image for illustration: Healings Flour Mill, Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More than 200 remarkable buildings added to SAVE’s Buildings at Risk (BaR) register – from pubs and pits to town halls and theatres – increasing its BaR ‘to around 1,500 buildings at risk – the biggest in its history’.
SAVE Britain’s Heritage writes:
The new cases, added after more than 250 nominations from the public as well as conservation professionals and local authorities, have increased the BaR to around 1,500 buildings at risk – the biggest in its history. We set up the BaR in 1989 to draw national attention to brilliant buildings that are empty and decaying but full of potential. We are very grateful to the army of volunteers who have helped us research and photograph the nominations.
This year’s new entries include a 1960s ambulance service building in Glasgow designed by the father of British modernism; a fabulous 400-year-old, grade II*-listed, half-timbered inn that survived the Great Fire of Warwick but did not reopen after the pandemic; and the last bank in England with permission to print its own notes.
There are telephone exchanges, banks, churches, cinemas, shops, houses, mills, warehouses and collieries, ranging in age from the Middle Ages to the Millennium, and spanning the four nations of the UK.
One of the biggest categories is pubs: this year we are adding a record 21 to the risk list. And following some concerted work in Scotland over the last few years, including campaigning to close a legal loophole that allows the demolition of listed buildings, we are almost doubling Scotland’s presence on the BaR.
… Adding a building to the BaR can put pressure on a neglectful owner to act or help local campaigners by giving their building national recognition. SAVE’s risk register differs from others because it includes unlisted buildings and covers the whole of the UK. As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations last year we rebuilt the register and opened it to the public, raising awareness and encouraging more nominations than ever.
SAVE’s director, Henrietta Billings, said: ‘At a time when local authority budgets are increasingly under pressure, and construction costs are going up, there has never been a more important time to publish this snapshot of threatened buildings across the UK. These places are central to the identity and character of places we love. Instead of lying empty and neglected, they should be repurposed and contributing to good growth now and for future generations.’
SAVE’s Heritage Engagement Manager Amy Popham, who is in charge of the huge volunteer effort that powers the BaR, said: ‘As the record number of nominations we’ve received this year demonstrate, these buildings are held in huge affection by the people whose lives they enhance. They believe these buildings are worth fighting for and so do we.’
‘By highlighting these terrific local landmarks we hope people will come forward with creative ideas for their future. Buildings like these are what make our towns and villages unique and reusing them is a great starting place for breathing new life into entire communities.’
…
Some building themes:
21 Pubs & inns
11 Schools
13 Mills
12 Warehouses
11 Churches
11 Theatres & cinemas
11 Shops /
See full details and explore HERE
