IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section A

Abstract

This paper comprises a retrospective and critical interrogation – in terms of questions facing the heritage sector – of the inner London Borough of Lambeth’s response to the British welfare state’s housing drive, developed when the London County Council handed over greater housing responsibilities in 1965. It starts with an overview of Lambeth’s rolling housing programme up to 1980, including clearances for comprehensive redevelopment and rehabilitation, Lambeth’s ‘softer’ modernism, low-rise high-density projects, the integration of infill housing, the rehabilitation of existing dwellings, and the designation of Conservation Areas. It zooms in on Lambeth’s versatile rehabilitation and infill schemes, positions Lambeth’s body of residential work in the context of the post-war conservation movement and examines and challenges arguments in contemporary discussions on post-war modernity. The problems facing the built heritage are not new. The paper questions which buildings were and are worth keeping? Which aspects did and do give the right identity to a place? What was and is involved in the conservation of the schemes? In particular, if residential, how residents were and are involved? By investigating exemplary projects, the paper connects the ideas of Lambeth’s architects of the 1960s and 1970s, headed by Edward Hollamby, to Arts and Crafts views of conservation as expressed in the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings’ manifesto written by William Morris in 1877. It contributes to wider contemporary decision making about demolition and regeneration, densification, rehabilitation, infill, conservation, refurbishment, restoration, adaptive reuse, and retrofit.