I’m David McAllister, managing Director of Craigerne Consulting Limited, based in Peebles in the Scottish Borders. I have set up this new business following a period of sixteen successful years in various roles with the National Trust for Scotland. I’m a highly experienced professional with a total of over 30 years in the Heritage sector focussed on Conservation and Operational management and skilled in the planning and delivery of successful, award winning heritage projects. I am now taking opportunities to bring my expertise to a wider and more diversified Client base.

I have a deep passion for our entire heritage and have well developed understanding of all the complexities, opportunities and constraints that are always the fundamental elements of Heritage, Conservation and Cultural projects. Also, with over 7 years as a member of the NTS Senior Management Team I have the experience of managing an extensive portfolio of highly significant heritage assets in a climate of considerable change.

I believe his combination of experience makes me a considerable asset for the planning and execution of successful projects in the Heritage, Conservation and Cultural Sectors.

See more about the services I offer on my website: www.craigerne-consulting.com

Current Activity

I’m currently working on a Visitor Improvement Plan for the Bo’ness Motor Museum. This is focusing on the wonderfully unique and at times quirky collection of 20^th century cars and associated memorabilia the museum has collected over the years, many associated with film and television – so all very much recent cultural heritage here! The James Bond collection is particularly noteworthy as is the Harry Potter Ford Anglia. The work involves setting out short, medium and longer-term actions for the team to implement that will boost visitor numbers and improve visitor experience.

We are also exploring a new website and expanding on social media content to promote collections, activities and engage with new audiences.

Hospitalfield Arts, Arbroath

As a Trustee and Chair of the Development Committee at Hospitalfield for the ambitious Future Plan it is an exciting time with our Stage 2 HLF application in for approval hopefully later in the year. It is an ongoing pleasure to be involved in such a worthwhile and vibrant project!

Project Funding approval from Creative Scotland is expected soon and we are one of the key capital projects included in the Tay Cities Deal proposals currently under consideration.

Phase 1 of the project includes a new residential block by Stirling Prize winners Caruso St John, the restoration of the old Glasshouse and Fernery, bringing these back into public use. The latest addition to the scheme is the exciting proposal for the garden by Nigel Dunnet, which we are delighted with and we believe, will bring new audiences to Hospitalfield for the first time. Hospitalfield is dedicated to contemporary art and ideas a place to work, study, learn, visit and enjoy.

See more at: http://hospitalfield.org.uk/about/future-plan/

Two Cities

I have been fortunate to visit two World Heritage Cities in recent weeks, Bologna and Hamburg. This is the reason I was unable to attend the Financing the Historic Environment conference in Glasgow, which I’m sad to have missed as it looks to have been a great success with insightful presentations and discussions. Hopefully next year I will be better organised.

Here are some impressions from Bologna, a truly inspiring city that don’t need more words to describe. Make a point of visiting if you have not been before, ther is wonderful artwork everywhere you look!

Hamburg is also well worth the visit, particularly to see the outstanding conservation/transformation underway in the Halfencity district, but for the purposes of this blog I wanted to focus on just one building. The Elbphilharmonie by Herzog & De Meuron  -arguably a building that is redefining a city.

Not without controversy (the cost overrun puts the Scottish Parliament in the shade and is still a very hot topic in the city). This is an astonishing, awe inspiring building all the more remarkable in that it is an adaptation and extension (and what an extension) of an original brick warehouse in the heart of the old docks.

Hamburg now has an unmistakable new landmark on the city skyline.

The guidebook talks of its silhouette as a …’symbol of Germany as a nation of culture. A symphony of beauty, an ode to the future’ I don’t disagree.

Finally a plug for a couple of upcoming events focused on Grandison & Son Decorative Plasterers– one of the last remaining plastering workshops in Scotland, and how their wonderful collection of moulds and casts will be at risk once the current proprietor retires in around 10 years’ time. Over the past few months a small group of us have been working on ways of securing the future of this unique business and plasterwork museum based in Peebles and with the grateful assistance of Live Borders are happy to announce two upcoming events planned to increase awareness of the collection, which we hope one day will be recognised as a collection of national significance in its own right.

In the last week Built Environment Forum Scotland has supported hustings in Glasgow and Edinburgh with a focus on the built environment in advance of the local government elections on the 4^th May. The events were organised by locally based organisations, the New Glasgow Society and Edinburgh World Heritage. What did we learn at them?

All candidates declared their love for the heritage of the respective cities but the Edinburgh candidates were slightly more specific in also declaring support of the draft Edinburgh World Heritage Management Plan – reflecting the specific interest of the organisers. Across both events there was acknowledgement that things were not perfect, that communities needed to be listened to but also that local authorities were tied by budget cuts and lack of relevant powers on some issues.

Business Rates were a hot topic in Glasgow – but controlled by Scottish Government – and combined with retail unit management by City Property – with several councillors on the Board – came in for significant criticism. Land Value Tax was supported by some Glasgow candidates and affordable housing was also a shared priority. Candidates tended towards the general comment on existing policy and processes, wanting better building maintenance, use of compulsory purchase orders etc. but the SNP candidate specifically proposed a “city architect” and a “historic Glasgow zone”. Details on the role and power of the city architect are unclear and as was pointed out on Twitter, Glasgow already has a Central Conservation Area. You can follow some of the online Twitter commentary at #ngsqt, informed, illuminating and entertaining.

The Edinburgh hustings had a stronger focus on short term lets, and the perception of an over provision of hotel and student accommodation within the city centre. The candidates were united in acknowledging that the local authority does not currently have the powers to address the phenomenon of Airbnb and have asked The Scottish Parliament to legislate on it. There was a general acknowledgement that Edinburgh now had adequate hotel provision but some candidates wished to see hotels spread to the outskirts of the city. A similar tack was taken on student accommodation, that it needed to be spread rather than concentrated – the reality is that student accommodation has been opposed by communities wherever it has been proposed, central or suburban.

Both events became more heated as they progressed, Edinburgh quite significantly with a loud cheer for the audience member who said that the public had been betrayed by the City of Edinburgh Council. Councillors were asked why they should be voted for and the reply was ‘based on our record’: the absence of published voting records on council committees makes this rather difficult. Questions that remain unanswered were on how to improve building maintenance and whether local authorities retained enough conservation skills in-house.

Both events revealed the public passion for the built environment and the level of expertise available within communities. They also reveal the complexities of decision making and the lack of joined up thinking within local authorities which leads to the planning process becoming a focus for communities to express dissatisfaction with a wide range of issues not subject to planning legislation.

The Place Standard Tool is being increasingly adopted for community engagement and it seems that “influence and sense of control” frequently receives low scores. The audiences at these hustings were also clearly frustrated by this and while there is no quick fix to this within the current system, continuing local dialogue with the successful candidates is necessary and hopefully BEFS Advocacy Toolkit will provide a starter for those wishing to begin.

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Further summaries of the Edinburgh hustings can be found from Edinburgh World Heritage, Cliff Hague and the Broughton Spurtle.

A group of residents in adjacent terraced streets in the Pilrig Conservation Area in Leith are now the satisfied owners of a safe and sound section of Victorian garden party-wall.

The wall was listing badly at about 11 degrees from the vertical and had started to collapse owing in part to structural weaknesses (Fig. 1).

Fig 1.                                                                              Fig. 2

 
Research shows that:

Historically, building materials were largely selected based on what was available locally. For centuries prior to the widespread availability of lime, binders such as earth and clay were commonly used in Scotland. The use of these declined as they were superseded by lime, and then cement, in modern construction.

However when the section of this wall was brought down, it was evident that soil had been used as an inferior construction binder (Fig. 2) rather than lime mortar, probably in the 1890s when the houses were built on land assigned from the Balfour Estate.  The soil all had to be carted away along with any rotted or degraded sandstone (deeds from the 1890s state that the stone for the houses came from Clunievar Quarry just west of Dunfermline) unsuitable for reuse.

Following demolition by hand, stone by stone, the wall was rebuilt in a traditional style (Fig. 3).   The middle of the wall was filled in with smaller stones then a quicklime slurry was poured over them to bind them in (Fig. 4), giving additional strength.

Fig. 3                                                                            Fig. 4

 
Pointing was “knocked back” while still damp to provide a smart finish (Fig. 5). Existing stone was used where possible along with sandstone recovered from another job at one of the properties.

Fig. 5                                                                                Fig. 6

Finally the wall was topped out with the original coping stones (Fig. 6), kept damp under sackcloth to set for a couple of days, and the job was done.

Contractor:

Muir Stone Repair, summer 2016.

On the 29 and 30 of March 2017, I attended the conference Financing the Historic Environment organized by Built Environment Forum Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland and the BRICK (Building Resources, Investment & Community Knowledge) programme run by The Prince’s Regeneration Trust (PRT) where I currently work.

As a communications intern from Uruguay who has lived in London for less than two months, my background in heritage is limited, making the chance to be a part of this conference a great opportunity for increasing my understanding of relevant issues within the heritage field. Before I attended this conference, I did not know how heritage projects managed to obtain funding, and I was curious to discover the different processes that organizations must go through to achieve their goals. Listening to all the presentations and interviewing some of the key people at this conference allowed me to understand that finding funding for heritage projects can be a struggle, but with determination and community engagement, it is not impossible and, indeed, there are many success stories.

Different methods to achieve financial goals were successfully explored in both days of Financing the Historic Environment. On day one, a main topic discussed was “Commercial Investment in the Historic Environment,” which guided participants to better understand this alternative method for obtaining funds for project development. Representatives from Scottish Property Federation, Trevor Osborne Property Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland examined the risk factors behind investing in a historic building. Although the speakers initially established a slightly pessimistic scenario for historic buildings by agreeing on the greater economic appeal of modern buildings, they did share hope for those who intended to restore heritage sites. When an audience member enquired on how to address some of the given risks, the speakers agreed that, although the lack of flexibility and lower-level efficiency of historic buildings represent a risk to investors, the negative impact of these factors might be decreased through community engagement, increasing a project’s chances for funding.

On day two, I was able to understand the benefits of tourism on the preservation of historic treasures. On the section “Heritage Tourism Investment” Jana Hutt from Knockando Woolmill, Martin Hulse from Dunston Staiths and Paul Higson from Portsoy Sail Loft discussed their work on projects that were meant to attract tourism. Although combining touristic activity and historic buildings can be a challenging task, these speakers emphasized how a deep knowledge of a heritage project can benefit the project’s outcomes. When an attendee asked about the importance of collaboration among different heritage projects, Ms. Hutt argued that it is important to collaborate with other local projects to achieve better results. Day two also provided examples of success stories to help inspire delegates who are working on similar projects.

Overall, “Financing the Historic Environment” was a huge success, trending locally on Twitter (with #HeritageFinance) and with great attendance both on 29^th and 30^th of March. Personally, this conference has taught the difficulties for some projects to reach completion but also how rewarding it is for all those who were involved every step of the way. The tools provided by each speaker will hopefully encourage the preservation of other historic buildings that are significant to the history of the United Kingdom and that have the potential to provide new jobs and revive a local community. The diversity of the speakers presenting at Financing the Historic Environment further elevated this event by exposing me and the rest of the attendees to the benefits (and challenges) of obtaining both public and private funding and by providing insights into different heritage projects. Events such as Financing the Historic Environment share BRICK’s goals of supporting community groups that are trying to create a better future for their local area by saving their heritage sites. I believe that these kinds of events can be meaningful for communities and lead to new projects. I sincerely hope that more collaborations among heritage organizations happen in the future to preserve, what I see to be, one of the biggest parts of the UK’s culture.