Your contributor’s piece on heritage listing gave a personal account of what it means to live in a historically important building in the UK. However I feel there are other questions he could have asked, starting with — why do we list (House & Home, February 1)?
We need to go back to earlier centuries when there were protests at the damage and destruction of historic buildings and monuments seen by many as integral to the cultural life of the country but which campaigners felt could be lost overnight at the whim of an individual. Events such as the formation of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877 and the later 1926 Campaign to Protect Rural England put the causes of conservation firmly in the public eye.
The 1944 and 1947 Town and Country Planning Acts provided the basis for listing, which started in 1946 under the direction of a chief inspector of historic buildings appointed by the minister of town and country planning, together with a team of 14 investigators. They produced the first official lists establishing a process which has continued to evolve to this day.
This should not be confused with the work undertaken by the National Buildings Record, founded in 1941, where architects and others produced wartime records, salvage lists, of key historic buildings to provide details for future restoration should they be damaged or lost to enemy action.
Much of the built heritage that survives all across England does so because it is listed and because of public support. Listing is a story about people and their commitment to protect the heritage for us and future generations to enjoy. Do not forget that the National Trust now has 5.4mn members. And by the way the government could help to improve the incentive for owners to improve energy conservation and help retrofit, by removing the 20 per cent VAT disincentive.
Colin Johns
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK
