English Heritage has championed The Midland Hotel in Morecambe as one of England’s 20 best development schemes in historic places.
A new English Heritage book, Constructive Conservation in Practice, available for free, reveals the excellent schemes that demonstrate “Constructive Conservation”: a new way of rescuing heritage as part of regeneration.
Constructive Conservation involves heritage and development professionals working as a team and using English Heritage’s newly-published Conservation Principles as a guide. These Principles have become the key to working out which parts of a historic site must be kept and which less-important parts could be changed in order to find the best way to save the heritage. In this way, buildings are now being saved that would previously have found no future,
development can be more creative and ambitious, and the importance of a historic site can be better identified and protected.
“Both architects and developers at The Midland Hotel showed they understood the value of this heritage site,” comented Henry Owen-John, North West Regional Director for English Heritage. “The rest of the country can learn from this exemplary scheme in Lancashire.
“The 20 examples of Constructive Conservation we identified today are not just commercially successful, they add distinctiveness and meaning to the places in which we live.
“Heritage is a non-renewable resource, once it’s gone, you can’t get it back,” he continues. “That’s why decisions about what needs to be kept and what can be changed and adapted must be as accurate and as well-informed as possible. This is what English Heritage offers through its Conservation Principles. Many historic buildings that would have perished will now go on into the next century.”
Morecambe’s grade II* listed Midland Hotel is one of the most important 20th-century buildings on the English west coast. Early modernist architect Oliver Hill was commissioned to build the structure in 1932; the resulting striking design has lavish interiors, ornamented by sculptors and artists such as Eric Gill and Eric Ravilious. The building’s elegant curved form follows the line of the promenade facing the sea, ensuring sea views from every room.
From the 1970s onwards the hotel fell into decline, as holidaymakers deserted British seaside resorts for guaranteed sunshine overseas. In January 2003 it was taken on by Urban Splash, who spent nearly two years undertaking research, securing resources – largely from the Northwest Regional Development Agency and Heritage Lottery Fund – and putting plans into place to reopen the hotel.
English Heritage was involved from the earliest stages, working with Lancaster City Council to help Urban Splash to make major changes to the layout. Access and safety arrangements had to be addressed, without damaging the historic significance of the hotel. English Heritage was able to enrich the architects’ good understanding of the building’s history and advise on the most effective ways of integrating new features with the old.
“With support and advice from English Heritage, the architects and the construction team were able to overcome a wide range of highly complex conservation challenges,” says Jonathan Falkingham, chief executive of Urban Splash. We’re delighted to have retained the spirit and integrity of the original architecture whilst ensuring that new services and major alterations have been successfully integrated within the framework of the building.”
The praise is bound to be good news for Urban Splash, who are feeling the pinch in the face of current economic turmoil and have already announced redundancies elsewhere in its organisation, but say the running of the Midland will be unaffected.
The company’s Flacq-designed Morecambe Central Promenade scheme around the Midland Hotel is not now expected to go to planning committee until early next year.
Other North West schemes listed amongst the 20 best were Gorton Monastery in Manchester, Blencowe Hall near Penrith, and The Bluecoat in Liverpool.
• The publication Constructive Conservation in Practice can be seen on www.english-heritage.org.uk/constructiveconservation and is available free from English Heritage Customer Services on 0870 333 1181.
• Visit the Midland Hotel Official Site
• Lancaster City Council Midland Hotel project page