C O N T E X T 1 0 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 27 IHBC Annual School 2007 IHBC Annual School 2007 IHBC Annual School 2007 There are only a few listed buildings in Salford – very few ‘real heritage buildings’. There were examples of old buildings though:Ye Olde Nelson public house on Chapel Street, for example, which was once the heart of a community. The building had fallen into disuse and was now derelict, but such buildings enshrine the memories of communities and they reminded us of the idea of community – especially now, in times of broken families. Life had been hard in Salford. There had been the hunger marches and the so-called battles of the unemployed in the 1930s. There had been households which did not have enough clothes for all the family. Glorifying the past was not appropriate, and communities would not have wanted to do that in any case. Salford’s heritage included elements such as Peel Park, the first public lending library, the first family planning clinic, and the first tramway. Some of these things may well have been established in Salford because the need for them had been so great at the time. In terms of solutions, the £127 million Lowry Centre was cited. The Lowry attracted a million visitors each year. It offered leading performances and it ran a successful outreach programme. The Lowry preceded the urban regeneration company; it had been the brainchild of a private trust. It had served as a flagship project and helped to trigger the regeneration of Salford Quays. The story did not stop there. The Media City proposals promise a further catalytic effect in the future. It would be life-changing for local people and for the BBC. There would be £1 billion of investment and 10,000 jobs would be created. Being ‘the original Coronation Street’ meant that there had been row upon row of terraced housing in Salford. Many of these areas had become rundown, with properties increasingly in need of repair and maintenance. The value of the houses had declined steadily, until it had reached the point where houses sometimes changed hands in the pub, for cash, Goodey explained.Many houses became vacant, which often led to dereliction. Consequently, demolition was proposed as the solution in many cases. The communities did not want this, though.This terraced housing was, after all, part of their history and heritage – even if it was a grim heritage. Goodey cautioned her audience against over-zealous conservation. Regeneration was about people, not buildings, she explained.That is why it is so important for regeneration professionals to think about the people. ‘Work with them and not do it to them.’ The Seely and Langworthy area of the city was highlighted.An early initiative here was the introduction of an alley-gating scheme. The local people had embraced this initiative and taken ownership. This led to an increase in local pride and, through the work of local residents, the area won a Britain in Bloom award. The local authority had been active in the area. Its approach involved refurbishing old houses, moving people down the road and keeping the community together (rather than decanting people and scattering them to other parts of town) and restoring equity to the houses. The developer Urban Splash has been working in the area too, refurbishing terraced housing by ‘turning the buildings upside down’, locating the bedrooms on the ground floors and the living accommodation on the upper floors. Although Urban Splash had wanted to retain the original buildings and work with them, they had actually had to demolish and rebuild, because of the VAT on refurbishment compared to the lack of a levy on new-build. The redevelopment had been a great success. In an area where houses had been changing hands in the pub or remaining empty, people were queuing to buy the refurbished properties. Although the community was initially worried about being moved out, it had been restored and revitalised, and now actively welcomed incomers. The vision of regeneration in Salford is rooted in heritage. The revitalisation of St Peter’s church in Chapel Street was cited as an example of this. The traffic-calming measures that are being introduced to the six-lane highway that Chapel Street has become are designed to create a park as an oasis, ten minutes away from the busy commercial centre of Manchester. Regeneration in Salford is not about conservation for its own sake. Buildings should be economic and earn their own keep. The conservation work that was undertaken was not merely ‘a maudlin hankering for the past’, Goodey said. There were parallels with work in Liverpool. Had St George’s Hall been demolished, what would have happened to confidence in Liverpool? Would the city have achieved the title of European Capital of Culture? Heritage is about a sense of identity. Goodey insisted that a sense of identity provided the confidence to face the future. She concluded by insisting that ‘the past is the entry point into the future’. Onedelegateaskedaboutthedangersofgentrification. Goodey agreed that there had been dangers, but she pointed out that gentrification was not always bad.The aim was to create mixed communities, and incoming professional and middle-class residents would demand better facilities and high standards in the public sector. Improvements such as better teaching in local schools would be beneficial to all residents. Mixed-equity and mixed-tenure schemes were imperative to avoid Millennium Bridge and Lowry Centre, Salford Quays, Manchester
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