Gorton Monastery in Manchester, Midland Hotel in Morecambe, Blencowe Hall near Penrith and the Bluecoat in Liverpool are included amongst England's 20 best development schemes in historic places. A new English Heritage book, Constructive Conservation in Practice reveals the excellent schemes that demonstrate "Constructive Conservation": a new way of rescuing heritage as part of regeneration.
Constructive Conservation involves heritage and development professionals working as a team and using English Heritage's newly-published Conservation Principles as a guide. These Principles have become the key to working out which parts of a historic site must be kept and which less-important parts could be changed in order to find the best way to save the heritage. In this way, buildings are now being saved that would previously have found no future, development can be more creative and ambitious, and the importance of a historic site can be better identified and protected.
Gorton Monastery
Designed by E.W. Pugin, son of A.W.N. Pugin - designer of the Houses of Parliament - the grade II* listed Monastery of St Francis at Gorton is a masterpiece of the Gothic revival. The building closed in the 1980s and, after a project to convert it for residential use failed, it rapidly deteriorated. Stonework, statuary and other materials, even the high altar, were stolen and the building was placed on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register. Now Gorton has a future once more; one which has, from the start, involved local residents in decisions about its use. The Monastery Trust bought the complex in 1996 and commenced a £6.5 million refurbishment project that has become one of the largest community-led regeneration projects in the country. This has turned the building into a business and events centre. The spectacular body of the church, with its arcades and stained glass windows, is now a venue for conferences and banquets, whilst the upper floors of the friary have been converted into offices, meeting and breakout rooms. Alongside these commercial functions, the Monastery will include a community centre and provides employment to local people. Working alongside New East Manchester, the Heritage Lottery Fund and others, English Heritage provided grants for conservation work and architectural and conservation advice to support the Trust. The church, cloisters and former friary have been conserved and converted to the highest standards.
Midland Hotel
The grade II* listed Midland Hotel is one of the most important 20th-century buildings on the English west coast. Early modernist architect Oliver Hill was commissioned to build the structure in 1932; the resulting striking design has lavish interiors, ornamented by sculptors and artists such as Eric Gill and Eric Ravilious. The building's elegant curved form follows the line of the promenade facing the sea, ensuring sea views from every room. From the 1970s onwards the hotel fell into decline, as holidaymakers deserted British seaside resorts for guaranteed sunshine overseas. In January 2003 it was taken on by Urban Splash, who spent nearly two years undertaking research, securing resources - largely from the Northwest Regional Development Agency and Heritage Lottery Fund - and putting plans into place to reopen the hotel. English Heritage was involved from the earliest stages, working with Lancaster City Council to help Urban Splash to make major changes to the layout. Access and safety arrangements had to be addressed, without damaging the historic significance of the hotel. English Heritage was able to enrich the architects' good understanding of the building's history and advise on the most effective ways of integrating new features with the old.
Blencowe Hall
Blencowe Hall, a magnificent manor house, is a scheduled monument and grade I listed building. The new owners wanted the whole building to be habitable and brought into use as holiday accommodation for visitors to the local area. It would once have been standard conservation practice to leave the damaged tower as a ruin, but English Heritage's buildings experts and archaeologists supported the owner's desire to bring the structure back into use. The right intervention could continue the story of this complex medieval building. A building that is being maintained because people use it has far better longterm prospects than one from which the inhabitants derive no practical benefit. Eden District Council supported this approach and so gave confidence to both the owners and their architects. Inside, new rooms have been created; the formerly stranded fireplaces once more relate to floors and hearths, and a bold and visually arresting solution has been found to give new life to a unique part of England's architectural history. In particular the great gash in the tower, caused by attack in the Civil War has been glazed and retained as a symbol of the turbulent history of the hall.
Bluecoat
The Bluecoat, Grade I listed, is the earliest surviving building in Liverpool city centre. Built in 1717 as a school for poor children, it became an arts centre in 1911. It has undergone an imaginative £12.5 million conservation programme, reopening as part of Liverpool's 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations. English Heritage collaborated with Liverpool City Council, the Bluecoat, Dutch architects Biq, executive architects Austin-Smith: Lord, and conservation architects Donald Insall Associates, to solve the delicate problem of integrating the new parts with the 18th-century building. The venue has gained a 200-seat performance space, shops and eating places, four galleries, and 26 studios for artists and workers in the creative industries. A progressive institution of the 18th century has been successfully transformed into an equally forward-looking one for the 21st.
