Cinders, you shall go to the (wrecking) ball

The threat of fire is never far from our heritage buildings. Lucy Denton weighs up what we can do to protect them and whether it's worth rebuilding them at all...

- James Fisher

THE terrible demise of the Crooked House pub at Himley in the Black Country—distressingly alight, fire hollowed walls, flattened dune of bricks and all in fewer than 48 hours—is a reminder of the vulnerability of all kinds of old buildings. They are at risk of wear and tear, abandonment, unsuitable development and, sometimes, even ruthless intent. What was once a plain Georgian farmhouse was made famous by its chance location. Situated partly on top of coal deposits owned by the Earl of Dudley, the peculiar skewing of its structure was the result of the seams underneath being mined in the 19th century. Many have called for a compulsory brick-for-brick reinstatement of this architectural one-off and all its imperfections, much like the rebuilding of Charrington Brewery’s 1920s Carlton Tavern in Kilburn, London, which was unlawfully demolished in 2015 by developers, then reassembled in replica style using archived photographs and interior details documented by Historic England.

The potential for the accurate rehabilitation of any blaze-damaged or wrecked structure is dependent on its significance and community value, formal heritage status and statutory protections, documentary evidence, insurance and funding. However, not all agree with the principle of rebuilding and conservation philosophy has changed. Where the National Trust pursued the reinstatement— some might say pastiche—of Uppark House in West Sussex following a fire in 1989, they are now engaged in the preservation of the skeletal Clandon Park in Surrey as a ruin, an approach that avoids the resurrection of what could be deemed an aesthetic phoney.