Comment
A tale of three cities
As we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Heritage and Townscape service, Associate Director, Jack Haw discusses his time at Turley and the origins of three unique British cities.
I am privileged to have been part of the team for over 7.5 years and this is an opportune moment to reflect upon that time. One of the defining features of my work has been the ability to visit and develop knowledge of different areas of England, Wales and Scotland. Each part of this island has a distinct and varied character which is manifested in its local architecture, street pattern and topography. This has often been influenced/dominated by industry (such as maltings in Burton on Trent, shoemaking in Northampton or lacemaking in Nottingham), relationship with a water source (such as a canal, river, the sea or a dock system) or local materials which helped shape the vernacular architecture of an area (such as bespoke plan forms, timber framing and thatched roof designs).
Whilst I would happily cover all these differing areas, I have decided to focus on three cities where I have strengthened my knowledge whilst at Turley; Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.
Liverpool
Liverpool holds a special place in my heart as my ancestral home since the 18th century when the Haw family relocated there from Yorkshire to develop their tailors and drapers business. Pevsner recognises that “Liverpool has the most splendid setting of any English city” and who could disagree. The character of the city is centred on its original seven medieval streets, the proximity to the River Mersey to the west and its rising topography to the east (providing much of the local red sandstone). The expanding port and innovative dock system in the 18th century led to the need for large numbers of townhouses and warehouses for merchants (the combination of these in one building became a unique typology for Liverpool). As the city grew, so did the need for larger and grander commercial and civic buildings which display the power and wealth of the maritime mercantile city and its later links with America in the early 20th century.
Manchester
I moved to Manchester when I first started at Turley. Very different to Liverpool, the city holds historic origins as a Roman Fort, established in A.D. 79 at Castlefield before gradually developing into a small market town by the early 18th century. This dramatically changed in a very short period of time, with coal and cotton being key drivers for the city’s transformation during the Industrial Revolution. It is generally regarded as the world’s first ‘industrial city’ aided by the pioneering Bridgewater Canal and the development of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. The city became densely developed with factories, textile manufactories interposed with courts of slum dwellings and Victorian commercial and civic buildings. It was and continues to be a functional city, with a renewed focus on commerce rather than industry.
Birmingham
I had little knowledge of Birmingham before joining Turley. It was historically a market town from at least the 16th century with a medieval core focussed much further south of the present city, and the Bull Ring actually forming a village green rather than the shopping centre we all know today. The present centre was laid out in the early 17th century as a smart residential area around St Philip’s Church but the commercial centre moved here towards the late 18th and early 19th century.
The city dramatically grew to become one of the largest cities in the country but with no real analogy with other towns of the time, being made up of a series of streets that formed almost one large forge of small scale workshops centred on specialist trades such as jewellery making, gun-making and the chemical industry. This was supported by an extensive canal network which remains today. Birmingham also has an interesting and complex history in the mid-20th century with aspirations of a new town, with the civic centre re-planned, the Bull Ring re-developed and the construction of new inner ring roads with subways and high level walkways.
With such diversity of space and architecture, our work across all three cities has been incredibly varied, covering a unique range of projects from the conversion of Municipal Buildings and Georgian townhouses in Liverpool, to Manchester’s Civic Quarter Heat Network and Tower of Light, to Birmingham’s Octagon tower.
Differences aside, what these cities all have in common is that the heritage significance of the buildings and conservation areas of their city centres is coming under increased scrutiny as part of the need to ensure that new development perpetuates the identity and local distinctiveness of place.
Now to finish this short piece as I prepare for another site visit where we continue to strengthen our knowledge and understanding of this small island we call home.
For more information on the work of our Heritage and Townscape service, please contact a member of the team.
8 February 2021