The Georgian No 1, 2024

The latest issue of The Georgian (No 1, 2024) is particularly worth seeking out for three insightful articles. In the first, Will Palin, CEO of Barts Heritage and a trustee of the Georgian Group, describes the restoration of Sheerness Dockyard Church, winner of the 2003 Georgian Group Architectural Award. The church was the subject of a serious fire in 2021, within a few hours reducing the Grade II*-listed landmark building of 1823 to a charred shell. After the church had been shown sold to a developer, who obtained permission for a clearly unviable scheme to convert it into 19 residential units, the building languished for nearly ten years until a campaign led by SAVE (with the help on the Georgian Group and the Spitalfield Trust), led ultimately to Swale Borough Council serving a CPO, before passing the building first to the trust and then to the newly formed Sheerness Dockyard Trust.

The meticulous repairs to the exterior have been exemplary, and imaginative and sympathetic adaptation has converted the interior to a business use, offering co-working for start-ups and business mentoring of young people between 16 and 30, event and meeting room hire and a cafe. This well-illustrated article demonstrates the power of persistence, and that exemplary conservation-led restoration can revive even the most broken and neglected historic building if the vision, energy and willpower are there.

In the second article, ‘Back to the Future’, Hugh Petter, director of ADAM Urbanism and Adam Architecture, explores how smaller-scale examples of development of the Georgian era could influence building today. This may have particular resonance for those struggling with the current obsession for planning authority-imposed pattern books, masterplanning and design codes, while looking at the practicalities of applying the current building regulations, and implications for materials and construction.

Finally, the eighth instalment of the series on authentic historic details, drawn from the Charles Brookings Collection, illustrates in colour many Georgian front doors. It may prove useful for those who lack a clear understanding of what genuine Georgian patterns involve.

In a column of this kind, it is sometimes difficult to do justice to substantial yearly publications. But particular attention should be drawn to the annual Journal of Historic Buildings and Places (Vol 3, 2024), which has five articles and runs to 198 pages overall. Similarly, the Georgian Group Journal (Vol 32, 2024) has 16 articles and runs to a remarkable 274 pages. Both highlight one of the significant benefits of membership to these national amenity societies.

This article originally appeared in the Institute of Historic Building Conservation’s (IHBC’s) Context 181, published in September 2024.

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation