By John Baker
Published on Tue Feb 01 14:28:58 GMT 2011
Peterborough Civic Society celebrates its 60th birthday in 2012. John Baker met its chairman and learned about the society’s history, and the city’s good, bad and ugly structures:
WITH more than 250 members these are high times for Peterborough Civic Society, although height is not one of its favourite subjects when it comes to buildings in the city.
Certain civic societies across the country are regarded as the realm of those with an aversion to change, and a morbid desperation to keep old buildings.
It’s an unfair generalisation: several of the more appreciated buildings in Peterborough are vibrant and modern, and the group concerns itself with looking forward as much as looking back.
The overriding aim of Peterborough’s society is a commitment to making the city a pleasant and interesting place in which present and future generations can be proud to live, work and socialise.
It also wants to retain local features of merit, irrespective of age, and encouraging new development which is well designed and sustainable.
Perhaps the ethos of the group can best be summed up in the choices of chairman Peter Lee when asked about his favourite buildings.
His nationwide pick is the distinctive Gherkin office block in London, while in Peterborough?
“I really like Monkstone House on City Road,” said Mr Lee from his house in Sutton
“The way it breaks its mass down and incorporates a lot of stone in its frontage but in a very light way, and the crosses relate to the fact that it overlooks the cathedral.”
The society recently crystallised its favourite buildings in the city into a draft “List of Locally Important Buildings” which comprised of more than 230 structures and landmarks.
The list, designed in conjunction with Peterborough City Council and parish councils, aims to celebrate local distinctiveness and safeguard important buildings, and ensure that repairs, alterations and extensions are sympathetic to their character.
It covers a wide range of buildings and structures from small seasonal agricultural workers shacks to a 1970s office building.
They include a blend of the obvious, such as Cathedral Square and much of Westgate, Thorpe Road and Cowgate including the Drapers’ Arms, and the not-so-obvious, such as individual houses across the city and a piece of old walling in Eastgate.
The list also includes buildings and landmarks from surrounding towns and villages including the railway box in Helpston, the Decoy Public House in Newborough, and St Pegas Granary in Peakirk.
Public consultation will take place on the list early in 2011.
Mr Lee, who spent 26 years in planning for Peterborough City Council before he retired, said: “When we started the list we didn’t expect there to be so many buildings.
“When the city council passes its local development plans this can afford a measure of protection through the policies. We can’t stop them being demolished but can urge that special care is taken over alterations.”
“As much as anything else it’s a way of letting owners know that their buildings are important.”
Arguably the most important building in the city is the cathedral, regarded by the society as an asset not being utilised to its full potential.
Its spectacular views were recognised in a society study of Cathedral views worthy of protection from across the town and further.
Cathedral Square is the focal point of the city which was a working town in Victorian times, but some would say that the centre has not progressed in the same way as towns and cities in the north and Midlands.
Mr Lee said: “The number of buildings with character and presence is very small in the centre, and that’s why we need to campaign to keep the ones that are left.
“The society is concerned that the growth of Peterborough provides an opportunity to enhance the cultural life of the city, with new facilities in the centre.
“We have been strong supporters of the fountains in Cathedral Square; there have been problems, but it is the kind of thing Peterborough needs to do to assert itself and draw people in.”
The balance between a modern city and the retention of historic buildings is a difficult one.
The loss of some is lamented, while the loss of others is celebrated.
Mr Lee said: “The old Norwich Union building by St John’s Church was one we were glad to see go. It was an example of a building that was too high.
“Apex House is another unpopular one. There’s a danger on placing such an emphasis on increasing density in the city centre that people don’t consider the design of the buildings, especially their height in relation to other buildings.
“In a place like Peterborough five storeys should be the maximum, and we worry that the council does not have a policy on building heights so that certain views can be protected.
“A plan was submitted for a 10-storey building opposite as part of the Carbon Challenge, but we thought that was compounding the error of Apex House. That has been reduced to eight, but we still feel it’s too high.
“Parts of Hampton are reasonably attractive with some smashing open spaces, but it is already too crowded.”
Members were delighted when Gables was granted listed status
THE society received good news in November when English Heritage announced it had granted Grade II listed status to the Gables in Thorpe Road.
A report said the building, designed by reputed architect J A Gotch and completed in 1895 for wealthy coal merchant John Henry Beeby, is “of special interest for the quality of its design and well considered extensive detail and craftsmanship”, and “is illustrative of the wealth of the rising class of late 19th century industrialists.”
Beeby died in 1924 but his widow continued to live in the house until 1933 when she sold it to George Ralph Baker, a director of engineering firm Baker Perkins.
By 1968 it had become a maternity hospital but in 1970 the building was converted for use as a psychiatric day centre.
And despite some alterations the Tudor/Jacobean design, plan form and decorative detail of the exterior remain substantially intact.
“Quite unknown to us someone made the application to list it, but we don’t know who”, said Mr Lee.
“We supported it and did some research which added to what had been submitted, and we were very pleased with the decision”.
There have also been disappointments.
Mr Lee said: “We have applied for two other buildings to be listed in the past few years.
“The Great Northern Hotel was built in 1848 and we felt that it has got enough character to justify protection.
“But if a building was built after 1840 rather more stringent tests apply before it will be listed, and the inspectors felt that it had been altered too much. It also wasn’t designed by a particularly distinguished architect.
“We appealed the decision with extra information, but they still wouldn’t wear it.
“We also tried to get the Memorial Hospital listed, but again it wasn’t sufficiently special. There are a lot of them around the country, so the fact it was a war memorial hospital was not unique.”
The society’s committee hopes the city will continue to pursue a high growth agenda. Perhaps its transport infrastructure will change to incorporate a tram system as other cities have done, when the population justifies it.
In the shorter term it’s believed that the city’s cultural hotspots and leisure facilities could be the key to letting it prosper.
Mr Lee said: “There are so many places around which will say no to new development but Peterborough has welcomed it for at least 40 years.
“The challenge is to be able to create a city centre of great presence and with greater leisure and a cultural pull, so that the city is seen as an up-and-coming place.
“It’s so easy to look at surrounding towns for shopping and leisure, whereas Peterborough has really got to battle to gain attractiveness.”
Society has lots of activities
THE Peterborough area has a number of groups concerned with its historical welfare: the Thorney Society and the Werrington Group, to name but two.
However, the civic society is the only body concerned with the city centre.
Mr Lee said: “They tend to be older people with a long term stake in Peterborough. Some are from business families that go back a long way, a number of others have come along and are just keen on the place.”
The society also has a hand in other activities, including:
– Peterborough in Detail: A book is in the pipeline focussing on building details of special character which go unnoticed.
– Supporting public sculpture: The society is represented on Friends of Norman Cross, and the current project to create a new war memorial in the centre of Peterborough.
– Street clutter: Identifying examples of “street clutter” and pressing the city council for action
– Summer visits providing guided tours of villages, towns or sites of special interest near Peterborough.
– Monthly speakers programme
– Plaque display: The society has promoted the installation of more than 30 plaques recognising buildings of special interest in the city
– RAF Peterborough DVD, on the history of Westwood Airfield.
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