Griff Rhys Jones has been campaigning for decades to preserve Britain’s old buildings.
From helping save the Hackney Empire to campaigning for Liverpool Street station, the comedian and presenter has been a loud voice for the country’s heritage.
He now wants the rest of us to help save some of the hidden treasures in our own communities.
Rhys Jones is president of the Victorian Society, which is calling on the public to nominate threatened buildings for its new “Top Ten Endangered” list.
“These buildings are important… There are many reasons we should think about them. They’re part of the story and the history of the areas they’re in,” he said.
Buildings on last year’s list are now closer to salvation.
They range from iconic seaside landmark The Kursaal in Southend-on-Sea to a former vicarage in Liverpool.
“These are just things that people may not have been aware of and, if we want to save buildings, then advertising their belief in them is a really important part of preserving that building,” he says.
Sandfield Tower in Liverpool has been empty since the 1980s
Campaigns to save it have been unsuccessful and it’s now in a parlous state
A former doctor’s surgery in Anglesey, which stood derelict for years before appearing on the list in 2020, has now been renovated as social housing for four families.
It is a lesson, Rhys Jones says, at a time when pressure for housing is such a talking point.
“There’s been an enormous amount of talk about blockers and growth and it’s only the most stupid, who know nothing whatsoever about urban fabric, who think that growth is about clearing the ground and starting again.
“That’s about the most wasteful thing, it’s the least green thing to do, to just demolish and start again. Some of the most successful areas that we have in this country, in terms of growth, have been a mixture of new and old.”
Having leaped to fame in Not The Nine O’Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones in the 1980s, he demonstrated his love for preservation in the BBC’s Restoration and two series about the renovation of a farm in Pembrokeshire.
And the building industry is increasingly conscious of the potential for re-use.
“There are all sorts of complexities and technical challenges in working with historic places and they translate into financial challenges,” says Elizabeth Smith, partner and chairman of Purcell Architecture in London.
“It can often be really expensive, but when we do it right, we get great examples.”
Architect Elizabeth Smith says renovating historic buildings can be costly but ‘we get great examples’ when done right
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Ms Smith says the conservation movement grew up in post-war Britain in response to the loss of so many historic buildings. Now there’s a new emergency.
“It’s about addressing climate change, and historic buildings have a role to play in that, both practically in terms of the resource that they offer, but also in terms of communities, societies, historic buildings and places bringing us together.”
Griff Rhys Jones says he is always startled by the quality and impressive nature of the buildings that are nominated.
The deadline for people to make their own suggestions to the Victorian Society is 5 January.
