C O N T E X T 1 3 0 : J U LY 2 0 1 3 3 Regency splendour Lord LloydWebber and the Really Useful Theatre Group have restored the Rotunda, Royal Staircases and Grand Saloon of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Visitors to the theatre will also be able to view the statue The Three Graces, a copy of which was bought for the theatre by Lord LloydWebber for £600,000. It will be permanently displayed in the Lower Rotunda. The two-part restoration of the building has begun with the reincarnation of the surviving Regency public areas. After stripping away nine layers of paint and some wallpaper, forensic research revealed the original colour scheme. This has been used to transform the front of house areas to their original Regency splendour. All statues and pictures which were part of the original decorative scheme have been cleaned and restored. The central window in the Grand Saloon, bricked up for many years, now lets in the daylight. There have been four theatre buildings on the Drury Lane site since 1653. The current building, designed by Benjamin DeanWyatt, dates from 1812. Battersea: work in progress Since 2006 Battersea Arts Centre has been developed architecturally through a process called BAC Playground Projects. The centre is based in the building which was originally constructed to house Battersea Town Hall: a Grade II* listed, labyrinthine building with over 80 rooms and a rich, complex, often volatile history dating back to 1893. Battersea Arts Centre’s relationship with the building spans over five decades and many campaigns to save the building. The projects have happened as part of Battersea Arts Centre’s mission ‘to invent the future of theatre and to create a 21st-century theatre in a 19th-century town hall, preserving its rich heritage, while equipping it for a resilient future’. Changes include opening up the circulation of the building, improving the access, upgrading the entrances and the facade, and preserving historical features such as the octagonal dome, the Robert Hope-Jones organ and the mosaic flooring. A new community hub with offices and workshop space will be available in the building’s lower hall. A new lift to all four storeys will make the building fully accessible for the first time. The project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England, is due to be completed in 2016. National character areas The South Purbeck National Character Area is the 25th revised profile of a national character area to be published as Natural England refreshes the entire series. England has been divided into 159 distinct natural areas. Each is defined by a unique combination of landscape, biodiversity, geodiversity, and cultural and economic activity. Their boundaries follow natural lines in the landscape rather than administrative boundaries, offering a broader perspective on the natural environment. As part of its responsibilities in implementing the Natural Environment White Paper Biodiversity 2020 and the European Landscape Convention, Natural England is revising its national character area profiles to make environmental evidence and information easily available to a wider audience. National character area profiles are evidence documents that will provide a much greater level of detail to help inform decisions that affect the environment at both a local and a national scale. Each one includes a detailed description of key landscape features and the most important elements of biodiversity, geodiversity, land management and use, access and engagement; a summary of the ecosystem services that the national character area supports and how these might be secured; and a set of statements of environmental opportunity which set out possibilities for future enhancement of the area.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=