York: City Centre Keyhole Surgery
Increasing the Capacity and Performance
of Historic Centres

 

Buxton: Resilient Cultural Heritage & the Role of the Visitor Economy

Rescheduled from earlier this year, this unique seminar-walking tour will look at how a heritage and tourism-led regeneration strategy for the historic town of Buxton is about to deliver a newly redeveloped and restored Buxton Crescent hotel, spa and Pump Room.

Exploring this key aspect of Buxton’s Visitor Economy Strategy and tourism plans for the wider Peak District, this is an opportunity to learn more from some of those directly involved in the heritage projects - including the local authority High Peak Borough Council, the University of Derby, Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust, Historic England, the developer The Osborne Group and more. The event includes visiting many buildings that fell into disuse between 1970-2000 and have since undergone regeneration:

·         the spectacular Devonshire Dome originally completed in 1789 as The Great Stables and later became part of the Devonshire Royal Hospital, offering hydrotherapy for the sick of the Lancashire cotton mill towns. More recently, it has been successfully converted for use as a new campus for the University of Derby.  It has the largest unsupported dome in Europe - beating the Pantheon and St Peter's Basilica in Rome, and St Paul's Cathedral in London;
 
·         the iconic Grade I-listed Georgian Crescent - one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the country, and one of the earliest complexes incorporating purpose-built hotels in the UK. Built by the 5th Duke of Devonshire in the 1780s, it established Buxton as a fashionable Georgian spa town for visitors;
 
·         the serene Grade II-listed Pump Room built in 1894 for the 7th Duke of Devonshire to take the waters - due to overcrowding at the Natural Baths; and
 
·         the Natural Baths, which evolved over many centuries and occupy the site of ancient Roman Baths situated over the main mineral water spring, with the current building built in 1853 and altered in the 1920s.

Each of these historic places now have new uses and occupiers, thanks to public sector funding including the National Lottery Heritage Fund, D2N2 LEP, Historic England and the local authorities together with private investment, and all are soon to be open to the public.

Topics will include:

·         Developing a heritage-led regeneration strategy

·         Developing a strategic tourism market including towns, their natural assets and landscape settings

·         How the Buxton Visitor Economy Strategy has been developed

·         Delivering the vision to restore Buxton Crescent and Thermal Spa

·         The significance of heritage assets in the visitor economy.

This event is being generously sponsored by High Peak Borough Council, the University of Derby, Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust, and Buxton Crescent Hotel & Thermal Spa Company.

Writing Supplementary Planning Documents relating to the Historic Environment

Neighbourhood Planning: Character, Quality and Design Codes 

Bath: Managing Contemporary and Historic Design and Development

Spatial planning is intended to determine what and how much development should be located where; yet a key part of the UK planning system encourages land owners and developers to propose specific sites for new development. Given the pressure on local authority resources, time constraints on determining planning applications, and the need for more housing development, place-making is not always at the top of the list of factors being considered.

• The significance of smaller settlements’ historical form, function and setting
• Whether the HELAA process makes spatial or ‘place’ planning more of a challenge
• Alternative ways of planning for change that relate to a place’s identity
• The type of criteria to consider and their relevance
• A live case study to debate and test factors that matter, and
• Case studies of how plan-making and neighbourhood planning can draw upon alternative evidence to influence outcomes.

 
Managing Contemporary and Historic Design and Development - Cambridge

This event will be useful to local authority officers and councillors with planning and design portfolios, conservation officers, developers, architects, urban designers and planners in private practice, town and parish councillors, and civic society members.  The benefits of attending this seminar are:

 Optional visit en route to the station (depending on daylight):

Pin-pointing what makes one settlement different to the next is about identifying common characteristics, but also the variations between them due to topography, natural features, boundaries, links to elsewhere, materials and building types, and more. Without this detailed appreciation of context, how can we ensure that future development does not dilute local distinctiveness?   

In this seminar, we will look beyond architectural pastiche and 'stick-on' architecture features to explore what makes one place different to another.  Finding ways to capture this distinctiveness and convey it to others is the key to sustaining a sense of place.

• Why local distinctiveness matters
• How developers view local character in drawing up proposals
• What makes local distinctiveness or the features that identify local character
• How to inform plans for change and influence new proposals 
• The mechanisms to capture local character in the design and planning process.