sustainable heritage practices, redefining heritage sites as spaces for critical engagement, not consensus alone. For those facing the approach to contested heritage issues, this interesting paper is worth tracking down. 6 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 Periodically The Historic Environment In another wide-ranging, 170-page issue of The Historic Environment: policy and practice (Vol 16, No 2, 2025), of particular interest is a paper by Xiaohan Lu of the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. Lu focuses on group value in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, using case studies from the Merchant City, Glasgow. He highlights an issue regarding some properties in the Merchant City not qualifying for listed status in the past but then being protected shortly after they had been restored. This somewhat controversial phenomenon is seen as reflecting tensions inherent in legislation on the one hand with appropriate and sympathetic rehabilitation on the other. The paper defines existing heritage policy applied to some specific cases in order to identify what the associated key concept of group value actually involves, while also noting the limitations of the current listing system. There seems to have been little recent analysis or review where the concept of harmonious or homogeneous context has been applied to townscape, other than to accept it unquestioningly. The paper provides both a theoretical and practical understanding of the opportunities that recognition of group value creates in the adaption of historic buildings. Lu identifies the emergence of the concept of group value from the passing of the Civic Amenities Act 1967, with its shift of focus from individual buildings to a broad-based area approach, looking more widely at the merits inherent in the character and appearance of townscapes. While it became common practice in the last third of the 20th century to define precise sequences of buildings contributing to group value in statutory list descriptions, this is no longer exercised, in order to define the contribution new listings play as part of an existing larger townscape group. As the Glasgow Merchant City is invoked, the relevant regulation in Scotland stems from the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, but only with an indirect legislative exposition of the concept. The recent city block-based adaptations and conversions of buildings in Glasgow, together with sensitive infilling, have received a positive response for their contribution to regeneration, enhanced quality of the public and semi-public realm and the demonstration of economically viable uses for former commercial buildings. The notable contributions to area regeneration have thus raised the perceptions of special architectural or historical interest and its recognition for statutory protection. Lu identifies a widening debate stemming from conflict within the context of innercity regeneration. This is where the redefinition of historic urban spaces can extend the concept of historic area management beyond the principle that preservation is merely maintenance of historic fabric when it may encompass much needed revitalisation. The paper may reinvigorate discussion about mediating change in historic areas, and about whether historic building and area management are about preservation or conservation. When it is the latter, that appears to have become widely accepted for many years, despite not necessarily being reflected in the criteria for statutory protection. Journals with an international remit seem currently to be dominated by papers from China and Turkey, and The Historic Environment seems to be no exception. Merve Akyaziki and Sirma Turgut of the city planning department of Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, present their systematic review of the effectiveness of international cultural heritage law, highlighting the uncertainties and complexities of heritage impact assessment (a term unrelated to that used in UK heritage management) under the 1972 Unesco World Heritage Convention. They explore broader challenges, looking at the subject areas of published papers, their research methods, the number of papers published and their country of origin. The authors conclude that while the integration of Heritage Now Noteworthy in the latest issue of Heritage Now, the newsletter of Historic Buildings and Places (No 14, Spring 2026), is an article by Stephen Schwendel Smith, a partner at Wright and Wright Architects, about the recently completed £40 million refurbishment of the Grade I listed Lambeth Palace.The home of the Archbishops of Canterbury for more than eight centuries, the palace has evolved continuously as a site of worship, hospitality and national ceremony. Last year the Lambeth Palace Library project was concluded: a threeyear refurbishment and renewal guided by the Church of England’s commitment to net zero by 2030. The author outlines the master plan to overhaul the palace’s energy systems to reduce the consumption by 63 per cent, addressing serious risks to the building’s infrastructure and improving accessibility. Completion has coincided with an important shift in leadership of the Church of England, with the new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally being appointed as custodian of the site. The wellillustrated article is of interest for the discussions about master planning, and the complexities resolved by both the architect and contractor. The question of what are the greatest ecclesiastical masterpieces of the arts and crafts movement is often debated. In his thoughtprovoking article, Alex Hamilton references Holy Trinity, Sloane Street (John Dando Sedding and others, 1887–90), which John Betjeman thought was England’s best arts and crafts church, and which he saw as a ‘cathedral’, as a way of acknowledging its ecclesiastical aesthetic supremacy. Hamilton states rather baldly that it is simply big, ritzy, full of delightful objects, and in Chelsea. He feels that a further, slightly overenthusiastic claim could perhaps be made for ES Prior’s imposing St Andrew’s, Roker, Sunderland (1905–07). But Hamilton, author of Arts and Crafts Churches, makes and illustrates a convincing case for Gloucester Cathedral ranking as one of the true masterpieces of arts and crafts. A building of lesser stature, and not well-known but no less worthy of note, is the town hall in Hugh Town on the Isles of Scilly, built in 1889 and listed Grade II. The director of the Isles of Scilly Museum and Cultural Centre, Lydia Bassett, discusses how this heritage asset of great importance to the local community has been brought back to life through a range of funding, including a £4.6 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. HERITAGE NOW The Magazine of Historic Buildings & Places | www.hbap.org.uk NO. 14 (SPRING 2026)
6 CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 Although set in an international context, three other papers are worthy of note. One by Mona S El-Basha of the department of architecture, engineering at the Higher Institute of Engineering and Technology, Alexandria, discusses the integration of archaeological sites into the urban context of historic city centres. The author compares the approaches in Athens and Rome with current conservation and urban planning practices in Egypt, particularly Alexandria. The tensions between policy constraints and shifting practice in the approach to adaptive reuse in Jakarta have some interesting lessons. Extemporising on a Unesco theme, the third paper of interest exposes the tensions between development and antiquity, using the conundrum of ancient Indian heritage sites. There are more than 40 world heritage sites in India and more than 60 on the tentative list, and numerous other sites of cultural heritage importance. Few of these have been systematically documented, nor are their management practices well developed. The well-illustrated paper by four authors at different planning and architecture schools at various Indian universities concludes that, disappointingly, there is much mismanagement, poor planning and inadequate conservation practice, resulting in the loss of heritage identity. They cite the 2,500-year-old Ekamra Kshetra site as typical of those requiring guidelines to formulate policies for both conservation and sustainable management.That is perhaps worth thinking about in relation to long-declared UK conservation areas that have no character appraisal or manage- ment plan. The Construction Historian A modest previously unresearched urban feature of heritage significance will sometimes excite local interest, with investigation leading to synthesising evidence from experts. In The Construction Historian, the magazine of the Construction History Society (No 16,Winter 2025/26), such a case is made by Susan Major in piecing together the story of scoria bricks laid in the back alleys of York, a distinctive feature playing a significant role in the history of that city’s urban landscape. The visually very distinctive paviours appear widely, and are currently being mapped.They are also found elsewhere in northeast England, particularly in parts of County Durham and NorthYorkshire. Scoria bricks or blocks, with a most attractive shiny, silver-blue appearance, were made from slag left over from the iron industry. The author illustrates the charming appearance and ingenious methods of laying (at one stage using clever machinery patented in 1869), and identifies the role of Joseph Woodward (1824–88) in creating this element ofYork’s urban landscape. The author writes that she would be delighted to learn of any other examples surviving in the north of England. This reviewer notes The Construction Historian’s enduring interest in the peculiarities of nail fixings (featured as an issue as long ago as 2013). The latest issue provides numerous examples, the most notable of which relate to selfanchoring nails and variations in Baltic innovations. Several authors cite examples in southern Sweden, northern Germany and Jutland. Some of the many illustrated examples can be dated to as early as c600 CE. Others stretch the chronology of such humble fixing through the 15th century to the late 1870s. A third item of particular note relates to an experiment described as work in progress, to identify the people and skills that were required to make medieval English vaults. The article by Alex Buchanan, Glen Cahilly-Bretzin and Nick Webb is accompanied by highly informative illustrations of the setting out and assembly of the trusses and posts that commonly appear in medieval illustrations of arch centring, and various jointing methods using period-appropriate carpentry methods.This ongoing work, refining the frame designs in trials using locally sourced timbers and axe-hewn framing to provide an invaluable understanding of medieval construction, is being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project is seen as a stepping stone to further cross-sector collaborations to refine the theoretical and practical understanding of historical craftspeople and their practical methods. The project also helps to bridge the divide between the abstract knowledge of historical craft skills and their continuing application among heritage builders. SPAB Magazine In his editorial in the Spring 2026 issue of the SPAB Magazine, SPAB chief executive Matthew Slocombe notes that prospects have not improved regarding the highly contentious issue of VAT on the repair and maintenance of listed buildings, despite a reduced rate looking more possible after Brexit. The chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Conservative MP Dame Caroline Dinenage, acknowledged at a recent hearing that (unsurprisingly) ‘the Treasury is very reluctant’ to address the issue, notwithstanding support from Historic England’s new co-chief executive Emma Squire, based on the economic benefits and international comparisons.
CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 7 The CMS committee seems powerless to help. Faced with the insuperable VAT issue, and despite Historic England’s emphasis on the importance of funding, skills and climate change, it seems that this must tie in with the government’s growth and housing agenda. Labour MP Rupa Huq stated that ‘in an era of build, build, build… this heritage stuff is seen as a bit of a luxury’. The magazine presents an exposition of most uncommon but significant repairs of a small church in Wreay, Cumbria. Originally designed and funded by local landowner Sarah Losh and consecrated in 1842, the church was based on the basilica churches she had seen in northern Italy on her Grand Tour in 1817. It has a simple rectangular nave with a single central aisle and a semi-circular apse contained windows filled with a mosaic of stained glass, some set on thin sheets of alabaster. Alabaster was a favourite material in English medieval and renaissance periods for tombs and effigies but it fell out of use, only to see a revival in the Victorian era. Sources of alabaster in Britain are limited, with the most active beds being in Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, but quarrying and mining has taken place for 400 years around a village less than four miles from the church. The case study illustrates the technical repair issues involved with the glass, and highlights that to maintain the detailing to the standard that the church deserved cost over £80,000, greatly exceeding the budget of a such a small local church community.The work was completed thanks to contributions from donors including the National Churches Trust; the Wolfson Trust; the Benefact Trust; the Worshipful Company of Glaziers; the Vinehill Trust and the Garfield Weston Foundation. Another matter about which it is useful to be aware but not regularly encountered is the question of the impact on historic buildings of swarming honeybees searching for a permanent home. Damage to buildings is most associated with unmanaged colonies. An article by Abigail Lloyd on ‘Uninvited Guests: honeybees and historic buildings’ explains why such buildings prove so attractive; whether bees should be left undisturbed; the danger of spraying bees; and where specialists can undertake live removal. The ideal is to manage a project holistically: from initial surveys and access design, through to ecological compliance, repair using compatible materials and reinstatement of the appropriate fabric. The cost of intervention can be considerable, ranging from several thousand pounds for simple situations to tens of thousands where access is complex or the building is particularly sensitive. Lloyd makes the point that calm, informed decision-making is crucial and what matters is not price alone, but value – avoiding repeat interventions, fabric damage or irreversible mistakes. Where scaffolding is required, this is often best coordinated with other necessary roof repairs, reducing future disruption. Mills News As noted recently, in addition to SPAB Magazine, the society’s mills section produces its own quarterly Mills News. The latest issue (No 186, April 2026) explains that mills are far more than historic structures, being living systems of knowledge, skills and human effort. One informative article deals with the deceptively simple question: how much power does it take to drive a pair of millstones? This is the sort of question that millers of earlier centuries would have answered instinctively but are rarely examined with modern measurement.The current issue reports that experiments show how careful observation and a little instrumentation can illuminate the working of milling machinery, bridging past and present engineering, and reminding us that historic mills were never static monuments. Mill News also writes that the spirit of practical inquiry continues among today’s enthusiasts, who are constantly learning from the mills themselves. Each repair, survey and experiment adds another piece to the puzzle of how these remarkable structures function and have evolved. This is most vividly illustrated in the account of the waterwheel repair at Cornaig Mill on the island of Tiree. This reminds us that the future of milling heritage depends not only preserving the buildings, but also bringing together a community of people who can continue to learn from, work on and champion them. War Memorials Trust Bulletin Intermittently in several of my columns in 2025 I referred to the excellent work of the War Memorials Trust in attempting to identify photos of such memorials in unknown locations, as part of its public engagement programme. The latest edition of the Bulletin (No 107, March 2026) illustrates another nine memorials (one of which is a modernist memorial hall) posted on the website War Memorials Online, the locations of which surprisingly still have not been identified. Past appeals for locational information continue to meet with success, and the trust would be grateful if readers can identity any of this latest batch of mystery memorials. Bob Kindred MBE
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CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 9 The writer’s voice From ‘Adam and Carr’ by Ivan Hall, a paper for the 1992 Georgian Group Symposium ‘Adam in Context’ [The Adams brothers thought that] the Palladians had relied too heavily on the temple architecture of Antiquity whose massiveness of parts was essentially unsuited to the generality of modern domestic architecture. Moreover, the architects and decorative artists of High Renaissance 16th-century Italy had the advantage of seeing more of the decorative painting or stuccowork of Imperial Rome than was extant in the Adams’ own day. Fortunately for posterity, some at least of this decorative work had been recorded with varying degrees of accuracy, and published by P Arringhi, or by Pietro Santo Bartoli, whose numerous volumes were brought out at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. Most notably, an edition was published in Paris in 1757 by the Comte de Caylus, most of whose plates were in full colour. Adam, in his preface, does not dwell too much on the fact that many of the motifs and 29 arrangements that he found the most useful for his purposes were derived from the earliest Christian catacombs of very late Imperial Rome. These catacomb ceilings had survived while those of Pompeii or Herculaneum had not. With few exceptions, the catacomb ceilings – whether painted or stuccoed – were either based upon groined vaults or shallowly domed ceilings, and two distinct patterns emerged in consequence. In the former, the panels or ornament were symmetrical about the groin line; in the latter, the panels were regularly concentric or radial. Where room height permitted and finance was forthcoming, Adam employed shallow segmental groin- or barrel-vaulting. He illustrated one splendid example, the third Drawing Room in Derby House, in The Works, together with others from Syon House, Middlesex, St James’ Square and Kenwood House, Middlesex. When the ceiling had to be flat, the groin lines can still be sensed by the survival of the diagonals and the way in which panels of ornament are turned through right angles in simulation of the vaulted form (as in the Etruscan Room at Derby House, at Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, or in a more complex form, the Long Gallery at Syon). A second group Adam called ‘Mosaic Ceilings’, essentially an overall pattern of repeated motifs inside a regular grid of squares, hexagons or octagons. In The Works he illustrates one for 20 St James’ Square, and another was intended for Burton Constable, Yorkshire. They are derived from the coffering patterns of the Basilica of Maxentius, but Roman paintings of similar character also exist. Typically, the Adam version has incomplete elements on the perimeter, an effective psychological device that allows the viewer to ‘complete’ the motif and, in so doing, to enlarge the apparent size of the room. In published form, one may cite Desgodetz’s plate of the coffered barrel vault of the Basilica of Maxentius, in Robert Adam’s Roman inspiration (opposite) The ceiling of the Gallery at Harewood House, Yorkshire, by Robert Adam (Photo: Daderot, Wikimedia) which some elements are cut down almost to nothing. A much more elaborate version of the system survives at Newby Hall, Yorkshire, in the former dining room, for there the major octagons flank an oval centrepiece. Four smaller square coffers set diagonally link either with the oval, or the two octagons, but their counterparts at the ends of the ceiling are cut down to less than half size. Because this would have too greatly curtailed the paterae that they enclose, these are scaled down even more. Finally, the longer side panels have their inner edges curved or straight, thus echoing the central shapes they frame. Nothing illustrates better Adam’s ingenuity in setting out a ceiling, whilst each main and subsidiary panel encloses ornament different from that of its neighbour. This is in accordance with another Adam tenet, that through alternating ornament – whether major or minor – the eye is constantly entertained, a detail overlooked by most of his many so-called imitators. Ivan Hall (1933–2026), who died in March, was a leading expert on Georgian architecture. He was the author of John Carr of York, Collected Essays; and co-author of Historic Beverley and Georgian Hull. He was a historic buildings officer at English Heritage in London and a teacher at schools of architecture, and he played a pivotal role in saving the historic centres of Hull and Beverley from demolition in the 1960s and 70s.
CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 11 THE LISTING PROCESS IN ENGLAND Editorial Enriching and enhancing Where are we with listing in England? Steady as she goes, perhaps. The government sees the point of listing (even the South Bank Centre has been listed at last), understands that the economic value of heritage is consistent with a desire for economic growth, but is struggling with judgments that need to be made about heritage in a net zero economy. We have Historic England’s Missing Pieces Project crowdsourcing initiative, formerly known as Enriching the List, drawing on the knowledge of enthusiasts, owners and local historians about why a place matters to people. Meanwhile, individual cases brought to the attention of Historic England can lead to a limited process of amending official list entries (although there will be a charge where they fall outside one of HE’s three stated criteria). There is a long way to go. Some of the listings that conclude with the words ‘interior not inspected’ are 40 years old, and no one has asked to inspect them (better to inform the owner and the planning officer) in those four decades. And the many buildings that are listable, but not listed, face a real threat, especially when owned by a local planning authority which knows that it would not need the secretary of state’s permission to demolish. We may miss the heroic days when in 1973 environment secretary Geoffrey Rippon saved London’s Covent Garden from being demolished by spotlisting 250 buildings overnight; or when Michael Heseltine, in the same job, responded to the public outcry over the demolition of the Firestone Factory by initiating a four-year Accelerated Resurvey, leading to some 140,000 buildings being added to the National Heritage List for England after 1982. Context last focused an issue on the theme of listing in 2009 (‘Sixty years of listing’, Context 112, November). Among the highlights of that issue was Carole Ryan, who was recruited as a listing investigator in 1968, recalling the original listing survey. They were a tough bunch. Ryan remembered the first chief investigator, Stanley Garton, who had an ancient car with a heating system that did not work, driving with a lit oil stove in the back. Kevin McCloud’s current Channel 4 series Listed Britain is not the first TV examination of listing. Another of the early investigators is the subject of a video that is available online (a 1972 episode of the BBC documentary series Look Stranger, titled ‘The Investigator’, www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZI3e3WS8mFM). Mary Davies had wanted to become an architect; was told that women did not do that; eventually trained in architectural history; and after working with Nikolaus Pevsner took on the job of covering the north of England as a listing investigator, travelling in a caravan in the summer months and writing up during the winter. Watch it and admire the pioneers; read this issue to find out where listing in England is now. We will be focusing on the listing process in the other home nations in future issues. Dorman Long tower, Middlesbrough (1955–56), was demolished after Historic England’s listing recommendation was overturned by the minister. See Catherine Croft’s article on page 28 (Photo: Simon Phipps)
12 CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 CHARLES O’BRIEN Listing in England: a National Heritage Service Apart from the NHS, it is hard to think of any other legacy of the postwar government that remains essentially recognisable in its intent, purpose and method of delivery. Henry’s Castle near Kendal in Cumbria dates back to the 14th or 15th century. Too small to be a fortified farmhouse, its hand-finished oak roof and heated first floor mark it out as a high-status building of real significance. After falling into disrepair, it was sensitively restored in 2025 by the Lake District National Park, and listed (at Grade II*) only this year. (Photo: Historic England Archive) Listing – the designation of buildings possessing special architectural or historic interest – will turn 80 in 2027. It has proved to be perhaps the most enduring and successful element of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 (though strictly speaking listing has earlier roots than the Act). Apart from the National Health Service, it is hard to think of any other legacy of the postwar government that remains essentially recognisable in its intent, purpose and method of delivery. Historic England has a regionalised structure but listing is a national service, fulfilling our statutory requirement to provide independent advice to the DCMS, from whom the endto-end administration of the listing process passed in 2005. In preparing our advice we are governed by the department’s Principles of Selection (published on the DCMS website) for defining special architectural or historic interest by period. There are five small teams of advisers, the largest of these in London and South-East, broadly reflective of the proportion of casework received annually.The term ‘listing’ is sometimes (including in this article) used as a catch-all for the different designation types included on the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) and which each team is required to cover in its work: namely scheduling of ancient monuments (the oldest type of designation, preceding listing by decades), and registration of historic parks and gardens and battlefields. Only marine is handled by a separate, specialised national team. Each year Historic England receives approximately 1,000 applications (across all the designation types). For listing these are predominantly for new listings, amendments and removals. Typically this results in about 220 recommendations to list. A proportion of cases are turned down as they pass through the initial validation stage – when applications must be tested to ensure that they meet the published criteria of threat and/or potential, or may belong to a category which we have identified for prioritisation as part of an internal project. Cases taken to full assessment will customarily require a site visit, research and drafting of a factual report, including a proposed list entry.This is circulated for consultation with the applicant, owner, local planning authority and other interested parties. The consultation is an important stage that has, surprisingly, only existed since 2009, and notifcation of owners was only introduced a few years before. Depending on the date period or type of asset, it is usual to consult one or more of the amenity societies for their view. A series of Selection Guides, available via the Historic England website, not only helps advisers to provide a historical context for a variety of building types and considerations for identifying ‘special interest’ for the DCMS but also gives applicants a helpful steer when preparing their application. Once complete, the advice is subject to quality control at regional and central level for national consistency, and submitted to the DCMS. It is the latter which lists (or not); we advise. The greater proportion of the casework we assess is reactive. This is important because, even as a spry septuagenarian, the list has one or two limitations. We grapple still with the odd prejudices and myopia of past surveys to address geographical and typological weaknesses in the list, which have resulted in some places and areas or whole types of building being unfairly represented. An open and transparent application process allows the public, local authorities and societies to act when they become aware of a potential threat to individual sites. Even after eight decades, this continues to produce surprises. In March of this year, Henry’s
CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 13 INFRASTRUCTURE THE LISTING PROCESS IN ENGLAND The hall of King Edward VI School for Girls, Handsworth, Birmingham, designed by Philip Chatwin (Photo: Historic England Archive) Castle, a late medieval dwelling (in character similar to a bastle or fortified farmhouse) in the wild fastness of the Lake District National Park was added to the list at Grade II*. This provided a forceful but pleasant reminder that in what may feel like a densely built country there really are places that the listers have never been, and where discoveries remain to be made. And the listing of the former Girls School at Handsworth (1908–11) at Grade II* shows that sometimes very fine buildings of ‘more than special interest’ are hiding in plain sight. Nevertheless, listing is most effective (and our resources best utilised) when conducted strategically and informed by research. Since the conclusion of the great area surveys in the last decades of the last century, listing has therefore sought opportunities to work on a thematic or project basis, whether by building type, period or even architectural movement. The value of this process was demonstrated by the research programme into postwar buildings of every kind, starting in the 1990s, and confirmed by major national initiatives such as the centenary of the first world war, which led to the designation of thousands of war memorials alone. Elsewhere we can do this through place-based working such as the heritage action zones, in which listing (and especially amendment and updating of listings) can play an important and valuable role in the management of change. Since last year, listing teams have contributed to a designation programme (for ease referred to as a Listing Workplan), that will last for five years and enables projects of varied scale and extent to be proposed, adopted and delivered. Some of these will be specific to priorities in a single region, others to cross-regional projects or those with a truly national focus. In time, this will help achieve a more equitable balance between the reactive and strategic. One priority is addressing some of the socalled ‘old county numbers’ (OCNs), representing some of the oldest schedulings on the NHLE. These present a particular problem in many places where the absence of any information attached to the scheduling entry leaves owners, custodians and planners in the dark not only about what it is, but even where it is and what the designation might cover. There are far too many OCNs to address individually, and the majority present no trouble. However, it is worthwhile prioritising those which fall in areas of sensitivity (such as city walls), which if left unaddressed might pose distinct challenges to planning in the future, by providing the description and mapping so badly needed. It is not all about what is on land. Our tidal, intertidal and coastal zones are places of great sensitivity, and it is particularly gratifying to see the enthusiasm and interest in additions to the list of protected wrecks. Marine is an area of designation that has an important and beneficial relationship with volunteer divers and team members (over 200 nationally) who, operating under diving licences, identify, suggest designation and monitor wrecks. In this century, list entries have developed in
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