Transcript

The SPAB was first established in 1877, more than 130 years ago, which makes us the UK's oldest building conservation body. Problems facing the SPAB in the very early days were considerable. This was a time when there was no legislation to protect historic buildings of any kind in this country. And also huge threats – buildings were being demolished. They were being harmfully altered. They were being restored, which in the SPAB's terms, means damaged through harmful change. So the society was established to counter those threats through campaigning, through lobbying, and also through showing how things might be done better. Conservation has moved forward enormously over the course of 130 years and more. Today, we have various forms of legislation in place. We have government agencies to protect historic buildings. And we have a whole different consciousness amongst the public about the importance of historic buildings. So inevitably, this has changed our work, the way we operate. We have a formal role now in the planning systems so that we have to be told when somebody wishes to demolish or partially demolish a listed building. Then we have opportunity to comment back to the council. But also, we've grown and developed. We've taken on advisory and training functions. And the whole nature of our operation, really, has transformed over that lengthy period. In the early days, we were very much about pressurising people to do what we thought was right, so criticising them publicly, trying to educate, but really being a campaigning and lobbying organisation primarily. In more modern times, we've appreciated that people often have a thirst for information. So we're about education, providing information. Recently, we've also taken on research functions too so that we're trying to establish best practice through our own investigations and then passing that onto people through all means of communication, from written pamphlets through to social media. Years ago, our first priority was persuading government that there was a need for any legislation at all. And it wasn't until 1945 that government woke up to the possibility of listing buildings to recognise their historic interest and to protect them accordingly. So over time, we've had that lobbying function with government. Latterly, though, it's much more about discussion, collaboration, involvement in new policy preparation, although there are times, still, when we think government gets it wrong and we have to go and shout about it.