Whose Heritage? Stories of Britain’S Changing Attitudes to Heritage
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Whose heritage? Stories of Britain’s changing attitudes to heritage 1 The Open University is creating a map featuring your ideas about heritage. Whose heritage? This booklet accompanies the BBC2 series in which we wish to build a sense of identity Saving Britain’s Past. The series explores in the present for the future. Heritage can be Britain’s changing attitudes towards heritage thought of as being made up of ‘objects’ and What would you save? over the course of the twentieth century, ‘practices’. ‘Objects of heritage’ are artefacts, focusing on key ‘moments’ that precipitated buildings, sites and landscapes. They are change and debate. The subjects of the the things we pay attention to because they seven programmes in Saving Britain’s Past are still meaningful to us, not because they are a starting point for exploring some of tell great stories about the past but because the key questions and debates surrounding we use them to tell stories about ourselves. Britain’s heritage that arose during the ‘Practices of heritage’ are languages, music second part of the twentieth century. We and community celebrations (in other hope you will be inspired to explore your words, customs and habits) which, although community’s heritage and to think about intangible, help to create our collective Why not participate by visiting open2.net and tell us about a how the decisions we make about what to social memory and bonds. We use objects of place, object or practice that means something to your sense save from the past influence who we become heritage and practices of heritage to shape in the future. our ideas about who we are as nations, of identity and community. The site also features a ‘how to’ Heritage is not the same thing as communities and individuals. guide and links to the OU Creative Archive site where you’ll inheritance, but it does touch on a sense of find useful video clips ranging from the historic to country what has come down to us from the past that we value and wish to pass on. In this landscapes, urban environment to the seaside. sense, heritage has a lot to do with the ways 2 3 were targeted again on 29 April and 3 Casualties May, respectively. A second series of bombings were carried out on Canterbury of war? on 31 May, 2 June and 6 June. This is thought to have been sparked by the Cultural heritage places are, bombing of Cologne by the RAF. by their very nature, places A number of important buildings, that are of importance to a including the Guildhall in York and the country’s sense of morale Assembly Rooms in Bath, were destroyed and nationhood. So it or badly damaged during the Baedeker may come as no surprise raids, in which over 1,600 civilians were killed, another 1,760 were injured and that heritage sites have over 50,000 houses were destroyed. often been the focus of intentional or unintentional The bombing raids on Bath and the other damage in times of war. After the night raid, the spires of Coventry cities during the Second World War were Bomb damage to Exeter Cathedral Cathedral, 1940 important. They made people realise that buildings are part of our heritage and convention. The Hague Convention was The Baedeker Blitz once lost are gone forever. This led to the later influential in the development of The The ‘Baedeker Blitz’ or ‘Baedeker raids’ development of the first system for listing Convention concerning the Protection of are terms used to describe a series of heritage buildings in the UK, which was the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, retaliatory bombing raids undertaken made possible under a provision in the adopted by UNESCO in 1972, which by the German air force on English Town and Country Planning Act 1947. established the World Heritage List. cities. These raids were in response to But this acknowledgement that buildings Despite the existence of the Hague the bombing of the cities of Lübeck and embody aspects of our cultural heritage Convention, cultural heritage sites Rostock in March 1942 during the Second was not confined to the UK. There continue to be the focus for destruction World War. In his book, Among the Dead was a global outcry over the massive during times of armed conflict and Cities, A.C. Grayling (2006: 51) writes destruction of cultural heritage sites military occupation. Most recently, some that Baron Gustav Braun von Sturm, during the Second World War, which have questioned whether certain actions a German propagandist, is reported to ultimately led to the development of undertaken as part of the US-led invasion have said on 24 April 1942: ‘We shall go The Convention for the Protection of of Iraq in 2003 should be considered a out and bomb every building in Britain Cultural Property in the Event of Armed violation of the Convention. Certainly, marked with three stars in the Baedeker Conflict (or the ‘Hague Convention’) there have been reports that much Guide [the German tourist guide to adopted at The Hague (Netherlands) damage has been done to the ancient Britain].’ The raids appear to have been on 14 May 1954. city of Babylon, which was used as a US an attempt to lower British morale by military base following the invasion. attacking notable scenic cities, which The Hague Convention specifies that otherwise had no strategic or military signatories must refrain from damaging importance. cultural properties in their own or other countries’ territories during times of The Luftwaffe bombed Exeter, Bath, Damage to the Circus and the armed conflict, and makes any act Norwich and York on successive nights directed by way of reprisals against Regina Hotel in Bath after the from 23 to 28 April. Norwich and Exeter Baedeker raids in 1942 cultural property a violation of the 4 5 Byker Estate, Newcastle Heritage or upon Tyne eyesore? Parts of the Byker Estate were given Grade II* and Grade II listings by English Heritage in 2007. It has also been The listing of postwar placed on UNESCO’s list of outstanding housing estates in Britain twentieth century buildings. Designed has attracted much by Ralph Erskine for the Newcastle controversy and public Corporation and built between 1978 and comment. To some, these 1981, the award winning Byker Wall buildings are not only ugly, consists of a long unbroken block of 620 maisonettes designed with complex, but represent the failure of textured facades and incorporating a social experiment in high colourful brick, wood and plastic panels. density public housing. To others, they are part of English Heritage1 notes its main claims The Barbican to special architectural significance Spa Green Estate the material history of the include its community-led development; working classes in Britain, The Barbican, its style of ‘romantic pragmatism’ Spa Green Estate, and represent some City of London representing a humanising approach Finsbury, London Borough of the most ambitious through the use of vernacular details and The Barbican was given Grade II listing by materials; its sophistication of layout and of Islington architectural monuments English Heritage in 2001. Designed by the of the twentieth century. its dramatic layout exploiting its unique The Spa Green Estate was given Grade architects Peter Hugh Girard Chamberlin, topography. It is seen as representing II* listing by English Heritage in 1998. Still others cannot accept Geoffrey Powell and Christopher Bon, a radical departure in design from Designed by the architects Jeremy Bailey, that buildings constructed The Park Hill Estate, this residential estate was built between other brutalist high rise council estate Berthold Lubetkin and Stephen James so recently could form part Sheffield 1965 and 1973 and consists of 13 terrace buildings built in Britain in the second Skinner, it was constructed between 1935 of the canon of the nation’s blocks, grouped around a lake and green part of the twentieth century. and 1946. Built between 1956 and 1961, the squares built adjacent to and incorporating heritage. estate was designed by architects Jack the Barbican complex (which features English Heritage1 notes its main claims to Lynn and Ivor Smith for Sheffield City What do you think? the Barbican Arts Centre, the Museum of special architectural significance include Architects’ Dept. Amidst controversy, London, the Guildhall School of Music its design by a major modernist architect the estate was given Grade II* listing and Drama, the Barbican public library). (Berthold Lubetkin); its existence as an by English Heritage in 1998. Its main At 42 storeys and 123 metres (404 ft) in example of very early postwar housing; architectural merits include its use of height, the estate also contains three of the architectural interest of its elevations the ‘streets in the sky’ scheme with long the tallest residential tower blocks in and its structural innovation in the use of deck access passages, its scale and bold London. The English Heritage listing refers box frame construction designed by the use of concrete frames, and the way its to the entire complex. renowned Anglo-Danish engineer Sir Ove landscaping makes use of its sloping site Arup. This is a method of construction 1 above the city. English Heritage notes its main claims to using concrete in which pre-constructed special architectural significance include ‘rooms’ are stacked horizontally and its ambitious scale and the architectural vertically together to create an overall boldness of its towers, walkways and use structural frame for the building. of concrete. Byker Estate 1 English Heritage, no date. ‘Post war listed public housing estates’. Online at www.english-heritage.org.uk 6 7 Intangible heritage Language and heritage Heritage – people People tend to think of ‘heritage’ as being Although language is one of the key of the past but intangible cultural heritage ‘intangible’ aspects of cultural heritage, or buildings? is like a living thing.