Dear Bloomsburyites,
Apologies for my long absence on this blog. I have been doing a lot of work in conservation and architecture, both locally and worldwide, spending some time in India working on world heritage sites and the like. I have also been undertaking an MSc in Sustainable Heritage at UCL, and working as a conservation ‘specialist’ and architectural designer at Hugh Cullum Architects.
Through all this time the question of conservation, planning, community participation, and the general status quo in Bloomsbury has still remained a point of interest. It does seem, though, that direct ‘campaigning’ has little influence, perhaps because the conservation and planning system as a whole does not really encourage this approach.
I am currently revisiting the question of conservation in Bloomsbury and Covent Garden as part of my MSc dissertation. I am hoping to pull together the various bits of research undertaken and opinions held among the community and more widely into a cohesive document which summarises the state of conservation in Bloomsbury and Covent Garden, backed by a base of evidence.
The first stage to this is a broad survey of opinion, which I have linked below, followed by interviews of community members and hopefully planners, conservation officers, and councillors.
I hope that you can find time to fill out this survey, or alternatively simply email me with any opinions, anecdotes, evidence that you think are relevant. I will hopefully also be carrying out interviews in July – please contact me if you would like to be interviewed.
owen.ward.22@ucl.ac.uk
I am hoping to publish the final piece of research on this blog, and that it may be used to put together some recommendations for improved community participation in planning and conservation in Bloomsbury.
Below are some interesting images from my conservation work and travels.
Save Bloomsbury 