English Heritage

Thanks Rebecca...the programme on English Heritage BBC2 was very interesting....(it's also been reviewed by Bryan Appleyard in the Sunday Times 'Culture' section 26/04/09...I'll let you all read it).....in relation to EH endorsing a particular manufacturer of repro chimneypieces, it seems quite appropriate that they are moving into the property business....it's a kind of strategic move that fits neatly with F Jameson's 'cultural logic of late Capitalism' don't you think? And we wouldn't want all those Country Houses to end up like Sutton Scarsdale would we?
(also an EH property....shown here..)
What's also interesting is the way that EH vigorously applies its own historical (and insitutionally informed) logic to 'recreate' the past....a potent example of how 'taste' is equally complicit in historical narratives don't you think?....
Anyway, I can't wait for next week's programme - it's the turn of the 1960s Sheffield concrete high rise to be 'saved'....do you remember the debacle about the Smithson's 'Robin Hood Gardens' (built 1972) that the great and the good tried to get Listed?.....
.........I agree that as a building it is kind of sublime, but as the residents suggested, it's also rather a pain in the butt as an experiment in social engineering.........what do you think....

Mark

English Heritage on your Idiotbox

There's a new four-part series called English Heritage on BBC2 at 9pm tonight. Particularly relevant for us Country House Collections people. Click here for an interesting article about English Heritage being very naughty with reproduction Adam fireplaces.