Dr Simon Thurley, head of English Heritage....showed Friday last during the new BBC series why we are in such a mess with England's Heritage.
The programme showed him on one of his "jollies" using my public money with a ill thought out scheme to restore a redundant property a grand country mansion, that is now well and truly credit crunched. They should not done themselves any favours letting the cameras in for the new series. It showed him as a right little hooray Henry Twasser, pollacking around from one disaster to another. Sucking up to Royalty while ignoring the peasantry. He said to one of the dirty handed archaeologists. "Who is in charge here, Oh I wont shake your hand I have a limp wrist" I don't think the editing team liked him, they did him no favours.
I quote "we are the social security service for major buildings. When you're down and out and sleeping under a bridge in a cardboard box, as it were, as a house or a landscape. That's what we were set up for in the 1980s".
Well Mr Thurley, as it were, get over to Liverpool its got a load of properties and landscapes on the dole.
Here is the 10 on the English Heretics "at risk" register. I have no room for a list of all the others in a perilous state of disrepair.
The City Council has some 2,500 listed buildings (1,545 list entries). English Heritage maintains a national register of grade I (one) and II* (two star) listed buildings 'at risk' based on their definition. There are currently 10 entries for grade II* listed buildings included on the register for Liverpool, viz:-
St Luke’s Church, Berry StreetCroxteth Hall,
Croxteth ParkLaundry & Laundry Cottage,
Croxteth Park98-102a High Street, Wavertree – now repaired
Wellington Rooms, Mount Pleasant
Royal Insurance Building, North John Street
Sugar Silo, Regent Road
Church of St Andrew, Rodney Street
Church of St James, St James Place
North warehouse, Stanley Dock.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6111239.ece?Submitted=true
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/article687390.ece
Caitlin Moran in the Times says,
Do you know what a documentary likes? It likes a bumptious, posh arse who thinks he’s “all that and a bag of chips”, BBC Two found just such an item in Dr Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6160306.ece
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I was particularly angered by Thurley's concern about the way the view AWAY from Apethorne House was "ruined" by a Leylandii hedge in the far distance. Could he possibly take a trip to Liverpool and consider the way the views of the Three Graces have been ruined by the grotesque developments at Mann Island ? Probably not, as English Heritage were in on the deal. So thank you very much Mr Thurley, I presume there is some "profit" at Mann Island to cover the costs of EH activities elsewhere.
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