The changing roles and purposes of heritage conservation in the UK

This paper examines the philosophy and purpose of contemporary heritage conservation. Its focus is an exploration of the extent to which the act of conserving parts of cities as history, and then reusing those spaces for a variety of uses, is being driven by growing calls for urban renaissance and the need for urban regeneration. The main argument is that the role and function of heritage conservation is in a state of flux. Indeed, the notion of conservation as something that is changing (however subtly) can be found in the articulation of changing urban needs by policy makers, practitioners and professional urban thinkers. In a period where the future vitality and vibrancy of our urban environments is under debate, questions about how heritage-based conservation can contribute to a renewed urban culture are assuming growing importance. The Urban Task Force has referred to the conservation of historic buildings as being a potential constraint on future development (Urban Task Force, 1999), while the Civic Trust has made a strong plea for more creative ways to re-use and adapt the built heritage in urban regeneration (Gwilliam, 1998). In a broad review of UK conservation practice, Townshend & Pendlebury (1999) have argued that conservation needs to rethink its purpose and role if it is to maintain its place in the planning system specifically and urban policy more generally. These and other commentators have highlighted the uncritical extent of listing and designation of conservation areas, ^ the increasing pressures for formal and infor^ mal modes of public participation and engage^ ment, the tendency to ‘freeze frame’ areas from ^ a single perspective, and the adoption of undif^ ferentiated conservation practices irrespective ^ of location, settlement type, and historical ^ significance of what is being conserved. Simi^ larly, the growing concern over the relationship ^ between conservation and sustainable develop^ ment (English Heritage, 1997, 2000; DCMS, ^ 2001) has brought to the fore the degree to ^ which urban heritage-based conservation is ca^ pable of producing historic urban environments ^ that are both socially inclusive and economi^ cally buoyant. Both the Department for Culture, ^ Media and Sport (2001) and English Heritage ^ (2000) argue convincingly for a focus on the ^ ‘health’ of the historic environment if we are to ^ manage successfully the future of our past, as ^ well as improving our knowledge of how that ^ environment contributes to the cultural, social ^ and economic well-being of places. ^ Clearly, many of the aspects of heritage ^ planning practices are experimental and widely ^ debated and contested (English Heritage, 2000) ^ with many questions raised about the desirabil^ ity and effectiveness of contemporary ap^ proaches to conservation. The intention of this ^ paper is to open-up a number of key themes for ^ discussion, and to outline what can be seen as ^ critical areas of research needed to explore the ^ shifting agenda of heritage-based conservation ^ regeneration. The approach is a discursive con^ sideration of what we believe to be the trajec^ tory of conservation discourse and practice in