Conserve Connect @ConservConnect

Master brickmason, author and conservation specialist Dr Gerard Lynch has spent decades preserving the knowledge behind Britain's historic brick buildings. Our latest Guardians of Heritage profile explores the life and legacy of "The Red Mason" and his contribution to traditional brickcraft. Read more: conserveconnect.com/blogs/dr-gerar… #GerardLynch #HistoricBrickwork #BrickConservation #LimeMortar #HeritageCrafts #BuildingConservation #ConserveConnect

Historic brickwork often fails not because it is old, but because it has been repaired with the wrong materials. Using North Dulwich Station as a case study, our latest article explores how cement pointing traps moisture, accelerates decay and damages Britain's historic brick heritage. Heritage is not always lost through demolition. Sometimes it disappears one mortar joint at a time. conserveconnect.news/when-cement-me… #HistoricBrickwork #LimeMortar #BuildingConservation #Heritage #BrickConservation #ConserveConnect

Historic pubs are not simply commercial buildings. They are part of the social infrastructure of towns and cities, places where memory, association and community life accumulate over generations. Our latest article examines how communities across Britain have protected pubs like the Railway Bell through heritage campaigns, cooperative ownership, grant funding and organised civic action. Featuring reflections on the work of Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford and Anne Minton alongside real examples of successful preservation movements. conserveconnect.news/saving-the-loc… #Heritage #PubPreservation #RailwayBell #BuildingConservation #CommunityOwnership #HistoricPubs #UrbanHeritage #JaneJacobs #LewisMumford #Conservation

Restoring historic buildings requires more than craftsmanship. It requires navigating an increasingly complex funding landscape. Our latest guide explores UK Funding Sources for Building Conservation & Restoration, including Heritage Grants, Historic England support, Lottery Funding, Church Repair Grants and Community Heritage Finance. conserveconnect.com/blogs/funding-… #BuildingConservation #HeritageFunding #HistoricBuildings #ListedBuildings #Restoration #HistoricEngland #HeritageGrants #ConserveConnect

Liverpool Street Station needs renewal, but not at any price. The City of London has approved a scheme that bundles essential station improvement with a vast over-station commercial development. The Mayor of London still has the power to intervene. Read and sign the open letter: conserveconnect.news/mayor-khan-mus… Liverpool Street deserves a station first future, not a financing model disguised as inevitability. #LiverpoolStreet #LondonPlanning

The replacement of historic York stone with asphalt in a Tower Hamlets conservation area is not simply a technical decision. It reflects a broader shift in how the public realm is valued, managed, and ultimately diminished under conditions of austerity and rentier capitalism. This article traces that shift from the ground beneath our feet to the wider political economy shaping the UK today. Read more: conserveconnect.news/the-quiet-remo… #heritage #publicrealm #urbanism #planning #architecture #TowerHamlets #conservation #ukhousing

The Railway Bell has been saved for now. Lambeth has refused the scheme that would have demolished the pub behind a retained frontage and inserted nine flats. In doing so, it has formally recognised the building’s heritage, cultural, economic and social value. Now comes the harder part: securing a real public future for the building, not merely stopping one bad scheme. conserveconnect.news/railway-bell-s… #RailwayBell #GipsyHill #Lambeth #SaveTheRailwayBell #PubHeritage #CommunityAsset #PlanningObjection #HeritageMatters #SouthLondon #Conservation

@OurArnoldCircus @BoundaryTra @TowerHamletsNow Another piece of historic public realm reduced to blacktop. We have published a short article on this case, together with sample complaint text for residents and supporters. conserveconnect.com/blogs/historic… #TowerHamlets #ConservationArea #Heritage #YorkStone

Only a few days left to object to the proposed demolition of the Railway Bell, Gipsy Hill. Lambeth Council must refuse application 26/00528/FUL and reject the destruction of a locally listed pub under the guise of façade retention. Sign the open letter, share it widely, and submit your formal objection now. conserveconnect.news/open-letter-to… @thevicsoc @SAVEtoReuse @savecentralhill @lambeth_council #RailwayBell #GipsyHill #Lambeth #SaveTheRailwayBell #Heritage #PlanningObjection #SaveOurPubs #StopDemolition

We support this campaign to stop developers demolishing Gipsy Hill's heritage, local pub the Railway Bell. Object to the planning application by 11th April. The developer wants to get rid of the pub for a 3 storey building infilled on all 3 sides. bit.ly/41Tfg7b 📷CAMRA

The Railway Bell must not be reduced to a façade. What is proposed is not restoration. It is the hollowing out of a public house into an architectural shell, heritage retained in appearance, but erased in substance. This is how loss now happens. Not always through demolition, but through conversion into something that looks familiar while functioning entirely differently. A building that once held community life becomes a vehicle for extraction. The question is simple: Do we protect the use, the memory, the social fabric of places like the Railway Bell or do we accept a model where heritage is reduced to a marketing surface? This open letter sets out why this scheme should be refused and why façade retention is not conservation. Read and support the letter: conserveconnect.news/the-railway-be… If you support this position, add your name and submit an objection. #RailwayBell #HeritageNotFacade #SaveOurPubs #PlanningObjection #CommunityFirst #Conservation #LondonPlanning

From Brixton to Central Hill to the Railway Bell, Lambeth’s redevelopment conflicts are not isolated events. They are part of a wider order in which heritage, working places and community memory are subordinated to viability, land value and rentier extraction. Lambeth and the Grammar of Redevelopment: conserveconnect.news/lambeth-and-th… #Lambeth #Brixton #Planning #Heritage #Redevelopment #RentierCapitalism

Old Kent Road is not being renewed. It is being rewritten. Southwark’s plans promise 20,000 homes, 10,000 jobs and a transformed corridor. But beneath the language of regeneration lies a deeper shift: a city increasingly governed as an asset, where land becomes liquidity and planning becomes the management of yield. (Southwark Council) This article examines what is really happening, why objections are growing, and what Old Kent Road reveals about the future of London itself. Read more: conserveconnect.news/old-kent-road-… #OldKentRoad #LondonPlanning #UrbanDevelopment #Regeneration #HousingCrisis #AffordableHousing #London

Railway Bell Planning Objection: Why the Cawnpore Street Pub Scheme Should Be Refused conserveconnect.news/railway-bell-p…

Liverpool Street generates enormous public value. 94.5 million passengers. A freehold estate. A national transport node. So who captures the uplift when the air above it becomes a financial instrument? Part III of our investigation puts the numbers on the table: • £197.5m residual value from station retail • £171.75m potential developer profit on the office • A 50 year income strip packaging future station revenue • A delivery structure that determines who keeps the upside This is not just architecture. It is governance. It is distribution. It is value capture in plain sight. And without a published station first minimum baseline, “public benefit” becomes a story told after the deal is structured. Read Part III: conserveconnect.news/who-captures-l… #LiverpoolStreet #CityOfLondon #NetworkRail #LondonPlanning #ValueCapture #PublicBenefit #EIA #Viability #PoliticalEconomy #PublicInfrastructure

Liverpool Street Station “upgrade” is now approved - 19–3. But here’s the trick: public benefit was treated as decisive while the one thing that would make it measurable was treated as if it should not exist. No station-first minimum baseline. No transparent alternatives. Just “viability” - a word that closes debate. The planning case says the scheme is “self-funded”. Fine. But the financials tell a different story: station “improvement works” costed at £419.58m, still modelled as a deficit even after the commercial envelope is counted — and in the applicant’s own present-day outputs, station retail (£197.5m RLV) dwarfs the office contribution (£44.2m RLV). Yet the City signs off an 88,000 sqm over-station office massing - a skyline monument above a national interchange - while the public gets a constrained uplift used to license the deal. This is not design. It’s political economy: how a public asset becomes a development platform, and how “public benefit” becomes a permission slip for value capture. Read Part I: Who Captures Liverpool Street? conserveconnect.news/who-captures-l… #LiverpoolStreet #NetworkRail #ACME #CityofLondon #Planning #Heritage #ValueCapture #Viability #UrbanPolitics #London

Liverpool Street Station redevelopment approved 19–3. But in a 2h22m hearing, objectors spoke for 15 minutes while officers, applicants & supporters occupied the rest. Benefit figures shifted. Late addenda were circulated. Viability was treated as necessity. A decisive vote. A managed process. Full analysis: conserveconnect.news/liverpool-stre… #LiverpoolStreet #Planning #Heritage #PublicAssets

I've #justdonated to The Victorian Society on JustGiving. Donate on @JustGiving and support this great cause justgiving.com/campaign/savel…

Network Rail + ACME's plans are on the planning portal @cityoflondon. The way you can help combat this is to object by 9th Feb. OBJECT: Our Guide to writing your objection bit.ly/4jLWsim We need your help to pay legal + experts' fees to fight this bit.ly/4dSfiks

🚂 Network Rail and ACME's latest plans are to be decided next week. 💻 OBJECT: Our easy Guide to writing your own objection is on the link on our bio and below in comments. It takes minutes to do this. ⏳ Thank you. ❤️ PLEASE LIKE & SHARE! Photo: Bishopsgate Institute