EH Level 2 and 3 Recording for unusual buildings

We have just completed a Level 3 Recording of Broxton Lower Hall in conjunction with James Brennan Associates, who prepared rectified photographs. The timber-framed Hall has an early 16th century wing, recently revealed and part illustrated in the image below. 

Survey drawing of timber frame from rectified photographs

We have also just been appointed to undertake a Level 2 Recording of Cathedral House, Salford (a grade II* listed building attached to Salford Cathedral).  Now largely vacant, the building is about to be converted into priests' accommodation for the Roman Catholic Cathedral Diocese. Originally built as a seminary and Bishop Vaughan's accommodation in 1873-5, this new use provides rare continuity with its historical use.

Cathedral House Salford

High Peak Conservation Area Appraisals

We have been recently appointed as heritage consultants to produce conservation area appraisals for High Peak Borough Council in Simmondley & Whitfield. Looking forward to getting up there when the weather improves!

News - latest developments

Work is now complete on the refurbishment of Sir Charles Reilly's Guild of Students building in Liverpool. MMC provided the Statement of Significance and Impact Assessment for various alterations, and we provided detailed specifications for the repair and restoration for the project architects.  Ornate Interiors of Leeds carried out the decorative plasterwork repair and Crick Smith carried out the APA, with GS Decorating carrying out the specialist re-painting.
If you are in the area, check it out, as the foyer and former Debating Chamber (The Gilmour Hall) is open to the public and is a spectacular interior of 1911-13, well worth seeing. It is now approached from University Square - see link;
http://www.lgos.org/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=357013

Work is due to start on site at Victoria Park, St. Helens, having secured HLF funding under the Parks for People grant scheme. Work includes the restoration of the grade II listed gate lodge, the Italianate sunken garden and walls, terracotta statuary and the addition of a new conservatory on the footprint of the original Messenger conservatory.  MMC have provided the specialist conservation advice to the project team, carrying out research on the buildings and producing repair specifications.

We have recently completed a Cultural Heritage Appraisal of a sensitive site in the medieval part of Denbigh, North Wales. Working with Nexus Heritage who have provided the archaeological input for us, we prepared a scoping document designed to inform the redevelopment of the site.  This considered the conservation area, listed buildings on the site and those where setting may be affected, other historic buildings, the pattern of land use and the archaeological potential of the site and setting of nearby Scheduled Ancient Monuments.

Brutalism

Last week I took a book out of my local library called "The New Brutalism". When I checked the loan stamps, the last time that someone took it out of the library was November 1967, which just goes to show how little we think of 1960s Brutalist architecture.

This book opens up a strange world of concrete which has all but disappeared from our towns and cities. I can't understand why Le Corbusier revelled in the rough texture of, what I would call, badly executed concrete and brick but which purists might call raw, untreated materials. He was either preoccupied with speed and putting up a building quickly or dissatisfied with the plainness that resulted from the flat planes in monolithic blocks. Maybe someone else can explain it to me?

I was so surprised in this 1966 book to see "brise soleil" on many concrete buildings, as I thought that this was largely a new phenomenon. How wrong I was!

The main reason why I took this book out was to research a building I am working on, built in 1965.  I also bought several more obscure rare books - Elain Harwood's “A guide to Post War Listed Buildings" (2000) and Trevor Dannatt's "Modern Architecture in Britain" (1959).  I think these are a good basis for anyone researching influences on British buildings of the 1950s and 1960s.

The Albert Hall (not that one!)

This week I am trying out a new method for a Heritage Impact Assessment on a fabulous building called the Albert Hall in Manchester.  My photos don't do it justice and there are plenty of blogs out there which do (see this link - http://theskyliner.org/post/31389360454/albert-hall-manchester-skyliner )


This is the second Edwardian Baroque building I have worked on this year, and mighty interesting they are too, with lavish theatrical interiors.  If you want to get a flavour of these visit some of the music halls of the first decades of the twentieth century, such as Buxton Opera House, originally built as a music hall, but now raised in status to an opera house.

Salford Cathedral - using your loaf and not relying on plans

I was recently appointed to write a Statement of Significance for the Cathedral House, which is part of the Roman Catholic Salford Cathedral. This is one of those cases which demonstrates that in the absence of documentary information and original plans, you have to be a bit of a building detective and (yes I admit it) a bit of a nerd, drawing on previous experiences of similar building types and wider knowledge of architecture (in this case nineteeth century architects) in order to draw out the relative significance. I am afraid there is simply no substitute for really detailed inspection and experience. It won't do just to say that a building is Grade II* and ipso facto it has to be very special and that is its significance. Some things may not be what they seem.