Listings report, Spring 2008

Added

Botanic Gardens Garage, 24 Vinicombe Street, Glasgow; David V Wyllie, 1912
An amazing outcome: Listed at Category A and raising the building to the level of protection of Edinburgh Castle.

Fairlawn School, Honor Oak Road, Lewisham, London; Peter Moro & Michael Mellish,1955-7, II
Listed largely for innovative plan form and creative and diverse use of materials. One of only three schools produced by Peter Moro it is now one of a very small group of schools that have been recognised as being of national importance for their creativity and architectural innovation in the post-war period. Schools remain a key concern of the Society and we are very pleased that Fairlawn has been given the protection it deserves.

St Augustine’s RC Church, Ormond St, Manchester, Greater Manchester; Desmond Williams, 1967-8, II
Listed for imaginative use of the constricted site, strong modern design, innovative internal arrangements and outstanding artwork by Robert Brumby. 

Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, Greenbank Drive, Liverpool, Merseyside; Sir Ernest Alfred Shennan, 1936/7, II*
We were extremely pleased that English Heritage decided at our request to upgrade the synagogue to Grade II*. 

Turned down

Renold Building, University of Manchester, Altrincham St, Manchester, Greater Manchester;Cruickshank and Seward, 1962
Despite being praised for having a significant number of design features, particularly in the area of sound insulation, EH considered the building too altered, and not quite good enough overall, to be listed.

Put forward

Lloyd’s, Leadenhall Street, The City, London; Richard Rogers Partners, 1978-86, I
There are no proposals to demolish the Lloyds Building, but the pressures of security requirements, changing City trading patterns, and the requirements of new tenants moving into the do add up to a substantial ongoing pressure for physical alteration—pressure that seems to be increasing.  Despite ongoing discussion a management plan  with appropriate safeguards, has not been put together to date. The “Captain’s Room” and a sequence of rooms at Lower Ground floor level, designed by Eva Jiricna, have been stripped out, changes have been made to the reception area, and we are aware of significant issues that are being considered, and seem likely to give rise to proposals that would be very detrimental to the historic integrity of the building.  There is no other building of this date of such significance: since its inception the Lloyd’s Building has probably been the most celebrated as well as the most controversial building in London. We have recommended Grade I.

Usherwood, Sutton Place, Abinger Hammer, Dorking, Surrey;
Connell and Ward, 1934, II*
The building had been “lost” for many years but was rediscovered by Chris Moxey in November of last year. Usherwood is located on a prime site in Surrey, and the value for redevelopment would be much higher than the value of this house. The building is at serious risk of demolition should ownership change. The purity of its design and excellent condition should afford it a Grade II* listing.  Edward Heeley who is an expert on Connell Ward and Lucas has generously given us the chapter he has written on the building from his still unpublished manuscript.

US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London; Eero Saarinen, 1960, II
The US State Department is currently investigating the possibility of divesting themselves of their London Chancellery Building because it is considered indefensible according to post 9/11 security standards. Eero Saarinen is now considered one the foremost post-war architects in the US. The building is one of only three built by the architect outside of his home country. One of them, the airport in Athens is now disused and his Chancellery in Oslo is currently also under threat of closure because it is in a similarly situation in terms of safety.   Our application is being supported by four eminent experts on Saarinen from the US, all of which are equally concerned about the future of this building.

Kennedy’s Sausage Shops, South London (7 different locations);
founded in Peckham 1877, shop interiors ca 1920s,  II
Late in December 2007 all remaining branches of Kennedy’s Sausage shops were closed. They are now empty and for sale. Their high street locations make all of them, and especially, their surviving interiors, very vulnerable to complete refits or even demolition. 

Leeds University campus (buildings below), Leeds; Chamberlain, Powell and Bon, 1964-76

Senior Common Room, 1964-7
Mathematics Building, 1966
Biology and Biophysics Buildings, 1966-70
Lecture Theatre (Roger Stevens Building), 1971
Social Sciences Block, 1974-8
Physics Block, 1965-9
Charles Morris Hall, 1964-6
Edward Boyle Library, 1975
After a site visit last year and mutterings about demolition of the fine accommodation block, Charles Morris Hall – the Society has now forwarded the entire CPB campus forward to English Heritage for assessment. Leeds is their largest piece of work outside of the Barbican and the way in which the practice approached the scheme, drawing on a huge amount of meticulous research about how the buildings would be used by the students has immense repercussions for future campus design.

As is the case with many CPB sites, there is a degree of in-built variation in the quality of the individual buildings that contributes to the success of the whole campus. As with the Barbican or Geoffrey Chaucer School, one cannot separate the foreground architecture from the background architecture. The inter-relationships between the buildings at Leeds are perhaps more complex than at any other CPB site and the sheer amount of data that was poured into the original masterplan documents was staggering.

We anticipate that this will take some time for EH to assess as there are no less than eight buildings and all the landscaping and interconnecting walkways to consider. The University has long been sympathetic and understanding about the quality of the buildings on their campus and indeed seems very proud of what it has.  Listing however would give a proper framework for managing change in the future and in the light of the threat to Charles Morris Hall, we are hopeful that EH will list what in places is some of the practice’s very best work.

Slough Town Hall, Bath Road, Slough; CH James and Rowland Pierce, 1937
James and Pierce won the open competition to design Slough Town Hall after beating over 200 entries. One of the judges was HS Goodhart-Rendel. The town hall is an amazing survivor and a handsome, well-mannered piece of civic design both inside and out the building is currently under threat of demolition from the council who wish to realise the land value of the site and build new offices somewhere else. We have put this building forward at Grade II.

One Acton Lane, (Burrows Fish and Chip Shop), Ealing, London, c1935
We put this forward with the guidance of The Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society (TACS) for its impressive set-piece interior and beautiful tilework by Polly Brace. It was listed within 3 weeks of the application. A great and very speedy result!

Newport High School, Newport, Gwent, S.Wales, Evans and Shalev1969-72
Currently under threat of demolition the school’s future is precarious. We hope Cadw recognises the building’s importance through listing and gives the school buildings a future, whether it remains a school or not. 

Chenil House, 181-183 New Kings Road, London; Kennedy & Nightingale, 1924-5
After we received an application to demolish this charming and historically fascinating little building on the Kings Road to make way for much-needed retail space – we decided to support a listing request made by a local resident. 

Historic Scotland post-war listing consultations

United Distillery House, 33 Ellersly Road, Edinburgh, Scotland; RMJM: Mick Duncan (design), Ian Burns (project architect), Kenneth Graham (partner in charge), 1981-4
Within the Scottish context there are fewer buildings of this type of new commercial architecture. It has clear references to the oeuvre of Frank Lloyd Wright and the late India Buildings by Le Corbusier. There is a sophisticated complexity to the headquarters building regarding the composition of the different facades. The fact that it has been built on a tartan grid was considered particularly interesting. The building is high spec and still in good condition. We have endorsed the listing application.

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