Built Heritage 5

Definition of theme

Why is this theme important to small towns?

What are the consequences of small towns ignoring the theme?

What have we discovered about this theme?

Case Studies

Examples from Partners

Scotland

Ellon

Castle Gardens - realising the potential

Click to view Castle Park Exhibition INTRO.pdf

See: www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/planning/index.asp

Inverurie

Heritage Centre And Museum Study at former Inverurie Railway Works.

Central in the town is the Town Hall and Memorial Gardens, which contain the war memorial. This is surrounded by shops in a traditional market town style. It is also a very busy crossroads and traffic congestion is a significant issue. Since 1998 there has been an initiative to develop the Town Hall, which is in need of major refurbishment. Another initiative to help retain the ‘market town’ feel is the establishment of a planning brief to control the appearance of shop front design in the town centre.

A key part of Inverurie’s industrial history is the Locomotive Works, where railway carriages were made and refitted. The Works closed down many years ago and a large part of the site has been demolished for other development, but four of the original buildings remain, along with the housing which was built for the railway workers. The four remaining Loco Works buildings are now protested, and a new use is being sought so that they will be conserved and given a new lease of life. One suggestion which is being actively investigated is the development of a local Heritage Centre.

Inverurie has a many pieces of public art distributed throughout the town, and it is becoming something of a feature of the town. Some of the art has been funded from the public purse through Aberdeenshire Council, and some from developers, under the Council’s “percent for Art scheme.

For further information see: www.visitinverurie.co.uk and www.atap.org.uk

See also:

Good examples on heritage promotion: Inverurie North Walk and South Walk leaflets (see ‘Marketing and Promotion’)

Inverurie Town Centre North Development Brief Adopted by Aberdeenshire Council Planning and Environmental Service in November 2004 – www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/planning

Stonehaven

A unique period restoration of a Category B Listed ‘Art Deco’ Restaurant

In early 1999, the Co-operative Supermarket in Stonehaven closed its doors for the final time. The property was placed on the market soon afterwards. It comprised of a spacious supermarket building fronting on to Evan Street with a link corridor through to the Category B listed Carron Restaurant, which had been used as the storeroom for the supermarket. Through the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership, a Review of Vacant and Underused Property in Stonehaven was undertaken. This report identified the Carron Restaurant as a valuable asset to the Stonehaven with significant potential economic potential for Stonehaven. The building was also placed on the Buildings at Risk Register. The premises were secured by a local businessman who set about the task of restoring the Carron Restaurant to its former Art Deco splendour, to convert the supermarket building back to its original three shop units and to create a family home.

Eighteen months later, and at a cost of close to £1 million pounds the restoration project was completed comprising a family home, two individual shop units for rent, and a coffee shop linked by the original corridor (with all ability access) through to the restored Art Deco Carron Restaurant, which once again displayed many of the original magnificent Art Deco features. The design, retention of original features and the attention to detail were achieved with close liaison between the developer and Aberdeenshire Council. When the restaurant opened in 1937, it was part of the North Co-operative Society premises and was considered the ultimate in luxury and modernity. The décor of the restaurant is based on the interior of a luxury liner in a style made popular in the 1930s. Internal features of particular significance include the rather daring nude female figure of the mystic lady etched on a mirror surrounded by mirrored glass tiled columns. All of these features together with wood panelling, lighting, flooring and tiling have been painstakingly restored or reproduced. The original tables and chairs have even been reproduced from old ones found in the basement.

Considerable attention was also paid to restoring the external features of both elevations of the building including the elegant verandah and sunken garden of the restaurant and the original bronze and brass work on the shop frontages, which includes motifs depicting the original uses of the three shops. The two shop units are now let, one as an art gallery and the other as a fashionable clothes shop. Both the café and restaurant have been proving extremely popular with residents and visitors to Stonehaven since opening in July 2001 and the Art Deco restaurant is fast gaining a reputation as a prestigious small function venue. It is anticipated that around 20 jobs in total have been created by the project and Stonehaven is benefiting from a dynamic new facility of national and potentially international significance as one of Scotland’s finest examples of Art Deco architecture.

This is a good example of public sector acting as a catalyst to the private sector, where close relationship/dialogue between developer and public sector regarding design and throughout the development process were maintained. This project won a National Award because it saved a building of National Importance and transformed it into economic and cultural asset for Stonehaven.

www.carron-restaurant.co.uk/history.htm

Sweden

Kungälv

Heritage as a tourist asset

An example of proper exploitation of the built heritage can be found in Kungälv. In the well-preserved fortress of Bohus, the former stronghold that guarded the border between Sweden and Norway, a range events of mixed type takes place every summer, and beyond. Besides the guided tours, which are usual to this type of building, other events are organised, such as:

medieval days – an annual event comprising of knight tournament, medieval market with handicrafts, knight accessories, bread and sweets
concerts - Allsång (sing along) – annual concert formula with nationally renown stars
to prolong the tourism season the ‘Visit the Santas in the Fortress’ event was established at the weekend before the first Advent. There is lot of entertainment, torchlight guides, Christmas market and the selling of handicrafts and home baked foods.

Thus the fortress is used for education and entertainment purposes, and often it provides education through entertainment.

www.vastsverige.com/templates/article____7222.aspx

Poland

Hel

Conservation-led approach to town revival

Hel evolved from a fishermen’s village, to be a closed area military station by almost the end of 20th century, and after the withdrawal of military in the late 80’s the tourism boom started. Hel has no central square, as it is located on a Peninsula, and its centre of activity is a long main street, along which one can find exceptional antique fishermen's cottages (now being pubs, cafes and restaurants) of so-called 'skeleton construction' with black timbers and white walls characteristic of the region. Hel followed Puck’s lead in the attempt to revitalise the town centre, and organised the same procedure as described above, with regards to the main street of the town and the coastal belt on the side of gulf. The projects submitted for the urban design contest implied use of materials and design corresponding with surrounding nature.

Museum of Coastal Defence

Very often small towns lack the resources – staff, time or funds (often all of these three) - to properly maintain and manage built heritage objects. This is, where community driven initiatives are very welcome. Within administrative limits of the town of Hel, there are located many objects of high historic value, remnants of German Army presence at these lands during the 2 nd World War. The most important of these objects are: bunkers, artillery stations, armouries, and a watchtower. After the 2 nd World War, the Polish Army possessed these objects and the area was a closed zone. With gradual withdrawal of the army over the last decade, these objects were not watched carefully, which enabled thefts and led to their devastation. Decaying objects were passed to Hel authorities after the final withdrawal of the army.

To prevent further devastation and robbery of the area, the authorities of Hel devolved the maintenance of this to a NGO – ‘Friends of Hel’. The military section of this NGO comprises of enthusiasts, who voluntarily restored the robbed elements based on their knowledge, pictures and historical materials. In 2006, the NGO with approval of town’s authorities, established the Museum of Coastal Defence. Although only a year has passed from this time, the idea proved to be hugely successful attracting tourists all year round, not only in the high summer season. Now the Coastal Defence Museum, managed by the NGO, earns its keep and contributes to restoration of the built heritage on the area, totally driven by passionate people from local community.

www.helmuzeum.pl/index.php?go=eng

Lębork

Built heritage trail around the town

The town of Lębork has an interesting, rich history, which is reminded by the old remains of defensive walls from mid 14 th century and other historic buildings. Municipal authorities decided to create a project aimed on conservation and renovation of these fortifications. The most compelling project was selected through an open contest. The selected project foresees the following stages:

Renovation and safeguarding of the fortifications
Creation of new tourist infrastructure within the fortifications (tourism information, cafes, restaurants)
Organisation of space in vicinity of the fortifications

In order to promote the built heritage in the town, Lębork promotion department issued a three-lingual publication on built heritage trail around the town and in the neighbouring area, and placed the information about the historic heritage on the town’s website. The information on the website, which is accessible only in Polish, can be found here:

www.lebork.pl/articles.php?id=49

Puck

Town centre revival – a conservation-led approach

Puck has a rich history during which it was a naval port of Royal Fleet and administration centre for the region. Puck has a very beautiful Town market square made of cobblestones and surrounded by beautiful old tenement houses. After the 2 nd World War, because of the long years of neglect, bad housing policy, and lack of good planning procedures, this built heritage suffered degradation from lack of conservation, scrappy design and inappropriate exploitation. In particular:

the cobblestones were covered with asphalt,
some of the houses’ fronts were not painted or renewed for long years (not to mention the backyards),
most of the tenement houses were used as accommodation for people who would not be able to afford market price housing
the tenement houses’ ground floors were used for various, and diversified functions, sometimes not corresponding with the character of the place and the needs of residents and tourists
car traffic was allowed in the very centre

The main town market square lost its identity and was no longer a place attracting residents or visitors. During the last decade, the authorities and local activists continued public discussion over the need of revival of the town centre, and bringing back the activity and life to it. Thanks to participation in SusSET project, it was made possible to make the first step towards the achievement of this goal.

In recently elaborated local development plan document, the goal of town centre revival was given a high priority. The physical revival of the town centre’s built heritage was made part of a larger scheme of the town centre revitalisation, which is aimed to improve situation in the town centre in economic, social and physical and functional aspect.

In June 2006, SusSET partner towns’ representatives came to Puck, to a meeting of practitioners dealing with built heritage, planning and architecture issues in their towns. During the meeting, among other issues, the present state of town market and future goals of the revitalisation project were presented to partners. A discussion took place, in which partners shared their experience, opinions and gave advice to Puck authorities. This enabled Puck people to look at the town centre revival project from international perspective, and to incorporate the experiences of SusSET towns in the process of elaborating documentation for this sub-project.

The sub-project of producing documentation for the town centre revival consisted of following stages:

public consultation sessions with residents, house owners and businessmen, in order to learn how their perceive the strong and weak features of the built heritage located within town market. Also ideas were gathered on what opportunities and threats they could foresee with regards to town centre activity. Finally, the suggestions about the function and activities in town centre were gathered.
the residents’ opinions were taken into account during the elaboration of a document of ‘guidance and assumption to the plan of town centre physical revitalisation’
an urban design contest was organised:

- 3 renowned architectural companies from the region were invited to prepare and present their visions for the new concept of Puck town market spatial design (in the contracts, the contest participants transferred their copyrights to the municipality of Puck, this ensured that any part of their work can be used in the final concept for urban design).

- the contest was also open to Puck’s residents who could present their own visions (a young lady studying architecture from Puck made the presentation of her vision)

- the competing architects received the document with residents’ suggestions

- 8-person jury consisted of urban architects, university lecturers, academic researchers

the urban contest final was open to public, and the participants presented their ideas to the residents. The contest jury also explained their choice as to the 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd prize.
the boards with works of the competitors were displayed to public audience in the former town hall, and the residents could vote their choice. On this basis, the residents’ prize was given. There was also a survey in the place, which gave better information on what the residents liked and did not like in the concepts presented by contest participants.
the winners were incorporated with other external experts into a team which elaborated the final concept of spatial management.
the concept was finally adjusted through community consultation sessions
based on the final concept, the technical documentation and feasibility study will be elaborated as next steps leading to actual revival

The concept selected through this project process is:

to divide the central market into four zones

CENTRAL ZONE, dividing the whole area in two parts, as it was originally divided by the historic town hall, which was demolished. In the central zone, an information centre can be placed, it can also be a good point for watching the views, as it is 2m high

LOCAL, ADAPTABLE ZONE (southern part of the market), where a stage can be constructed or stalls can be placed for markets, and bazaars.

RELAXATION ZONE (northern part of the market), with fountain and green areas

CAFÉ, RESTAURANT ZONE (north-eastern part of the market), cafes and restaurants connected with backyards of the tenement houses

Other principles agreed upon were:

to apply common rules for decoration of facades. Lighting and façade colours were proposed, and guidance on materials and colours for signage was elaborated.

to redecorate the floorscape by replacing the asphalt with cobbles with inclined wood and natural elements. The wood elements are to be surrounded by ground lighting, indicating communication ways around the square.

to introduce details corresponding to the maritime character of Puck (such as the sitting places resembling moorings)

to dispose of all the kerbs or other accessibility obstacles, in order to make the place better accessible to people with mobility problems

to ban car traffic from the town centre

You can see what is happening on Puck town market through webcam:

http://www.olo.net.pl/kamera/

Greece

Aeghio

Reformation of the Historical Town Centre

The reformation of the historical centre of the town was a result mainly of the devastating earthquake of 6,2 that affected Aeghio in 15/6/1995. Unfortunately, eight years have passed before Aeghio could begin the studies on renovation of the town centre (circulatory, land-planning, architecture, infrastructure of networks etc.) . The total budget of the project, taxes included, is 3.500.000 € and it includes the intervention in 1.500 m of streets that cover a surface of 12.500 m2 in the historical centre of Aeghio that is also the most commercial part of city. From the total length, 700 m became a pedestrian street, while on the remaining 800 m, the pavements are broadened and there will be only one band of circulation for the cars. The main objectives were: to make the town centre more attractive for the residents visitors; to create an attractive market opportunities for retail and services in the town centre in order to successfully compete with the city of Patras neighbouring in 40km distance. Implementation of the project, apart from the aesthetic results (the underground placement of the cables with new modern materials etc), the improvement of circulation of the cars and mainly the pedestrians, the change of networks of infrastructure that is manufactured at least 70 years ago, was supposed to contribute to the increase of marketability of shops, development of the centre of the city, improvement of the quality of life for the local residents. To strengthen the effect and ensure the achievement of these goals, supporting projects will be implemented in future (restoration of savable buildings Panagiotopoulos and Gation, a festival theatre in the Cultural Centre, lighting of beach and Rock area).

Examples from Elsewhere

Trogir, Croatia

Virtual promotion of town’s heritage

Trogir is a remarkable example of urban continuity. It was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list as an “excellent example of a medieval town built on and conforming with the layout of a Hellenistic and Roman city that has conserved its urban fabric to an exceptional degree and with the minimum of modern interventions, in which the trajectory of social and cultural development is clearly visible in every aspect of the townscape.” Trogir is also an excellent example on how to make the economic advantage of the urban heritage. With its 2300 years of continuous urban tradition, Trogir lives off tourism, which is the most important economic branch in Trogir region, covering 50% of town's budget. To support the tourism, Trogir developed an advanced website, full of practical information. One part of this website is a virtual & photo tour on the town’s built heritage. It allows browsers to watch fully animated 180° views that are available from several locations on the particular site. Also, what is unique, the residents and visitors of Trogir can have the contribution to the website by suggesting the sights to be presented in virtual / photo tours and sending their photos or Flash animation files to be published in the photo/virtual galleries.

www.trogir-online.com/eng/virtual.asp

Chudów, Poland

Community driven restoration and management of built heritage

The Silesia region of Poland is rich with medieval castle remnants of unique beauty. Unfortunately, a lot of them is neglected and lose their splendour from day to day. To prevent such devastation of the remnants of a castle in Chudów, the local individuals interested in history and preservation of built heritage founded an association The Chudów Castle Fund in 1995. The original aim of the association was to protect and reconstruct C16th castle ruins in Chudów ( Upper Silesia). Since 2001 the Fund has managed to reconstruct the castle tower and the curtain walls. In 2002, archaeological excavations were started at the castle. Later, the Fund decided to widen its activities and to take under its protection other built heritage: ruins of C14th castle in Owiesno (Dzierżoniów County, Lower Silesia, Poland); ruins of C17th abbot palace in Wierzbna (Świdnica County, Lower Silesia, Poland); and the C14th ducal dwelling tower in Siedlęcin (Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesia, Poland). In order to support these activities and raise funds, the association entered into partnerships with a knight brotherhood. Together they found strategic sponsors and organised a Medieval Festival in 2000, which later on turned into annual event, promoted and recognised in whole Poland, and attracting knight brotherhoods and merchants from Poland and foreign countries. One of the biggest attractions of the festival is a fortified knights' camp, where in 2006 there was more than 80 historic tents, inhabited by more than 300 people reconstructing late medieval way of life.

www.zamekchudow.powsinogi.pl/page.php?17

Also, in cooperation with other countries and similar associations, The Chudów Castle Fund successfully applied for grants to CULTURE 2000 Programme and implemented two projects related to conservation of built heritage:

"Learn and Recover Castles in Europe"

cupid.culture.info/project.php?id=961

“Conserve the beauty of European monuments for future generations”

cupid.culture.info/project.php?id=1055

Tewkesbury - England

The Tewkesbury Heritage Project

In December 2004, the Borogh Council was awarded a grant of £1,339,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the new Tewkesbury Heritage Interpretation Project. The scheme involved the repair and re-use a fantastic and prominent II* timber framed building in the centre of Tewkesbury, known as the ‘Hat Shop’. Tewkesbury Tourist Information Centre was to be re-located onto the ground floor and the rest of the building, particularly the upper floors, were to be used to explain the history of the town and the battle of Tewkesbury. At the side of the building is the old Bank Alley and this was re-opened for access. The project also involved improvements to Tewkesbury’s historic battle trail and improved interpretation around the town. During the development of the project, survey work uncovered significant architectural and historic features, including rare but fragile decorative paint schemes, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Development of this project linked together important heritage attractions in the town, with the new scheme acting as a hub for the town and surrounds. Improvements to the interpretation of the town’s history were greatly modified to highlight important connections between existing historic sites. Disabled access was a key element of the scheme. The continuation of project is education, crafts and skills events. It will be developed to encourage wider participation and training in the understanding of historic buildings and their construction. Living history events will also be developed in joint projects with other town attractions. There will be open days for residents and teachers. The borough is also to be in receipt of grant aid from English Heritage and Tewkesbury Town Council. The project has also received European funding .

www.visitcotswoldsandsevernvale.gov.uk/heritage/

Reference to other INTERREG projects

Please also see the listing of other INTERREG initiative projects relating to good practices in themes of