The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

The definitive version of this article is published by Elsevier as: PENDLEBURY J. (1999) The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK: A Case Study of Cities. 16, 6 Pp 423-434 doi:10.1016/S0264-2751(99)00040-2

The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK: A Case Study of ‘’, Newcastle upon Tyne

John Pendlebury Centre for Research on European Urban Environments Department of Town and Country Planning Claremont Tower University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK e-mail [email protected] direct dial +44 (0)191-222-6810 fax +44 (0)191 222 8811

Article for Cities 1 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK:

A Case Study of ‘Grainger Town’, Newcastle upon Tyne

Abstract

Conservation in the UK is generally regarded as having undergone a sea-change in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as policy and decision makers retreated from comprehensive development and embraced conservation. Using part of the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne as a case study, this article examines this thesis.

Beneath simple measures, such as the amount of the city centre which is classified as historic, a more complex picture emerges. A framework for interventions in the historic environment is theorised and there is found to be a continuing tension between conservation approaches which seek to visually manage the city and those which place stress on historic fabric and morphology.

Article for Cities 2 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK:

A Case Study of ‘Grainger Town’, Newcastle upon Tyne

Introduction

It is frequently argued that drive for the conservation of the historic environment has for sometime been an inexorable upward trend. In the context of the UK this tends to be considered over a period of the last 120 or so years, since the publication of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings ‘Manifesto’

(Morris, 1877) and the first tentative efforts to legislate (1882). Conservation in the UK is often portrayed as having undergone a sea-change during the late 1960s and early 1970s, with a retreat from modernist comprehensive redevelopment forced by a wave of popular support for conservation (e.g. Andreae, 1996;

Larkham, 1996; Saunders; 1996). This is evidenced by, for example, the national development of legislation and policy (e.g. Delafons, 1997) and by the rapid rise in the numbers of buildings and areas subject to protection (e.g. Larkham, 1997).

The landmark legislation in the protection of historic areas in the UK is the 1967

Civic Amenities Act which gave the power to local planning authorities to designate ‘conservation areas’. Like many pieces of UK conservation legislation it was promoted by an individual Member of Parliament rather than by government (Delafons, 1997). It is perhaps therefore not surprising that initially the legislation was accompanied by a very sketchy policy framework. Subsequent

Article for Cities 3 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK legislation and policy has evolved enormously and government advice is now set out in Planning Policy Guidance Note 15 (Department of the Environment &

Department of National Heritage, 1994). However, PPG 15 contains relatively little detailed guidance on the management of historic areas, though emphasis is placed on ‘conservation’ rather than ‘preservation’. In the British context this implies accommodating appropriate change, rather than seeking to preserve as found.

A distinctive feature of conservation areas in the UK context is that their designation is determined at the local level, on the resolution of the local planning authority. This makes them unlike other heritage categories, such as listed buildings, which are identified by central government. Conservation areas have proved enormously popular. In 1969 it was estimated that there may one- day be as many as 3,000 (Smith, 1969); in-fact over 9,000 have been designated and the numbers continue to rise.

This article examines the thesis of the inexorable upward trend of conservation using the case study of a key part of the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne. In many respects it might be expected that Newcastle would exemplify the sea- change described. In the 1960s the City was dominated by an administration primarily remembered as combative modernists, whereas in the 1990s a large part of the historic centre is subject to a regeneration initiative which grew out of concern over the condition and under-use of historic fabric.

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In order to consider how conservation in the city centre of Newcastle has developed a study of published sources, a range of policy documents and a number of case-studies of implemented and proposed developments has been made. The emphasis is on public policy and action in the sphere of development control and so, for example, the achievements of public sector grant assistance are not considered. This is preceded by the advancement of a hypothesised framework for considering the nature of different approaches to conservation decision-making.

Conceptualising area conservation

In considering the conservation of central Newcastle it was clear that there has frequently been a lack of consensus over defining appropriate conservation objectives (see discussion below). To help understand the different positions advanced three broad approaches to area conservation are first hypothesised.

Though there are distinct differences between them, it is not argued that these approaches are self-contained or that a range of opinion could not be identified within any one approach. Furthermore, it is possible for a decision-maker to adopt of any of the three approaches at different times or an individual project to display elements of more than one approach. Nor is it suggested that they are often used as conscious management approaches. Rather they are a means of framing different approaches to interventions in historic areas which might be taken and considered ‘conservation’. Some elements of these approaches are

Article for Cities 5 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK transparent in government and local authority policy, others are less obvious and embedded in the values, attitudes and discourse of conservation professionals and lobbyists. The typology suggested is described below and possible responses on a number of issues which may arise in historic areas summarised in Table 1.

1. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) Tradition .

This is an approach which has its roots in the development of ‘modern’ approaches to conservation in the nineteenth century and the writings of John

Ruskin and William Morris, and in particular Morris’s SPAB Manifesto (Morris,

1877). It is an approach in which the retention of historic fabric is of paramount importance and can be best encapsulated by the phrase ‘conservative repair’. It is a set of principles which were evolved in the context of debates over the appropriate treatment of particularly important historic sites or monuments, and it is in the context of this type of sites that that in its most conservative form it is still influential today, through such bodies as the Ecclesiastical Architects’ and

Surveyors’ Association and SPAB. From its nineteenth century origins it has evolved to encompass principles such as the reversibility of contemporary intervention. Integrity or honesty are vital (Warren, 1996). This includes the integrity of historic structures as a whole, and leads for example to an antagonism towards ‘facadism’, seen as inherently dishonest.

Article for Cities 6 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

Though it is an approach evolved around individual sites and monuments (which, however, often lie in historic areas) it is relevant in thinking about the rather different problem of conserving the character of historic areas. This is because of the hugely influential nature of the SPAB tradition and the way that influences conservation policy and professionals working within the public and private sectors. Of the three approaches described it is the most clearly articulated and best known conservation tradition, though the application of SPAB-type principles often occurs in a rather diluted form.

2. The Urban Morphological Approach

This is an approach far less developed as a set of guiding principles for conservation. It is most developed in applied academic theory through the school of work that derives from the writings of M R G Conzen, who worked in and studied Newcastle (Conzen, 1962). It is an approach which is based upon the study of the historical development of a settlement. The development of the townscape is a physical manifestation of the development of society and is imbued with cultural meaning, and becomes the spirit of the place, the genius loci. Townscape form is derived from three principal components; the town plan, building form and land-use. The town plan is seen as generally the most enduring of these and land-use the most ephemeral (Conzen, 1975; Larkham, 1996). A fully developed Conzen-type approach to conservation demands a detailed and

Article for Cities 7 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK sophisticated understanding of the evolution of town form, seen as problematic and often impractical in terms of the resources required.

Partly as a result of this limitation Larkham argues that there has been little systematic attempt to put the ideas of Conzen into practice (though see Mageean,

1998), ‘Even the basic building-blocks of his analysis, the streets, plots and buildings, are rarely dealt with at a micro-scale by LPAs (local planning authorities) developing policy for conservation areas’ (Larkham, 1996: 270).

There is much truth in this; it is certainly the case, for example, that in many historic towns frontage buildings have been conserved whilst backland areas which may form an integral part of the historic form of the settlement have been subject to comprehensive redevelopment with little or no consideration of their importance. However, over the last decade or so there has increasingly been some incorporation of these ideas into policy and practice, albeit often in a much diluted form. This is evident in English Heritage guidance from the late 1980s; for example, ‘The character of English historic towns derives as much from the continuity of plot sizes, the survival of back (or burgage) plots, the pattern of lanes and alleyways, and the general historic topography, which together make up the ‘grain’ of the town, as from the architectural styles of the buildings, the shop fronts, and the street furniture which provide the townscape’ (English Heritage,

1988). Applied to the public realm, emphasis is placed on traditional materials and historic relationships of roadways, pavements, kerbs etc. (English Heritage,

1993). The protection of specific features of patterns of urban development is now beginning to be incorporated in local policy, such as a policy on medieval

Article for Cities 8 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK burgage plots in the South Oxfordshire District Local Plan (South Oxfordshire

District Council, 1997).

3. The Visual Management Approach

This approach is the least concerned with historic fabric and is more orientated to aesthetic and urban design considerations. As with the urban morphology approach outlined above there is no clear agreed articulation of this approach. Its incorporation into planning practice can be traced to seminal works such as

Cullen (1961) and his highly visual emphasis. The issue of ‘facadism’, the building of a new structure behind a retained historic facade, is a useful issue for illustrating the difference to the SPAB tradition in particular. Frowned upon in official guidance (Department of the Environment & Department of National

Heritage, 1994), but frequently practised, this device is antithetical to the SPAB tradition and its emphasis on authenticity and integrity. It is defended as a means of retaining familiar historic streetscapes or formal set pieces of urban design

(Richards, 1994), with the retention of a building in totality only considered an issue by some ‘when it concerns buildings of real architectural distinction or historic importance’ (Tiesdell, Oc, & Heath, 1996: 175). Other visual management approaches might include, for example, the breaking-up of the facades of large new buildings to give the impression of a series of traditionally scaled buildings, or encouraging a historicist architectural approach for new buildings. Such an approach may extend to the public realm and commonly

Article for Cities 9 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK includes, for example, the introduction of ‘heritage’ street furniture; not following any historic precedent and typically cast-iron and painted black.

Visual management approaches may derive from quite different motivations. For example, such an approach maybe the result of the townscape type tradition as argued by the proponents of facadism above. Alternatively, it may be derived more from the ‘heritage’ models, such as defined by Ashworth (1997), and as such linked to the re-commodification of the city as a place of visual and cultural consumption, ‘stage-sets within which consumption can take place’ (Urry, 1995:

21). Alternatively, through the mediation of the planning process it maybe a pragmatic compromise position aimed at meeting conflicting objectives of conservation and renewal.

The Study Area: ‘Grainger Town’ and Beyond

The area under consideration encompasses a large part of the historic core of

Newcastle upon Tyne, an area since the early 1990s labelled as ‘Grainger Town’, together with parts of the city adjacent which were subject to comprehensive re- development in the 1960s and 1970s (see Figures 1 and 2). The label was developed as part of an effort to commodify the area in a particular way; to revive and revitalise the area. Though the area is characterised by many very high quality historic buildings it was realised that this part of the city centre was facing major problems. The retail core of the city centre has moved north, consolidated

Article for Cities 10 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK by the construction of the Council promoted Eldon Square shopping centre in the early 1970s (see below) and subsequent developments. To the south, the historic

Quayside area by the River Tyne has been regenerated with the assistance of substantial public sector investment from the Development

Corporation, which has absorbed much of the demand for growth for leisure uses such as restaurants and pubs. Office uses have also been drifting away from the city centre, most recently to the Quayside. Thus a combination of the changing geography of the city centre, which is largely the product of different forms of public intervention, together with a decentralisation of functions from the city centre, has left large swathes of the middle section of the city suffering from such problems as high vacancy rates (especially of upper floors) and poor building condition.

The name Grainger Town derives from Richard Grainger, a speculative developer of the 1820s, 30s and 40s, who was responsible for a phenomenal amount of development in Newcastle at that time, including the planned commercial centre that forms the heart of ‘Grainger Town’. This comprises three major city streets, a number of secondary streets and some major public buildings, including a theatre and a covered market. The two principal streets,

Grey Street and Grainger Street, radiate from a column which has become the symbolic centre of the city. This massive development, completed between 1834 and 1839, was skilfully inserted into the city leaving the medieval street pattern largely intact. Since its completion this commercial heart has consistently been a source of civic pride and praised by external commentators. For example,

Pevsner states that the development gives ‘the whole centre of the old town a

Article for Cities 11 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK dignity and orderliness...’ and describes Grey Street as ‘one of the best streets in

England’ (Pevsner & Richmond, 1957: 220 & 249). The work of Grainger is often closely linked with the architect , though in reality Dobson was responsible for only a modest part of Grainger’s developments.

However, much of the area has little or nothing to do with the developments of

Grainger. Conversely, Grainger was responsible for a range of other developments in the city centre and beyond which lie outside Grainger Town.

Most significant was a series of housing developments culminating in the grand late-Georgian Eldon Square immediately to the north of Grainger Town, two- thirds of which was removed for the 1970s shopping centre which bears the same name 1, and the Royal Arcade which lay to the east and was replaced by an urban motorway and roundabout.

Though the focus in this article is on Grainger Town it should be noted that other parts of the city and its centre have considerable historic fabric. For discussions of other areas see Buswell, (1984); Faulkner, (1996); and O'Brien, (1997).

Newcastle 1958- 1973

The late 1950s and 1960s was one of the most dynamic periods of Newcastle’s civic history. In terms of town planning it is dominated by two figures. T. Dan

Smith, later disgraced and imprisoned, was the leader of the City Council

Article for Cities 12 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK between 1958 and 1966 and had an ambitious and grandiose vision of how the city should develop. The other central figure was Newcastle’s first Chief

Planning Officer (1960-68), Wilfred Burns. The processes which were occurring in the development of the city at this time were far more complex than represented by the vision of two individuals. However, it is clear that both men were hugely influential on the Council’s vision of the city.

When Smith came to power in 1958 little development had occurred in the post- war period in Newcastle. Radical plans had been produced (City and County of

Newcastle upon Tyne, 1945) but very little had been implemented. Thus, the framework of the city centre was largely unchanged from the stage it had reached in the mid-nineteenth century. The key formal expression of City Council policy during these years was the 1963 Development Plan Review (City and County of

Newcastle upon Tyne, 1963). This was supported by a series of glossy booklets to promote the major changes proposed in the city centre using modernist visions involving, for example, extensive areas of raised pedestrian deck throughout the northern part of the city centre (e.g. City and County of Newcastle upon Tyne, c.

1964).

Key proposals included an urban motorway and an enclosed shopping centre, both of which were seen as essential to Newcastle retaining its ‘Regional Capital’ role (City and County of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1963). The implementation of these led to the demolition of the Royal Arcade and Eldon Square. When consent was sought for demolition there was little opposition. Indeed, it was the

Council’s original intention to partly retain and partly rebuild the Royal Arcade

Article for Cities 13 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

(ultimately reduced to a poor facsimile), a proposal which was opposed by the

Northern Architectural Association as they considered that both it and the adjacent seventeenth century almshouses (which were retained) were unworthy of preservation (Faulkner, 1996). However, the proposals set out in the 1963 Plan took many years to implement and opposition to demolition developed in the meantime. It was 1969 before Eldon Square was demolished (and 1973 before the new shopping centre constructed) and this became the subject of particular critical comment (Galley, 1973), (Delafons, 1997), (Sharp, 1968). However, objections were confined to a relatively small elite of commentators; the wider public mood still seems to have been one of indifference (Elliot, 1972).

Though this era is perhaps now most remembered for redevelopment and the demolition of historic buildings, the 1963 Plan also defined four ‘preservation areas’. Two of the four areas were within the area now defined as Grainger

Town. These were:

• ‘The Dobson/ Grainger Area’, essentially defined as what survives today of

Grainger’s work - as ‘part of Clayton Street and the buildings around Eldon

Square.. are, without any doubt, required for redeveloping the shopping centre

and cannot be integrated into the redevelopment scheme’ (City and County of

Newcastle upon Tyne, 1963 :72), and,

• ‘St. John’s Church Area’, an area containing a heterogeneous mixture of

buildings including, perhaps surprisingly in the context of tastes of the time,

late Victorian work.

All four areas contained buildings not listed at that time but considered worthy of preservation. With the advent of the 1967 Civic Amenities Act these areas were

Article for Cities 14 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK extended and designated as two city centre conservation areas (one based around the Grainger development) in combination with the two preservation areas to the south of Grainger Town. This left a significant hole in the city centre around the

Bigg Market area; the area which most clearly demonstrates the city’s medieval street and plot pattern. It was designated as a third conservation area in 1970. The three areas were combined (and the area slightly extended) into the Central

Conservation Area in 1973. Though there have been some subsequent modest extensions, this is essentially the same area as covered by the Central

Conservation Area today, of which Grainger Town forms a major part.

Both Smith and Burns saw themselves as appreciative of the architectural qualities of old buildings and the character of the city. Their vision was to keep what they considered as the very best of the old, and weld this with the new, the impact of which was intended to be ‘equally as great as that which the schemes of Grainger and Dobson had in the past’ (City and County of Newcastle upon

Tyne, 1963: 73). The best of the old was seen as the Grainger commercial centre, particularly celebrated for its visual qualities, which has until recently been perceived as the product of picturesque town planning 2. Little consideration was given to wider conservation concerns. A ‘conservative repair’ approach was restricted to isolated medieval and late-medieval buildings and monuments. The medieval morphology of the Bigg Market Area was only included in the Central

Conservation Area in 1970.

Importantly, the Grainger commercial centre was also an economically healthy area, unlike the more marginal Eldon Square and Royal Arcade, both of which

Article for Cities 15 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK were sacrificed for development. Emphasis was placed on visual enhancements, such as stone cleaning. Burns wrote of his admiration for the ‘Grainger/ Dobson area of classical splendour’ which ‘must be retained to the maximum extent possible, and indeed some of its lost dignity must be restored’ (Burns, 1967: 6).

One of his concerns was the loss of architectural unity caused by advertising and the insertion of replacement shop-fronts, especially on Grainger Street, a principal shopping street. In order to re-impose unity it was proposed to have a continuous projecting canopy between ground and first floor, for which there was no historical precedent. This was Council policy for many years and partly implemented (Figure 3). 3

Given the economic health of the area, and the emphasis on redevelopments to the north, large-scale interventions in this part of the city were few in this period.

However, one of the buildings central to the composition of the Dobson designed east side of Grey Street had been drastically altered in 1910. When proposals came forward for a modern replacement building they were resisted by the

Council. Smith wrote ‘The Midland Bank wanted to insert a piece of modern architecture, and I felt this would be the end of the street. So I stuck my neck out and said ‘No’. I was accused of carrying a torch for ersatz Dobson....’ (Smith,

1970: 54). A (not entirely accurate) reproduction of the original design was constructed (Pevsner, Grundy, McCombie, Ryder, & Welfare, 1992) (Figure 4).

These examples illustrate an approach to Grainger’s Commercial Centre which was based on its visual management.

Article for Cities 16 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

The period from 1974 to the 1990s saw a consolidation of public opinion in favour of conservation and a regret over some of the redevelopment that had taken place (e.g. City of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1977). Economically there was a national property downturn in the early 1970s and these two forces combined resulted in the loss of relatively few historic buildings in the rest of the decade. In the 1980s, with a buoyant property market, investment frequently took place behind retained facades. No quantification of this exists but Lovie (1997) notes four major reconstructions behind retained facades between 1982-1990 in Grey

Street alone. However, even in a period of a booming property market it became increasingly apparent that investment in the area was extremely localised and that the fabric and economy of much of the area was coming under great stress (e.g.

City of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1986).

Grainger Town in the 1990s

The Grainger Town Project has developed through a series of stages. About 1990 the term Grainger Town became attached to a defined spatial area. A Council committee report of 1991 (Director of Development, 1991) identifies the need for a Grainger Town Study, with English Heritage 4 support, which ‘will be based upon the identification of economic roles for the area which are compatible with the conservation of its historic character.’ (p7) This led to ‘The Grainger Town

Study’ (The Conservation Practice and others, 1992). This document sought to define a ‘conservation-based strategy’. In essence it was a study which was

Article for Cities 17 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK primarily aimed at developing the planning framework for the area, though it did also propose a ‘Regeneration Project’ with a project officer in a mobilising and co-ordinating role. At this time the Grainger Town Project was primarily a partnership between the City Council and English Heritage with some input from the central government Department of the Environment and a private sector grouping, The Newcastle Initiative.

The Conservation Practice work led to a second study, commissioned in 1995

(EDAW, 1996). This brought a number of other bodies into the partnership and, significantly English Partnerships 5, and there is a perception that at this stage the

Grainger Town Project shifted emphasis from being conservation led and assumed a broader economic development approach. There is a discernible shift of emphasis in the EDAW report. Though the quality of the built heritage is emphasised it states ‘The current focus is on place , rather than Grainger Town’s economy or its people , and this emphasis will change’ (p3). Conservation does not appear explicitly as one of the six strategic objectives and overall the primary emphasis is on economic vitality. The vision statement set out for Grainger Town also illustrates a different urban positioning from the 1960s. Newcastle is seen as in competition as in investment location with other cities nationally and at a

European level, with the quality of the heritage of the area seen as a potential comparative advantage in achieving this.

The emphasis of the Grainger Town Project, now a free-standing agency, the

Grainger Town Partnership, is on achieving the regeneration of the area over a six year period 6, and it has attracted substantial capital resources to aid in the

Article for Cities 18 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK implementation of this goal, though development control responsibilities remain with the City Council. As the Grainger Town Project developed from a concern over the condition of historic fabric in the area, it might be thought that such concerns would now be central to decision-making. However, tensions can exist between the imperative of achieving regeneration objectives and targets and sustaining historic fabric and character. Three brief case-studies are used here to illustrate this 7.

2/12 Grey Street is a long standing problem of group of listed buildings at the foot of Grey Street (Figure 5). They have a complex and varied history. Grainger never succeeded in acquiring the corner block (2-8) and had to content himself with re-facing the existing structure. The buildings are vacant and are one of the few groups in the area not to have been cleaned in the 1960s and 70s. There have been many schemes for the buildings over the years. A current planning permission (from 1993/ 94) exists for their demolition and replacement with a design which is intended to reflect what Grainger might have built had he been able to acquire and redevelop this property. There was considerable opposition to this proposal from amenity societies. However, permission was granted though this scheme has not as yet proceeded. At the time of writing the City Council is pursuing the compulsory acquisition of this property with the implementation of the extant permission as an option, and the resolution of these problem buildings is considered a key priority of the Grainger Town Partnership (1998).

St. Nicholas’ Buildings are/ were a large group of Victorian commercial buildings. They have recently been refurbished with the support of English

Article for Cities 19 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

Partnerships and are often presented as one of the successes of the Grainger

Town Partnership. However, the only surviving historic fabric is the facade, the interior was completely removed. This is despite an original set of permissions dating from 1988, agreed after negotiation with English Heritage, which retained notable internal features such as the principal staircases.

A recent planning approval involves a proposal for a large leisure complex

(quoted as being a £45 million investment), known as the Newgate House scheme. However, the monolithic form and a perceived insensitivity to the character of the area has led to the Urban Design Panel of the Grainger Town

Partnership and the City’s Conservation Areas Advisory Committee 8 (amongst others) to object on detailed design grounds and the proposal runs counter to the

Council’s own commissioned analyses of the area (North East Civic Trust, 1996;

The Conservation Practice and others, 1992). The development as proposed consists of two large irregular shaped buildings which enclose the assembled sites (Figure 6). They are split only by Low Friar Street, although even so it is intended that they are linked by a bridge. Again, these is a key priority scheme identified by the Grainger Town Partnership (1998).

These three brief examples illustrate some of the tensions which can occur in managing the regeneration process in historic areas. In each case a position has been reached through negotiation whereby the City Council has acceded to an approach which is based on producing an acceptable visual result, whilst overriding concerns over the loss of historic fabric or the historic town plan and morphology. The objections to the three schemes largely relate to the loss of

Article for Cities 20 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK these elements; that is, they are rooted in the SPAB and Conzen approaches. The scheme for 2/12 Grey Street would result in the total loss of historic fabric above ground level and its replacement by conjectural historicism. The historic fabric of

St Nicholas’ Buildings has been reduced to a facade. The Newgate House scheme will result in the replacement of a vestigial complex grain and morphology by an introverted and monolithic development. However, in adopting a compromise approach between giving developers unfettered freedom and the approach argued for by conservation lobbyists, the City has argued that both conservation and regeneration objectives are being achieved.

Conclusion: Conservation in Grainger Town 1958-1998

The introduction to this article described a posited sea-change in the policy significance and public attitudes towards the historic environment between the

1960s and 1990s. Nation-wide, central government has identified greater numbers of buildings which should be listed and there have been considerable increases in the number of listed buildings in the centre of Newcastle. This includes buildings which would have been considered ordinary in the 1960s.

Through stricter laws and policy central government has also ensured that less historic buildings are lost in their entirety and increasingly through policy guidance has sought to influence the way buildings are conserved through the development control process.

Article for Cities 21 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

In Newcastle, the legacy of Richard Grainger, and the historic character of the rest of what is now Grainger Town, survived largely intact until the 1960s, more by accident than design. The survival of historic fabric up until this date is largely the product of the continued utility of the buildings and a lack of investment in the area rather than the product of self-conscious efforts to preserve character; prior to the 1960s the City did not identify such measures beyond limited proposals to preserve isolated medieval and late-medieval buildings and structures. Ironically it was this decade which brought both policies to preserve and the first significant demolition.

A shift has subsequently occurred in the function of conservation, with an increasing emphasis on an economic role. The purpose of conservation in the

Newcastle of the 1960s was to retain buildings and areas because of their intrinsic merit; conserving Grainger Town is now both an economic problem and opportunity for the city. The relationship between conservation and regeneration is one of enduring controversy 9 but the Grainger Town Project is premised on a view of the economic benefits that conservation and regeneration in tandem can bring. It is seen as a major advantage as the city positions itself in competition with urban areas across Europe 10 . However, as has been seen, tensions can arise in this relationship.

Thus, though there has been a radical shift towards more extensive conservation of the historic environment, beneath the growth in legislation and policy lies a more complex picture. Using the framework set out at the beginning of this paper, in the 1960s the City Council’s approach to conservation was largely

Article for Cities 22 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK focused around a visual management strategy which sought to integrate historic buildings with contemporary development which was to be, it was believed, of at least equal quality. The aim was to create a strong townscape by contrasting the best of the old with the new, often in dramatic juxtaposition. Historic buildings were explicitly brought into this strategy, for example, through the policy of introducing the Grainger Street canopy. However, conservation was not part of the City’s economic strategy, economic development and growth was to be achieved through new development.

In the 1990s the situation is more complex, but the City’s response again often involves the adoption of a visual management strategy. This is the product of rather different forces. The context in which planning decisions over historic fabric are taken has changed markedly, especially in relation to national policy and legislation, the identification of substantially more of the city as of historic importance and public opinion. However, conservation policy and objectives can conflict with other policy objectives and in particular the need to achieve economic regeneration. The quality of the buildings of Grainger Town are seen as a major asset in terms of the city image of Newcastle (EDAW, 1996) but can be a practical impediment to the regeneration of the area, especially constrained as the

Grainger Town Partnership is by a six year lifespan.

There is evidence that the conservation of historic buildings is an aim of public policy in Newcastle that now carries significant public support (Garrod, Willis,

Bjarnadottir, & Cockbain, 1996). However, in terms of the detailed debates over the form of individual projects discussed here, public engagement is still limited.

Article for Cities 23 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

For example, the City Council’s Conservation Area Advisory Committee, composed partly of the representatives of amenity organisations, can be said to represent a section of wider public opinion, but as Punter (1990: 255) has pointed out (in the context of Bristol) a ‘limited and exceptionally well informed section’.

The emphasis for such conservation lobbyists has shifted from fighting wholesale demolition (e.g. Eldon Square) to debates over the nature of interventions in terms of fabric and morphology.

In mediating conflicts which have arisen the City Council has had to achieve solutions which can be represented as both conservation and regeneration successes. This has been achieved by a strategy which visually manages the area but where development might take place behind retained facades or be historicist in architectural style. The different frames of reference concerning fabric and morphology used by other stakeholders, such as English Heritage and conservation amenity groups, have in some cases been put aside in order to achieve the imperative of regeneration.

In considering the management of historic areas in the UK over the last 30 years it is notable that a set of ethics and principles equivalent to the widely known tenants for historic buildings of the SPAB tradition have not evolved.

International charters such as ‘the Washington Charter’ (ICOMOS, 1987) have little discernible impact on UK practice. This makes the process of the management of the historic fabric of an area like Grainger Town especially difficult. Similar issues to those described in Newcastle are likely to arise in other cities, especially where there are conflicting policy agendas. The management of

Article for Cities 24 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK these competing agendas in Newcastle to date could be represented as a balanced and pragmatic means of achieving the economic revitalisation of a historic city, or, conversely, as a superficial appeasement of conservation concerns, ultimately lacking in integrity. In the absence of a coherent and consensual approach to the conservation of historic areas such as Grainger Town, the answer to this lies in the eye of the beholder.

Article for Cities 25 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

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Table 1: Response to historic area issues using three different sets of conservation objectives

1. SPAB tradition 2. Conzen 3. Visual approach Management Philosophy of Change visible Change Change hidden intervention accommodated Significance of Retention of Important; though Relatively historic fabric historic fabric key not necessarily unimportant primary issue Significance of Neutral Key factor Only key features town plan important Facadism Unacceptable due Will depend on Legitimate to loss of integrity individual case e.g. whether new build contained within original plot Architectural Neutral Need to respect Need to appear to form of new build morphology, scale, respect scale, mass mass etc. of etc. in principal historic area locations Architectural style Buildings should Neutral May encourage/ of new build be ‘of their time’ result in historicist approach Works in public Design should be Design should May encourage realm contemporary respect historic ‘heritage’ approach materials and form e.g. ‘Victorian e.g. historic kerb style’ street lines furniture Significance of Very important Very important Unimportant research

Article for Cities 32 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

Footnotes

1 The third wing of Eldon Square was spared as the City Council failed to obtain from the

Secretary of State consent for the demolition of a listed non-conformist chapel lying to its rear.

2 Faulkner (1990) argues that the Grainger scheme was the product of pragmatic entrepreneurship rather than conscious picturesque town planning.

3 At the time of writing the Grainger Town Partnership is offering substantial grants for the removal of these canopies. Ironically, they are now considered to have contributed to the disrepair of buildings by making the maintenance of upper floors difficult, as well as being aesthetically inappropriate.

4 Government conservation agency

5 Government regeneration agency

6 The first year was the financial year 1997/98.

7 These case studies are not intended to be representative of all regeneration activity in Grainger

Town. For example, some projects involve the simple refurbishment of buildings. Others, such as a proposal to demolish a prominent 1970s office block, have been welcomed by all parties.

8 Both invited groups serving in an advisory capacity.

9 It has long been argued that conservation is beneficial to regeneration (e.g. SAVE Britain's

Heritage, 1998) though others continue to see it as an impediment (e.g. Urban Task Force, 1998).

10 See Jensen-Butler, Shachar, & Weesep (1997) for a discussion of these issues.

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Captions to Illustrations

Figure 1: Grainger Town and Beyond - shown superimposed on the second edition Ordnance Survey from 1898.

Figure 2: Looking up Grey Street to Grey’s Monument: the Classic Grainger Town View

Figure 3: The Grainger Street Canopy

Figure 4: The Midland Bank, Grey Street - a facade of 1969

Figure 5: 2/12 Grey Street

Figure 6: The Newgate House Scheme. The first map shows the application site and gives a sense of the historic plots incorporated within the site, which are shown more vividly on the second map, the second edition Ordnance Survey from 1898.

Article for Cities 34 The Conservation of Historic Areas in the UK

Figure 1: Grainger Town and Beyond - shown superimposed on the second edition Ordnance Survey from 1898.

Key.

A Grey’s Monument 1 2/12 Grey Street B Grey Street 2 St. Nicholas’ Buildings C Grainger Street 3 Site of Newgate House scheme D Eldon Square E Royal Arcade

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