Developing Listed Property - May 2010
Taking Bath from glory to glory
As a nation we have not always been protective of our stock of ancient property: there are over 500,000 listed properties in the UK. As Adam Fergusson’s 1973 seminal book “The Sack of Bath” testifies, previous generations of town planners, traffic engineers and politicians were not always as aware of the value of our ancient built environment as we are now. Bath in the years immediately following the Second World War is a case in point.
Thanks to the 1967 Civic Amenities Act and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, and the more recently published Planning Policy Statement 5, a robust and informed framework now facilitates conservation of our most important properties and places.
Many heritage organisations work tirelessly to protect and preserve – including the Council for British Archaeology; the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings; the Victorian Society; and Georgian Group. But who actually actively restores it? - owners and property developers, and I know it can be a hard, and sometimes risky, business.
Bath’s story is one of individual property developers buying land, employing engineers and architects. William Pulteney of Pulteney Bridge fame, even obtained an Act of Parliament in order to build it, providing access to his wife’s land in Bathwick which he subsequently developed.
Bath’s unfinished crescents and terraces are testimony to the property cycles of bygone local property developers. I have myself had the privilege of restoring various Grade 1 and 2 listed properties here – changing neglected office buildings and several hotels back into residential use. Local, knowledgeable and pragmatic Conservation Officers and skilled architects, engineers and craftsmen have made a huge difference.
Bath is by no mean unique in terms of such development opportunities today. Our latest project – Westcliff, five Grade 2 listed Villas in Weston super Mare which have been in educational use for over 100 years – is testimony to the challenges developers face. Despite recession hitting, restoration started in May 2009. Using skilled local planners, engineers, architects and building contractors the project is now receiving high acclaim, with the first owners now in residence. Westcliff, like so many speculative developments from former times (originally “Brockley Crescent”), occupies an enviable elevated site overlooking the Severn Estuary. The 28-home project will complete in Spring 2011 by which time, I and my colleagues will be well onto the next. With so much of the UK’s heritage left to restore, opportunities abound!
Michael Hodges MRICS
Managing Director, Broadway Heritage plc
www.broadwayplc.com
www.westcliffvillas.co.uk
