The Victorian, No 71, November 2022

With regard to heritage protection, The Victorian (No 71, November 2022) has a timely reminder about the state of play on listing reform. Readers will recall that from 2019 Matthew Saunders produced a report for Historic England on the state of the current statutory list (HE Research Report 27/2021) and made 42 recommendations for further enhancement. One of the overarching findings was that Victorian and Edwardian buildings were still under-represented and under-described in the statutory lists, despite notable advances in Historic England’s understanding and appreciation of the architecture of these periods.

Saunders received over 60 initial submissions and a great deal of valuable insight resulted, but for many day-to-day practitioners the conclusions appeared subsequently to drop from view, so this is a timely reprise. Saunders notes that the reaction to his report from Historic England was positive and work is ongoing. One issue being addressed is the Local to Statutory programme, to serve as a vehicle for entries on a non-statutory local list to be elevated to full statutory protection. Saunders also re-emphasises the validity judgement that the inadequacy of most existing ‘legacy’ statutory list descriptions is an impediment to effective every-day heritage management.

This is followed by a view from Joe Holyoak of the Victorian Society about one of three pilot listing projects, looking into how such buildings are selected and documented. He concentrates on the work undertaken by the Birmingham and West Midlands Group project, noting that others were undertaken by the University of Plymouth and Merseyside Civic Society.

Elsewhere Victoria Thomson, Historic England’s head of national strategy, provides a two-page overview of the recent changes being proposed to the planning system, and their potential effect on heritage protection; and James Stevens Curl looks back on six decades of writing on Victorian architecture in relation to the publication of a new edition of his English Victorian Churches: architecture, faith and revival. The article will hopefully illuminate for readers the scope of publications that have better developed our understanding of church building over this period.

This article originally appeared in the Institute of Historic Building Conservation’s (IHBC’s) Context 175, published in March 2023. It was written by Bob Kindred MBE.

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation

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