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Historic Buildings
Current Campaigns
MAY STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Plans are still afoot to build over and encase this B+ listed classical church, demolish the B+ listed church hall beside and remove the historic railings. The amended scheme for the 'Hope and History Centre', which includes office accommodation and 76 apartments, also involves the construction of a 19 storey building alongside looming over Joy Street and other listed buildings. The proposals clearly contravene listed building and conservation area policy and should be swiftly refused.
TAKE ACTION:
Write to Belfast Planning Division, objecting to the scheme. You can use the UAHS letter as a template.
RAISE A GLASS TO THE CATHEDRAL QUARTER
We continue to work with groups in the Cathedral Conservation Area to encourage heritage and arts led regeneration in the birthplace of the city and are represented on the DSD sponsored Cathedral Quarter Steering Group.
Ewart's 'Royal Exchange' scheme is evolving, the earlier version of which involved demolition of late 19th century and interwar fabric and the realignment of the unusual 1930s arcade by Cowser and Smyth following arson attack. Our buildings at risk beer mat aims to raise awareness of the potential of the important stock of empty historic buildings within the area.
The developer has commissioned a character appraisal, which is most welcome, and we trust that the buildings featured on the mat will be retained and the fire damaged arcade fully reinstated. We have also urged Planning Service to carry out an impartial appraisal in the interests of best practice, especially when the Department for Social Development has invested so heavily in the masterplanning process.
TAKE ACTION:
Support our request by writing to the Minister and contact us if you wish to get involved.
SAVE THE MILLOVERVIEW:
We supported the recently ousted artists' collective, Creative Exchange, in their bid to have Loopbridge mill listed. The top floor of this 4 storey mid 19th century flax spinning mill housed their studios and a series of planning applications for supermarkets would involve its demolition. A number of mill conversions across Belfast and beyond demonstrate how these commanding industrial buildings can accommodate highly successful mixed use development schemes. We hope this potential can be realised at Loopbrige.
UNAUTHORISED DEMOLITION OF BALLYCASTLE TERRACE
OVERVIEW:
On the evening of Friday 14 December 2007 a series of fires took hold across a prominent late Victorian terrace on Quay Road in the lower part of the Ballycastle Conservation Area. The entire group was demolished without consent that weekend. The applicants had lodged an application to demolish and argued that the buildings were structurally unsound but a report commissioned by the Society from a structural engineer with extensive conservation experience found that the buildings were not beyond repair. A positive conservation-led approach is fundamental in conservation areas which are defined by their historic fabric and a swift refusal should have been issued.
TAKE ACTION:
Support our request to the Minister to take enforcement action is taken and ensure that accurate replication of the buildings is sought.
PPS21OVERVIEW:
We are keen to promote more sustainable forms of development in the countryside, such as the re-use of our vastly diminished heritage of traditional buildings. Draft Planning Policy Statement 21 has now replaced the unfairly maligned Draft Planning Policy Statement 14, which the UAHS felt offered a lifeline to this increasingly vulnerable resource. This follows the publication in early 2008 of the Emerging Findings of a Stormont Executive Sub-Committee charged with deciding the future of PPS14. Read the UAHS reaction to these findings.
A consultation period of 12 weeks has now commenced into draft PPS21, finishing on 31st March 2009, allowing views to be made known on the new draft PPS21. It is understood that a series of community engagement meetings will also take place across Northern Ireland, to be organised by the DOE.
TAKE ACTION:
Write to your MLA asking them to lobby for a new robust policy including a strong presumption in favour of the retention of non-listed vernacular buildings.
We have also added that the assessment of their structural condition should be carried out by the Department. The deadline for the consultation response is March 31st. Have a look at our letter as a possible template.
LISTED 'PINEY RIDGE' DEMOLISHED WITHOUT CONSENT
B1 listed 'Piney Ridge' was demolished without consent during the Easter holidays. The Society has called upon the DoE to act swiftly to punish this offence using the full force of its enforcement powers to help ensure that others are deterred from pursuing the same course of action.
The house is described in the UAHS publication on The Architectural Heritage of Malone and Stranmillis as:
“A very crisp late Arts and Crafts design on an angled plan. Rather chunky roughcast walls with small leaded panes in dark stained casement windows, and with Lutyenesque tile-hung double height bays under big overhanging Westmoreland slate roofs. Very stylish.
TAKE ACTION:
Join us in writing a letter to the Minister asking that enforcement action is taken without delay.