National charity, the Victorian Society, is asking the Welsh public to nominate buildings for its Top Ten endangered Victorian and Edwardian buildings in England and Wales for 2016.
Appearing in the Top Ten focuses attention on buildings and can help save them. Nominations close on Friday 1 July. The Society has also published an updated campaigning guide to encourage people to fight for the buildings they are concerned about.
Last year the ‘Welsh Versailles’ Kinmel Hall, Conwy (Grade I, 1870-1874, W E Nesfield) featured on the Top Ten. There is now a glimmer of hope for the neglected building as there has been interest in developing the site for leisure use.
In Cardiff, Signature Living has announced a multi-million pound hotel plan for the historic Coal Exchange (1883, Edwin Seward, Grade II*) which featured on the Society’s 2014 list after being declared unsafe and in imminent danger of collapse by Cardiff Council. Since then, the Save the Coal Exchange group has re-opened spaces inside the building for businesses to use and carried out essential repairs.
Christopher Costelloe, Victorian Society Director, said: ‘We had a phenomenal response to last year’s Top Ten, no doubt helped by the support of our Vice President Griff Rhys Jones. The future now looks much brighter for many of the buildings we featured. I hope the Welsh public will once again scour their local areas to nominate buildings for our 2016 list. Focusing attention on neglected buildings, whether by inclusion in the Top Ten or by using our new campaigning guide, can help save them, which in turn, benefits the wider community.’
To nominate a building contact the Victorian Society via email (media@victoriansociety.org.uk) or post (1 Priory Gardens, London W4 1TT) with brief details of the building(s) on or before Friday, July 1. All the buildings or structures nominated will be considered by the Society’s architecture and conservation experts before the 2016 list of the Top Ten Endangered Buildings in England and Wales is announced on 14 September. Nominated buildings could be threatened by demolition, neglect or inappropriate redevelopment.
