03 AUTUMN 2003 Changing London

AN HISTORIC CITY FOR A MODERN WORLD

Map-making, lists and descriptions have helped Londoners through the ages keep a sense of the whole of the sprawling city in which they live. The work continues: July 2003 saw the publication by English Heritage of the thirteenth Register of Buildings at Risk in Greater London. There is one difference from the records of earlier centuries, however.The London BAR Register, like its twelve predecessors, records those listed buildings and scheduled ancient monuments known to be at risk from neglect, decay, under-use or redundancy with the specific intention of bringing their plight to public notice. Its success is undeniable: 90% of the buildings on the 1991 Register have since been repaired. Its track record in bringing historic buildings back from the brink is established – but the dereliction and under-use continue. This third edition of Changing London explores ‘Steadily, we are shifting the some of the success stories and the outstanding challenges in this important aspect of London life. focus of Buildings At Risk to It also looks beyond conservation and restoration preventing –rather than to active regeneration initiatives. rescuing – ruins.’ Delcia Keate Regional Adviser for Buildings at Risk.

CONTENTS 4/5 7 2/3 Partners in Regeneration On the Road to Recovery: Registering Success 6 Historic Road Corridors Probing the Past: Archaeology of London and BARs 03 AUTUMN 2003

REGISTERING

SUCCESS Delcia Keate Regional Adviser for Buildings at Risk

‘WE CAN NOW USE THE REGISTER PROACTIVELY TO IDENTIFY EMERGING ISSUES, SO THAT SCARCE RESOURCES CAN BE DEPLOYED MORE EFFECTIVELY.’

In July English Heritage published Heritage Lottery Fund are the thirteenth edition of the commissioning a study to explore London Register of Buildings at Risk. some solutions to this London- 723 listed buildings were highlighted wide issue. – at risk from neglect, disuse or In the past year we have seen redundancy. successful outcomes for some of One quarter of BARs in London are London’s longest-standing BARs owned by local authorities. Some – including Eltham Orangery, such as Finsbury Town Hall, Islington Greenwich, St Luke’s Church, Old and Hornsey Town Hall, Haringey – Street, Islington and St Stephen’s are outstanding examples of Church, Rosslyn Hill, Camden, all Victorian and 20th century public with the help of EH grant aid. architecture, which now face Works are underway at Chandos redundancy. In February, we jointly House, Westminster, Isokon Flats, hosted Civic Heritage: Millstone or Camden and 52 Newington Green, Opportunity? at Shoreditch Town Hall, Hackney, one of London’s oldest itself a building at risk being restored terraced houses. Last year we offered by a community trust. Civic buildings £225,293 for the repair of BARs, are often unsuitable for residential or including the medieval church of St commercial conversions, and we are Andrew, Kingsbury and Hawksmoor’s urging local authorities to seek mixed St George, Bloomsbury. uses that can ensure a sustainable More unusual structures such as future for their magnificent public the conduit house at Blackheath, a spaces. scheduled ancient monument, and Eleven mansions are at risk in public the unique Victorian stage machinery parks, including Gunnersbury Park, at Alexandra Palace Theatre are also Hounslow, and Broomfield House, benefiting.To help local authorities Enfield (which featured in the recent establish local BAR strategies, we are part-funding 39 conservation officer St Luke’s, Old Street, Islington BBC2 Restoration programme).These St Luke’s, built between 1727 and 1733 by buildings are treasured by local posts in 22 London boroughs. Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James, communities, but often face huge Over the past twelve years, the was an empty shell for 40 years. Now, repair backlogs.The key is to find Buildings At Risk Register has had a thanks to grant aid from English Heritage sympathetic uses that will keep them huge public profile. In 1991 when and the Heritage Lottery Fund, it is as community assets while raising the first Register was compiled, the back in use by the London Symphony Orchestra, as a rehearsal and performance vital revenue funding.We and the problem seemed overwhelming – space and an education centre. 2/3

Alexandra Palace Theatre Disused for nearly 70 years, the Grade II theatre, is the last surviving large music hall and one of the earliest cinemas. It contains the only unaltered mechanised timber stage of its date in the country. The conservation strategy proposes to repair the stage machinery for public display and the demonstration of Victorian stage techniques, whilst seeking a wide variety of uses for the auditorium.

1,000 buildings at risk were identified at the height of a recession, many in a parlous state. 90% of these have been repaired and this year we have seen a decline in the number of additions to the Register. Although there is still a hard core of intractable BARs, we can now use the Register proactively, to identify emerging issues so that scarce resources can be deployed more effectively. Steadily, we are shifting the focus of BAR to preventing – rather than rescuing – ruins.

INFORMATION POINT Copies of the London Buildings At Risk Register (Product Code 50794) can be obtained from English Heritage Customer Services – call 0870 333 1181 or e-mail customer@english- heritage.org.uk. Managing Local Authority Heritage Assets (Product Code 50795) sets out guiding principles for the good management and disposal of property, and encourages high-quality design in new work. The document is endorsed by ODPM and DCMS. Copies are available from English Heritage Customer Services. Regular tours of Alexandra Palace including the theatre are provided by the Alexandra Palace Trust. The Friends of the Theatre can be contacted on [email protected] 03 AUTUMN 2003

‘London is a vibrant and arresting place precisely because it blends the new with the established scene’ PARTNERS IN REGENERATION

South Shoreditch in Hackney, just north of the City of FURNISHING A FUTURE London, is at the centre of the ‘City Fringe’.The area has a FOR SOUTH SHOREDITCH fine concentration of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century commercial buildings. It is a richly varied and visually compelling architectural legacy. But South Shoreditch is under threat.

RAY ROGERS TAKES UP Urban Planning Policy Framework for THE STORY... South Shoreditch.This will be a policy This was the centre of the London document that, following consultation, furniture trade from the 1850’s to can be adopted by Hackney to the 1950’s; no longer – and now, provide much needed detailed there is intense development planning guidance designed to pressure on the City Fringe. protect the best features of the area, Piecemeal alterations to individual while allowing businesses to flourish. buildings and new, large scale office development threaten to change the character of areas like South Shoreditch. To help defend the unique qualities of the area, English Heritage is carrying out a detailed architectural and historic study of the buildings of the Shoreditch furniture trade.The results will be published in a form similar to the popular booklets on the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and Manchester Warehouses. At the same time, English Heritage has combined with the GLA and Hackney Council to jointly fund a study that will result in an 4/5

London is a huge World City, Take Hatton Garden, London's 300 buildings are now being refurbished constantly renewing itself.This does year old jewellery quarter.There is for mixed uses with some new not just mean the creation of new a need to inject new life into the buildings threaded into the picture. buildings. Landmark historic buildings, jewellery trade and to save The developers have responded to a street of character or well-worn workshops from office and winebar the opportunity to create a new places where lives have been led are conversion.The key to the future neighbourhood.The reused old equally important to people. Such is the Hatton Garden Jewellery buildings and the paved industrial places provide continuity and a sense Partnership.This coalition brings yards will be linked by pedestrian of place.They encapsulate memory together Camden Council, jewellery paths, opening up a hidden part of and humanise the city. London is a designers, manufacturers and retailers London for rediscovery. vibrant and arresting place precisely with English Heritage and the When commercial development because it blends the new with the London Development Agency. embraces public opinion, the local Martin O’Rourke, Regeneration Adviser. established scene. Partnership is possible too with authority and English Heritage, Regenerating London and its commercial developers.The P&O architectural diversity and financial character demands a partnership site occupies four 19th century reality can work together – as between local authorities, public blocks east of Kings Cross Station. the following three case studies agencies, developers and most Blighted for many years by planning demonstrate. importantly, local people. uncertainty, these conservation area

INFORMATION POINT website at www. english- heritage.org.uk for further details. English Heritage In London 2003-5 summarises and explains what English Heritage Customer Services the organization hopes to do to (T: 0870 333 1181) can supply promote, protect and revive copies of The State of the Historic London’s historic environment Environment Report 2002, The in the near future. Contact Richard Heritage Dividend 2002 and English Dumville at London Region for Heritage: A User’s Guide – the copies (e-mail london@english-her- website will alert you to updates. REDISCOVERING A SOUTH FROM FRESH MILK itage.org uk) – or visit the LONDON GEM TO THE FUTURE St. George’s Circus (left) is an unusual College Farm, Finchley is a remarkable local artists. Although immensely remnant of a grand Regency town- survival. It was developed by Sir popular, uncertainty and the Foot scape, writes Sarah Buckingham. George Barham who founded the and Mouth epidemic finally closed Houses, shops and a public house are Express Dairy Company to bring the farm in 2002.Today this milk to London from outlying farms. set around a large circus with an interesting group of buildings stands He erected a picturesque group of obelisk at the centre.While some of very much at risk. buildings and welcomed the public in the early nineteenth century buildings to see how a dairy farm worked. By English Heritage is working with a have been lost, many remain, although 1890 the elaborately tiled dairy local trust to secure a long term vacant and dilapidated. A number of building had been converted into a future for the farm as an educational, major roads converge on the circus, tearoom and College Farm had community and recreational resource. and heavy through-traffic does not become a popular visitor attraction. Plans to widen the North Circular make it a pleasant place to linger. The Farm ceased to be used for Road have been abandoned and we Nonetheless, it is a place of great dairying in 1974 and two years later have been instrumental in persuading character, with many listed buildings, was acquired by the Department of the Minister to sell the farm to the and a conservation area at its core. It Transport as part of its proposals to College Farm Trust for a heavily has the potential to be “rediscovered” widen the North Circular Road. discounted price.We are also helping through carefully considered Pending the roadworks, it then the Trust to put together a bid for future generations, especially children, responses to growing pressures for reopened as an open farm and grant aid from the Heritage Lottery can enjoy, appreciate and understand change and renewal. English Heritage, community facility. For 25 years some Fund.The total cost of the project is how a model dairy farm served working with all major stakeholders in 20,000 visitors a year, many of them about £3m but this will achieve Victorian London with fresh milk. much more than the repair of four the area, has commissioned an Urban children, came to see the animals, Paddy Pugh Design Framework to help ensure farm museum and paintings by listed buildings. It will ensure that its renaissance. 03 AUTUMN 2003

PROBING THE PAST: ARCHAEOLOGY AND BARS

London is a multi-layered city. detailed picture of the Victorian way Beneath the bleaching fields of of death – and intimate details of ‘ENGLISH HERITAGE the adjacent 18th/19th century Victorian dentistry! IS COMMITTED TO printworks in Merton lie the Archaeological investigation and remains of a medieval priory’s MORE THAN JUST recording at sites like these are an BRICKS AND MORTAR’ Chapter House. A proposed youth increasingly important aspect of performing arts venue at the English Heritage’s work in London. Catherine Cavanagh Roundhouse in Chalk Farm is Greater London Archaeological Advisory From the medieval to the modern Service (GLAAS). yielding rich clues about its former periods, understanding a building or role in the history of the railways. an area’s past is essential to plan a Buildings represent only the not be an optional extra: but a Church crypts, such as St George’s viable future. most recent and visible phase of required condition of planning Bloomsbury, are providing a development on a site. Understanding consent.This can even apply to their significance informs decisions the redevelopment of very about retention and mitigation recent buildings, since often no strategies – and early assessment documentary evidence survives is vital if sustainable development detailing how they functioned. It is is to be reconciled with the preferable to study them prior to preservation of the built and demolition rather than dig up their natural heritage, as Planning Policy foundations in a century’s time. Guidance 15 advocates. A survey may range from a basic Building recording and analysis may photographic record to a full drawn not be an optional extra: but a one with historic research and required condition of planning analysis. Oral testimonies and video consent.This can even apply to recording may also play a part, the redevelopment of very helping us understand how recent buildings, since often nodoc- structures reflect the needs of the umentary evidence survives people who designed, built and used detailing how they functioned. It is them. It is yet another indication that preferable to study them prior to English Heritage is committed to Building recording and analysis may more than just bricks and mortar.

Industrial buildings are often among those Herbert Morrison Terrace, Lambeth was The crypt of Hawksmoor’s St George’s, This plaster cast is one of two faces and a most at risk of disappearing from the land- originally built in 1828 and partly destroyed Bloomsbury (1731) revealed 781 coffins hand of two elderly individuals which were scape but they often provide valuable in the Second World War. It has suffered interred between 1800 and 1856. Not only found in the coffin of a seven year-old girl. archaeological evidence about industries from squatting, fire and water damage and do the coffins themselves provide a vivid There was also a large silk shawl and a that were once an integral part of the local pigeon infestation. However, surviving early illustration of the expense and elaboration length of velvet ribbon. Death masks were community. Some, like Battersea Power features are helping us understand its past of early Victorian funeral traditions, their quite common in Victorian mourning but Station, are of such national significance that life and are being retained as the terrace is contents also give us touching insights to find them in a coffin is unusual. Perhaps their future is given proper consideration. being given new life as keyworker into the lives of individuals. they were the little girl’s grandparents? Many others across London are not so for- accommodation. Above is the skull of an elderly man with tunate. elaborate dentures, with porcelain and ivory teeth set in gold. His second (spring- loaded!) set were also found in his coffin. 6/7

ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY HISTORIC ROAD CORRIDORS OF LONDON

Buildings at Risk tend to be located in rundown historic areas — the same locations we seek for our area grant scheme partnerships with London Boroughs: HERS (Heritage Economic Regeneration Schemes). Since their launch in 1999, over 20 have started in London with a major impact on BARS. Historic road corridors have been high priorities Charles Wagner, Historic Areas Adviser. for action. The history of London is one of the gradual expansion of the built up area. Ahead of the conurbation, there was extensive “ribbon development” along the routes into London: the historic corridors. Along these routes The Old Well,Tottenham High Road many chose to settle to escape the now awaiting conservation dirt and disease of London, whilst still Haringey, and the Upper Lea Valley housing association.The Palace being within easy distance of the City. Partnership with funds from central Theatre is now a church. Among the As ribbon developments were government and ERDF funds from prominent locally listed buildings that engulfed by the conurbation, the the European Union. have been helped are the old barn original owners left. During the 20th Over the last five years, five Buildings (No 579b) which was repaired and century as motor traffic increased, at Risk have been repaired and converted for office use, and Forest the environments along these roads brought back into use: the Old Fire Gardens Mews, a late C19 mews declined. Properties slid down the Station and Mountford House both complex that has been converted social scale, but many survived, and on Tottenham Green, High Cross by a housing association to live/work they still form the nucleus of many INFORMATION POINT School, No 792 and No 820.The units – an instant success. London neighbourhoods. But listing GLAAS advises 31 London Boroughs Old Fire Station is now Tottenham Our eight years’ involvement in on the impact of development on in itself does not solve the problem Enterprise Centre (for business Tottenham High Road with Haringey built and buried archaeology. It of decay, or take away the “risk”. publishes regular quarterly reports start-ups), and Mountford House Council has helped drive forward and an annual review of its work. Contact Lidia Szaflarska on Since 1994 we have attempted to is now flats owned by a housing the regeneration of this part of 020 7973 3735 for copies. tackle the most rundown historic association. High Cross School has London in a sensitive way that has The Sites & Monuments Record corridors in London.Tottenham High become private flats and No 792 preserved and enhanced its historic database lists over 70,000 sites, artefacts and listed buildings in Road is a prime example. It is part of residential accommodation for a interest, whilst encouraging modern Greater London. A first stop the AlO Ermine Street.The first housing association. No 820 has development on less sensitive sites. for anyone involved with site assessment – call 020 7973 3779. grant scheme started here in 1995 continued as a shop on the ground But there is still a long way go. At A Research Framework for London in North Tottenham. In 1998 the floor with a much improved present 10 Buildings at Risk remain Archaeology 2002 and London’s scheme was extended to cover the maisonette above. unresolved along, or just off, the Archaeological Secrets: A World City Revealed (Chris Thomas, Andy whole High Road through the bor- Over the same period another High Road. 1 Chopping & Tracy Wellman, Yale ough, 2 ⁄4 miles (3.75km). University Press, 2003) are available 10 listed buildings have received from the Museum of London – call English Heritage has invested over grant aid. For example, No 811 was 020 7410 2224. £3m in buildings on the High Road repaired by a pizza company who matched by at least that sum from have let the upper floors to a 03 8 AUTUMN 2003 Changing London AN HISTORIC CITY FOR A MODERN WORLD

PARTNERS IN REGENERATION Our cover image shows a pair of terraced houses built around 1835 in Union Street, Southwark.They are in an extremely poor state and in immediate danger of further deterioration. Even though English Heritage and its local and national partners have a proven track record in attracting potential uses and funds for such buildings, new cases of ‘buildings at risk’ right across London demand attention each year.Why should we all continue to fight on their behalf? Because such buildings are not only integral to the rich and diverse fabric of the capital – they also embody the lives, the hopes and aspirations of those who built them, lived and worked in them.They are more than just bricks and mortar.They proclaim London’s human past. away for ever but English Heritage continues to believe that the fight Consider the photograph here of Nelson to preserve and regenerate them is a worthy cause. Mandela unveiling a plaque to the South This issue of Changing London focuses attention on just some of the African freedom fighters Ruth First and work we are undertaking with our partners across the capital to Joe Slovo. For twelve crucial years, they safeguard its historic environment. But English Heritage is also committed lived at 13 Lyme Street in Camden and to helping London adapt and grow. We will continue to forge positive the house became a meeting place for an relationships with partners in national and local government and the international group of exiles and their private sector to achieve this. We welcome your ongoing support. supporters. For centuries London has offered a refuge to the oppressed, who, in turn, have enriched its life and Philip Davies culture. All over London, buildings such as this declare the city’s history. Director for London, English Heritage. Some, like those in Union Street, are in grave danger of being swept

CONTACT DETAILS We would welcome comments and suggestions on this edition.These should be sent to

Richard Dumville (Regional Policy Officer) London Region, English Heritage Lifschutz Davidson Architects 23 Savile Row, London, W1S 2ET T: 020 7973 3783 NEXT ISSUE Alternatively you can e-mail us at Old and new London The new [email protected] pedestrian walkways at Hungerford Bridge, linking Charing Cross and If you have not received this edition direct and the South Bank complex, are a wish to be added to the circulation list, then model of how new architecture please send in your address details. can blend with the historic Additional copies can be obtained from English environment – and enhance it. Heritage Customer Services – call 0870 333 1181. The next issue of Changing London will explore other examples of the meshing of old and new across London. Published by English Heritage Edited by Gordon Dulieu Designed by Real 451 Printed by Push

All images © English Heritage, p.2 © Chris Christodolou p.8 © www.richardwaite.co.uk Product Code 50768