Caring for historic places

Altrincham Market, Greater Manchester: proposals for the regeneration of the town centre and the refurbishment of this historic market building brought together a range of stakeholders, which was fundamental to achieving high street recovery and contributed to the successful regeneration of Altrincham.

1 Introduction
2 Sustainable neighbourhoods
3 Conservation of historic and natural environments
4 Historic towns
5 Professional practice
6 Related articles on Designing Buildings Conservation.

Introduction

Historic places constantly adapt to meet changing needs. This reflects changes in technologies, work practices, social attitudes, economic means and numerous other factors. Sometimes the rate of change accelerates, and for historic places this may involve large-scale changes of use of floorspace. Covid, Brexit and other global factors have all affected the rate of change in, for example, local economies, high streets and work patterns. At the same time the term ‘crisis’ is increasingly used to describe the effects of climate change and loss of biodiversity. These are major factors in the management and care of historic places.

Sustainable neighbourhoods

It goes without saying that change can be positive, but ill-considered change can harm historic character. This is particularly relevant where sustainable neighbourhoods are concerned. (These are areas which typically include a mixture of residential buildings, shops, businesses and other employment opportunities in close proximity, good access to green spaces and low dependency on the car.) Change can be positive, neutral or negative. Just as it is necessary to analyse and understand ‘special interest’ and ‘character’, it is also necessary to understand what makes historic places sustainable.

The importance of sustainability has been documented previously, for example, in Conservation Professional Practice Principles, published by IHBC with the Historic Towns and Villages Forum and Civic Voice. Historic neighbourhoods tend to have a finer grain of mixed use with employment, community facilities and living accommodation in the same neighbourhood. The high population densities of many modern developments result in a similar urban grain, but the manufacture of materials and construction represents a massive investment of carbon. This is a key consideration in balancing refurbishment with redevelopment.

Historic places also tend to have good pedestrian connectivity and permeability, so support active travel. Green infrastructure is a further factor and historic parks, green routes, village greens, verges, street and garden trees, hedges, historic landscapes and rural settings are just some examples where conservation of historic character and maintaining a sustainable neighbourhood are closely related.

For individual historic building projects, it is necessary to consider the wider context of place. The socioeconomic and physical context affect the feasibility and viability of different uses. For example, demographic characteristics, population catchments, land and property economics and local infrastructure can all have a fundamental impact on the viability of heritage projects. This is why planning for heritage needs to be undertaken as an integral part of the wider planning for an area, rather than being an isolated activity.

Conservation of historic and natural environments

Recent changes to planning legislation and policy have highlighted the correlation between heritage conservation and conservation of the natural environment. This applies to a diverse range of areas. In garden suburbs for example, the conservation of gardens, green spaces, trees and hedges protects not only their character, but also their amenity and biodiversity. Similarly, in rural villages biodiversity and character are closely related, including consideration of green spaces and landscape settings. The same applies to urban areas, where parks and green spaces contribute character and support good physical and mental health as well as biodiversity. However, their conservation and management must also ensure that these spaces remain flexible to changing recreational needs.

This close correlation between conservation of the historic and green environments and biodiversity has been recognised in some neighbourhood plans and have included locally specific policies on the historic and natural environments. The Maids Moreton Neighbourhood Plan is one example where growth, heritage and environment policies and local green space designations collectively protect character, biodiversity and amenity.

Historic towns

Even before Covid, there were concerns over the decline of some town centres. The High Street Task Force and various town centre programmes were already in place before the pandemic. However, decline accelerated in many areas and probably most centres have experienced some closures. In some instances, large amounts of floorspace have become vacant following the closure of stores like Debenhams, many in historic buildings and historic towns. However, there has been a tendency towards generalisation. At the same time, many towns and city centres have maintained their vitality and some have positively prospered.

More flexible life-work patterns developed during the pandemic and to some extent these have continued since. This has implications in terms of demand for offices, retail viability and use of town centres’ facilities. Demand for more traditional office spaces has reduced in some centres. At the same time, there has been an increase in demand for flexible workspace, such as rental desks or hot desks. The hospitality sector was hit hard by the Covid lockdowns but recovered quickly in many towns. Hospitality is a dynamic sector which normally has a high rate of start-ups and closures.

In managing the recovery of historic towns and high streets, the economic value of heritage needs to be understood, whether for its role in creating an attractive environment for shoppers, for its value in providing flexible floorspace, for its potential to support regeneration, or for its contribution to tourism and the visitor economy. Historic buildings have often been part of the solution, for example in market refurbishments in Altrincham and Preston and in the Storyhouse conversion in Chester.

Housing is high on the political agenda and can represent both an opportunity and a challenge for historic towns. When looking for sites for new housing, the opportunity should be taken to consider historic town and high-street recovery early in the process. This enables a positive strategy for increasing the population catchment of towns. To be effective, site allocations need to be supported by infrastructure to enable active travel between new housing and town centres. This is a more strategic approach with emphasis on positive impacts, including those on heritage. Unfortunately, some heritage guidance on housing sites still promotes a passive approach where negative impacts and mitigation are assessed at a later stage.

The role of place leadership was recognised in the High Street Task Force report on ‘Place Leadership in English Local Authorities’, dated November 2022. Leadership and shared vision across a range of stakeholders are both important factors in achieving high street recovery. However, it is surprising how often such corporate leadership is lacking and liaison between different players is limited. The challenge for the heritage sector is to ensure that there is good awareness at strategic level of the economic and social value of heritage.

Professional practice

These are just some examples of current challenges and opportunities for historic places. Practice is not just about conserving character and special interest, but also realising the social and economic potential of heritage and conserving the intrinsic characteristics of historic places in terms of sustainable neighbourhoods, climate change and biodiversity.

Heritage has always been a multi-disciplinary activity. While there have been past attempts to promote a model for the ‘generic’ heritage specialist, the reality is an increasing need for multi-disciplinary teams, combining skills in heritage, architecture, design, planning, landscape, place management and other disciplines. This multidisciplinary approach is essential to the effective care of historic places.

IHBC’s membership is drawn from different disciplines from across the sectors. The competencies for membership work across disciplines and address the full breadth of practice, including economic, placemaking, technical, legal and other factors. The recent revision of the IHBC’s competence descriptors places greater emphasis on placemaking and wider environmental factors. This helps to ensure that heritage practitioners are equipped to tackle the changing nature of constructive, real-world conservation.