Heritage- can we afford to conserve it today?

There has been little to do at home in the last 10 days except watch the rain come down in sheets. Today the wind has joined the rain and it has been trees coming down if not in sheets then certainly by the score. It is time to change tack slightly on the blog therefore and talk about heritage.

Last week I paid  a visit to Bowhill- a 16th Century merchants house extensively and painstakingly restored by English Heritage between 1980-97. Done when there was more money around, it would be difficult to justify today without a viable end use. It does have one fortunately as offices but whether it is viable of course is a different question in the light of the capital costs. The rooms are not easy to occupy and some (the great hall) are underutilised. One could not comprehend a private owner contemplating such a project, impressive though it is.
My next visit was to a grade II farmhouse badly damaged by fire where the interesting question arises- how much of what is significant can be saved and, is it sufficient to justify the necessary expenditure? Once again I detected a worry from the owners about what will happen next. The answers are never clear cut and often down to individual interpretation from those who enforce the rules. I think that it is this which causes difficulty- the lack of certainty. Normally in running a business or in property ownership the rules are more obvious.
I then found myself at the Eden Project in Cornwall. I have nothing but admiration for this project- its scale and imagination; its economic influence in a part of the County that needed help; its design and innovation; its sheer vision. I also , on a personal note, love the rainforest. Once again however I wonder about the economics. Public funds have been crucial in its success.
Finally I ended last week in Plymouth. This is a City that has got to grips with many of its deep seated problems but still has economic challenges particularly as the main employer- the Naval dockyard- downsizes.It also has lots of historic assets that are costly to look after. A particular challenge is the city centre where the grid pattern plan by Abercrombie was part of the post-war revitalisation of the City and is a classic of its kind. It is creaking at the edges however and , once again, we are into discussions of significance and economic viability.
So there is a theme here, in case you missed it! We have entered a new era of slow, if any, economic growth and an emphasis on local solutions. We have Government coffers that are empty and likely to be so for some time yet. Local solutions for properties require economic viability however and our challenge will be to keep the best of what we have; not to obstruct locally funded solutions but not to be held to ransom either in the face of poor design.