Exploring the character of towns

What we are doing and why

In many ways, the recognition, protection and enhancement of the character of towns is the raison dtre of the Civic Trust movement. This ethos, which reaches back to post-war Britain, when we had to build and build again in devastated towns and cities, and then found ourselves designing places for cars not people, is as relevant today as it ever was. We no longer gut traditional city centres. We recognise the need for humanscale places. But a lot of what we build remains characterless housing estates that could be Anytown; superstores that are little more than retail sheds. What we protect, we often do well. We try to do our best with conservation areas, listed buildings and National Parks. But if a building or an area lacks a special designation, then however much we might plead with a developer that design should respond to context, what we get is generally mundane and off the shelf. It subtracts rather than adds from our intuitive sense of the quality, the character, the meaning of place. Thats why Cadw ran with the baton passed to it by English Heritage and began a series of twelve character studies of Welsh towns. And thats why the Civic Trust for Wales bid successfully to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a project that is engaging Welsh civic societies, and the wider communities they serve. This focuses on the methodology of urban character studies weve called it Exploring the character of towns. Officially, its urban characterisation, but thats an awkward and rather sterile term for something thats fun as much as it is challenging.

Contacts
In Abergavenny
Abergavenny Civic Society

In Newtown
Newtown Civic Society

At the Civic Trust for Wales

Anna Lermon 02920 343336 post@civictrustwales.org Ground Floor, East Wing Windsor House, Windsor Lane Cardiff CF10 3DE

haracter studies of this kind focus on the whole town, not just the special bits or special buildings. They look at the suburban housing estate or the bye-law terrace with the same eye

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for detail as they consider a high street or a waterfront. They identify what is characteristic and individual about a place as a means to inform the way we look after it and manage changes, large and small. Just because a street is full of semis, or what seems like a hum-drum terrace, doesnt mean it lacks interest or a bit of distinctiveness. If we can understand the places we live in better, then we have a tool to promote better new development, whether on the small or the large scale. At the same time we have an understanding of the fine grain and detail and we can help people look after it whether the ones concerned are council officials or householders. Cadw will soon publish studies of Merthyr Tydfil and Cefn Mawr to sit alongside earlier reports. The Trust has drafted a study of Barry Island that will one day appear in the same series. But these reports are top down. We want to develop and share the tools that will help community groups to identify whats distinctive and special about their own streets and towns. That way, character assessments may achieve a measure of democratic validation that can assist planners. The Trusts project includes groups in Abergavenny and Newtown, Machynlleth and Kidwelly. We believe, however, that the approaches to analysing towns and streets that are central to characterisation have a value that goes beyond the publication of a formal study of a community. The toolkit were developing should be able to provide the basic skill set for any amenity group that wants to develop the kind of analytical understanding of character and local distinctiveness that will support its casework and enable insights to be shared with the community at large. In this sense our project may be key to building capacity amongst civic societies and their partners, as much as it demonstrates how character studies can be done by informed and committed volunteers. Anna Lermon

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