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Restoration: Discovering Britain's Hidden Architectural Treasures
Accompanying a BBC2 series looking for the buildings most deserving of preservation and saving one for posterity, this volume paints a complete portrait of the United Kingdom's architectural heritage and offers an introduction to the buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Every style of building is featured—from crofts to castles, swimming baths to chapels—dating from medieval times right up to the 20th century. Illustrated with photographs taken for the series, Restoration both describes some of the country's most interesting buildings, and seeks to inspire us to preserve our architecture.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2003
3 people want to read
About the author
Philip Wilkinson
238 books31 followersPhilip Wilkinson (born 1955) is the author of non-fiction books for children and adults. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He worked as an editor prior to becoming an author.
He specializes in works on history, the arts, religion, and architecture and has written over forty titles.
He specializes in works on history, the arts, religion, and architecture and has written over forty titles.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 25, 2018
Restoration
This is the first tie-in book to BBCTV’s Restoration series which ran from 2003-2006 and it’s a good looking tome. I think that Restoration’s success took the Beeb by surprise but there used to be more heritage/conservation programmes on TV such as the much missed One Foot in the Past.
Viewers were asked to vote each week on a choice of 3 rundown or downright ruined properties from 10 UK regions. The campaigners or supporters of each property produced a short film about it and their future plans in an attempt to try to persuade the great viewing public to vote for it. Griff Rhys Jones, a man who now resembles Gandalf, was the genial host and he was ably assisted by house detectives, Marianne Suhr and Ptolemy Dean. Restoration featured an interesting and eclectic choice of properties
that needed a lot of TLC and had an interesting tale to tell. They also needed a lot of money.
The first series winner was Victoria Baths in Manchester which recently let in its first swimmers again since restoration began. A magnificent survival from the days when public baths were the only available to working families and a vital part of urban life. Obviously everyone had their own favourites and you voted by phone in those days.
This was in 2003 when the financial crash was a long way off. Nowadays the Heritage Lottery Find supports many of these types of projects and maybe Restoration was influential in that it demonstrated the level of interest in restoring old buildings to bring them back into user or as the series has been described: ‘to salvage threatened national assets. ’Now that the landscape has changed since the 2008 crash would Restoration be commissioned now? It was was followed by a further 2 series.
However a building that has received funding for often substantial restoration has to have a viable business plan in order to survive. I visited the brand spanking new Hastings Pier last year and it’s an impressive space that resembles a town square on water but I did find myself thinking ‘How are they ever going to make it pay? Since then the consortium that commissioned it has gone into administration and it’s now up for sale for £1m. Some of the plans of the enthusiastic volunteers back then were a little vague – a community centre, an art gallery… but I checked back on the featured properties and most of them had survived as trusts, one had closed recently due to low visitor numbers, one had burned down in an arson attack, one had had no further website updates since 2015 and another had been bought by a Lottery winner. Only one had been demolished.
The book is organised into regions, properties within them and each one is accompanied by beautiful photos and insightful histories and future plans. There’s also celebrity quotes on the property that they’re rooting for. John Peel has a memorable comment on the leaning Greyfriars Tower of Kings Lynn.
‘It’s a curious and eccentric piece. The fact is it leans, and frankly we haven’t got enough buildings that lean.’
I loved Restoration and hope that it inspired viewers to go out and support their own battle scarred buildings at risk.
This is the first tie-in book to BBCTV’s Restoration series which ran from 2003-2006 and it’s a good looking tome. I think that Restoration’s success took the Beeb by surprise but there used to be more heritage/conservation programmes on TV such as the much missed One Foot in the Past.
Viewers were asked to vote each week on a choice of 3 rundown or downright ruined properties from 10 UK regions. The campaigners or supporters of each property produced a short film about it and their future plans in an attempt to try to persuade the great viewing public to vote for it. Griff Rhys Jones, a man who now resembles Gandalf, was the genial host and he was ably assisted by house detectives, Marianne Suhr and Ptolemy Dean. Restoration featured an interesting and eclectic choice of properties
that needed a lot of TLC and had an interesting tale to tell. They also needed a lot of money.
The first series winner was Victoria Baths in Manchester which recently let in its first swimmers again since restoration began. A magnificent survival from the days when public baths were the only available to working families and a vital part of urban life. Obviously everyone had their own favourites and you voted by phone in those days.
This was in 2003 when the financial crash was a long way off. Nowadays the Heritage Lottery Find supports many of these types of projects and maybe Restoration was influential in that it demonstrated the level of interest in restoring old buildings to bring them back into user or as the series has been described: ‘to salvage threatened national assets. ’Now that the landscape has changed since the 2008 crash would Restoration be commissioned now? It was was followed by a further 2 series.
However a building that has received funding for often substantial restoration has to have a viable business plan in order to survive. I visited the brand spanking new Hastings Pier last year and it’s an impressive space that resembles a town square on water but I did find myself thinking ‘How are they ever going to make it pay? Since then the consortium that commissioned it has gone into administration and it’s now up for sale for £1m. Some of the plans of the enthusiastic volunteers back then were a little vague – a community centre, an art gallery… but I checked back on the featured properties and most of them had survived as trusts, one had closed recently due to low visitor numbers, one had burned down in an arson attack, one had had no further website updates since 2015 and another had been bought by a Lottery winner. Only one had been demolished.
The book is organised into regions, properties within them and each one is accompanied by beautiful photos and insightful histories and future plans. There’s also celebrity quotes on the property that they’re rooting for. John Peel has a memorable comment on the leaning Greyfriars Tower of Kings Lynn.
‘It’s a curious and eccentric piece. The fact is it leans, and frankly we haven’t got enough buildings that lean.’
I loved Restoration and hope that it inspired viewers to go out and support their own battle scarred buildings at risk.
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January 29, 2016The TV series was a lot more interesting, but as I have no way of viewing it now, I guess I'll just have to settle for the books.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews