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‘One of the biggest issues is repairing and restoring the large number of churches’

On the register this year, Smith Square Hall [Historic England Archive]

FROM a hospital that helped revolutionise women’s health to the house where engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel is said to have rested each night as he built Paddington station, a wide range of buildings are on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register (HAR), published this week.

The Grade II-listed Samaritans Hospital for Women in Marylebone Road, shut in 1997, having first offered medical help in 1889. It is still currently unused and falling further into disrepair, as the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust works out what it could now be used for.

The white stuccoed Brunel House can be found in Westbourne Grove. Designed in 1843 by architect George Ledwell Taylor, it was said the name refers to the fact Brunel stayed there while building Paddington station nearby.

And with over a third of historic buildings on the list being places of worship, Historic England are working with Westminster City Council and the churches to find ways to fund vitals repairs.

Finding new uses for churches is vital, or we could face losing them entirely, Simon Buteux of Historic England’s principal adviser, Heritage at Risk, has told the Extra. He said: “One of the biggest issues is repairing and restoring the large number of churches. There is a myth that the Church of England is rolling in money. They do not have the funds to maintain and restore them.

“There have been falling congregations, demographics have changed, churches have to find new uses as well as being a place of worship. These are landmark buildings in our cities and very valuable. But just maintaining them is really difficult. By opening them up for other uses, we can unlock funding.”

In total, Westminster has 20 buildings at serious risk, including Smith Square Hall – the former St John’s Smith Square concert hall. The prestigious classical music concert venue, in a former-church building, a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament, has gone on the register this year.

Of the HAR Mr Buteux said: “In terms of numbers, it is pretty stable, with some long-running entries.”

As for what buildings are deemed suitably interesting to be deemed worth saving if in trouble is “a moving target,” he suggested.

He said: “We find it usually goes back to about 30 years. For example, the Snowdon Aviary at London Zoo, built in the early 1960s, was on the register. Listings are now coming in from the end of the 20th century.

“The more recent, the higher the bar to be able to say they have a special architectural or historic interest.”

While the register makes it public which heritage buildings are in danger, repairs are a long term aim. Town halls have powers to force owners to make repairs, with the ultimate sanction being a compulsory purchase order.

Historic England offers advice and grants but has no statutory powers. This means it can be a frustratingly drawn out process.

Mr Buteux said: “The local authority has enforcement powers to order urgent works and if they are not done they can do it themselves. But they have to do this through the planning system and boroughs are really stretched. They have to have both the capacity and the will to do it. Often it isn’t very high on a list among all the other important services they have to provide.”

It isn’t just stand out period buildings that are noted: the list includes a canal-side shelter and wharf store in Praed Street, Paddington.

Mr Buteux said: “If you were to get rid of things like this, what would our streets look like? It is about character, it gives an area historical roots. Every little thing is important.”

• https://historicengland.org.uk/

WATCH OUR ONLINE POLITICS CHANNEL, PEEPS, ON YOUTUBE

Documentary tells the inspirational story of former president

The inauguration ceremony for Mary Robinson

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MRS ROBINSON Directed by Aoife Kelleher Certificate: 12a ☆☆☆☆

IN a contemporary world where we have strongman presidents closing down borders, pursuing aggressive and attritional policies and anger and fighting seems to be the fall-back position, a film that tells the story of a democratically elected leader who is the absolute antithesis of such demagogic figures is most welcome.

While the film title draws no doubt on The Graduate, the title could have easily been There’s Something About Mary – because indeed there is.

Mrs Robinson, screened this week at the Irish Film Festival in Piccadilly, is a biography with that takes the inspirational story of Mary Robinson, the Irish president between 1990 and 1997.

It’s more a loving picture of a woman who changed Irish society. It’s a consideration of what makes a genuine humanist – how you can use your talents and experiences for the good of everyone. That is Mrs Robinson in a nutshell.

We learn of a childhood of competing against four brothers: her parents told her she could do whatever they did and was worth as much as them. Empowering words for the period – but also something which, on reflection, she says was patently untrue. She was born into an Ireland that was a church-based, patriarchal society. She became a lawyer, focusing on the constitution – not solely academic when considered in the context of the Troubles – and then won a post as senator.

In 1990 she won the top job. It was the first time Fianna Fáil had not won the presidency, and ushered in a new sense of modernity. Described as “fearless about walking into difficult situations,” we learn she is both tough and cultured, serious but party loving. “She knows how to party as hard as she does work,” we are told.

Talking heads give the viewers an idea of the challenges overcome.

After stepping down, Mary took her talent beyond the Irish borders, chasing down human rights abusers, and today is the chairwoman of The Elders, a social justice body established by Nelson Mandela.

Musician Peter Gabriel was a co-founder of the Elders project. He says: “She always has been this strong, feisty, spirited person who goes in and fights for people, who need support.” That comes over in this celebratory story. Let’s all be a little more like Mary.