OPENING DOORS

Architectural historian, Lucy Denton, has been caught up with the problems of improving access for all to historic buildings open to visitors.

“We have 18 different floor levels in the Stationers’ Hall”, declares Giles Fagan, Clerk of this esteemed livery company in the City of London which has been housed on the same site next to the submerged remains of the Roman west wall, a short distance from St Paul’s Cathedral, since the 17th century. What is an exquisite, but complex building, designated both Grade I Listed and Scheduled Monument status, was swiftly reconstructed post-Great Fire, partly rehabilitated following bomb damage sustained during the Blitz, and added to and changed in the interim. As a result, its layout is labyrinthine, and its ancient fabric precious – and alterations require careful consideration while it currently undergoes building works to install a disabled lift. “It has been a big challenge”, confirms Fagan, “and we had to think about commercial factors, as well as planning and the parameters of historic building consents”.

This is a familiar dilemma facing many heritage places in Britain. Disability embraces sensory impairment, as well as deafness and motor difficulties, and is covered by the Equalities Act 2010 and Building Regulations (Approved Document M, 2015). It doesn’t just mean assembling ramps and putting in lifts, but considering lighting and seating, decorative schemes, signage, pathways, and use of texture and colour. While some historic sites are modestly within reach, others have pursued innovative enhancements, taking on board the valuable insight of local groups, as well as the advice of consultant Access to All. There are sometimes opportunities to reframe what is already there, and at Croome, near Worcester, the National Trust has done just that. Launched in 2016, and devised by Katherine Alker, Garden and Park Manager, and Rachel Sharpe, Creative Partnerships Manager, a ‘Potter and Ponder’ map takes in not just the sights, but the smells and sounds of a Capability Brown landscape reconsidered via the experiences of children with learning, physical and medical needs who enjoyed looking at a particular view, touching trees and leaves, or listening to woodland sounds. The result was that intervention in the historic environment was next to nothing; no changes were made to the parkland, simply a sensitive appreciation of its natural attributes.

Smart upgrading deals not only with minutiae like this, but with remarkable feats of engineering. Although craggy topography means that there are sometimes limits to access, improvements can be made, and few more spectacular than at Tintagel Castle in north Cornwall. Here, the construction of an award-winning, cantilevered footbridge in 2019, spanning the rocky gulf between mainland and headland, means that those who are less able to walk can now bypass hundreds of steps leading to the mediaeval stronghold. “This is an extremely challenging marine environment, so it was not straightforward”, says Georgia Butters, Head of English Heritage Historic Properties in Cornwall and Devon, “but it has transformed the experience of visitors, and many of those who haven’t been able to get to the island for decades have now been able to do so”. Even though the entirety of the site, which is very steep in places, and located on the ridge of a cliff edge is never going to be fully reachable, the bridge – built off-site and brought to Tintagel in sections, assembled by cable cranes and teams of engineers abseiling down the rock face with large drills in hand – provides a signifi cant benefi t. Butters counsels awareness of the consent process: Tintagel is located within an SSI, an AONB, and is a Scheduled Monument, and “the planning process was detailed and very thorough”, she adds.

Meeting the challenge at any historic site begins with an audit or feasibility study to understand its idiosyncrasies, compiling a forensic understanding of the signifi cance the building, as well as the needs of all its visitors. This often reveals the best route to compromise in an old structure, aiming to focus on fabric where interventions have already been made, an approach refi ned again by the National Trust over many years, and illustrated by their enhancement works at Beningborough Hall in East Yorkshire. Here, several steps leading to the front entrance prohibited easy admittance: “wheelchairs could only access the ground fl oor via the conservatory”, says Dr Heather Smith, Equality Specialist at the Trust, “and that was it”. The answer lay in clever reworking of a section of the structure which had already been altered in the 1960s, reconfi gured to house a lift from ground fl oor level up. “The exterior was investigated”, says Smith, “and a window which used to be a door was reinstated. This required research, operational thinking about fi re evacuation – and with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund, we were able to access every fl oor, and the totality of the collection. It has been sympathetically done.”

Wentworth Woodhouse, the thoroughly grand mansion built on a palatial scale near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, is “at the beginning of its development journey”, says Sarah McLeod, Chief Executive Offi cer of the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, but ambitions for its improvement are already at the advanced stage as set out by Donald Insall Associates. The sheer scale and architectural complexity of this Grade I Listed structure, built in several phases from the early 17th century onwards, including the goliath Georgian frontage of an astounding 49 bays, mean that this is quite an undertaking. McLeod is adamant that facilities here will be “best practice, going beyond compliant – we want to be leading the way with world class standards with access for all”. While the ground fl oor is currently only partly accessible via a large wheelchair ramp made to fi t the dimensions of the house, future plans take in not only an informative website with practically useful descriptions of facilities, as well as fl y-through tours produced by a digital fi lm team, but even a tactile model of the mansion for the visually impaired: “you will be able to feel it”, says McLeod, “something that will make a real difference”. Along with a sensory garden and disabled parking at the Grade II* Listed, currently vacant Camellia House in the grounds, level access into the main house means balancing interventions in the fabric and setting of the house is vital. But, with a thoroughly supportive local council aware of the economic powerhouse potential of Wentworth Woodhouse, plans go further: there are also proposals to install lifts within the existing fabric, “and we will need more than one”, adds McLeod.

Back at the Stationers’ Hall in the City of London, compromise has been an essential part of the project: a middle section rebuilt in the 1950s was best suited to a new lift for wheelchairs. And it would make previously inaccessible areas, including an upper fl oor, which is being converted into conference space, ‘much easier to get to’ adds Giles Fagan, the Company Clerk, concluding, “the pragmatism of Historic England was invaluable in fi nding solutions. It’s also vital to build a good design team for the project.” To open up these remarkable places for all to experience the intricacies and delights of their historic eccentricities, clever collaboration is indeed key.