EH have always placed a high premium on the understanding of buildings and monuments as an important first step in considering how best to manage and care for them. All conservation decisions, ranging from whether or not a building should be protected, to when or whether the gutters should be replaced, depend in part upon an appreciation of the age, nature, and importance of the structure. The better a building is understood at the outset, the easier it is to make decisions about conservation, to target repairs, to design alterations, and to manage projects and their costs. Government guidance is now emphasising the importance of the role of the developer in providing the local authority with sufficient information to determine the application through the provisions of PPG-15. It is important to ensure that we or those whom we advise, have sufficient information to establish the impact of proposals on the architectural and historic interest of the building. This usually takes the form of an architects' specification or drawings, but in a small number of cases, where proposals are likely to put the fabric of the building at risk, further information may be needed and in such cases archaeological recording will be essential. Careful analysis creates a firm basis for making decisions about how scarce resources should be targeted.
The London Region of EH Conservation Group has always had a specialist team of historians and building analysts who provide backup for casework staff. The team have traditionally dealt with a wide range of work from queries about listing, to providing evidence for public inquiries. When the Greater London Council was abolished, the Survey of London was transferred to the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments for England, whilst a small building recording unit remained with EH. This has now been amalgamated with the London historians to form the Historical Analysis and Research Team (HART), which brings together the archaeological analysis of building fabric with specialist documentary history and architectural expertise. The team works with other specialists such as paint analysts, and with our own casework staff, to provide an integrated approach to the recording and conservation of buildings. HART is also responsible for the underlying research and management of London's famous Blue Plaque scheme, as well as documentary research on a wide range of casework subjects including work for public inquiries.
HART has recently transferred to the Deputy Director's Department, and moved from providing a London-based service, to supporting all of Conservation Group. The key roles of the team are to assist caseworkers, to develop general guidance and to inform policy on the analysis of buildings and structures as part of maintenance, repair and alteration, and to provide assistance on establishing requirements. We are moving towards introducing approaches which hitherto have been more common in the archaeological world; encouraging applicants for listed building consent to provide information in support of their application, whether that information is research, accurate drawings of the fabric, or analysis of the historical interest of the building. The team are developing briefs for the analysis of fabric and considering appropriate standards and approaches, which of course involves working closely with Historic Buildings colleagues who deal with listed building consent. As part of this new role, we are examining how recording is currently used within our own grant regimes. This means working very closely with the Survey section of Major Projects who provide advice on photogrammetry and on metric survey requirements, and also with other specialists including the Ancient Monuments Laboratory (paint analysis and dendrochronology), and the Central Archaeological Service (drawing upon their experience of building recording on large scale projects).
Much of the work the team is targeted towards particular casework problems and requests come mainly from Listing and from London Casework staff. The team has tackled structures as diverse as post-offices, mausoleums, fire stations, cinemas, and pubs. We have undertaken major pieces of thematic work on Banking Halls and Prisons, which will inform listing programmes and guidance on future management.
