No 189 September 2026 Stone, thatch, cob, lime and bellmaking Threatened materials and crafts
age | Commercial | Ecclesiastical | Ed www.pierra.co.uk Unit G34–G36, Crown House, Home Gardens, Dartford DA1 1DZ Tel: 01322 556691 Email: enquiries@pierra.co.uk Follow us on @PierraRLtd pierra-restoration-ltd pierraltd Heritage | Commercial | Ecclesiastical | Education www.pierra.co.uk Unit G34–G36, Crown House, Home Gardens, Dartford DA1 1DZ Tel: 01322 556691 Email: enquiries@pierra.co.uk Follow us on @PierraRLtd pierra-restoration-ltd pierraltd Heritage | Commercial | Ecclesiastical | Education www.pierra.co.uk Unit G34-36, Crown House, Home Gardens, Dartford, DA1 1DZ Tel: 01322 556691 Follow us on @PierraRLtd pierra-restoration-ltd pierraltd
CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 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 Strategic Planning & Delivery Executive Officer, Rebecca Whewell, r.whewell@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 5 Out of Context 6 Periodically 9 The writer’s voice 10 Law and policy 13 Letters 15 Editorial 16 Horsham roofing stone Matthew Slocombe 21 The right stone ClaraWillett 24 Thatching straw production Jenny Chesher 27 Thatch spars for a sustainable tradition Sally Stradling 30 Saving a bell foundry and its skills David Potter 32 Cob, lime and the skills gap Jack Henderson 36 Moving and conserving Manchester Cenotaph Stephen Levrant 39 Murals and the heritage dilemma Duncan Marks 44 Notes from the chair 45 Director’s cut 47 New member profile 48 Inter alia 49 Vox pop 50 Reviews 54 Products and services 56 Specialist suppliers index
Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Alison McCandlish, ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com Editorial Board Matthew Crook, Nigel Crowe, Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews), Deborah Mays, Duncan McCallum, Alison McCandlish (chair), John Pendlebury, Sheila Stones, Jonathan Taylor, Rebecca Whewell 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), Suite 24, Railway House, Railway Road, Chorley, Lancashire PR6 0HW. 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: Non-themed issue, December, issue 190 (9 October) Regional: North Wales, March 2027, issue 191 (14 January) Local lists, June 2027, issue 192 (15 April) Please contact Alison McCandlish at ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com to discuss any editorial submissions or for information about the Context editorial board. 2 CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 Briefing Cover: The National Trust drew on a wide range of traditional skills and materials in its recent major restoration of Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire. (Photo: Michael D Beckwith, Wikimedia) Working in Recclesia’s Manchester studio in gloves to avoid direct contact with lead cames (Photo: Recclesia) Proposals by the Health and Safety Executive to reduce maximum allowable lead levels in blood threaten the traditional use of lead in roofing and the repair of historic leadwork. Under the Control of Lead at Work (CLAW) Regulations 2002, workers handling lead are subject to regular blood tests to monitor the amount of lead in the bloodstream, with those exceeding existing thresholds suspended from work. The HSE proposes to reduce the limit from 60 micrograms per decilitre to 30 in October 2026, and to 15 in October 2028. The new limits would make legal compliance far more challenging for contractors, and might prevent experienced craftspeople from working. This could have a severe impact on the conservation of lead roofs, leaded-light windows and ornamental leadwork. The rich heritage of leadwork is already under threat from lead theft and skills shortages. Taking experienced craftspeople out of work would make existing skills shortages even more acute, and would deter people from taking up the craft. The HSE conducted an informal consultation in 2025, inviting industry stakeholders to share their views through an online survey that closed in June. The findings have yet to be published. The British Society of Master Glass Painters believes that in many cases reaching the new standard would be unachievable, even with best-practice health and safety measures in place. Experienced workers would be hit hard as it takes many years to reduce the detectable lead levels in blood. At a time when traditional stained glass window making for historic buildings is on the red list of endangered crafts due to lack of education and commission opportunities, ageing practitioners and rising costs of materials, the proposals could be catastrophic, the society says. SPAB has called for the regulations to protect but not unduly constrain leadworking practitioners working in building conservation. ‘A proportionate, risk-based framework would be far preferable than broad-brush controls,’ SPAB says. ‘This would encourage reasonable, practical changes to reduce lead exposure while allowing practitioners to make informed decisions…. It may not be possible to remove all risks from working with lead, but if less disruptive opportunities exist to create safer working environments,… these should be exhausted before resorting to more limiting controls.’ Award for Hebron rehabilitation John Pendlebury writes: The World Habitat Awards are annual global housing awards, running since 1985, that ‘recognise and highlight innovative, outstanding and sometimes revolutionary housing ideas, projects and programmes’, divided between the global north and global south. Awards can be made at bronze, silver or gold, with the usual practice to give two gold awards a year, one in the south and one in the north. Occasionally the nominated schemes that need to be assessed can also be considered as Alarm over HSE review’s potential impact on leadwork skills
CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 3 Traditional stone buildings in Hebron have been rehabilitated, enabling families to return. (Photo: Hebron Rehabilitation Committee) The Custom House (Photo: Dhowes9, Wikimedia) Blue Stoops in Kensington, London, has won the award for the best conversion of a building to pub use in the CAMRA Pub Design Awards, held in conjunction with Historic England. The new pub is a conversion of the former Kensington Wine Rooms. conservation programmes. This was the case with the 2026 gold award-winning scheme, Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, for a programme that had, unusually, previously won an award in 2013 as Hebron Old City Rehabilitation Programme. Few readers will have experienced trying to do conservation in as difficult a context as this. Hebron’s Old City, in the southern West Bank, is a place of major cultural and historic importance, inscribed a world heritage site in 2017 and simultaneously added to the list of world heritage in danger. However, from the 20th century onwards, thousands of Palestinian residents have been forced to leave, under a complex set of interrelated pressures. Many families who legally own property were displaced, while vacant buildings deteriorated and became vulnerable to illegal occupation. This erosion of housing weakened local economic life and everyday community activity. In response, the Hebron Rehabilitation Project has repaired and restored historic buildings, returning them to use as safe, legally occupied homes, schools and business premises. Since the previous award in 2013 more than 1,400 traditional stone buildings have been rehabilitated, prevent further deterioration and illegal settlement while rebuilding everyday life in the Old City. Enquiry by Design The Georgian Group and the King’s Foundation have worked collaboratively to prepare guidance on managing complex heritage applications through the Enquiry by Design process. The publication draws on the organisations’ shared experience of the redevelopment proposals for Custom House in the City of London. Both organisations were closely involved in the project following the refusal of earlier proposals for the building, in which the enabling families to return, and helping stabilise areas that had been left empty and at risk. The project takes a holistic approach, closely linking housing, heritage, legal protection and community wellbeing. Buildings are restored using traditional materials and techniques, with modern utilities and features carefully added. Legal verification of ownership, safeguarding measures and ongoing maintenance help ensure homes remain occupied over the long term. Housing is not delivered in isolation. Alongside residential buildings, the project restores streets, markets, and public spaces, and supports small businesses and local services. By keeping homes lived in and maintained, it helps
4 CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 Georgian Group appeared as a Rule 6 Party at the 2022 public inquiry. Following a change in ownership, a fundamentally different approach was adopted, centred on an Enquiry by Design process developed and facilitated by the King’s Foundation, with the Georgian Group playing an active role throughout. The process helped establish a shared understanding of the building’s significance, and the opportunities and constraints associated with its adaptation before formal design proposals were developed. Applications for listed building consent and planning permission for the revised scheme were subsequently approved in 2025. Balancing Harm and Benefit: a decision-making framework for heritage applications can be viewed at https://kings-foundation.org/ resources Landscape of Bath A new, permanent feature garden will be installed at the museum No 1 Royal Crescent later on this year. The Contemporary Georgian Garden will include a new stone bench for people to enjoy the view of both the garden and the gentle curve of the Royal Crescent. The installation will transform the currently underused courtyard into a pocket ‘landscape of Bath’, using container planting inspired by Charles Babington’s Flora Bathoniensis, published in 1834. Designed in collaboration with landscape architects Grant Associates, the garden will form part of the museum’s main visitor route, introducing a new narrative around plant species native to the Bath landscape, as recorded by Babington. As well as being a new part of the museum, the garden will demonstrate the potential for city greening as action on the climate and nature emergency. Royal Institution cuts carbon The Royal Institution is on track to achieve a 42 per cent reduction in carbon emissions at its Grade I listed Georgian building. Among other things, it has installed air source heat pumps to ensure only electricity is used to run the very building where Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction; installed a new intelligent building management system that will learn how the building works over the course of a year to maximise efficiencies (for example, carbon dioxide sensors in the 225-yearold lecture theatre will monitor how much fresh air is required for different numbers of people The new garden at No 1 Royal Crescent will show the potential for city greening. (Photo: No 1 Royal Crescent, Bath Preservation Trust) Work underway at the Royal Institution at different times of the day); and applied an innovative new solarreflective coating to the building’s Georgian windows. It was in the basement laboratories of the Royal Institution between 1859 and 1861 that John Tyndall proved that gases like water vapour and carbon dioxide absorb and radiate infrared heat. His experiments showed that these gases trap heat in the atmosphere, suggesting that changes in their concentration could alter Earth’s climate. The work was supported by £4.35 million funding from the Mayor of London. The heritage conservation specialist Coniston was the principal contractor.
CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 5 Glasgow School of Art has announced that a full rebuild or faithful reinstatement of the burnt-out Charles Rennie Mackintosh Glasgow School of Art building, while remaining a long-term ambition, would cost more than it can afford, so for the moment it is stabilising the building’s shell and removing external scaffolding. Here are some reactions, mostly on LinkedIn. ‘IS IT MACKINTOSH if it isn’t Mackintosh? If it was a sculpture or a painting and half of it got damaged would we restore it? Would it still be the artwork by the dead artist?’ Keith Winter ‘ISI METZSTEIN once said to me the Mack was the only building he knew that you entered in the middle… in both plan… and section. A lesson in architecture in so many ways.’ Phil Coffey ‘“CURATED decay” could be the solution but who has the nerve? The National Trust’s plan for Clandon caused much grinding of conservative – as opposed to conservation – teeth.’ Gillian Darley ‘BACK IN 2009 we at the RIBA Journal marked the 175th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects by assembling a team of judges to determine what they reckoned was the best building of that timespan… ‘We devised a longlist of 49 buildings – seven each from the seven quarter-century periods from 1834 to 2009… The winner? Both the public and our panel of judges agreed: it had to be Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, then happily still fully intact.’ Hugh Pearman ‘ON THE DAY we learn that Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art may be left indefinitely as a mere facade, we make a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s extraordinary 1935 Fallingwater… ‘Probably impossible to live in, a heritage conservation nightmare (terraces have been stripped back to re-bar and post-tensioned, glazing replaced three times, furniture is re-finished annually) and anachronistically intrusive to its natural setting, it remains a wonder. FLW’s genius is just so revitalising. So would be a restored Glasgow School of Art!’ Ben Derbyshire ‘THE COMPARISON with Notre Dame shames us, as France’s most cherished building burnt one year after our second fire, but is now gloriously rebuilt, while the Mack still stands as four gaunt walls round a sepulchral void… ‘The idea of the Mack “partially rebuilt” in some modern, shoddy way, is an obscenity. Would the French have accepted some halfarsed pre-fab solution at Notre Dame? The Mack has remained, throughout its long life, a beautiful, vibrant, living and working resource, and it would constitute a massive act of cultural selfmutilation to turn away from the generational duty to ensure a full rebuild… ‘There is no better recorded, debated and understood building in Scotland, and we know how to rebuild it – a company of joiners had already completed the rebuild and install of the beautiful library after the first, and before the second fire, and have let it be known that they could easily and quickly rebuild again.’ Malcolm Fraser and Johnny Rodger writing on https://rebuildthemack.com ‘THE BUILDING can not be replicated or reinstated. A building completed in 1910 would not meet today’s building standards. Mackintosh’s masterwork is gone forever. The things that made it brilliant and a Category A building were the flow from the steps right up into what was the foyer space and then from there on into the upstairs exhibition space. ‘The main access stairs throughout the building were at either side of the long rectangular open corridors. And the access stairs at the end were open, completely open, and had double height spaces in them. These are the things that made it really quite a significant building, quite beautiful, but would be impossible to do with today’s building regulations.’ Alan Dunlop in Glasgow Architect ‘IF YOU do not rebuild it as it was imagined, you lose all of its integrity – and you do nothing more than celebrate the incompetence of its temporary custodians that led to its demise.’ Gordon Gibb, quoted by Catherine Slessor in the Guardian Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh Building in 2009, before its devastation by fires in 2014 and 2018 (Photo: Jorg Bittner Unna, Wikimedia)
6 CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 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 SPAB Magazine The shrinking numbers of building conservation specialists in local authorities in recent years has been well documented and publicised, not least by the IHBC, and there is continued uncertainty due to proposed council mergers and amalgamations. So it is pleasing to see publicity for the excellent work of five conservation officers across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, promoted in the Summer 2026 issue of the SPAB Magazine. Three are full IHBC members: Cheryl Roberts-Nairn at Aberdeenshire Council, Megan Hainsworth at Lancaster City Council and Ashleigh Murray at Cork City Council. These specialists explain their background, their current roles and the challenges they face, and they describe a recent case that exemplifies the positive nature of their work. They also explain the particular challenges they currently face and their involvement with the SPAB. While some aspects may be familiar to those still working in the public sector, the article will also be illuminating to those working in private practice, and to all the SPAB members with a more general interest who are not professionally engaged in the sector, but who are engaged with heritage issues, or are involved with heritage property management in some form. The issue, which also reviews the fluctuating status of planning, contains a useful guide for the society’s members in England living in a listed building on how to make a good listed building consent application, based on the experience of the SPAB’s casework team. The current issue also considers the differences between the Irish and UK architectural heritage systems, and the role of the SPAB’s Technical Advice Line (0207 456 0916), where the use of lime mortars and resolution of dampness problems are particularly popular topics with callers. Technical Advice Line operates on weekdays between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm. SPAB members can pre-book 9:15 am consultations in advance via the members’ area of the website. The Georgian The Georgian, the magazine of the Georgian Group (Issue 1, 2026), continues to highlight the importance of appropriate heritage protection. Frederick HerveyBathurst reflects on the outstanding merit of both the Grade I Rousham House, Oxfordshire, and its fine Grade I landscaped park by William Kent (after 1738), and numerous other Grade II monuments and structures, warning that its setting is threatened by a proposal to build 9,000 houses in the vicinity. Following the promotion and celebration of the significant tercentenaries of St Christopher Wren in 2023 and Sir John Vanbrugh this year (with an interesting article in the current issue about conservation of the latter’s work at Blenheim), another tercentenary is coming hot on their heels, with the magazine introducing that of Robert Adam in 2028. Prefiguring this is an informative illustrated article by Frances Sands (curator of drawings and books at Sir John Soane’s Museum), highlighting a previously unknown drawing by Adam discovered at the Grade I listed Saltram in Devon. The magazine also poses the intriguing question of the (generally positive) impact of the ‘Bridgerton effect’ as an American alternative Regency history on 18th-century studies and publications. This issue continues the longrunning series of articles by Charles Brookings looking at the design and development of Georgian and Regency architectural details, currently internal door
CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 7 furniture (knobs, finger plates and escutcheons). Brookings illustrates 20 diverse examples and describes their value as dating evidence. While he notes that much research remains to be undertaken, he emphasises that attention should always be paid to what survives on internal doors before specifying wholesale replacements, as these details form an enchanting and important part of a building’s special architectural interest. This is the 12th part of an invaluable series. It would certainly be worth all the parts being brought together in one place at some stage as an invaluable visual and descriptive reference source. Georgian Group Journal As this reviewer notes annually, membership of the Georgian Group brings with it the group’s excellent, well-illustrated and substantial annual Georgian Group Journal, this year (Vol XXXIIV, 2026) of 243 pages.Where 2025 was devoted entirely to Sir Christopher Wren, the current volume has 14 scholarly but entertaining papers spanning geographically from the Brighton Pavilion in the south via Clandon Park and Woodmansterne in the home counties to Doncaster, the Isle of Man and Edinburgh’s first tenement. The content will be of interest to anyone professionally involved with understanding and managing heritage assets of the late 17th and 18th centuries, or with an interest in the architecture and culture of that period. Although it is difficult to summarise so many excellent papers in this short review, it is worth highlighting the article ‘The Formal House and its Curtilage, c1625–c1700’ by Peter Leach; and an important article by Jonathan Hales on St Luke’s Church, Old Street, London (built in 1727–33) with the question of attribution involving Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James. Hales references laserassisted survey measurements taken to establish the dimensions and proportions of the original church interior that remains. Comparisons were made with other James churches, principally St George, Hanover Square, and St Mary Rotherhithe. The visual evidence suggests that James was responsible for developing the elevation of St Luke’s, but the dimensions and proportional relationship of the church plan are remarkably similar to those of Hawksmoor’s St Anne, Limehouse. The journal also explores carpentry of the Rickard family of Doncaster, a town noted for its Georgian elegance. The article’s author Frank Carpenter writes that their excellent work is still in evidence there. C20 The latest issue of C20 (No 1, 2026), the magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, justifiably celebrates dogged persistence in pursuit of both the recognition and protection for major heritage assets that do not necessarily find favour with secretaries of state. It seems extraordinary that the society’s battle to protect the Southbank Centre has lasted 35 years, and was launched at a time when total demolition seemed a realistic possibility. Numerous schemes for massive and damaging changes followed, but its international significance has now deservedly been recognised. The society’s recent Coming of Age campaign – looking at buildings approaching 30 years of age and deserving protection – does not disguise the fact that works of even more modern architectural movements, including postmodernism, now deserve some heritage recognition. This issue of C20 therefore draws attention again to this somewhat unloved and maligned architectural style, the society having originally aired the subject in a conference in 2016. Many of these recent buildings remain under threat. How many will make it to 30 years old intact and possibly eligible for statutory protection? The issue also celebrates the work of two giants of British architecture, Terry Farrell and Nicolas Grimshaw, who both died last year, examining their legacy and suggesting that their outstanding work should be properly protected. The article illustrates four buildings that have already been listed; six that are not yet protected; and one (Alban Gate in the City of London, from the financial Big Bang era) that has been submitted for listing but rejected. The issue also has an instructive conservation study of the Grade II listed former IBM building, 76 Southbank, London (1980–84). Conceived by Denys Lasdun as a partner building to the National Theatre, it has recently been refurbished. The well-illustrated examination of the work assesses whether this has been successful. The original commissioning CEO of IBM,Thomas J Watson Jr, was adamant at its conception that ‘good design is good business’. The THE MAGAZINE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY SOCIETY ISSUE 2026 1 £9 26 HOW TO SAVE THE SOUTHBANK THE GLOSSY WORLD OF HI TECH KUWAIT: MODERN CITY
8 CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 recent very carefully complete work appears to bear this out. Illustrations show the contractors’ painstaking replication of the exposed aggregate cladding panels. Construction History Construction History (No 2,Vol 40, 2025) continues to promote a broad international outlook. Papers include one on the career of a German contractor in late19th-century Australia, and another on concrete-testing standards and certification in the USA from the late 1880s to the 1920s. One paper that may be of particular interest to Context readers deals with historic technical illustrations, particularly when assessing the information in early textbooks and treatises. Tom F Peters attempts to explain, with 19 well-chosen engravings, the origins of the dichotomy between the architectural and engineering professions (which many readers familiar with the work of Andrew Saint will recognise). This is a complex and challenging issue to encompass in a single paper, so the author focuses on the situation in France in the 17th and 18th centuries, where engineers were able to explain and communicate technical information with clear graphic representations while also leading to a new professional language. The paper is part of a wider study that Peters is currently undertaking on French engineering illustrations of that era. It is to be hoped that his exploration will benefit those researching the early technology of historic building and engineering to inform appropriate current responses to the care and repair of historic buildings and structures. Historic Environment Policy and Practice The latest, 215-page issue of Historic Environment Policy and Practice (Vol 17, No 1, 2026) has a largely international perspective, with papers from China, Qatar and Turkey. Those of greatest interest to Context readers may be ones on mental health and wellbeing related to heritage; and perhaps on the fall-out from the demolition for the ballroom at the White House in Washington. The first paper, by Faye Sayer, R Sayer, M Pickel and L Henry of the department of history at the University of Birmingham, demonstrates the application of science to heritage practice and policy, and tests this as a mechanism to strengthen equality in heritage places. The authors cite a mechanism known as the Behaviour Change Wheel, widely applied in public healthcare settings, which has been adapted to design-policybased strategic action plans, with the aim of improving mental health in a heritage context. The authors use a feasibility study example to understand how participation in heritage affects visitor and community wellbeing. Only the Trump White House could generate the concepts of deheritagization and re-heritagization (destroying old heritage and replacing it with ‘new heritage’), happening in parallel over the massive remaking of the East Wing Ballroom in terms of its substance, scale, style and significance (in every sense). Author Marc Richard Hugh Kosciejew of the University of Malta refers to this as marking a pre-Trump, peri-Trump and postTrump aesthetic. The architectural and cultural perceptions of the White House itself will certainly be changed by these extremely contentious works. It is to be hoped that these concepts do not materialise on a wider front and are confined only to the brazen capriciousness of the current president. Heritage Now Worth noting in the latest issue of Heritage Now, the newsletter of Historic Buildings and Places (No 15, Summer 2026), is an article by Naomi O’Toole on high-profile conservation projects that draw attention to the spa towns of Europe. Some of the finest examples now form a shared Unesco inscription with the Great Spa Towns of Europe (GSTE), functioning as a shared inscription and an interconnected whole, even though each town operates under a different system of local management and national government.The umbrella of the GSTE creates a shared governance structure that facilitates collective action. It includes the City of Bath, which has a rare double Unesco inscription, one for the city itself (1987) and the one for the GSTE (2021) – see https:// greatspatownsofeurope.eu/ The summer issue also features a celebration of the centenary of the establishment of Portmeirion Village, where Clough Williams-Ellis purchased the site in Gwynedd, north Wales, in 1925, and opened the Portmeirion Hotel the following year. Bob Kindred MBE 10.7 mm Volume 17 Number 1 2026 The Historic Environment POLICY & PRACTICE POLICY & PRACTICE The Historic Environment ISSN 1756-7505 Volume 17 Number 1 2026 ISSN 1756-7505 www.tandfonline.com/yhen The Historic Environment POLICY & PRACTICE Volume 17 Number 1 2026 CONTENTS Editorial Cultural Resource Management: Con ict, Controversy and Cooperation Michael Dawson 1 Research Articles A Chinese Paradigm for Wartime Cultural Heritage Protection:The Case of the Palace Museum’s Cultural Relics Evacuation Bai Yingxi and Shen Huaping 6 Mental Distress at Heritage Places: A Behavioural Science-Based Approach to Wellbeing Inequality Faye Sayer, R. Sayer, M. Pickel and L. Henry 25 Cultural Heritage Management and Policies in Qatar: A Case Study of the Historic Urban Landscape Approach in Education City Muhammed Madandola, Rashid Al-Matwi, Raffaello Furlan and Akel Ismail Kahera 50 Urban Archaeology in a Multi-Layered City: Conservation Challenges and Policy Insights from Istanbul’s Historical Peninsula Nese Karacay and Aynur Çiftçi 86 Crossing Frontiers: Challenges and Opportunities of the Tao-Klarjeti Monasteries as Transboundary Cultural Heritage of Georgia and Türkiye Mustafa Tahir Ocak and Gülsün Tanyeli 125 Demolishing the White House East Wing: A Heritagization Analysis of Anocratic Cultural Heritage Aesthetics and Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Ballroom’ Marc Richard Hugh Kosciejew 146 Including Built Heritage in Environmental Improvement and Nature Recovery: Exploring the Challenges Martin A. Coombes, M. Michette and H. A. Viles 184 HERMES SA: A Proposal for a European Satellite Account for Cultural Material Heritage Jon Olaskoaga-Larrauri, Elena Usobiaga, Alessandra Gandini and Amaia Sopelana 198 Taylor & Francis takes seriously its commitment to sustainability. In addition to all paper used in our journals being from certi ed responsible sources, we invest in initiatives that reduce plastic usage, waste, and carbon emissions. To nd out more about our progress, visit www.taylorandfrancis.com/about/corporate-responsibility/ YHEN_COVER_17_1.indd 1 4/27/2026 7:48:20 AM
CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 9 The writer’s voice Ancestral art ‘The Cathedral of Siena’ from Sketches in Italy and Greece (1874) by John Addington Symonds Quitting the Palazzo, and threading narrow streets, paved with brick and overshadowed with huge empty palaces, we reach the highest of the three hills on which Siena stands, and see before us the Duomo. This church is the most purely Gothic of all Italian cathedrals designed by national architects. Together with that of Orvieto, it stands to show what the unassisted genius of the Italians could produce, when under the empire of medieval Christianity and before the advent of the neopagan spirit. It is built wholly of marble, and overlaid, inside and out, with florid ornaments of exquisite beauty. There are no flying buttresses, no pinnacles, no deep and fretted doorways, such as form the charm of French and English architecture; but instead of this, the lines of party-coloured marbles, the scrolls and wreaths of foliage, the mosaics and the frescoes which meet the eye in every direction, satisfy our sense of variety, producing most agreeable combinations of blending hues and harmoniously connected forms. The chief fault which offends against our northern taste is the predominance of horizontal lines, both in the construction of the facade, and also in the internal decoration. This single fact sufficiently proves that the Italians had never seized the true idea of Gothic or aspiring architecture. But, allowing for this original defect, we feel that the Cathedral of Siena combines solemnity and splendour to a degree almost unrivalled. Its dome is another point in which the instinct of Italian architects has led them to adhere to the genius of their ancestral art rather than to follow the principles of Gothic design. The dome is Etruscan and Roman, native to the soil, and only by a kind of violence adapted to the character of pointed architecture. Yet the builders of Siena have shown what a glorious element of beauty might have been added to our northern cathedrals, had the idea of infinity which our ancestors expressed by long continuous lines, by complexities of interwoven aisles, and by multitudinous aspiring pinnacles, been carried out into vast spaces of aerial cupolas, completing and embracing and covering the whole like heaven. The Duomo, as it now stands, forms only part of a vast original design. On entering we are amazed to hear that this church, which looks so large, from the beauty of its proportions, the intricacy of its ornaments, and the interlacing of its columns, is but the transept of the old building lengthened a little, and surmounted by a cupola and campanile. Siena’s Duomo ‘combines solemnity and splendour to a degree almost unrivalled’. (Photo: POM, Wikimedia)
10 CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 CONTEXT 186 : DECEMBER 2025 Law and policy Alexandra Fairclough writes: England’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill (introduced in March 2025) is moving ahead at pace. Its aim is to expedite decisions, unlock housing and major infrastructure, and revamp the system’s resource allocation. In Context 183 (March 2025), I mentioned that ministers had updated the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) as part of the planning reform. The government also launched a review of who gets a statutory say on applications. Worryingly, these subtle changes could alter the balance between growth and heritage. The committee stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (commenced 17 July) continued throughout September. At the time of writing, the bill is in the report stage in the House of Lords. Many late amendments have caused a significant debate and criticism over inadequate scrutiny time. The bill is expected to undergo further debate and potential amendment at the third reading. To keep up to date, see Historic England’s monthly Planning Bulletins. The future position of the Gardens’ Trust and the Theatres Trust as statutory consultees on heritage casework is still uncertain. The government proposed a review of the scope of all the statutory consultees to reduce the type and number of applications on which they must be consulted. With regard to planning, this amounts to 25 organisations. The government’s intention is to make better use of standing advice rather than case-by-case responses. This does not prevent any organisation from responding to planning applications, but they would not be formally consulted, and reduced weight would be attached to any advice given. Northern Ireland In Northern Ireland, the Department for Communities published a new framework for the historic environment, the Heritage, Culture and Creativity Programme Framework. The objectives are to set the direction for future policy, with public consultation before the end of 2025. The proposals include: • Using historic assets to support government outcomes • Investing in the care and adaptive re-use of the historic environment to drive regeneration • Adopting best practice in identifying and safeguarding the historic environment in line with legislation and charters • Ensuring that well-managed heritage assets contribute to highquality rural and urban places, landscapes and biodiversity. • Empowering communities to use their historic environment as a resource to meet local needs. For more information, see communities-ni.gov.uk Scotland Earlier in the year Historic Environment Scotland published a three-year operating plan entitled Heritage for All, setting out actions relating to statutory functions, and refreshing historic environment policy for Scotland. Currently historic environment policy is being driven by the Our Past, Our Future strategy, which is focused on climate action, community empowerment and the wellbeing economy. Case law in England and Wales R (Chidswell Action Group) v Kirklees Council and CC Projects (an unlimited company) and Harworth Estates (Agricultural Land) Ltd, decision date 4 September 2025 Outline planning permission, quashed. This is an application for judicial review on four grounds, with a fifth being added later. This fifth ground was the failure to publish a s106 agreement during the decision-making process. A draft s106 should be published at the earliest time to allow members of the public to view it and comment. The court referred to a recent Court of Appeal decision (R (Greenfields (IOW) Ltd v Isle of Wight Council [2025] EWCA Civ 488), which stated that working drafts of s106 agreements should be published early, rather than final drafts at the end of the planning decision process. R (Wild Justice) v Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and Adventure Beyond Ltd, decision date 5 September 2025 Planning permission sought, quashed. This application was for judicial review for the failure to publish background papers during the decision-making process (as required by s100d of the Local Government Act) on which the decision was based. These cases are a stark reminder that all relevant documents should be published, so that the open process of planning decisionmaking can allow for public consultation. Valerie Maximen v Arc 3 Architecture Ltd [2025] unreported Michael Feeney reported this case in The Planner (November/ December 2025). In a case of Growth and heritage Alexandra Fairclough writes: Since my last law and policy update we have seen a change in leadership in Westminster. Appointments relevant to heritage planning are Angela Rayner returning as housing secretary; Matthew Pennycook continuing as minister for housing and planning; Lisa Nandy continuing as culture secretary; Miatta Fahnbulleh becoming energy security and net zero secretary; and Angela Eagle becoming environment secretary. Devolution is rapidly becoming the organising principle of national policy, with the establishment of No 10 North in Manchester signalling a deliberate redistribution of political focus away from Westminster. The prime minister’s weekly presence, combined with expanded mayoral powers and the creation of a National Economic Council that brings regional mayors directly into central decisionmaking, mark a structural shift in how priorities are set and delivered. For the heritage sector, already rooted in local delivery, this creates a moment of opportunity to shape place-based investment, though it also highlights the risk of uneven outcomes in areas without mayoral leadership. Housing, high streets and regeneration are now being treated as a single policy ecosystem. A renewed emphasis on councilled housebuilding and reducing homelessness sits alongside a national mission to revive high streets as ‘symbols of Britain’s renaissance’. Business rate reforms already underway will have direct implications for heritage assets, particularly those anchoring town-centre regeneration. Andy Burnham’s ambition for ‘good growth in every postcode’ aligns closely with heritage-led regeneration as a proven mechanism for delivering social value, economic uplift and civic identity. England The revised National Planning Policy Framework was published on 17 August, marking the most significant shift in English builtheritage policy in over a decade. Rather than treating heritage as a stand-alone chapter, the new NPPF weaves it through the entire planning system, creating a more rules-based, less discretionary approach. For practitioners, this means that heritage is no longer something consulted on at the end of a design process: it is now embedded from the earliest stages of planmaking through to the final decision notice. One of the most noticeable changes is how heritage responsibilities are divided. Planmaking and decision-making now have clearly separated roles. Local planning authorities are expected to maintain up-to-date conservation area appraisals, management plans, local lists and historic environment records. These are no longer merely desirable documents but essential evidence bases that must be in place before plans are examined. The framework expects heritage policies to be spatially specific, identifying where significance constrains growth and where enhancement opportunities exist. This frontloading of evidence is designed to reduce ambiguity later in the process. Decisionmaking has also been reshaped. The familiar harm tests remain, but the structure around them is more prescriptive. Applicants must demonstrate a clear understanding of significance – not just of fabric, but of setting, character and associative values. The government’s response to the 2025–26 consultation is seen here: the harm framework is tighter, the expectations for evidence are higher, and the link between plan-making documents and decision-making weight is much stronger. Officer reports will need to show transparent reasoning, and inspectors will expect consistency. Heritage is also threaded through the framework’s wider ambitions for growth, design and placemaking. Policies on well-designed places now require contextual responses grounded in historic character. Towncentre policies treat heritage as a regeneration asset rather than
CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 11 a constraint. Land-use policies emphasise reuse and adaptation of historic buildings, aligning heritage with sustainability and economic vitality. This is a notable cultural shift: heritage is positioned as part of the solution to growth challenges, not an obstacle. Climate policy is another area where heritage has been repositioned. The new NPPF aligns historic-building retrofit with national decarbonisation goals, encouraging sensitive, energy-efficiency upgrades and emphasising the carbon benefits of reusing existing buildings. Heritage considerations are now embedded in clean energy and water infrastructure planning, ensuring that climate adaptation does not come at the expense of significance. Taken together, these changes create a planning environment where heritage is more structured, more evidence-driven and more integrated with national priorities. The new NPPF tightens the harm framework, clarifying expectations for town-centre regeneration and embedding heritage within a broader rules-based system. For heritage practitioners and decision-makers, the message is clear: heritage is now a core part of how England plans for growth, design quality and climate resilience. A package of core procedural regulations to start the new local plan-making system, as provided for by the Levellingup and Regeneration Act 2023, came into force on 25 March (see the MCHLG Message from Chief Planner, dated 5 March). These regulations relate to plan making, permitted development, development corporations and secretary of state referrals. The Devolution Bill is progressing and will have implications for heritage. We have also been presented with two new Historic England Advice Notes (HEAN). This includes HEAN 7, Local Heritage Listing: identifying and conserving local heritage (May 2026), which aims to provide a comprehensive guide to local heritage lists, outlining the benefits and the steps involved in creating or revising a list. HEAN 15, Delivering Clean Power: commercial renewable energy development and the historic environment (June 2026) describes the potential impacts on the historic environment of commercial renewable energy proposals (both terrestrial and marine). This second edition, updated to reflect recent policy changes, includes an expanded section on onshore wind and an updated section on solar farms. England’s new heritage policy includes the Historic England Strategic Plan 2026–2031 and the £1.5 billion national heritage investment programme. Together these will be setting a growth-, place- and sector-focused agenda for heritage. Also of relevance to heritage is the government’s introduction of two prototype artificial intelligence tools, designed to accelerate planning decisions and support the delivery of 1.5 million homes. This signals a major shift in how England’s planning system operates and how heritage law is applied. Although the statutory duties protecting heritage assets, such as the obligations under sections 66(1) and 72(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, remain unchanged, AI will reshape the evidential environment in which those duties are discharged. By digitising decades of historic planning records, conservation area boundaries, Article 4 directions and other legacy documents, AI makes heritage constraints more visible and accessible, enabling officers to identify significance and potential harm more consistently. This increased efficiency comes with new pressures: faster validation and determination timelines may encourage overreliance on AI-generated summaries, which risk obscuring material heritage considerations and exposing decisions to legal challenge. At the same time, AI-assisted analysis can strengthen the evidential basis for assessing harm, supporting clearer judgements about setting, cumulative change and precedent. Heritage consultants will benefit from earlier access to site-specific information, allowing more proactive risk identification and more robust heritage impact assessments. Yet local authorities must also navigate new governance responsibilities, ensuring transparency in how AI outputs are used, maintaining accuracy in digitised constraints, and safeguarding compliance with equality duties. AI does not rewrite heritage law; instead, it transforms the conditions under which heritage protection is practised, offering opportunities for more consistent and informed decision-making while introducing fresh risks that demand careful oversight. See Historic England’s Planning Bulletins for monthly heritage updates. Wales The Planning (Wales) Bill and Planning (Consequential Provisions) (Wales) Bill were approved by the Senedd on 10 March. They bring together years of existing legislation and amendments into a single bilingual statute, and clarify which laws relate to England only. There is a helpful table to understand these changes and a list of definitions of key terms at section 408 of the Act. Technical Advice Note 24 The Historic Environment was updated in March 2026, aligning heritage practice with the new legislative framework. It provides updated guidance on heritage impact assessments, and strengthened climate-change and sustainability framing. There are also revisions to sections on world heritage sites, archaeological remains, listed buildings, conservation areas, and historic parks and gardens. Together, the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023, the Planning (Wales) Act 2026 and TAN 24 (2026) create the new landscape of Welsh heritage law.
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