The IHBC’s 2016 Yearbook article on Saltaire, Titus Salt’s model Victorian industrial town, which has Dr Jo Lintonbon of Sheffield University survey the widest conservation context of this remarkable town – taking us there from Jane Jacobs via World Heritage Sites (WHS) and more – has been featured on the IHBC’s Conservation Wiki platform, again helping extend the reach of the IHBC’s heritage support and advocacy into mainstream construction work and practice.
Dr Lintonbon writes:
For more than half a century, academic literature has recognised that diversity of place is central to the long-term viability and sustainability of an area. For example, the journalist and activist Jane Jacobs (see recommended reading) wrote memorably about the social value of streets, highlighting the fact that a variety of activities and economic functions encouraged continued animation throughout day and evening. She promoted places that were densely inhabited with a fine architectural grain, permeable to pedestrians and made up of buildings that were diverse in terms of age and condition – urban infrastructures that were robust in accommodating change as part of a normal renewal process and the opposite of the bland monoculture of an overly staged environment….
Saltaire is a well preserved model Victorian industrial town, built for philanthropic and commercial reasons by Titus Salt to accommodate his textile workers. In the words of the UNESCO inscription, Saltaire’s ‘textile mills, public buildings, and workers’ housing are built in a harmonious style of high architectural quality and the urban plan survives intact, giving a vivid impression of the philanthropic approach to industrial management’. In its gridded layout, and the attention to detail displayed in its architecture and streetscape, the village reflects a Victorian paternalism that influenced the future development of social housing provision for industrial communities in the UK and beyond….
In addition to over 800 houses, most of the original community and public buildings and spaces remain intact and all are designated or listed, including Roberts Park, the United Reformed Church (containing Salt’s mausoleum), the mill buildings (containing retail, gallery and commercial accommodation; Bradford District Care Trust (BDCT); and residential flats), the Workers’ Institute (now Victoria Hall, a community venue), the schools and the Dining Room (now Shipley College buildings), the alms houses and the infirmary and dispensary (now converted into flats)….
The author, Jo Lintonbon, PhD is an architect and historian. She directs the MA in conservation and regeneration at Sheffield School of Architecture, University of Sheffield. She is the ICOMOS-UK representative on the Saltaire World Heritage Site steering group.
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