Birthplace of feminism and old Brighton among historic sites at risk

Pioneering feminist’s church, London zoo’s aviary and Brighton Old Town added to register of endangered English heritage

A church celebrated as the birthplace of feminism, Brighton’s Old Town, and a 1960s aviary at London zoo are among the historic sites on a new list of heritage considered to be at risk in England.

Mary Wollstonecraft attended services at the non-conformist Newington Green Unitarian Church in north London, founded by dissenters in 1708, and absorbed the sermons of Dr Richard Price, whose radical causes included support for rights for women, and the French Revolution. Its radical tradition is believed to have been a key influence for the writer and philosopher, who would go on to write her pioneering A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792.

The church, which was extended in the 19th century, has been a listed building since 1953, but is now in need of expensive conservation work.

It joins a 16th-century shipwreck still buried in the sands off Dunwich in Suffolk, a 15th-century barn in Kent, and a 1960s aviary in the grounds of London zoo in Historic England’s latest register of English historic buildings and sites at risk – along with – more surprisingly – the bustling streets of the Old Town in Brighton.

The gauzy peaks of the Snowdon Aviary – named in honour of its joint designer, Lord Snowdon – are a landmark in Regent’s Park. In 1962, the radical aluminium and steel mesh structure was the first walk-through aviary in Britain, and one of the largest in the world, tall enough for the 45 species of birds housed there to fly freely. It is now Grade I-listed, but was never intended to be a permanent structure, and is in need of extensive restoration.

The problem for many of the buildings, such as Fort Purbrook – one of the “Palmerston’s Folly” forts built to defend Portsmouth from French attacks that never came – or agricultural buildings such as the great medieval barn in the Domesday village of Mersham in Kent, is that they have lost their original purpose and not found a new economic use.

There are 17 music and dance halls on the list, including the beautiful Grade II-listed Wellington Rooms in Liverpool. They were built as a grand assembly room in 1815 but have been empty and decaying for the past 20 years despite being in the city’s university district. There are also nine public baths on the list, with a collective repair cost of £26.5m.

However, Brighton’s Old Town, a conservation district including the famous Lanes shopping area, is often so crowded that visitors have to move single file through its narrow streets. Historic England has added it to the register announced on Friday because of the impact of increasing traffic, the number of empty landmark buildings, and the blight of poorly designed shopfronts out of character with the Regency and Victorian buildings.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, warned that although there were fewer entries on the register than last year – 5,341 compared with 5,478 – many that remain or have been added are neglected and decaying, with the cost of repair steadily rising.

The new entries include Wythenshawe Hall, a Tudor mansion in Greater Manchester gutted last March by a fire believed to have been started by arsonists.

Other churches on the list include the huge Grade I-listed Holy Trinity in Hull, one of the largest medieval parish churches in England, and the Nicholas Hawksmoor-designed St Mary Woolnoth in London, mentioned by TS Eliot in The Waste Land and where the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce worshipped. It is threatened by structural problems in the tower.

One of the more unusual entries is a ship that lies buried in the silt off Dunwich, once a great medieval port until coastal erosion and rising sea levels buried it to leave only a handful of cottages. The ship, once thought to have been wrecked in the 17th-century battle of Sole Bay, is believed to be a 16th-century Dutch vessel and is officially protected as a designated wreck. The site is regarded as at risk as a bronze gun was recently illegally raised from it by unlicensed divers.

There was better news for some sites that have been rescued and removed from the list, including Wilton’s Music Hall in London. The oldest music hall in the world, it was brought back to life through a large-scale restoration project with Heritage Lottery backing.

Contributor

Maev Kennedy

The GuardianTramp

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