Buildings at Risk

NATION'S HERITAGE NEEDS 'RESTORATION'

98 New Entries on At Risk Register as BBC Boosts Battle to Save Heritage

On Friday 18 July, English Heritage launched the 2003 edition of its Buildings At Risk Register. This year 98 outstanding historic buildings were added to a list of 1500 Grade I and II* heritage assets at risk from decay and neglect. The launch coincided with the BBC's announcement of a major new TV series, Restoration which aims to engage the public in saving a Building at Risk for the nation. The detailed illustrated national English Heritage Register of Buildings At Risk, is available as an interactive database on the English Heritage web site:
www.english-heritage.org.uk/bar

The BAR Register has formed the core of Restoration, which will be screened at a peak-time slot in early August. The Register's contents are all in danger of being lost forever despite being amongst the top 8% of the most important buildings in the country. Restoration, produced for BBC Two by Endemol UK, makers of Great Estates, Big Brother and Royal Treasures, will highlight 30 buildings in peril, 18 of which are in England and on the Register, and viewers will vote to decide which one is to be saved and restored.

At the launch of Restoration and the Buildings At Risk Register 2003, Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said: "The cream of the nation's architectural inheritance is being squandered through neglect and lack of awareness. We wholeheartedly welcome the BBC's major commitment to raising the profile of these important historic buildings. Increased attention can only help in finding them a viable future by attracting fresh ideas and new uses and partnerships.

This year, 114 entries have been successfully taken off the Register but very sadly, 98 new buildings have taken their place. Though we have battled to secure the future of more than one in four of the buildings first placed on the Register in 1999, there remains a core of nationally important historic assets that English Heritage simply has no resources to save.

"We offered nearly £5 million in grant aid during last year, which amounts to just over 1% of the £400 million needed to repair all the buildings on the Register, considerably less than inflation. If more heritage resources are not made available, many of the nation's most important and vulnerable architectural icons will pass the point of no return. Restoration gives everyone the chance to show how much they care about their local heritage. If people want to continue to help to save Buildings At Risk, we urge them to join English Heritage and support us in our work."

Jane Root, Controller of BBC Two, said: "On average, every day in the UK one historic building or monument is lost or destroyed. Our challenge as programme-makers was to harness the real appetite in Britain for our heritage and enable viewers to make their mark on history by saving one of these astonishing buildings. In Restoration we have created a huge event that will go beyond the TV screen and into communities across the UK this summer with a whole raft of activities in local areas."

Buildings often become "at risk", through lack of resources for maintenance, when they are no longer needed for their original use, through ownership problems or economic decline in the area. Many stand empty and derelict with complex structural, financial and logistical problems which need long-term commitment to solve.

The Buildings At Risk Register was created to define the scale of the national problem and to prioritise the action needed to secure these buildings' future. It has provided a baseline against which progress could be measured.

The buildings on the English Heritage Register of Buildings At Risk that will appear on the BBC's Restoration programme are:
1. Ravensworth Castle, Tyne and Wear
2. Harperley Working Camp, WWII POW Camp at Craigside, Durham
3. Wentworth Castle, South Yorks: Stainborough Castle and conservatory
4. Victoria Baths, Manchester
5. Brackenhill Tower, Carlisle
6. Bank Hall, Chorley, Lancashire
7. Bethesda Church, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire
8. Newman Brothers Coffin Furniture Works, Fleet Street, Birmingham
9. Cromford Mill, Derbyshire
10.Moulton Windmill, Lincolnshire
11.Coalhouse Fort, Tilbury, Essex,
12.Greyfriars Tower, Kings Lynn, Norfolk
13.Poltimore House, Devon
14.Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol: entrance lodge and gates, mortuary chapel
15.Whitfields Tabernacle, Kingswood, Avon
16.Cobham Mausoleum, Kent
17.Wiltons Music Hall, Graces Alley, Tower Hamlets, London
18.Broomfield House, Enfield, London

Key facts

• 27.5% of entries have been removed from the baseline 1999 Register due to their future being secured compared to our target of 23%
  
  
• Since 1998, English Heritage has given £27.5 million in grant aid to Buildings At Risk in England.
  
  
• England has 30,469 buildings or groups of buildings listed Grade I and II* comprising the most important 8% of our listed building stock
  
  
• Nationally, 3.6% of Grade I and II* listed buildings remain at risk of loss through neglect and decay. This falls to 2.1%-2.5% at risk in the East of England, South West and South East; and rises to 8.5% in the North East
  
  
• Including structural Scheduled Ancient Monuments 1,499 buildings are on the Register, compared to 1,615 buildings on the 1999 Register
  
  
• 114 entries have been removed from the 2002 Register, as their future has been secured; a further 8 have been removed following reassessment and one demolished, but 98 entries have been added
  
  
• 22% of items on the Register remain in the highest priority category A: 'Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric: no solution agreed'. This is highest in the West Midlands where 31% are in category A, compared to 7% in London
  
  
• Nationally, concrete progress is being made towards securing the future of more than 1 in 4 (27.5%) of buildings on the Register. The proportion rises to 41% in Yorkshire; it falls to 16% in the North West
  
  
• Overall, almost half (43%) of entries on the Register are capable of beneficial use sufficient to justify their maintenance once repaired (compared to 45% in 1999). The remainder need long term stewardship
  
  
• In only about 18% of cases (20% in 1999) is the owner all or part of the problem, making coercive action a necessary part of the solution
  
  
• Almost 1 in 8 (12.4%) are economic to repair and bring back into use without subsidy, compared to 16.7% in 1999
  
  
• The total subsidy needed to bring the buildings on the Register into repair (and, where applicable, use) remains in the order of £400 million; just under half of it relates to the 3.7% of entries with a conservation deficit exceeding £1 million