RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION

Restoration and conservation are similar enough to share this page but they are not the same. Conservation can entail some restoration and restoration will, itself, conserve –It’s a matter of degree, flexibility and even legislation. To conserve a building is to preserve it as it now is; to restore a building is to return it to how it was at a chosen point in its history.

So, for example, how ailing brickwork or crumbling stucco is addressed will depend upon whether the building is Grade I, Grade II*, Grade II or non-listed; whether it is or isn’t in a conservation area etc. If we are conserving, then only those elements that are irredeemably compromised and/or compromising the structure itself can be replaced and even then only with identical material. But if we are restoring, we will have greater flexibility and be able to use a wider range of materials including reconstituted stone. The relative – and hotly contested – merits of conservation and restoration are at the heart of the Heritage debate and understanding their subtleties is essential to our work and to the advice we give.