Who do we need to convert?

[worms]

OK, following on from the “training courses” and “bad taste” threads, and hopefully picking up on only the positive aspects of these, what is the prime audience we need to reach with sufficient information to help them be better informed about the needs of older properties and their appropriate care?

If you could wave a magic wand and get one group as a captive audience for one day, who would it be? Conservation officers? Home owners? Surveyors? Builders? Estate Agents? Planning/Building control staff?

 

[Nemesis]

Tessa Jowell

 

[Lime]

Mortgage lenders.
They are primarily responsible for much of the damage we see.
Their surveys usually demand often unneccessary or inappropriate repairs.
Their profligate lending fuels the house price profit gamble and they usually provide the finance for the plastic windows too.

 

[BMcD]

I think limes has been reading my mind!
They are generally resposible for injected dpc, damp proofing and tanking
as well, or you don't get the money

 

[Geoffrey]

Or more accurately the surveyors and valuers employed by the lenders on whose reommendations the conditions and withholding of funds are dtermined.

 

[Nemesis]

Start at the top - Tessa Jowell!

 

[Penners]

*Tessa Jowell will only be interested if there are votes in it.
*Planning authorities will say that the imperative is to increase the housing stock.
*Conservation Officers will say they're already over-stretched and haven't got the resouces to do any more.
*Home owners will say that they just want nice draught-free, double-glazed uPVC windows, and houses "sealed" against damp.
*Surveyors will say that the building societies only want to know that their loans are secure.
*Building societies will say they only want to know that their loans are secure.
*Builders will say that this lime stuff is old-fashioned nonsense, and takes too long to dry - "what you need is cement rendering and a good coat of sealant".

I'm so depressed.

 

[Nemesis]

I know - at the end of the conservation game I'm most closely involved with it's depressing at times, trying to stem the tide of destruction.

It's always cheering to see great work being done though - look at my thread re the 2006 RICS awards.

 

[Moo]

I'd be tempted to make a start with the journalists and TV programme makers. Get them convinced and enthused, and they'd spread the message to those who have the most influence - the paying customer.

 

[Nemesis]

Well there are good people doing their best: I posted this earlier in the week, but the entire article (two pages) is worth a read.

I'd add add Tom Dyckhoff and Marcus Binney to the list... and maybe Bill Bryson... Simon Jenkins...

CARRYING BETJEMAN’S TORCH TODAY

SIMON THURLEY The chief executive of English Heritage has been transforming perceptions of heritage bodies from NIMBYs to political animals working with, not against, developers.

ADAM WILKINSON The dynamic secretary of SAVE Britain’s Heritage may have lost the battle to stop part of Smithfield Market from being squashed under a glass stump, but he helped to save the Fourth Span of Paddington Station.

GRIFF RHYS JONES As Betjeman knew, celebrity can prove useful. By fronting BBC Two’s Restoration, Rhys Jones has done more than most to raise the profile of buildings at risk.

CATHERINE CROFT The director of the Twentieth Century Society has been effective at shifting the public agenda to today’s unloved buildings.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,585-2323463,00.html

PS - the battle over Smithfield hasn't been lost yet - amongst other things it's being fought at a Public Inquiry,and thank you those who post(ed) here who wrote to the GoL to ask for one!

PPS brilliant piece by Dan Cruickshank on the Betjeman prog on TV tonight about it!

 

[Penners]

I'd add add Tom Dyckhoff and Marcus Binney to the list... and maybe Bill Bryson... Simon Jenkins...

And don't forget Marianne Grrrrr.

 

[Penners]

Actually, there was a good piece on Restoration the other night. All about doing right by your building, taking your time, working slowly, etc.

Actually I think Moo's got an excellent idea. Work on the TV companies. Instead of the endless "makeover" shows, demonstrating how to use MDF, perspex and vinyl emulsion to make your bathroom look like a Turkish brothel, they could start a whole new trend, demonstrating the benefits of native hardwoods, lime, linseed oil, wax, traditional joinery... and so on.

Yes - in answer to Worms' original question, I choose the TV companies.

 

[Penners]

OK, I've set the ball rolling (probably into oblivion...). I've emailed the BBC2 Restoration programme, suggesting that there could be future programme mileage in looking not just at grand restoration schemes, but at the traditional skills that ordinary people are prepared to acquire in order to carry out sensitive, beneficial and worthy restoration of their own period homes.

Well, who knows...?

 

[Nemesis]

Marianne Suhr has been doing just such a series - but it's on one of those channels I can't get!!

PS I've never been inside a Turkish brothel...

 

[Penners]

I've never been inside a Turkish brothel...

Neither have I. Damn!

 

[Geoffrey]

Could be time for that research field trip...

 

[Penners]

...paid for by the National Lottery Heritage Fund?

 

[Moo]

You only have to breathe on this forum and things start to happen.
Did anyone else see Gryff Rees Jones's sermon on use of appropriate materials etc. on this evening's 'Restoration'?

And the mortgage business is waking up, too :-

http://www.mortgageadvisormag.co.uk/YU1_MIhotXYPFQ.html

 

[Nemesis]

Well I've just watched Dan Cruickshank on TV ... brilliant!

Wonderful piece about Smithfield....

Great!!!!

 

[Moo]

I quite liked the bits about Betjeman.