Welwyn Garden City Heritage Trust continues its look back at the garden city's history, again looking at the former Roche buildings in the town.
In our previous article we described the successful conversion into luxury apartments of the near-derelict Roche HQ on Broadwater Road, dating from 1940.
On the other side of that road, at Number 29, Roche added in 1977 a large office building to cope with their expanding business.
When Roche moved to their current beautiful new building in Shire Park in 2005, they sold off their earlier buildings - including Number 29.
This was used as offices for a variety of businesses but planning permission has been granted to demolish it and build 128 affordable flats on the site.
In the past month or so enormous wrecking machines have been at work to clear the site.
It was a large muscular building in glass and concrete, typical of the Brutalist style which was popular in the 1960s and 70s.
Some of the more striking examples of Brutalism have been listed, but many more have fallen out of favour and suffered the fate of Number 29.
It was well designed by James Cubitt & Partners, who created many of the Roche buildings in Welwyn Garden City.
This practice, founded in 1947 and still in business, is highly regarded and examples of their work can be found across the world.
Good design though does not provide protection, and large office blocks are falling out of favour.
But should it have been demolished?
READ MORE
- The arrival of Roche in Welwyn Garden City
- Railways: The history of branch lines around Welwyn Garden City
- What the introduction of the LNER did for Welwyn Garden City
- Heroes of the fatal 1935 Welwyn Garden City train crash
- How a 'young superman' designed Welwyn Garden City
It is much simpler for property developers to flatten existing buildings, then build new flats, rather than convert them. About 50,000 per year are destroyed in this way.
But concrete has a colossal carbon footprint — at least 8% of global emissions caused by humans come from the cement industry alone.
There is therefore environmental pressure to reduce the output of new concrete, and to maintain existing concrete buildings.
Writing in the Architects’ Journal last November an environmental architect, Will Arnold, argued that large buildings should be protected by listing in a new Grade III.
The status would apply automatically and would come with just one rule: the property may only be demolished if it is structurally unsafe, or is given special dispensation by the local planning authority.
Arnold’s proposal would still allow architects to alter layouts, strengthen foundations, add new floors and upgrade façades.
He argues: “Such alterations are of course vital if we want to keep doing the most social good for our country. But the restriction on demolition would at last enable us to make rapid inroads towards slashing construction’s huge carbon footprint.”
He pointed to several successful examples of regeneration – and indeed the Roche HQ is another. He concluded: “With the introduction of Grade III, development across the UK would change overnight. Re-using what exists already would become the norm.”
Had Number 29 been listed Grade III it could readily have been regenerated.
Indeed, planning permission had been granted in 2019 to convert it into 72 flats.
However the developers wanted more and subsequently won permission for the current scheme.
Similarly, had the large concrete and glass BioPark building nearby been protected under Grade III there would have been a presumption of regeneration rather that demolition.
This would have been much less controversial than the planned redevelopment into high-rise apartments.
Meanwhile, the Grade II Shredded Wheat building and silos stand silent and unused.
The longer they languish in this state the more they are at risk.
Listing does not guarantee survival. There needs to be some form of reuse that helps both them and the community.
The buildings could be regenerated provided they are properly maintained.
But what about the silos? How about packing them with lithium batteries, to store surplus electricity at night for use during the day? All ideas welcome!
Geoffrey Hollis - g.hollis@welwyngarden-heritage.org
- Next time the Town’s first meeting place – The Backhouse Rooms.
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