What is a heritage asset? Is my building a heritage asset?

The first question which needs to be asked is:

What is a Heritage Asset?
Annex 2: Glossary, National Planning Policy Framework, Department for Communities and Local Government, 2012, describes a heritage asset as follows:

 “A building, monument, site, place, area or landscape identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of its heritage interest. Heritage asset includes designated heritage assets and assets identified by the local planning authority (including local listing).”

A heritage asset is often classified as a building, structure or site which was built before 1919, this is a reasonable approach for the building traditions & materials which were used by the construction industry at the time. The difference which moves away from this accepted general rule is the specifics of the building in question. There are many reasons why a building, structure or site can be considered important, these can be:

·         Emotional

·         Cultural

·         Technological

·         Historical

·         It’s Setting

The consideration of all the above, within the context of the building, structure or site is what should be looked at when understanding the importance.

What is a ‘Designated’ Heritage Asset?

A Designated Heritage Asset is a building which has been recognised as a building which is of such high significance that they should be protected/preserved, these are categorised as Grade 1 (the highest importance), 2* which are buildings of high importance, Grade 2 which are buildings which are important and deserve protection.

These buildings are protected by law, any work to these which are beyond a small ‘like for like’ extent, require Listed Building Consent from the Local Authority. For any proposed alteration or repair to a listed building, the main issue is to identify the reason why the building is important and what impact and possible ‘harm’ the proposed work will have on the things which are important and should be protected.

What are Non-designated Heritage Assets?

These buildings are often confused by their owners, they are not listed therefore why are the Local Authority, or anybody else, interested in what you are doing? A building can be Locally Listed by a Local Authority, or it can just be considered to be a Heritage Asset, this can be dependent on the presence of the building within a Conservation Area. When you have a building within a Conservation Area, you should always look at what the external implications of your proposals are and discuss them with the Local Authority.

With buildings which are not within a Conservation Area, the general rule of the 1919 date is a good place to start, after that, one needs to look at who designed and/or built it, the contribution it makes to the setting of the area, and the purpose or function of the building which was proposed which relates to the local cultural heritage of the area looking at the five items listed above.

Historic England estimates that 4.9 million existing dwellings in England were built before 1919, representing one fifth of all dwellings in England. Victorian terrace houses, Edwardian Terrace houses, most of the arts and crafts movement took place before 1919.

 

A typical street with pre 1919 buildings all along the street, this type of street scene is typical all over the country.

A typical street with pre 1919 buildings all along the street, this type of street scene is typical all over the country.

If your building is a pre 1919 building don’t panic, this doesn’t mean that lots of special conditions apply to you, it is really just that you need to take a minute to understand your building and think about its history, is it important? Has something important happened in the building? A building can be important for many reasons. You need to also think about the materials which were used to build it and the damage that modern materials or unsympathetic alterations could cause to the building and its condition.

I had a building surveyor call me the other day who did not understand lime, they assumed it was a substandard material, only good for pointing. This makes me so frustrated, please see me my blog about the St Rollox Chimney in Glasgow (https://jameswood1864.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/you-wouldnt-want-to-build-whole-wall.html?m=1) , when it was built it was the 7^th tallest structure in the world. Lime was and still is, a very credible material and is more than capable of doing what it has done for thousands of years.

I believe modern materials have simply complicated building methods due to their lack of permeability; this is the main reason why modern and traditional materials are often not compatible. 

If you wish to have work done, try and choose a contractor who understands traditional buildings, if the work is larger in scale, then seek advice from an accredited consultant such an accredited conservation architect. There are three main institutions which provide a list of their accredited members online, these are:

1.       RIBA Conservation Register
https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/resources-landing-page/find-a-conservation-architect

2.       AABC Conservation Register
https://www.aabc-register.co.uk/

3.       IHBC
http://www.ihbc.org.uk/resources_head/specialist_registers/index.html

Whether you own the building, or you are an architect who has a project which is a heritage asset. Employing a knowledgeable and experienced conservation based consultant will protect your building and your client and help you preserve the buildings importance and get a better end result.

I hope the above information is helpful to some of the people reading this, for many readers I’m sure that this is all known to you.

I hope to base my next few blogs in the coming weeks on the subject of Heritage assets and issues surrounding this subject for those who do not deal with these issues very often, so please keep an eye out for next week’s blog!