A Closer Look at Our Recent Casework

After several failed restoration schemes over the last 40 years, HB&P have somewhat reluctantly accepted a proposal for Broomfield House in North London which will see the dismantling of the remains of the house to create a memorial garden. The Grade II* house was originally a 16th-century farmhouse that underwent various transformations throughout its history, including a major programme of expansion and improvements by the Jackson family in the early 18th century. This included remodelling of the principal rooms with new panelling and chimneypieces, and a grand staircase and hall were constructed with floor-to-ceiling murals painted by Flemish artist Gerard Lanscroon in 1726, who specialised in portraits and large-scale decoration. He is known to have carried out similar work at Windsor Castle, Melbury House (Dorset, in 1692), Powis Castle, Wales (in 1795), Burley-on-the-Hill (Rutland) before 1708, Drayton House (Northants., in 1712), and at nearby Arnos Grove (in 1723). Outside, the formal park, now Grade II listed, was laid out at the same time, and included ponds, parterres, avenues and garden walls.

Broomfield House was sold to Southgate Town Council around 1900. The black-and-white exterior seen in most photos dates from the 1930s, when the town council added it to make the house look more ‘Elizabethan’. Unfortunately, the house suffered a major fire in 1984 caused by an electrical fault. The murals and some interior fittings were salvaged, but repairs didn’t happen, and the property remained vacant, suffering arson attacks in 1993, 1994 and 2019. Unfortunately, what remains standing is now only the northern wall (Georgian works) and the original chimney stacks, as well as the 1930s cement sheeting with applied timbers, but the original timber framing behind has been lost to fire.

The proposal will see most of the remains demolished, leaving the northern wall and the chimney stacks and using landscaping and planting to represent the original rooms. There is a signage strategy for interpretation and history, but most importantly, it will reopen this large section of the parkland to the public. The scheme will also include restoration works to the ponds and pond walls, as well as a water filtration scheme to the north to filter runoff and improve water quality.

The salvaged fittings remain in storage, and HB&P have requested, as a condition, that an audit and plan for the future of these items, particularly the murals, are prepared.

Plymouth Guildhall is Grade II listed and was originally constructed between 1870 and 1874 in a North French Gothic style, with an Italianate tower. It was heavily bombed in the war, leaving just the shell, and almost demolished as part of reconstruction plans, but was eventually saved and made the focus of a new civic zone at the centre of Abercrombie’s 1943 plan for Plymouth. It was refurbished and rebuilt internally in 1951. Historic England’s list description notes that it contains a particularly rare, intact example of a ‘Festival of Britain’ interior, including the main foyer area, which features the hexagonal roof lights that sit over a ceremonial stair to provide natural light into the centre of the building.

The roof lights are in a light well, and apparently leaves and other debris have fallen into the light well, making the lights look unsightly internally. Given the importance of the interior, HB&P have objected to an application for the installation of demountable boards beneath the hexagonal roof lights. While the intervention would be reversible, the justification is very poor and doesn’t address the root cause. We’ve recommended that they work with the building, not against it, and consider the installation of a ladder or stair to provide access to clean the roof lights, and a net across the void to stop future debris falling in.

This is the second time HB&P have had to fight to save a group of locally historic, but unlisted, buildings at the former Greencore factory (dairy products) in Evercreech, Somerset. The first of the buildings dates from around 1770, when Evercreech was a small agricultural hamlet and the buildings formed part of a dairy farm. They were converted for use as a creamery in 1891, and additional ranges were added through to the 1920s as production expanded. Their largely intact, original rubble-stone, gable-ended design makes an important contribution to the character and historic interest of the Evercreech Conservation Area (as per the photo) and, despite alterations as the factory expanded in the late C20, they remain legible as examples of simple, stone-built, vernacular farm/industrial buildings of the area and are a record of the diversification of farming activities into large-scale food production.

The production of chilled desserts ceased in 2017, and this is the second residential scheme for redevelopment, the first having been dismissed at appeal, largely due to the unjustified harm and loss of these buildings of local heritage interest. This new scheme claims it is not viable to reuse these simple, single-storey structures, citing the C20 changes (uPVC windows, sheet metal roofing, etc.) as reasons to underplay local significance. One only needs to look at the award-winning restoration of the creamery buildings next to Castle Cary station to see the potential for beneficial reuse of these buildings. An element of creativity and pride of place is needed in this case.

What makes the Test Match Inn, near Trent Bridge, a building of more than special interest is that within the well-proportioned neo-Georgian exterior is a near-complete Art Deco interior. This dates from 1938 and was designed by A. C. Wheeler for Hansons Ltd of Kimberley, with fittings by Harris & Sheldon. It is this experience of stepping into a complete scheme of fitting out from 1938, a scheme that would have been a daringly modern treatment for a public house, that makes the Test Match so important and is the reason why it is listed at Grade II*. The interior features wood-panelled walls, curved bars, terrazzo flooring and a sweeping staircase to the upstairs cocktail bar. The function room to the rear was renovated in the 1990s and partly opened up to the main foyer. Unfortunately, the original panelling was removed, though the ceiling and lighting survived, and thankfully the replacement panelling was in a loose Art Deco style that maintained the horizontal proportions.

HB&P have objected to an application for further renovations, which are problematic due to the generic ‘heritage style’ scheme that is proposed, including arched units to the bar, applied timber moulding with wallpaper inserts to the walls, alterations to the cocktail bar mirror, as well as replacement (rather than repair) of the timber panelling, none of which reflect or complement the established Art Deco aesthetic. Both HB&P and Historic England have raised concerns about the materials and methodology behind the changes and asked for a detailed assessment of the existing scheme and need for the alterations, which will need to be more sensitively designed.

This case involved a Grade II listed house located near the centre of the village. Historic England’s list description states that the building is 19th-century in date. It had recently sold, and the new owners began internal works, mistakenly thinking they could use permitted development rights. These were stopped, and a full listed building application was submitted, but the removal of some of the modern finishes, such as the panelling in the attic, revealed evidence of a much older building, including thick and uneven walls, a large angled chimney breast and, in the attic, timber-framed gables with lath and plaster still in place, though in a poor state. At the request of the Council Conservation Officer, the applicant commissioned a new, detailed structural survey and heritage assessment that redated the house to late C17/early C18, with a Victorian refronting to the street elevation. This survey informed a methodology to allow the gables to be repaired and made watertight on a like-for-like basis ahead of winter, and revised plans have since been submitted for the other internal works, which are now largely acceptable and take into consideration the ‘new’ heritage constraints.

The building at No. 68–70 is an unlisted 1910 Edwardian commercial building by architect Paul Hoffmann that employs an eclectic range of detailing in a free classical style with Neo-Mannerist influences. It and its predecessors have always been very shallow structures, with maps as far back as the Ogilby and Morgan map of 1676 showing a thin building in this location enclosing the churchyard of St Katherine Coleman immediately behind. The site is also located within the Lloyd’s Avenue Conservation Area, which is described as ‘a group of listed and unlisted office buildings of consistently high architectural quality, mainly Edwardian in origin, with a high level of conformity in terms of scale, design and street plan’ and ‘…a collection of… solid masonry facades with regular punched openings, enriched by abundant classical modelling and surface detail’.

The site is next to Thomas Collcutt’s Grade II* Lloyd’s Register Head Office (b. 1900). In the 1990s, Lloyd’s constructed a 14-storey office tower behind the churchyard (by the then Richard Rogers Partnership). Alterations were made to No. 68–69 at the same time by Rolfe Judd, who created a route through the site by forming the central archway and essentially removing the rear of the building, but the changes to the main Fenchurch Street elevation were carried out to a very high standard and in a sensitive manner.

The tower has now been sold, and access is no longer through the Lloyd’s Register building; hence, the new owners are seeking to demolish No. 68–69 to create a new, higher-capacity entrance to their tower building across the churchyard. Its replacement would be a glazed box spanning the full width of the site above an open space, though gates would shut it off to limit public access. The applicants have argued that the narrow planform of the existing building cannot be made viable and accessible.

Both HB&P and the Victorian Society have strongly objected. The building makes a positive contribution to the consistent, masonry-led streetscape within the conservation area and provides an appealing, decorative and cohesive link between the Grade II* listed Lloyd’s Registry and the East India public house. The building has been altered internally, but there is no reason or justification as to why further alterations cannot be made to improve its functionality and usability, nor has there been consideration of alternative uses.

The glazed box is an inappropriate solution that would read as a large gap in the streetscape, harming the desire to retain the conformity of the solid masonry facades. It also leaves the East India Public House sitting somewhat isolated and disconnected and erodes the historic boundaries and massing around the churchyard. A Certificate of Immunity has been issued due to the extent of alterations that have taken place, which mean it is unlistable.

In Wales, we’ve been able to support a community project in Pwllheli to restore the Grade II Gwesty’r Tŵr (Tower Hotel) as a community facility. The hotel is a landmark historic building situated on the High Street, built around 1875 in an Italianate classical style. The Courtyard Ranges to the rear consist of a stable block on one side and a coach house on the other, forming a square courtyard behind the hotel. They have long since ceased to serve their original purpose but were for a while used as the town’s fire station and later for storage. The hotel closed in 2019, leading to the establishment of Menter y Tŵr, a community benefit society set up with the aim of securing the ownership of the hotel for the benefit of the community. In 2023, a community share offer enabled the Society to acquire the freehold and complete emergency repairs to the hotel façade, and it is now planning a phased reopening of the site with the support of AHF funding. HB&P have welcomed a proposal for the stable block, which will see each bay converted to affordable workspaces, as well as the conversion of the groom’s rooms to a holiday rental to support wider economic opportunities in the town centre. We needed to comment on detail only, which was addressed with the submission of amended plans. We look forward to seeing this scheme come to fruition.