GIVING OUR PAST A FUTURE - WMF

GIVING OUR PAST A FUTURE:

THE WORK OF WORLD MONUMENTS FUND

BRITAIN

Foreword by Kevin McCloud,Ambassador, WMF BritainPouring money into an old building is oneof the great honourable activities of themodern age. How else are we supposed tounderstand where we’re going unless weunderstand where we’ve been? How elsecan we give any kind of context to ourchildren’s education if we don’t care forwhat we have? World Monuments FundBritain have to be congratulated forpreserving so many exceptional sites forfuture generations and for helping them tomake that vital connection with their senseof place, community and history.

Front cover: A restored Corinthian capital atStowe House in Buckinghamshire. Inside covers: The restored Large Library ceiling at Stowe House.

Gorton Monastery, Manchester. This fine, derelict Victorian building by E.W. Pugin was Watch listed in 1998 and 2000. SubsequentWMF funding enabled the Trust to work up detailed plans for therescue of the site when no other sources of funding were available.

GIVING OUR PAST A FUTURE:

THE WORK OF WORLD MONUMENTS FUND

BRITAIN

2 WORLD MONUMENTS FUND BRITAIN

Bonnie Burnham President, World Monuments Fund

Great works of architecture deserve to becelebrated beyond the time of theircreation, and as their histories accumulatenew chapters, these should add to ourappreciation and enjoyment of the place.This principle has guided the work ofWorld Monuments Fund since its foundingin 1965, and since our earliest work in theUnited Kingdom some 20 years ago.

World Monuments Fund was founded tocreate an opportunity for civic engagement with the conservation of globally important heritage sites throughout the world. Whengreat places are at risk, or in moments ofcomplex transition, it can be a matter ofglobal concern. World Monuments FundBritain was forged from the need for adeeper understanding of the heritage fieldcountry by country and also to be able toshare knowledge more readily withcolleagues around the world. We invite youto join our efforts to keep heritage sitesvital, to learn about and enjoy them, bothon a local level and as citizens of the world.

Jonathan FoyleCEO, World Monuments Fund Britain

World Monuments Fund exists to provide anetwork of expert, considered andsubstantive responses to the needs of important but ailing historic sites around the world. WMF Britain does not dispense grants from an endowment, but raises specific funds from scratch. The necessary planning andrelationship-building takes enormous workeven to prepare for direct conservation, and is, by its nature, an ongoing process. What we show you – beautiful buildings contributing to society and enjoyed by many people – isan investment of time and the result ofgreat commitment from all our team.

This brochure coincides with the exhibitionGiving our Past a Future: The Work ofWorld Monuments Fund Britain at SirJohn Soane's Museum during the winter of2012/13.

World Monuments Fund Britain would like tothank The Pacificus Foundation, The Paul MellonEstate and SYMM for their generous support ofthe exhibition and this publication.

WORLD MONUMENTS FUND BRITAIN 3

Every two years since 1996, the WorldMonuments Watch has called internationalattention to cultural heritage around theglobe that is at risk from the forces ofnature and the impact of social, political,and economic change.

The Watch list is drawn fromindependently-nominated sites fromaround the world which typically face someissue of risk or a need for action. A panel ofexternal experts convenes at WMF’sheadquarters in New York to advise onselection of Watch sites based on theirsignificance, the threat they face, and thepotential for help. The world’s press is

engaged for the launch of each Watch.

The international attention drawn to Watchsites provides a vital tool for localcommunities to leverage support fromgovernments, foundations, corporatesponsors and donors. Over the lifetime ofthe programme, 686 sites in 132 countriesand territories have been included in nineWatch cycles.

More than a third of Watch sites havedeveloped into WMF projects, with fundingtotalling over £60 million. The followingsection explains a number of our success stories, and their objectives in the years ahead.

The World Monuments Watch

Before: Canterbury Provincial Government Buildings, Christchurch, New Zealand. View of the HighVictorian Gothic interior of the Stone Chamber c. 2000. An outstanding example of Gothic Revivalarchitecture in New Zealand, it was designed by Benjamin Mountford, and built 1864-5. After: Canterbury Provincial Government Buildings, Christchurch, New Zealand. View of the High interior of the Stone Chamber after its destruction by earthquakes during 2010-11. It was Watch listed in 2012.


Clockwise: (1) WMF field trips give expert-led access to work in progress around the world. This visit in2011 explored the Mentewab-Qwesqwam palace in Gondar, Ethiopia. (2) At Stowe, we partnered withanti-bullying charity Kidscape to give disadvantaged children access to Stowe School’s facilities, creatingmentoring and activity groups with pupils over summer weekends. (3) At Strawberry Hill House, a studyday group learns about Horace Walpole’s eighteenth-century garden and plans to recreate it, backed byfunding through WMF. (4) Traineeships are important aspects of our project work. Young masons weregiven the opportunity to take part in the conservation at Stowe House, and earn accreditation.


Top: Watch Day at Coventry saw local citizens of all ages learn about stained glass by seeing conservation in action, then engage in making their own colourful contributions to a specially-commissioned window.Bottom: Lord Fellowes regales an audience of over 400 members and guests on the topic of ‘Filming onLocation’, including Downton Abbey and his other period films.


Since its Watch listing in 2012, WMF Britainhas secured funds and provided guidance tosafeguard the crumbling ruins of StMichael’s cathedral and enable theconservation of Britain’s largest collectionof loose medieval stained glass.

Coventry is Britain’s only city to have hadthree separate cathedrals. The first was apriory founded by ‘Lady Godiva’(Godgifu) and Leofric ofMercia in c.1043 whichbecame an episcopal seat in1102. The second – StMichael’s – was originally acastle chapel that became aparish church, Britain’slargest in area uponcompletion c. 1450 and withthe tallest steeple at 303 feet. Itbecame a cathedral in 1918, tomeet Coventry’s enhanced status,gained through industrial expansion. It issurprising to many that the modernCoventry Cathedral, just fifty years old in2012, is the only one to have been conceivedas a cathedral church.

The stained glass of St Michael’s Coventryis, then, a relic of a grand church, its swollenaisles of many chantry chapels built fromthe proceeds of fourteenth-century tradesincluding the dyers and weavers of the city’sblue cloth, cappers and button-makers, andmany other crafts, integrated into the city’sguilds. St Mary’s Guildhall was principalamongst them, and substantially survivesalongside St Michael’s.

Today, the cathedral church of St Michael isbest known for the pitiful images of 15November 1940, the morning after it wasbombed by the Luftwaffe. But the hiddenstory of that destruction was the salvage ofits glass in September 1939, taken downfrom the clerestory and apse as aprecautionary measure. The panels were

mosaics of reassembled fragmentsmissed by iconoclasts,relegated to the upper

windows. Over the last fivedecades, some of the pieces

have been restored anddisplayed, but around

7,000 fragments remainedin store. Modern scholarshiphas recognised that some ofthe pieces are directly

comparable with the work ofJohn Thornton, England’s greatest

glazier of the fifteenth century, wholived close to St Mary’s Cathedral Priory.

In the summer of 2011, the ruins of StMichael’s Coventry developed sudden andalarming cracks. Its inclusion on the 2012Watch enabled advocacy and funds to bemobilised, and on 14 November 2011 acampaign was launched to help transformCoventry’s cultural standing.

WMF Britain is helping Coventry Cathedral to develop its role as the cultural heart of this city of 300,000 people. We are repairing the cracks and preserving the ruins for futuregenerations; we have commissioned a Conservation Management Plan to optimise

Examples of UK Projects:

Coventry Cathedral, West Midlands


the use of the ‘Cathedrals Quarter’ and itsoverlooked assets for the benefit of thecitizens; and with Crick-Smith Universityof Lincoln, we are cleaning, repairing andpresenting the medieval glass to increasethe educational content of the cathedral forvisitors.

Having met with generous funding ofover £350,000, we are appealing for afurther £200,000 to complete work tothe ruins, and seek further supporttoward the exemplary display of thestained glass.

Opposite: Head of a saint, probably St. John the Evangelist; comparable with work attributed to JohnThornton dating to the first half of the fifteenth century. Above clockwise: (1) St Michael’s Cathedral andruins: a classic view of historic and reborn Coventry. (2) Glass Conservator Fran Scargill of Crick-SmithUniversity of Lincoln cleans a fifteenth-century agnus dei one of seven thousand fragments from old St Michael’s. (3) Cracks opened up in the south-west corner of St Michael’s ruins in summer 2011. Theywere Watch listed in 2012.


Stowe House in Buckinghamshire hasundergone a magnificent £20 milliontransformation over the past decadefollowing its Watch listing in 2002, helpingto bring this forgotten palace back to life.

When in 1731 Alexander Pope wrote of itsestate as ‘a work to wonder at’, Stowe House was gradually being forged into a masterpiece of palatial design. Built between 1680 and 1810, Stowe was shaped by the finest talents of the time, amongst them Sir John Vanbrugh, William Kent, Robert Adam, and Sir John Soane. It sits in 400 acres of landscaped park as the principal temple in a collection of over 40 buildings. Most still punctuate the landscape with the episodic delight of a work of visual poetry. The ubiquity of these temples is no accident, but a pun on the name ofStowe’s patrons, the Temple-Grenvilles.

Stowe quickly became an inspiration forarchitects and designers in Britain andabroad. Yet the house’s survival within itssetting is almost as miraculous as itsbeauty. For two hundred years, time, natureand neglect wore away at the stoneworkand the fine interiors. After two auctions ofcontents (1848 and 1921), it was rescued in1922 by Stowe School. In 1999, the StoweHouse Preservation Trust was formed tooversee the restoration and publicpresentation of the crumbling house, andafter WMF Watch listing in 2002, WorldMonuments Fund became a central partnerin a grand £20 million project, with a £10million challenge launched by ananonymous donor in 2008. The challenge is

now approaching completion with only£70,000 left to raise.

The great impetus of Stowe is twofold: it isa forgotten palace of great beauty, but it isalso a manifestation of a key period ofBritish history when the Seven Years War(1756-63) developed the basis of the BritishEmpire. The Temple-Grenvilles used thehouse to develop the careers of several of itsfamily members into Prime Ministers inthat period. Its decline after c. 1810 iseloquent of the transition of power fromthe aristocracy to the mercantile classesduring the industrialised nineteenthcentury. Few places have the power toexplain that fundamental historical shift.

WMF Britain’s first practical interventionwas to restore the Marble Saloon, an ovalinterpretation of the Pantheon of c. 1772 atthe centre of the house, reinstating theimpact of one of the most striking entrancehalls in Europe. Work to the Great Library,whose ceiling was at the point of collapse,was completed in 2010; and the MusicRoom, a wonderful painted interior byVincenzo Valdre, was completed inSeptember 2012. All the while, the roof andwalls were thoroughly refurbished underthe architect Jane Kennedy of Purcell. Thelead Stowe Lions by John Cheere’s atelier,magnificent guardians of the house untilthey were sold off in 1921, will be repatriatedafter WMF Britain negotiated thispossibility. The Interpretation Centre willbe completed in 2014 to tell the story of thisextraordinary house.

Stowe House, Buckinghamshire


Clockwise: (1) Cliveden Conservation go to work on repairing the cornice of the Great Library. (2) The South Front of Stowe House drawn by A. C. L. Whistler c. 1929. A decade ago, stones fell from the parapets, but it is now completely conserved. (3) The Great Library after a new roof, repairs, repainting and regilding toits 1790s design. (4) The Great Library with netting to prevent falling plaster injuring readers.


WMF Britain was pivotal in addressing theplight of Horace Walpole’s Gothicmasterpiece by placing it on its Watch list in 2004.

Horace Walpole’s self-styled ‘little castle’began life as Chopp’d Straw Hall, aseventeenth-century brick houseoccupying a prime position amongst anarray of grand houses on thenorth bank of the Thames atTwickenham. Upon its leasefrom Mrs Chevenix, aLondon toy seller, hisplaything developed intoa serious attempt to instillthe atmosphere ofmedieval antiquity intoEnglish house design. It wasnot the first Gothic revival house,but the inventiveness of its spaces, theirregularity of their arrangement and anincreasing archaeological precision in thesources of its details made it the mostimportant and influential of its age.

Walpole used Strawberry Hill as a summerresidence and packed it with hisoutstanding collection of antiquities andcurios, surrounded by a garden that furtherenhanced the theme of the intimatediscovery of an imagined past. The publicwere admitted by ticket, informed by hisown illustrated guidebook.

Following the dispersal of the collection inan 1842 auction, Strawberry Hill wasmodernised with remarkable sympathy byLady Waldegrave. But the ensemble wassoon so unfashionable as to be derided, and

after the First world war, the villa was takenover as a Catholic seminary. To highlight itspoor condition it was WMF Watch listed in2004, and this led to the creation of theStrawberry Hill Trust, spurred by a £1.2million WMF Robert W. Wilson Challenge.

An international dimension wasmaintained during the restoration project -

students from the University ofPennsylvania Historic

Preservation Programmeparticipated in theplanning stages and theLewis Walpole Library atYale University has

created an online digitalarchive of Walpole’s

collection; the opening of thehouse in late 2010 coincided with

an exhibition at the Yale center for BritishArt and the V&A.

There are 25 show rooms on the groundand first floors, 20 of which will be fullyrestored to take the house back to the 1790swhen Walpole had completed his creation.New education suites and a seminar roomhave been created to ensure that educationof people of all ages continues to featureprominently in the future use of the house.Of particular note amongst the survivingtreasures is the huge collection of paintedRenaissance glass for which Strawberry Hillis famed, now conserved and protected.The Strawberry Hill Trust is activelyseeking to locate other treasures with aview to recording, borrowing or evenbuying them in order to return them totheir former home.

Strawberry Hill, Twickenham


Opposite: The silk damask in the Long Gallery hung in tatters, but is now completely renewed. Above top: The façade of Strawberry Hill. Its bare pebble-dash clad in creepers, it lay forlorn until Watchlisting in 2004. Above bottom: In 2010, the Strawberry Hill Trust unveiled the restored Strawberry Hillbased on meticulous research and with the support of WMF advocacy and funding.


In the 1720s the Bloomsbury area was a denof iniquity: amongst its lanes a narrow sitewas carved for a church that would addressthe manifold social ills that Hogarthlavishly depicted in his engraving ‘GinLane’. Hawksmoor’s masterpiece of StGeorge’s took on that challenge in grandstyle, its eccentric spire reinterpreting amedieval form through combining theTomb of Mausolus with Hanoverianheraldry. But appreciation of itsinventiveness and quality faded, and by thelate twentieth century its coherence waslost, its Victorian makeover had faded andwater stained the walls. Bonnie Burnhamexplains the circumstances of its support:

“Exceptionally, the project attractedsupport from the estate of one of the

world’s greatest philanthropists, the latePaul Mellon, and counterpart support fromthe Heritage Lottery Fund and othergenerous donors. Without theextraordinary investment made by theMellon Estate, which spared no expense inaddressing the conservation challenges thatarose, this restoration would not have beenpossible. Today, that effort is complete, andwe can once again appreciate the church’senormous importance and enjoy its serenebeauty. The results that have been achievedcould scarcely have been imagined at theoutset.”

It remains a church, but now enjoys acomplementary use as a popular concertvenue, a result Hogarth could scarcely haveimagined.

St George’s Bloomsbury, London

Left: The Bloomsbury beasts upon the spire. Right: Tim Crawley sculpting one of the beasts prior to being winched up into place.


Clockwise: (1) The North Gallery of St George’s by Peter Inskip and Peter Jenkins Architects Ltd. (2) Thechurch is now regularly used by the local community. Here, Soundcastle hold an Acoustic Architectureworkshop with students from St Clement Danes School. (3) The church before work: without its gallery,garishly coloured, tired and facing the wrong direction.

Stowe’s magnificent Marble Saloonof c. 1772, one of the great rooms ofEurope, after restoration enabled bya funding contribution throughWMF of £1.2million.


Edinburgh Historic Graveyards

The contrast between Edinburgh’s medievalOld Town and Georgian New Town, linkedby the Waverley Valley, is described byUNESCO as “unrivalled in Europe” and theburial grounds are an important aspect ofthis cityscape. Their layout and design, andmonuments and other buildings theycontain capture an unparalleled record ofEdinburgh’s transition from a 15th centurymedieval burgh to a EuropeanEnlightenment city in the late 18th and early19th centuries.

Historic graveyards are especially richcultural resources that can relate the storyof a whole city. Moreover, the gravestonesand monuments are in themselvessignificant architectural objects of greataesthetic merit and cultural value. Thegraveyards effectively constitute a nationaloutdoor museum. But they were sufferingfrom neglect and vandalism.

Subsequent to their successful Watch nomination in 2010, WMF Britain assembled a project team led by Dr. Susan Buckham toprepare a strategy for the conservation

management planning of the sites, which was submitted to Edinburgh World Heritage with accompanying research from ThomasAshley, our annual Yale scholar. This hasprovided a firm basis for community actionand the establishment of a trust.

Headfort House, Co. Meath

A 2004 Watch listing provided the catalystneeded to protect and restore RobertAdam’s only suite of interiors in Ireland.After five years of intellectual and financialcommitment, Headfort House near Kells,County Meath, is firmly on the road to anew future and recognition as one ofIreland’s most important eighteenth-century properties.

Richard Ireland’s analysis and reapplication of a distinctive 1770s paint scheme for Adam’s staircase and Eating Parlour heralded WMFBritain’s pivotal contribution to the project.The Headfort Trust, Ireland’s HeritageCouncil and the Irish Georgian Societycelebrated the reopening of Headfort Houseat a ceremony on 17th September 2009.

Some other projects in UK and Ireland:


St George’s Hall, Liverpool

St. George’s Hall Liverpool was designed as amulti-use civic centre housing the law courts as well as providing a magnificent venue forcultural events. Originally designed in theneoclassical style by the young architectHarvey Lonsdale Elmes, St. George’s Hallbears the stamp of another great architect, Charles Robert Cockerell, who completed the interiors in 1854 after Elmes’ untimely death.

Cockerell’s Small Concert Room in St.George’s Hall is of extraordinaryarchitectural and historical importance.Described by Henry Russell Hitchcock as‘Perhaps the most beautiful interior of theearly Victorian Period’ and ‘undoubtedlythe finest interior of Cockerell’s career…’ it measures 72 by 77 feet and can seat about1,100 people. The venue hosted manyluminaries, including Charles Dickens whoread there before his historic tour of theUnited States. The stage accommodates anorchestra of 60 and a semi-chorus of 70,and the room’s acoustic quality is excellent.However, in part due to its poor condition,but also due to the lack of means of escape,access and facilities, the Small Concert Room, North Hall and their associated spaces

had seen little or no use for around 20years, until a WMF Britain-sponsored refurbishment began in 2002. The chandelier by Ossler of Birmingham was finally installed in June 2006, illuminating a beautiful,much-used and well-loved resource.

Shobdon Parish Church, Herefordshire

Although elements of its twelfth centuryorigins survive, this small country parishchurch now has the most completeeighteenth-century ‘Gothick’ revivalinterior in the UK, including all thefurniture, and is architecturally one of thecountry’s most important churches.

Unfortunately Shobdon suffers from a small (though caring) local population who wereunable to find the resources to mend thefailure of its quirky construction of reusedmedieval timber in its mid-eighteenthcentury reconstruction. These issues werethe reasons for its successful nomination to the 2010 Watch whereupon English Heritage offered a grant of over £600,000 towardsthe £1 million repair and redecorationprogramme which WMF Britain helped toclose with a challenge fund. The result isspectacular, and well worth a visit.


Angkor Wat is perhaps the most famous ofthe temples in the Angkor ArchaeologicalPark and the Churning of the Sea of MilkGallery represents a crowning achievementof Khmer artistry. The gallery, located in theTemple complex of Angkor Wat, displays aspectacular 70 metres of intricatelysculpted bas-reliefs which are part of alarger ensemble of scenes from the Battle ofKuruksetra, the Ramayana, the 37 Heavensand the 32 Hells, and Angkor Wat’s patron,Suryavarman II (1113 – c.1150 C.E.) goinginto battle. The most significant bas-reliefin the eyes of the Khmers, located in theChurning of the Sea of Milk Gallery,portrays devas and asuras in a dramaticallyrendered tug-of-war, representing theeternal struggle of good and evil thatchurns amrit, the elixir of everlasting life,from the primordial ocean.

In January 2012 the WMF team removed thegantry crane erected in February 2008 forconservation of the heavily-cemented roofof the gallery, marking the completion ofthe original WMF-APSARA collaborativeproject. This four-year venture has been aremarkable training experience for WMF’s Khmer workers, who have collaborated with stone conservators and engineers to develop a sophisticated system for removing stones,working on them, and returning them tothe roof. Work on the roof was closelycoordinated with the German conservationteam working in the galleries of AngkorWat to maximum benefit for the site.

Projects such as the roof conservation workdemonstrate that all monumentalcomplexes must be looked after by a widerange of specialists, and all componentsmust be taken into consideration. Thebuilding, the roof, and sculpture togethergive Angkor Wat its special character andthe conservation and stewardship of the sitemust look at the entire range of materialsand conservation challenges. Visitors andworshippers enjoy the experience ofcoming to Angkor because all theseelements have been preserved in theiroriginal setting. WMF, APSARA Authority,and the many professionals workingtogether at the site demonstrate thatconservation is a collective activity.

Phnom Bakheng, one of the older oldesttemples at Angkor, sits at the highest pointin Angkor Archaeological Park and haspresented many challenges to WMF andAPSARA National Authority since workbegan at the site in 2004. WMF employsmore than 100 Khmer professionals at the site and work has ranged from geo-technical surveys, stone conservation, improving thevisitor experience, and site managementplanning and interpretation. In 2012 WMFcontributed to LIDAR studies undertaken by the Univeristy of Sydney that will provide much new information on the topographyand changes to the site over time. Partlysupported by the U.S. government andgenerous private donors, further support issought for this important work.

Examples of Global Projects:

Angkor, Cambodia


Clockwise: (1) A condition survey of the eastern-northern laterite steps at Phnom Bakheng. (2) The Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery roof was rebuilt to remove damaging cement. (3) The crane at the east side ofthe Churning of the Sea of Milk is disassembled. (4) The Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery duringconservation. The iconic stupas crowning the complex are 65m high. (5) Ancient carved stones gleanedfrom the jungle in storage for cataloguing.


In sharp contrast to the upheaval in thewestern world during the later eighteenthcentury, China endured as the world’slargest, richest, and most stable kingdomunder the rule of that century’s longest-reigning monarch, theQianlong Emperor(1736-1795). His reignwas essentially a lastflowering – a period ofpeace and prosperitythat China would notexperience again foranother 200 years.

The QianlongEmperor’s mostpersonal project was hisNingshougong – anextravagant “mini-Forbidden City” that he created on 12 acres(out of the Forbidden City’s 180) tuckedaway in the north-east quadrant of theimperial complex. He had vowed as ayoung sovereign that if he should live solong, he would retire after a 60-year reignso that his revered grandfather, the KangxiEmperor, who ruled for 61 years, couldretain the distinction of being China’slongest reigning emperor. As the mostpowerful Chinese Emperor ever to retire, anappropriate “retirement” district needed tobe constructed. No expense or daring increative artistry was spared during itsconstruction from 1771 to 1776 C.E.

Largely mimicking the Forbidden City witha central axis of large-scale ceremonialbuildings, and a rear section with privatequarters as well as separate areas for

recreation and leisure, parts of the largelysurviving complex have been open to the public as exhibition galleries. One section of this retirement complex, however, remained largely secreted away– the private garden

the Qianlong Emperordesigned for himself.

Covering nearly two acreswith 27 buildings andstructures strewn overfour courtyards includingsome of China’s mostelaborate rockeries andgrottoes the significanceof the Qianlong Gardenstems from theprovenance of its design,the extravagance of itsexecution, and the fact

that the garden and the exquisite interiorsof its buildings remained relativelyunchanged for its 200 year history.

In the nadir of China’s fortunes during theCultural Revolution, the Garden, as withthe entire Forbidden City and other greatimperial monuments, received protectionfrom Premier Zhou Enlai. Thus, patronageand poverty preserved the site until it wasrevealed only a decade ago when theForbidden City (the Palace Museum) andWorld Monuments Fund agreed to form aninternational collaboration.

The first of the Garden’s 27 buildings,Juanqinzhai – The Studio of Exhaustionfrom Diligent Service – was conservedfrom 2002 to 2008, and the approach setthe template for conservation of the

Qianlong Garden, Forbidden City, Beijing, China


Garden’s remaining buildings, rockeries,and courtyards to be completed over thenext decade. The Studio is characterised bya private theatre whose ceilings and wallsare covered by silk trompe l’oeil muralsusing western perspective and a jewel boxof a reception room created with intricatewoodworking techniques.

To launch the conservation work, the PalaceMuseum in Beijing and World MonumentsFund announced the project in a jointinternational press release that highlightedthe need to find artisans who still practiced

some of the exotic decorative techniquesused in the construction of Juanqinzhai.The results represent a fusion of westernconservation expertise revitalizing Chinesecrafts which had died out during theCultural Revolution, a rich and highlyvisible collaborative success represented bythe international exhibition The Emperor’sPrivate Paradise.

The next stage of the project includes therestoration of the beautiful Fuwanggepavilion and an interpretation centre to benefit the site’s many thousands of visitors.

Opposite: Juanqinzhai in the Qianlong Garden. Detail of the painted north wall of the theatre hall (upper storey) after conservation, showing cranes in the palace garden and a moon gate. Above clockwise:(1) Juanqinzhai: the exquisite Theatre Hall after restoration. (2) The Jade Purity mural during painstakingconservation. (3) Juanqinzhai: view from above showing the repaired roof, fit to weather storms.


Babylon represents one of the mostimportant archaeological sites in the world.Its fame extends beyond the fact that thesite dates to a time more than 4,000 yearsago. Babylon was the capital of a vastancient empire, and contributed greatly toour knowledge of the ancient worldthrough the study of the Code ofHammurabi, an 18th-century B.C.E set oflaws by which the society was ruled.Babylonia was a prosperous land and theremains today give scholars great insightinto the sophisticated world in whichBabylon was created and thrived.

Famous for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the AncientWorld, the city was also home to the IshtarGate, now in the Pergamon Museum in

Berlin. During the reign of SaddamHussein, much reconstruction took place atthe site and a modern palace was built on apromontory overlooking the ancient city.

Since the American military withdrewfrom Babylon, WMF has been working withIraq’s State Board of Antiquities andHeritage to conserve the fragilearchaeological remains. After several yearsof research, training and study at theancient site of Babylon, WMF begansignificant on-site conservation activities in2011. Work progresses on a sitemanagement plan, supported by the U.S.government. At the same time, WMF hasbegun to work with Iraqi colleagues toundertake necessary emergencyconservation measures. In 2011-12, WMF

Ancient Babylon, Iraq

The Ishtar Gate wall is failing structurally, resulting in large cracks running through this bas-relief.


cleared damaging vegetation, constructedscaffolding and began conservation work atNabu-sha-Khare Temple, the structure ofhighest priority to the Iraq State Board ofAntiquities and Heritage. WMF’s projectteam also organised several workshops forIraqi colleagues to increase their capacity todocument and conserve importantexcavated structures at the site. In 2013,WMF will begin work on the Inner CityWall, another priority area.

WMF has secured funding to organiseworkshops on conserving cultural

landscapes, site management, andarchaeological conservation. Manychallenges remain, which will rewardsupport: repairing the damage caused byconflict and inappropriate development,and helping the Iraqi authorities make thesite ready for visitors to once again enjoythe wonders of this site in the cradle ofcivilization.

The high profile of this project has attractedpress coverage in Bloomberg, ABC, TheNew York Times, The Guardian, CNN andAl-Jazeera.

Clockwise: (1) View towards reconstructions from Hussein Palace, from the south east. (2) View towardsreconstructions from Hussein Palace. Note the curious representation of excavated remains, with builtplinths expressing a uniform plan. (3) Nabusha-Hare Temple: the impressive eastern façade.


The island of Kilwa Kisiwani is located inthe south of Tanzania, a short boat ridefrom the mainland. It was once a thrivingseaport; from the 11th century the sultansof Kilwa grew rich from control of the goldtrade. Gold was mined at Great Zimbabwefar off in the interior, and carried bycaravan and then by boat to Fatimid Cairo,passing through Kilwa on its way north.Kilwa grew in the 13th and 14th centuriesand is mentioned by several earlychroniclers. The most significant standing ruins from this period are the Great Mosque and the Palace at Husuni Kubwa. The Palace is unrivaled in East Africa for its architectural sophistication and splendor. Founded in the14th century, the Great Mosque was, upuntil the 16th century, the largest mosque insub-Saharan Africa. In 1498, the Portuguesearrived in East Africa and quickly assertedcontrol over the region’s trade. They built afort at the edge of the town, which wascompleted in 1505. Finally came annexationby the Omani empire based in Zanzibar inthe eighteenth century.

Stone structures survive from all theseperiods and each is exemplary. The people

who built the structures at Kilwa Kisiwanihave disappeared, along with their culturaltraditions, but the site is a unique windowon over 800 years of African history: inparticular, the Great Mosque and palacesare testimony to sophisticated civilizationsthat built with great skill and artisticachievement. It was declared a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site in 1981, with its sisterisland Songo Mnara.

But time is against Kilwa Fort: it has beenravaged by the elements and is threatenedby rising sea levels. The fort was placed onWMF’s first Watch list in 1996; the historic sites on the island featured on the 2008 Watch After emergency work and planning, WMF has raised substantial funding that will allow us to work in collaboration at the site, develop construction and maintenance training foryoung professionals, whilst improving thesite interpretation and presentation.

Additional funds are needed to supportenvironmental conservation andcommunity engagement in a long-termprogramme to make this important sitesustainable and accessible to visitors.

Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania

Left: Kilwa Fort during conservation. Right: Aerial view of Kilwa Fort before conservation. At high tide thebase of the forward tower is inundated, leading to partial collapse. The rising sea level increases the threat.


Clockwise: (1) Main facade of Kilwa Fort, after conservation. (2) The original carved door is probably thesecond oldest in East Africa, and was described by Richard Burton in 1859. (3) The local inhabitants arebenefiting directly from the conservation since the workforce is being drawn from Kilwa.


The Chancellerie d’Orléans, also known as the Hôtel de Voyer d’Argenson, was a famous townhouse, or hôtel particulier, built in Paris in the early eighteenth century. The building was designed by Germain Boffrand around1707 and decorated by Antoine Coypel.Belonging initially to the Orléans branch ofthe French royal family, then given to thed’Argenson family, the building underwentsignificant renovation between 1763 and1773 during its occupation by the family ofMarc-René de Voyer d’Argenson.

Charles de Wailly, the architect responsiblefor the redecoration, implemented anaesthetic programme that was typical of the day, incorporating the work ofcontemporary artists including Pajou,Fragonard, Gouthière, Durameau, andLagrenée. Embodying a transitional style between the rococo and early neo-classicism, the interior was one of the most celebratedin Europe. Despite its artistic significance,the historic monument was demolished in1922, though the interiors were saved andacquired by the Banque de France. It wasagreed at that time that the bank wouldstore the hôtel’s interiors in anticipation ofits future reconstruction. The impressiveinterior décor – including painted ceilings,sculpture, ornamental woodwork, marblecolumns, and fireplaces – remained instorage for the rest of the twentieth century.

Beginning in 2000, WMF led an effort toidentify and catalogue the remains of theChancellerie d’Orleans and help the Frenchgovernment identify a permanent locationfor their reconstruction. Public interest inthe monument was increased with the

completion of a three-dimensional model of the site in 2004, created with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Plans forthe reassembly of the hôtel interiorsmaterialised in 2005, when the Hôtel deRohan-Strasbourg was determined to be asuitable location for the installation, as the structure was designed by the same architect with rooms of similar proportions. Workon a feasibility study was undertaken andWMF Europe completed essential research,cataloguing and photography to documentthe conditions of the surviving interiorsthat had been stored for so long. The secondphase of the conservation programmeincludes the restoration and reassembly ofthe decorations, and their assembly andinstallation in the rooms of the Hôtel deRohan-Strasbourg.

The restoration and reassembly of theinteriors of Chancellerie d’Orléans arecrucial to the broader acknowledgementand public appreciation of this historicmonument. The décor of the hôtel, whichwas among the most significant of its time,has been inaccessible to the public since theearly 1920s. The opportunity to present therestored interiors in rooms of the Hôtel deRohan-Strasbourg will present featurescomparable to the Chancellerie d’Orléansallowing for an immediate setting that isclose to their original location.

After a decade of involvement with condition surveys, conservation planning, and securing a new home for these extraordinary decorative elements, work plans and budgets are now being finalised for conservationwhilst their installation is poised to begin.

Chancellerie d’Orléans, Paris, France


Clockwise: (1) The moulded and painted ceiling disassembled in storage and awaiting a new life. (2) Amasque, typically animated and engaging. (3) Interior detail showing one of the finely moulded andpainted corner sections of the ceiling. (4) Pajou’s sculpted putti, detail. (5) Hôtel de Rohan in Strasbourg,designed by Robert de Cotte, 1731-42.


World Monuments Fund Britain 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ UKChairman: Mr James Hervey-Bathurst, CBEAmbassador: Mr Kevin McCloudChief Executive: Dr Jonathan FoyleRegistered charity no. 1126578Registered company no. 6730565 Tel (44) 207 251 8142, Fax (44) 207 490 4795Email [email protected] www.wmf.org.uk

World Monuments Fund Suite 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2412, New York, NY 10118 U.S.A.Chairman: Mr Christopher Ohrstrom

President & Chief Executive Officer:

Ms Bonnie Burnham

Tel (001) 646-424-9594 Fax (001) 646-424-9593www.wmf.org

World Monuments Fund PeruSuite 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2412, New York, NY 10118 U.S.A.Chairman: Mr Christopher Ohrstrom


Ms Bonnie Burnham


World Monuments Fund AfricaSuite 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2412, New York, NY 10118 U.S.A.Chairman: Mr Christopher Ohrstrom


Ms Bonnie Burnham


World Monuments Fund EuropeWorld Monuments Fund FranceWorld Monuments Fund ItalyHôtel de Talleyrand, 2, rue Saint-Florentin, 75001 Paris, FranceTel (33 1) 47 20 71 99, Fax (33 1) 47 20 71 27President: M. Bertrand du Vignaud

www.wmf.org

World Monuments Fund PortugalMosteiro dos JerónimosPraça do Império1400-206 Lisbon, PortugalTel (351) 21 362-0034, Fax (351) 21 363-9145www.wmf.org.uk

World Monuments Fund SpainGarcia De Paredes, 94-3°AMadrid, 28010, SpainTel (34-91) 308-4698, Fax (34-91) 308 4112www.wmf.org

Making contact

Image creditsAll photographs provided by World Monuments Fund (WMF) except as follows: Richard Holttum / WMF: Front cover, 4

(bottom left), 9 (top, bottom left and bottom right), 10, 11 (bottom), 12 (left), 13 (top), 15, 16 (bottom). Glenn Dearing: Front

cover flap. Kidscape: 4 (middle right). Paul Carr: 5 (top). Andy Marshall: 6-7. Stowe House: 9 (middle). Mark Summerbell:

13 (bottom right). Robert Anderson: 17 (bottom). Palace Museum: 20, 21 (top and bottom right). Gwendolen Cates / World

Monuments Fund: 22-23.

John Julius NorwichChairman Emeritus, Word Monuments Fund Britain

The story of World Monuments FundBritain begins in Venice. The British Venicein Peril Fund – of which I was thenChairman – was very active in the 1980s,and it was hardly surprising that the severalrepresentatives of the two organisationsbecame not only colleagues but friends. A few years later I was invited to join theBoard of WMF; and it was at one of thosemeetings in New York that BonnieBurnham suggested that I establish abranch in London. Thanks very largely tothe inspired industry of our first directorColin Amery, we spread our wings andrapidly got off the ground.

High quality craftsmanship is expensive, asare the traditional materials on which wealways insist. Looking at our pastachievements, however, I think we cancongratulate ourselves on having obtainedsuperb value for money. There can be fewjobs more satisfying than ours – taking oversad, dilapidated and decaying buildings and,through loving care, restoring them to theirformer beauty and usefulness.

But there are so many such buildings thatneed our help – help which, throughshortage of funds, we have to refuse. That iswhy we hope so much that you will join us.

World Monuments Fund Britain Ltd 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ UK Tel (44) 207 251 8142 Fax (44) 207 490 4795

Email [email protected] www.wmf.org.ukRegistered charity no. 1126578 Registered company no. 6730565

WMF Britain welcomes donations towardsour work and also runs an active supporterprogramme that engages through qualitylectures, informative study days and ourmagazine Monumentum. Supporters anddonors are very important to us and learnmore through invitations to special eventsand exclusive behind-the-scenes access. Bybecoming a supporter, making a donationor leaving a bequest, you can help us to revitalise beautiful historic structures across the country for the enjoyment of many.

WMF’s International Council is a dedicatedgroup of supporters who participate inglobal activity including unique trips tohistoric sites across the world with alikeminded, cosmopolitan group.

We work with companies who wish todemonstrate their commitment to securing

Britain’s historic places for future generations. Assistance can be via financial and non-financial methods including donations and sponsorship, gifts in kind, pro bono professional support, awareness raising and events.

For more information on joining oursupporter programme, making a donation,events or leaving a bequest, please visitwww.wmf.org.uk, call 0207 251 8142 [email protected].

Donations by cheque can be sent to: World Monuments Fund Britain Ltd, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ

For further information on becoming anInternational Councillor, corporatesupporter or a sponsor, please call WMFBritain’s Development Manager on 0207 251 8142.

Getting involved

Documents

GIVING OUR PAST A FUTURE - WMF