0:00:05 > 0:00:08The Second World War had been a fight for the nation's
0:00:08 > 0:00:11survival against the Nazi war machine.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18Aerial bombardment on a scale never before known, had killed huge
0:00:18 > 0:00:21numbers of civilians on the Home Front.
0:00:21 > 0:00:28It had also destroyed much of Britain's architectural heritage.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33But out of the ruins was born the modern listing system that signalled
0:00:33 > 0:00:35a new, hopefully safer,
0:00:35 > 0:00:40future for the best old buildings of Britain.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44But as the Victory cheers faded for Winston Churchill
0:00:44 > 0:00:48and he was booted out in the general election of 1945,
0:00:48 > 0:00:55so the war-weary British turned their backs on the past.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Surely it was time for a new and brighter future?
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Before the war, only a few fashionable followers
0:01:05 > 0:01:08of "Continental Chic",
0:01:08 > 0:01:12and, of course, the penguins at London Zoo, had flirted with
0:01:12 > 0:01:17modernity and modernism. Now it would become the popular mood
0:01:17 > 0:01:22of a nation embarking on a 30 year love affair with the future.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24History was in for a rough time.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28It was even called The Rape of Britain.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35But heritage laws and organisations had never been stronger.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37And the personalities of the movement
0:01:37 > 0:01:39would become national figures,
0:01:39 > 0:01:44egging the public on to fight back as modernism became discredited.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Heritage would make an astonishing come-back,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52as it adapted to survive in the modern world.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13In 1945, Clement Attlee's Labour Party
0:02:13 > 0:02:17swept to power in a landslide victory.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Armed with the slogan "Let Us Face The Future",
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Attlee promised the nation a new start
0:02:23 > 0:02:27and the people wanted to see it happen, fast.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32The Labour Party's great victory shows that the country
0:02:32 > 0:02:37is ready for a new policy to face new world conditions.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43Welfare reform was top of the Attlee agenda.
0:02:43 > 0:02:49The creation of a National Health Service that would work for the health of everybody.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52But even more pressing after the war,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56was the provision of new housing.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01A new generation of architects was ready. Architects with
0:03:01 > 0:03:04a bolder vision than any doctor for how the nation's health
0:03:04 > 0:03:06and happiness could be achieved.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12They believed modern architecture would solve all modern ills.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19Waiting in the wings was the new man of the moment - the town planner.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23History was dead, long live the future!
0:03:23 > 0:03:28In all devastated cities, there are some people who long for the past.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31They would like to see their town rebuilt exactly as it used to be.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34But of course where there has been
0:03:34 > 0:03:37so much destruction, that's out of the question.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39Now would somebody switch off the lights, please,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42and we'll have some pictures.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46The new visionaries would re-invent our towns and cities.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52And as post-war Germany and Poland rebuilt
0:03:52 > 0:03:56lost historic streets, Britain embraced ring roads
0:03:56 > 0:04:01and zoning. The car would be king, the city would be a machine.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04A new world was rolled out.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06And nothing must stand in the way.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Because post-war construction went hand in hand in England with
0:04:12 > 0:04:14the notion of modernisation that
0:04:14 > 0:04:17meant clearing out the old world all too often,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19so city centres would be rebuilt, we would have
0:04:19 > 0:04:23inner city ring roads, we would build motorways. Everything that
0:04:23 > 0:04:27was old and fusty and dirty and war-damaged really ought to go,
0:04:27 > 0:04:29to usher in this clean new world,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32which went alongside national health spectacles,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35nice filled, clean teeth and clean hair, free of nits,
0:04:35 > 0:04:38and all good things, But the level of
0:04:38 > 0:04:41destruction was absolutely extraordinary.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43So often it's said of course that more damage was
0:04:43 > 0:04:46done by developers than the Luftwaffe achieved, and there's
0:04:46 > 0:04:48a great deal of truth in that.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Often you find when you look into the history of places
0:04:51 > 0:04:54that a lot of the destruction took place AFTER the bombing.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Buildings that could have been restored were then swept away.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01There was a huge programme of demolition. A determination
0:05:01 > 0:05:07to rebuild town centres along modernist lines of re-planning.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11There was a huge plan to re-arrange the whole of Whitehall.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14They were just going to leave Westminster Abbey
0:05:14 > 0:05:17and the Houses of Parliament but the whole of the rest was going to go.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22And many towns and cities were re-planned in a very aggressive way.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31Well that's the plan the architects have drawn up
0:05:31 > 0:05:35for the London of the future. What a grand opportunity it is.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37If we miss this chance to rebuild London,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41we shall have missed one of the great moments of history.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44We shall have shown ourselves unworthy of our victory.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48The war, it turned out,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52had been a style war as well as a fight against the Nazis.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57Final victory would only be assured in modernity.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01Old buildings were seen as part of the problem for society,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05rather than part of the solution to creating a sort of
0:06:05 > 0:06:07new identity for a new Britain.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11And I think that the massive demolition of housing,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14of Georgian terraces, of Victorian terraces,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18the huge destruction of public buildings, of churches,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20of country houses, all those things,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23were seen as a way of transforming society,
0:06:23 > 0:06:29getting rid of the sort of detritus, the stuff that was holding us back.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37And it was into this confusion that the first peacetime army
0:06:37 > 0:06:40of government listing inspectors advanced.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45They set off enthusiastically around the country to mount
0:06:45 > 0:06:48a counter-attack on behalf of history.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53The new system was impressively well thought-out
0:06:53 > 0:06:55with grades one to three
0:06:55 > 0:06:59categorising the historic built environment of Britain.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02But, as ever, it didn't go far enough.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Georgian buildings remained under-rated.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Humble buildings often slipped through the system
0:07:09 > 0:07:14and Victorian buildings were positively dismissed.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17It was also the age of the filthy city.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21In 1950s Britain, any urban building more than 50 years old
0:07:21 > 0:07:25was covered in the soot and grime of industry.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31It consigned so much Victorian exuberance to the demolition gang.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40A great deal of prejudice had to be overcome. It's sad really,
0:07:40 > 0:07:45it's a fact about human beings, that when buildings are dirty
0:07:45 > 0:07:50and decrepit, people cannot see beyond the dirt to what's underneath.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53People had long regarded Victorian buildings as hideous
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and worthless, when actually most of them were still standing
0:07:56 > 0:07:58because they were so well-built.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03By the middle of the 20th century, everything Victorian was just hated,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07laughed at, despised.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10The ignorance and the disdain
0:08:10 > 0:08:13that the 20th century felt for the Victorians was
0:08:13 > 0:08:18about like what the 17th century, on the whole, felt for the Middle Ages.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23These things were thought to be old, crumbly, embarrassing, overdone.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26And so everything that the Victorians represented,
0:08:26 > 0:08:31solidity, permanence, detail, elaboration - were absolutely out.
0:08:35 > 0:08:41But in 1958, in the comfortable streets of Kensington in London,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45at her Victorian townhouse, the Countess of Rosse,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49former society beauty and future mother-in-law of Princess Margaret,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53summoned like-minded friends to her home.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56The dirty figure of Victorian architecture
0:08:56 > 0:08:59was about to be embraced.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03There was a lot of gush about her,
0:09:03 > 0:09:07but behind the gush, she was a very tough, capable lady.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13I've just been coming across letters from her to me recently
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and they all start, "Very dearest Mark."
0:09:16 > 0:09:19But I'm sure all her letters started that way.
0:09:19 > 0:09:26And she had this lovely house in Stafford Terrace where they used to
0:09:26 > 0:09:31give frightfully good parties that were very glamorous and enjoyable.
0:09:35 > 0:09:40Fuelled by hefty cocktails, mixed by the butler,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42it was agreed a new society should be formed,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45with a single mission in mind -
0:09:45 > 0:09:50to ensure "the best Victorian buildings and their contents
0:09:50 > 0:09:56"do not disappear before their merits are more generally appreciated."
0:10:00 > 0:10:03It was fun, it was lively, we were pioneers, we were going to
0:10:03 > 0:10:08save Victorian architecture. We got drunk in pubs together,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10we went on outings
0:10:10 > 0:10:14and it was all very enjoyable. I know there was someone
0:10:14 > 0:10:21called Ivor Idris, who was the first treasurer, who was Idris Soft Drinks.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23We were very impressed by him
0:10:23 > 0:10:27because he was a businessman. Nikolaus Pevsner
0:10:27 > 0:10:31of course a professional art historian, there was
0:10:31 > 0:10:37Canon Mortlock who was an amusing person. Mrs Christiansen, who had
0:10:37 > 0:10:43a lovely sort of tinkly voice like the tinkling of a bell. We were very
0:10:43 > 0:10:47friendly, we didn't have rows at the committee meetings in those days.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49And I never spoke at all, because I hate committees
0:10:49 > 0:10:52and am very bad at them.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56So John Betjeman said, "Dear little Mark,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00"so good and never speaks a word."
0:11:02 > 0:11:05But beyond the cocktails and the glossy banter,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09the Victorian Society meant business.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14And two of its members would come to define the post-war heritage world.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19And, as ever, heritage seemed to attract opposites.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22The romantic verses the academic.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27Nicholas Pevsner and John Betjeman were colleagues -
0:11:27 > 0:11:31and at times friends. They had a very different view of the world.
0:11:31 > 0:11:32It was quite inevitable,
0:11:32 > 0:11:37they came from such different backgrounds, one from Hampstead in
0:11:37 > 0:11:40North London and one from Germany, and they couldn't be more different.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43One, a professional art historian,
0:11:43 > 0:11:48the other, a wilfully self-conscious amateur and dilettante.
0:11:48 > 0:11:55Pevsner had studied History of Art at the universities of Leipzig, Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59And while he was an ardent admirer of the supremacy of German Modernism,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04he devoted his doctoral thesis to the German Baroque.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09Stripped of his university lectureship by Nazi anti-Jewish laws,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12he emigrated to Britain in 1933.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16Pevsner was extraordinary, As chairman of the Victorian Society,
0:12:16 > 0:12:23he gave the society seriousness and clout which he used to great effect.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25He sort of transformed the society
0:12:25 > 0:12:29from being a rather small, amateurish organisation
0:12:29 > 0:12:32into something governments listened to and took note of.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35And Pevsner's other astonishing achievement, of course,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38is The Buildings Of England, which none of us could do without.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43I mean, nobody else except I think Pevsner could have started
0:12:43 > 0:12:45and finished The Buildings Of England.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Absolutely essential tool, because knowledge is power.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56In his trusty Austen 1100, and taking 23 years to do it,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Pevsner methodically criss-crossed the country, cataloguing
0:13:00 > 0:13:02England's most important buildings.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Well, now for Barrow. Mind that dog! Now for Barrow, we go straight...
0:13:06 > 0:13:12The result was 46 volumes of The Buildings Of England,
0:13:12 > 0:13:16followed up by series on Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20And these were not guide books, but each volume
0:13:20 > 0:13:23an inventory of a county's architectural assets.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28Buildings were dated and appraised with academic precision.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34And up there, a type of capitol which is
0:13:34 > 0:13:36unmistakable for the architectural historian
0:13:36 > 0:13:43and which one can date around 1170, 1180, that sort of thing.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Now there are leaves on these capitols, broad rather fleshy
0:13:47 > 0:13:52leaves, and those leaves turn at the tip inwards. They do this
0:13:52 > 0:13:56sort of thing, the Ionic Greek Order, does that sort of thing.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01Now, where you find these capitols, you can be sure you are about 1175
0:14:01 > 0:14:05and that must be the time when all this was built, rather quickly.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Every building of importance was to be included, with Pevsner
0:14:10 > 0:14:15the nation's self-appointed new arbiter of architectural quality.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21And since Pevsner was as much at home with modernist architecture
0:14:21 > 0:14:24as medieval, the range of building types was
0:14:24 > 0:14:27greater even than for the government listing operation.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34The evening before each day, my mother would sit down with
0:14:34 > 0:14:36the map and plan the next day,
0:14:36 > 0:14:38which places would be ticked off.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42And they would set out at about nine o'clock in the morning,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46and they would get to the first village or church
0:14:46 > 0:14:52or house, and my father would jump out with a clipboard and paper,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56and they would do the outside, then do the inside.
0:14:56 > 0:15:02They would stop briefly for a picnic lunch, which my mother had prepared
0:15:02 > 0:15:06the previous evening. And they would go on till about six o'clock,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and at about six o'clock they would reach where they were
0:15:09 > 0:15:12going to spend the night, and they would have supper.
0:15:12 > 0:15:19And then my father would sit down and he would write, from his notes,
0:15:19 > 0:15:23of all the things that had been seen that day, until about midnight.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26That was seven days a week for a month.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32The programme was to do a county in a month,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35each of those journeys was one month.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42And while Pevsner travelled by car, Betjeman went by train.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47At Oxford, his tutor declared Betjeman an "idle prig."
0:15:47 > 0:15:51And indeed he fell effortlessly into the country house weekend
0:15:51 > 0:15:55arty set in pursuit of upper-class girls.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59But Betjeman needed to work, describing himself
0:15:59 > 0:16:01as "a poet and a hack."
0:16:02 > 0:16:05The combination would make him a natural on television.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Snow falls in the buffet of Aldersgate station
0:16:13 > 0:16:17Soot hangs in the tunnel in clouds of steam
0:16:17 > 0:16:21City of London! Before the next desecration
0:16:21 > 0:16:25Let your steepled forest of churches be my theme
0:16:27 > 0:16:31Sunday silence! With every street a dead street
0:16:31 > 0:16:33Alley and courtyard empty
0:16:33 > 0:16:35And cobbled mews
0:16:35 > 0:16:39Till tingle tang the bells of St Mildred's Bread Street
0:16:39 > 0:16:43Summoned the sermon taster to high box pews
0:16:43 > 0:16:48Snow falls in the buffet of Aldersgate station
0:16:48 > 0:16:53Toiling and doomed from Moorgate Street puffs the train
0:16:53 > 0:16:56For us of the steam and the gaslight
0:16:56 > 0:16:58The lost generation
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The new white cliffs of the city are built in vain.
0:17:10 > 0:17:16What inspired him, what he cared deeply about was the indeterminate
0:17:16 > 0:17:17beauty of England,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21the beauty that can't be labelled, the ordinary streets,
0:17:21 > 0:17:26the brick terraces, places that give character,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28that aren't famously beautiful,
0:17:28 > 0:17:33but are ordinary and characterful England.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37He saw buildings very much belonging in landscapes.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42They were never divorced objects. That's why telly was so good
0:17:42 > 0:17:46at showing that, that you could do a pull shot away
0:17:46 > 0:17:50and see the surroundings and how important it was.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55He was a natural show-off.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59And he was a real pro,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01because a lot of people in those days
0:18:01 > 0:18:04were quite stiff and embarrassed.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08So that was a very good platform for him to campaign on.
0:18:10 > 0:18:16I can remember when where we are now was the Manchester Hotel
0:18:16 > 0:18:22and where this bracken and rosebay grows, once, down in the passages
0:18:22 > 0:18:25which are tiled, you can still see the tiles,
0:18:25 > 0:18:29once people hurried along with trays of tea.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34And now all that remains is this.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39And the bombed ruins there of Aldersgate Street station.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43From the earliest days of antiquarianism,
0:18:43 > 0:18:48and the study of ancient monuments, there had been a tension between
0:18:48 > 0:18:53different approaches to history - the romantic versus the academic.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Now the antipathy seemed to surface once again.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03This time, in the modern figures of Pevsner and Betjeman.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09They were not friends, but I never heard my father say
0:19:09 > 0:19:13to anybody or in any circumstances
0:19:13 > 0:19:20anything other than that he and John Betjeman
0:19:20 > 0:19:21did different things.
0:19:21 > 0:19:28Pevsner versus my dad war, which was fanned by various academics
0:19:28 > 0:19:32into a ridiculous bonfire of trouble,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35um... wasn't there at all really.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40I mean, they didn't loathe each other, they got on fine.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47He was critical of the fact that there was not the rigorous
0:19:47 > 0:19:49discipline of history of art
0:19:49 > 0:19:55and history of art education in this country that he had grown up with
0:19:55 > 0:20:00in Germany, that history of art was a...
0:20:02 > 0:20:05..much more amateur in England.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11My father was romantic about buildings, and I think that's
0:20:11 > 0:20:16because he had emotional reactions rather than academic reactions.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20I mean, he never, ever said a date to me
0:20:20 > 0:20:24in my whole life, I don't think, it was just, "Isn't this beautiful?"
0:20:25 > 0:20:28He thought what John Betjeman did, I suppose,
0:20:28 > 0:20:33- not meant derogatorily - but he added cosiness
0:20:33 > 0:20:36to the idea of conservation,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39especially of Victorian conservation.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44And my father's approach to that was different.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51They both, in their own way, brought the value of the fabric
0:20:51 > 0:20:55of England to the public, so what does it matter
0:20:55 > 0:21:01if they did it in different ways - my dad through his gut
0:21:01 > 0:21:05and Pevsner through his knowledge, his academic knowledge?
0:21:05 > 0:21:08It doesn't matter.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Because they've both done a bloody good job.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19Betjeman and Pevsner - together with the Victorian Society -
0:21:19 > 0:21:23would lead to the most important heritage campaign of the era.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28The fight to save The Euston Arch from demolition.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32The biggest Doric arch ever built in Britain,
0:21:32 > 0:21:37completed in 1837 in the Greek Revival style as the entrance
0:21:37 > 0:21:40to London's first big railway station.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45It is more correctly called a "propylaeum" - the classical term
0:21:45 > 0:21:49for a free-standing arch leading to somewhere of great importance.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54No-one, alas, seemed too sorry to say goodbye to the old station.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59But the arch, with its heroic scale and romantic scale,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01rallied the public to its defence.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07It seemed to have qualities lacking in the post-war world.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11The Victorians built to last.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14They built this gateway to Birmingham in granite,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16now, 125 years later, it's to come down.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19But who is this pushing his way to the foot of the gallows
0:22:19 > 0:22:21with a last message of hope?
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Who but Mr John Betjeman of the Victorian Society?
0:22:24 > 0:22:26Why should we bother with this arch?
0:22:26 > 0:22:32It was the first arch, the first bit of railway architecture,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35in the world of any size.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40It's very grand scale. Fine stone, granite.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43And if it were moved forward,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46in front of the new Euston Station,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50it would be the most magnificent public monument in London.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56Moving the arch forward would have been a simple operation.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00But in a Britain craving modernity and functionality,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04a symbol to a bygone age had no meaning.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06Even the ageing Prime Minister
0:23:06 > 0:23:09seemed to have forgotten his history.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13Conservationists like John Betjeman took the issue right up
0:23:13 > 0:23:16to top levels - the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Harold Macmillan, who just dismissed it,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21was a classical scholar.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24When he had been wounded as a young officer in the First World War,
0:23:24 > 0:23:26he lay in a shell hole on the Western Front waiting
0:23:26 > 0:23:29to be rescued by the stretcher bearers and he sat,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32you know what he did there? He sat reading Aeschylus in Greek.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37And then he happily dismissed the Euston Arch,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40one of the greatest pieces of Greek Revival architecture in England.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44The great villain, of course, is Harold Macmillan.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48Dreadful man who couldn't care a damn, cynical old Whig that he was.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52But the arch could have been dismantled or moved,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56as people showed at the time. It wouldn't have cost that much.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00One editorial in the Victorian Society annual,
0:24:00 > 0:24:05I think, said that the cost of moving the arch was less
0:24:05 > 0:24:09than that of buying two rather indifferent Renoirs,
0:24:09 > 0:24:14which had just been acquired by the nation, which nobody was threatening to destroy.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21Demolition work began in December 1961.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25It was brutal, but at least the arch was spared explosives
0:24:25 > 0:24:28because of the danger to adjacent buildings.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30The Victorian Society mournfully reported,
0:24:30 > 0:24:35"With regret, we must accept the reduction of the Euston Portico
0:24:35 > 0:24:39"to rubble as a total defeat, but not without the satisfaction
0:24:39 > 0:24:41"of having fought inch by inch
0:24:41 > 0:24:45to the last ditch for its preservation."
0:24:45 > 0:24:47The lorries bore away the bones of the arch -
0:24:47 > 0:24:51according to rumour to become hardcore for an airport runway.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58It was our first battle, it was a great defeat
0:24:58 > 0:25:01but at the same time, it was a noisy defeat.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03DRILLING
0:25:03 > 0:25:08This campaign brought many, many people together
0:25:08 > 0:25:12to preserve the arch. And the important thing about the campaign
0:25:12 > 0:25:14is that it lost.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20And so there was a kind of feeling of, "Never again."
0:25:24 > 0:25:30So, the heritage movement made new alliances, gained new friends
0:25:30 > 0:25:34and adapted to fight in the modern world.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38Plans by British Rail to demolish the Victorian masterpiece
0:25:38 > 0:25:41of St Pancras station were successfully resisted.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46But there were more defeats, too.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49London's great Coal Exchange was demolished.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53The Beeching Report took an axe to the rail network,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56closing Victorian rural stations up and down the country.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01And in 1964, the demolition gang came for Jardine Hall
0:26:01 > 0:26:05in Dumfriesshire, the family home of Captain Ronnie Cunningham-Jardine.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Yes, it was a very happy place.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13One was spoilt most damnably, looking back on it.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Everything was big, had to be big.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22The staircase, you could have marched an army up and down it,
0:26:22 > 0:26:23you know, all abreast.
0:26:23 > 0:26:30And me being a little fella used to swank to my friends that our house
0:26:30 > 0:26:32was really big, compared with theirs
0:26:32 > 0:26:36which was probably just as big!
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Built in 1818 by Scottish architect Gillespie Graham, who had worked
0:26:40 > 0:26:44on the Classical glories of Edinburgh New Town,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49the house was handed over to Captain Ronnie by his mother in 1962.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53It was handed to me, and then I suddenly realised, "Help.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55"What am I going to do with it?"
0:26:55 > 0:26:59I didn't think it was old enough to be a visitor attraction.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04It was a just...a mausoleum
0:27:04 > 0:27:08So I eventually said to my mother,
0:27:08 > 0:27:10"I really think I want to get rid of this place."
0:27:10 > 0:27:14She said, "Well, I can understand, Ronnie, but are you sure
0:27:14 > 0:27:16"you're doing the right thing?"
0:27:16 > 0:27:20And I'm afraid I said, "Yes, I think I am."
0:27:20 > 0:27:22And very upset she was.
0:27:23 > 0:27:29And so then I got on to a firm of demolishers in Glasgow.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33And they said, "We'll just have four sticks of gelignite in each corner
0:27:33 > 0:27:35"of the house, and away she'll go."
0:27:37 > 0:27:39Come on, boys. Come on, boys.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43Come. Come on. Come on.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Now, Captain Ronnie lives in the estate Dower House.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49But the big house still casts a shadow.
0:27:51 > 0:27:541964 I blew it up.
0:27:54 > 0:27:581964. I can't remember the month.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03But this is about the place where my mother and I stood
0:28:03 > 0:28:08to watch the blowing up. Of course, in those days there wasn't
0:28:08 > 0:28:14this line of trees here, so you saw the whole house standing
0:28:14 > 0:28:17completely bare, and a very good view.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20And hopefully no rocks
0:28:20 > 0:28:24and things were going to come this far from the house.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29So here we stood, and we waited.
0:28:29 > 0:28:35And I remember holding my mother's hand, and this is where she went up,
0:28:35 > 0:28:41but it did take us, I told you, four times before she actually went up.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44A big boom. Like, solid boom.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49My mother, she was upset, she was indeed.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53But she'd had a good life here the whole time
0:28:53 > 0:28:56and this was her home, destroyed.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02There we go. Very moving.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08And then we went away and had a cup of tea, I think.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11That's what I think it was.
0:29:11 > 0:29:18Anyhow, it was a bad moment, but it had to be done, in my opinion.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26The demise of Jardine Hall was echoed all over Britain.
0:29:26 > 0:29:31By the mid-'60s, hundreds of great country houses were in trouble.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34The trickle of owners bringing their sorry stories to
0:29:34 > 0:29:37the National Trust had turned into a torrent.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39But it was clear no single organisation,
0:29:39 > 0:29:44no single tax arrangement, could hope to deal with the problem.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48It would usher in a new age of entrepreneurial experiment.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54ROARING
0:29:54 > 0:29:58For good or ill, the lions of Longleat re-invented the country house.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02And if a marquess was there to take your money at the gate,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05so much the better!
0:30:05 > 0:30:07If you don't see any lions, I'll pay you your money back.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10That's a guarantee. Let me know, I'm the boss here.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13People will drive through with their windows open,
0:30:13 > 0:30:14and they put their elbows out.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18They must not do that. If they do it, it's their own fault.
0:30:18 > 0:30:22It's a wonderful feeling that it's alive once again,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25maybe it's not the same type of people for which it was built,
0:30:25 > 0:30:29it doesn't matter to me. After all, these big houses
0:30:29 > 0:30:34originally were built by ancestors to entertain their guests.
0:30:34 > 0:30:39Now, these people aren't my guests, but they are in a sense guests,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41except they have to pay 3 and 6 to be my guest!
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Other houses such as Woburn, Beaulieu and Chatsworth proved money
0:30:55 > 0:31:01could be made, but heritage needed a new look to attract big numbers.
0:31:01 > 0:31:07At Woburn in 1967, The Festival Of Flower Children was the ultimate new look.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14The National Trust was being left behind.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17There was an enormous row in the National Trust,
0:31:17 > 0:31:21a conflict between what you might loosely call the progressives,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23who had an image of the trust becoming a very popular
0:31:23 > 0:31:28organisation with mass support, and the more reactionary element
0:31:28 > 0:31:32which said we're not in the business of bringing in millions of people
0:31:32 > 0:31:35and having a mass membership. And that led to a great deal
0:31:35 > 0:31:40of acrimony and difficulty and an Annual General Meeting when feelings
0:31:40 > 0:31:45ran very high. And after that, a committee of taste was set up.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48And the result of that was that they considered lots of things
0:31:48 > 0:31:50which the National Trust might sell.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53And the committee came to the conclusion
0:31:53 > 0:31:56that every one of them was not worthy of the organisation.
0:31:56 > 0:32:01And... that might have been the end of the story.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03But actually, the chairman
0:32:03 > 0:32:06and others were determined that progress should be made.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13The Trust's timing was spot on.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18In 1968, 20 million people a week for 26 episodes
0:32:18 > 0:32:22tuned in to see the grumpy, money-grubbing, feuding Victorians
0:32:22 > 0:32:26in the BBC's adaptation of The Forsyte Saga.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Heightened emotions set against period architecture
0:32:30 > 0:32:31made gripping TV.
0:32:31 > 0:32:37And suddenly every National Trust property seemed to have more of a story to tell.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41Hello, Forsyte. Well, I've found the very place for your house.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43Look here.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45You may be clever, but this site will cost me half as much again.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48Hang the cost, man. Look at the view!
0:32:48 > 0:32:53The climate was in favour of a change at the Trust.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57Perhaps, after all, you could have a tasteful bestseller.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00It was the birth of tea towel heritage.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06"Dear Miss Albeck, I venture to write to you as your name has been
0:33:06 > 0:33:08"given to me by Mary Trevelyan.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11"The Trust wants to commission one or two designs for tea towels
0:33:11 > 0:33:16"incorporating subjects associated with the Trust -
0:33:16 > 0:33:18"buildings, birds, flowers etc.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22"I understand you have designed some attractive things of this sort."
0:33:22 > 0:33:26This is the very first National Trust tea towel that I did,
0:33:26 > 0:33:31which was for a house in Devon called Saltram.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33And it's a design using copper pans,
0:33:33 > 0:33:38a sort of pattern of the things that you'd find in the kitchen.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42But these are specifically from that kitchen.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Copper is a nice thing to draw.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49Particularly I like the shape of jelly moulds.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53The other one is based on the Adam carpet
0:33:53 > 0:33:56which I really did not want to do, because
0:33:56 > 0:34:04I thought it was really sacrilege to dry up on a great designer's carpet.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07But I did what I was told cos I had to, really.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14From the Trust's founding symbol of the oak leaf
0:34:14 > 0:34:18to the comfy aristo-cats of country house living,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21even a well-stocked stately home larder,
0:34:21 > 0:34:25it was the perfect middle-class souvenir.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34By the late 1960s, the arrogant front of British Modernism
0:34:34 > 0:34:40was beginning to look flimsy, increasingly low-grade, even cynical.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45The ambition of the movement, always unrealistic, had been undermined
0:34:45 > 0:34:49by a bankrupt post-war economy and local government corruption.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52Indeed, from the start, corners had been cut.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59The modern world had been built physically around
0:34:59 > 0:35:03the National Health Service, education and beyond,
0:35:03 > 0:35:08was largely in new forms of architecture that were at the time
0:35:08 > 0:35:12fairly cheap, cold, dull, pretty uninteresting,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15that many people have come to despise in England.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18It wasn't our finest moment in architecture.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21The modern movement in Britain, Modernism in Britain,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23was adopted awkwardly, late and rather badly,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25and cheaply, for the most part.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34The end of Modernism - or at least, the beginning of the end -
0:35:34 > 0:35:37had come in a spectacularly tragic fashion.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42The collapse, after a gas explosion, of a substandard skyscraper
0:35:42 > 0:35:48called Ronan Point in East London killed four people and injured 17.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56But in spite of the demise of Modernism,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00the attack on old buildings continued for several years.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04By the early '70s it had reached unbelievable intensity.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09There were plans to demolish Piccadilly Circus,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Carlton House terrace, the Foreign Office,
0:36:12 > 0:36:14the whole area around Parliament Square...
0:36:14 > 0:36:17I mean, the most appalling things were going to be done.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20Covent Garden was going to be like Paternoster Square in the City,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23it was going to be flattened. The Strand would become London Wall,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26I mean, it was horrific.
0:36:26 > 0:36:32And I think a general feeling that "Come on everybody, stop! What are we doing?" took over.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37We have got to show physically, by demonstration,
0:36:37 > 0:36:41even with marches, and standing outside of town halls,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45this is what we have got to do, we've got to let them know we're here.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48By 1975, according to the new pressure group
0:36:48 > 0:36:53"Save Britain's Heritage," the country was losing a listed building every day to demolition.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Never a guarantee of protection,
0:36:57 > 0:37:04the listing system was now being undermined by the get-rich-quick rewards of development and councils
0:37:04 > 0:37:07after cheap and easy solutions.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12The fight back united people all over the country.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14Civilisation was at risk.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19We can stop them. It isn't too late.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22Campaign alliances crossed traditional class divides
0:37:22 > 0:37:26and party politics to create a new force to be reckoned with.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32It'll take all history away, they'll do away with it completely.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37This is renowned and this should not change, certainly.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40- Oh, no leave that.- You'll ruin us.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42- You'll ruin it, man. - It's beautiful as it is.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52Heritage undoubtedly enters the sort of mainstream of people's
0:37:52 > 0:37:55consciousness, of people's concerns, in the 1970s
0:37:55 > 0:38:01and it's a direct response to the destruction of historic places,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03historic places that were beautiful
0:38:03 > 0:38:07and more importantly historic places that people felt they owned.
0:38:07 > 0:38:08The places where they lived,
0:38:08 > 0:38:13the places where they worked were being crunched up and taken away and replaced with concrete,
0:38:13 > 0:38:15and that was not something that people liked.
0:38:24 > 0:38:29Nostalgia grew like Topsy, it was a fascinating moment if you look,
0:38:29 > 0:38:35whether it was in fashion, in music, in design, in architecture,
0:38:35 > 0:38:40you get this retro look, this heritage look starts to...
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Starts to become dominant, whether it's Laura Ashley dresses
0:38:43 > 0:38:47or neo-classical architects starting to get work again,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50and now "let's hang on to what we know."
0:38:50 > 0:38:53And what we know and what we've always been good at in this country
0:38:53 > 0:38:57is craft and countryside and Cotswold cottages. Back they came.
0:39:02 > 0:39:08They could have shouted in the streets "Modernism is dead, long live Heritage!"
0:39:08 > 0:39:11And if the moment needed a headline, they got one
0:39:11 > 0:39:17when 1975 was declared European Architectural Heritage Year.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Materially, it changed nothing.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23Emotionally, it changed rather a lot!
0:39:24 > 0:39:28It was a very imprecise term and still is a very imprecise term,
0:39:28 > 0:39:33and can cover everything from our natural heritage to our built heritage,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36to music, painting, all sort of things.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39Heritage is a horrible word. I think we all hate it.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41I much prefer history,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44but that implies a sort of written, bookish history.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48I always try not to use the word heritage,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51and yet heritage is the word that means so much, that it's useful.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55I think in the end heritage is whatever we really care about.
0:39:55 > 0:40:01Heritage is so much more...
0:40:01 > 0:40:04ideologically unstable an idea
0:40:04 > 0:40:09than the idea of conservation or even restoration.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13It's something which is more emotional and, in my view,
0:40:13 > 0:40:19more ideological, because the question is, whose heritage is it?
0:40:21 > 0:40:27But the word "heritage" seemed to open things up.
0:40:27 > 0:40:33The upper class version of history, a mainstay of tourism and visitor attractions since the war,
0:40:33 > 0:40:39would be challenged. The Heritage industry was expanding.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Although, as working class heritage stood to gain a voice,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47so British working class industrial life - for real - died.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50And it wasn't the only irony.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55It is the supreme paradox
0:40:55 > 0:41:01that most of the mainstream conservation bodies in Britain
0:41:01 > 0:41:05came into being as a reaction against the horrors of
0:41:05 > 0:41:10industrialisation and the effect of industrialisation on the landscape.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15All of that makes one realise how radical an idea it was to propose
0:41:15 > 0:41:21the preservation of industrial sites because there was no sentiment
0:41:21 > 0:41:27amongst official conservation bodies that was sympathetic to that idea.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31There's a lot more to architecture and the nation's history and our architectural heritage
0:41:31 > 0:41:35than country houses, and always there has been a slight regrettable snobbery
0:41:35 > 0:41:39about people who are particularly obsessed with country houses,
0:41:39 > 0:41:43but there are many of us who are concerned about architecture, and we live in cities and
0:41:43 > 0:41:47we care about urban building where perhaps different values operate.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51The working classes of Britain, their history,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55was best told through a study of industrial sites.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58Industrial revolution had begun in this country,
0:41:58 > 0:42:02enormous historic interest in the processes, in the products,
0:42:02 > 0:42:06in the way of life of most of the people in this country.
0:42:06 > 0:42:12And yet heritage had, it was felt, been fixated on ancient castles, earthworks,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16smart, aristocratic houses. What about everyman's history?
0:42:16 > 0:42:21The interesting aspect of it is that the official heritage bodies,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24the Department Of The Environment, as it was to become,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27and the National Trust didn't know how to cope at all.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31It was entirely off their radar in terms of their ability to
0:42:31 > 0:42:34appreciate its importance,
0:42:34 > 0:42:39and certainly their capacity to handle it in a physical sense.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42Industrial sites were a nightmare.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46They were huge, they were very expensive, they were often
0:42:46 > 0:42:49built out of materials that were designed to last
0:42:49 > 0:42:54as long as that industrial process was being done and no longer,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57so they were rapidly decaying.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02And the scale of the problem that was faced in terms of industry
0:43:02 > 0:43:05was so much greater, exponentially larger,
0:43:05 > 0:43:09than country houses, than castles, than anything that had to be faced before.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13A single coal mine, the amount of money that was needed to save it
0:43:13 > 0:43:16was so much greater than any amount of money that had been
0:43:16 > 0:43:20put forward in terms of saving heritage up until that point.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32The Office Of Works, or as it had now become, the Department Of The Environment
0:43:32 > 0:43:35bought its first industrial site in 1974.
0:43:35 > 0:43:40It was a bobbin mill in Cumbria. Stott Park had been
0:43:40 > 0:43:45producing bobbins for the cotton industry for 150 years
0:43:45 > 0:43:48until its closure in 1971.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53This was a real rescue mission to save the last factory
0:43:53 > 0:43:57doing an activity which the industrial might of the nation was built on the back of,
0:43:57 > 0:44:02and to keep it operational, which also was very, very important because most monuments that
0:44:02 > 0:44:06had been taken on and opened to the public were, if you like dead.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10They were places where things HAD happened, and where you
0:44:10 > 0:44:13had to stand and say, "Well, this is where such and such used to happen."
0:44:16 > 0:44:20It's the automatic bobbin machine which you're going to do
0:44:20 > 0:44:23probably 9,000 a day on here.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26Just feed them on, then you bore the hole through, take 'em off
0:44:26 > 0:44:28and put another two on.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Then take them off, then put another two on.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36Now, next stage is we're going to finish these and go round
0:44:36 > 0:44:37and put on the finishing lathe.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43To go to a place where the activity was actually going on
0:44:43 > 0:44:47was a completely revolutionary experience both for the visitor,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50but also for the Department of the Environment
0:44:50 > 0:44:53when they actually took the place on.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59But as industrial visitor sights
0:44:59 > 0:45:04- railway stations, factories, disused mines - grew in popularity,
0:45:04 > 0:45:09the country house - so infinitely re-inventable - fought back.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14Suddenly, life "below-stairs" was more interesting
0:45:14 > 0:45:18than all the fine fripperies of the drawing room.
0:45:18 > 0:45:19BELL RINGS
0:45:19 > 0:45:23One National Trust property in particular led the way.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27Erddig in North Wales broke the mould.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32Actually, the Trust, in a quite pioneering way, this was in the '70s, decided to present Erddig
0:45:32 > 0:45:34as entirely from the servants' perspective.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39And that was really exciting and visionary and new
0:45:39 > 0:45:44and actually what we discovered was really, really obvious - people love hearing about the servants,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47because they don't necessarily connect with the great families.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51People connect when they think their great-great-grandmother might well have been a kitchen maid.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54They don't think she would have been the Dowager Duchess.
0:45:58 > 0:46:03In 1979, Margaret Thatcher arrived in Downing Street
0:46:03 > 0:46:06with the biggest new broom since Clement Atlee.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10Privatisation and increased profit was the order of the day
0:46:10 > 0:46:13and heritage was not excused.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21In spite of her embrace of Victorian values,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24she would seek to reverse the work of John Lubbock
0:46:24 > 0:46:26whose Ancient Monuments Act of 1882
0:46:26 > 0:46:30had first committed the state to acquiring the nation's heritage.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38Her first Secretary Of State For The Environment, Michael Heseltine,
0:46:38 > 0:46:40had clear instructions.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Privatise the ruined abbeys and castles of Britain!
0:46:50 > 0:46:53The National Trust was a very important part of the thinking
0:46:53 > 0:46:56because here was a private sector organisation
0:46:56 > 0:47:00running very important parts of Britain's heritage,
0:47:00 > 0:47:01very successfully, and
0:47:01 > 0:47:06depending on public subscription or access fees or whatever.
0:47:06 > 0:47:13And my first option was to go to, I think it was Lord Gibson at the time who was chairman,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16and say, "Look, why don't you take over the state-owned sector?
0:47:16 > 0:47:19"Make it into one major operation?"
0:47:19 > 0:47:23And I'll never forget his reply.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26He said, "Not with your trade unions,"
0:47:26 > 0:47:29because he would have inherited what, quite frankly,
0:47:29 > 0:47:34was the quite unacceptable union approach to what we were trying to achieve.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37So he turned it down as an idea, flat.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42In the end, the Thatcher government opted for a series of quangos.
0:47:42 > 0:47:48English Heritage was created in 1983, Cadw in Wales in '84
0:47:48 > 0:47:52and Historic Scotland followed on.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, who had commercialised his own home
0:47:56 > 0:48:00so successfully in the 1960s, was the first chairman of English Heritage.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05The mere appointment of someone like Lord Montagu,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09as opposed to bureaucrats of whom people would not have heard,
0:48:09 > 0:48:11was an indication of the new priorities
0:48:11 > 0:48:15we wanted to establish, the new image we wanted to create.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17It was about finding ways of commercialising
0:48:17 > 0:48:23and running more cheaply, the vast number of historic buildings
0:48:23 > 0:48:28that the government had collected since the 1880s,
0:48:28 > 0:48:31and so a major brief that was given to Lord Montagu
0:48:31 > 0:48:33was, "Make 'em exciting!"
0:48:33 > 0:48:36Make those castles live and dance and sing for their money!
0:48:36 > 0:48:39And that's what he set out to do, essentially.
0:48:40 > 0:48:46And ever since the 1980s, the cut and thrust of the heritage market
0:48:46 > 0:48:49has meant fancy dress is on the up.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53And what's harmless fun for some is the unforgivable
0:48:53 > 0:48:57compromise of authenticity and atmosphere for others.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02There is of course great tension in the heritage world,
0:49:02 > 0:49:08in how you, not only preserve, but present buildings. And I suppose
0:49:08 > 0:49:11it's sometimes a form of snobbery that one rather objects to the
0:49:11 > 0:49:15vulgarisation of houses with people dressing up. I mean, I don't care for it myself,
0:49:15 > 0:49:17it's partly a matter of taste,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21but it does mean sometimes you can't actually enjoy the building there
0:49:21 > 0:49:22that you've gone to see.
0:49:22 > 0:49:27And so the whole world of people dressing up I personally, erm,
0:49:27 > 0:49:31don't care for. Obviously some people do like it.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33Darling, good evening!
0:49:33 > 0:49:36We have got to maintain our income.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40We now have to do that in a very competitive climate.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42Now, some people say, "You shouldn't go down that route,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44"you're selling out, you're Disney-fying."
0:49:44 > 0:49:46I just don't think we are.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50We've plenty of things to learn from Disney, I've got great respect for the Disney organisation.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53The competition for visitor attraction at weekends is intense.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56We've got to keep up with the game.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07In fact, today's approach to heritage is more mixed
0:50:07 > 0:50:09than many reports would have you believe.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14The tranquil, the studious authentic - even the untouched look -
0:50:14 > 0:50:17still has a place and may even be making a comeback.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19At Calke Abbey in Derbyshire,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22not only is there no singing-and-dancing,
0:50:22 > 0:50:27but the house is frozen at the critical point of its demise -
0:50:27 > 0:50:33a through-the-keyhole glimpse of the life-or-death moment of a stately home.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Here, long-suffering cleaners must know the difference between
0:50:36 > 0:50:38"heritage dirt" to be saved,
0:50:38 > 0:50:42and "modern dust" to be vacuum cleaned away.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Commercial it isn't!
0:50:45 > 0:50:47Calke came to us in 1985,
0:50:47 > 0:50:52so anything that fell before 1985 is historic and it can stay.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55Anything after that, which is probably created by our visitors
0:50:55 > 0:50:58and our building works, has to go.
0:50:58 > 0:51:03So we have got a nice sort of line about what becomes historic dirt
0:51:03 > 0:51:05and what becomes dust.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13I think our dirt and dust is Calke and it is our heritage
0:51:13 > 0:51:15and it's something that we try and keep
0:51:15 > 0:51:17and pass on for future generations.
0:51:21 > 0:51:27At Stonehenge, as well, tranquillity is set for a comeback.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30The prehistoric site, which has been a barometer of the heritage industry
0:51:30 > 0:51:35since the days of Britain's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments,
0:51:35 > 0:51:38is set to recapture some of its romance and mystery.
0:51:39 > 0:51:45English Heritage plans will see the nearby section of the busy A344
0:51:45 > 0:51:47wiped off the map later this year.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51It's certainly been in recent times described as a national disgrace.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57I'm feeling how much better it's going to be when we can get rid of
0:51:57 > 0:52:03those fences - and the road is gone and it's all back to grass land.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05And to really get a sense of what it would have
0:52:05 > 0:52:12been like in ancient times to arrive at this fantastic monument.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18So how does the future for heritage look in Britain today?
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Inevitably, there are challenges ahead.
0:52:23 > 0:52:28I think the National Trust has always been almost a paradox
0:52:28 > 0:52:31but it's certainly, we're about many different things.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34We're about muddy boots in the countryside,
0:52:34 > 0:52:36we're about saving the uplands and the coast,
0:52:36 > 0:52:42we're about nature conservation - moths, birds, bees and so on - and
0:52:42 > 0:52:48we're about Chippendale furniture, Adam interiors and fine paintings.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52It's not always easy to keep these things in tandem.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56But they are in tandem. They all depend on one thing -
0:52:56 > 0:53:00us having the money to do it.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03For English Heritage, the biggest challenge is
0:53:03 > 0:53:05the listing of modern buildings.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08But now the process has caught up
0:53:08 > 0:53:13with contemporary architecture, the bad old days of unappreciated
0:53:13 > 0:53:18styles falling through the net, supposedly, are over - even though
0:53:18 > 0:53:22the process can be hugely under pressure in times of recession.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Ever since the shock demolition of the Art Deco Firestone Factory
0:53:28 > 0:53:33on the outskirts of London by a devious developer in 1980...
0:53:33 > 0:53:36English Heritage has been empowered to list architecture
0:53:36 > 0:53:39from between the wars.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43Now, post-war architecture is covered as well, and even
0:53:43 > 0:53:48a 10-year-old building at risk can be listed.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52The youngest listed building is currently Lloyds in the City
0:53:52 > 0:53:55of London, designed by Richard Rogers and completed
0:53:55 > 0:54:01in 1986. And it can only be a matter of time before the Gherkin follows.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04Other choices are more controversial.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08Listing recent buildings is the single most difficult thing
0:54:08 > 0:54:11that English Heritage has to do, because in the listing process
0:54:11 > 0:54:15you're both following taste and you're leading it.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18There are some people who already appreciate buildings that
0:54:18 > 0:54:21were put up in the '70s and '80s. There are equally quite
0:54:21 > 0:54:24a lot of people around who lived through the period when they were
0:54:24 > 0:54:27put up and think they're diabolical, ugly blots on the landscape.
0:54:27 > 0:54:33And so the job of the listing inspector is to steer
0:54:33 > 0:54:37the way between those two lots of opinion to work out what is
0:54:37 > 0:54:40really important for future generations. And those
0:54:40 > 0:54:44judgments are extremely difficult and can be extremely controversial.
0:54:46 > 0:54:52Imaginative re-use will be the mantra of the heritage movement in the future.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Two great examples show the way -
0:54:55 > 0:55:02the resurrection of St Pancras Station in London as the nation's rail-link with the Continent
0:55:02 > 0:55:09and the re-invention of Bankside Power station as Tate Modern, London's home of contemporary art.
0:55:09 > 0:55:16And maybe, just maybe, a third is about to surface.
0:55:16 > 0:55:22The Euston Arch, whose demolition triggered the modern heritage movement 50 years ago,
0:55:22 > 0:55:25is set to rise again.
0:55:25 > 0:55:29Architectural historian Dan Cruickshank located the remains of
0:55:29 > 0:55:34the arch at the bottom of the River Ley in East London back in 1993.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40The stones had been acquired by British Waterways from the
0:55:40 > 0:55:43demolition contractor to plug a hole in the bed of the river.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Now many more stones have been raised from the river bed, and with
0:55:48 > 0:55:52plans to redevelop Euston Station after the government's recent
0:55:52 > 0:55:57go ahead of the new high-speed rail link between London and the north,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01the chances of a resurrected arch have never looked better.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Dan is meeting with structural engineer, Alan Baxter.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09This is one of the capitals of one of the Doric piers,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12framing the columns on one of the corners.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15We can see exactly where this stone was
0:56:15 > 0:56:18on the measured drawings of the building we've got
0:56:18 > 0:56:21- executed at the time in the 1950s by British Railways -
0:56:21 > 0:56:22because they wanted to demolish it.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26So it's a beautiful piece and it gives us a sense of the scale, the
0:56:26 > 0:56:28precision, the Grecian architecture.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30That's of course from demolition.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34We can fill that in. Look how accurate that still is!
0:56:34 > 0:56:37We worked out that of the stones of the arch,
0:56:37 > 0:56:42the arch had about 4,400 tons of Bramley Ford grit stone used
0:56:42 > 0:56:47to construct it in the late 1830s and there is certainly well over
0:56:47 > 0:56:5160% down there, well over, and it's in incredibly good condition.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55And this is fantastic, it's withstood 130 years of soot
0:56:55 > 0:57:01at Euston and has enjoyed 50 or so years of a nice bath.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03It's in incredibly good nick.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07They have been really, wantonly demolished.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09When it was destroyed, they could have been
0:57:09 > 0:57:15taken down stone by stone and other arches, like Marble Arch, was moved.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19It was really vandalism.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21And you can see the damage that has been done,
0:57:21 > 0:57:25but it's easy to repair it when we put the arch up again.
0:57:25 > 0:57:30For Dan, who believes the Euston propylaeum is one of the greatest
0:57:30 > 0:57:34structures ever made, there is one all important question.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39Coming on to money. Huge areas of speculation,
0:57:39 > 0:57:41not sure how many stones we can get back,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44not sure how much repair is necessary and so on and so forth.
0:57:44 > 0:57:50In current terms, in 2012, what do you reckon is the figure?
0:57:50 > 0:57:52I know it's slightly plucking it from the air.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55With your huge expertise and experience what do you reckon?
0:57:55 > 0:57:59Well, I think we costed it at £12 million
0:57:59 > 0:58:02and then the commercial value of the room at the top
0:58:02 > 0:58:05and the basement might be a couple of million.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07We just need £10 million, please,
0:58:07 > 0:58:11and there is a collecting pot for the Euston Arch Trust!
0:58:11 > 0:58:15This is a very hopeful moment for the arch,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18but for a lot of other things, too. It's not that I'm an excessive
0:58:18 > 0:58:20optimist but it's a much,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24much better climate now for the care of cities, for the care of what
0:58:24 > 0:58:28we have from the past - but also for creating really wonderful new things, too -
0:58:28 > 0:58:34so it's a time for a really interesting fusion of new and old.
0:58:37 > 0:58:44For more information about English Heritage's complementary exhibition to the series,
0:58:44 > 0:58:51visit bbc.co.uk/battleforbritainspast
0:58:51 > 0:58:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd