Resources to Support Place-Making and Regeneration
Great places have heritage at their core. Today’s great place-makers are achieving this by incorporating surviving historic buildings into new schemes, by reflecting historic street patterns, and through the faithful use of traditional materials and exquisite architectural features. The most successful places embrace all these.
Every settlement across the United Kingdom, whether a medieval market town or a post-war city centre, has a unique and distinctive history that can be harnessed to help achieve a prosperous future. Those with the power to shape the places where we live, work and visit are increasingly recognising that heritage is the key that unlocks success. It creates value and sustains economic vitality, supporting jobs and attracting investment. Heritage provides a canvas for flourishing cultural activity and it helps build connected and healthy communities. It is the vital factor underpinning vibrant and successful places.
Historic England provides practical and tailored help to realise the contribution heritage can make. We inspire change, broker co-operation, and help to navigate the sort of design, management and delivery issues that can only be addressed by the breadth of expertise, statutory locus, local knowledge and national perspective that defines us.
Below are just some of the resources that might help you think about how heritage can be a catalyst to regenerate and revitalise both communities and local economies.
Places strategy
Historic places both reflect and shape who we are, bringing our history to life and telling the story of our collective identity. The Historic England Places Strategy sets out how we will help communities to transform the places they love, using the historic environment to deliver public value and demonstrating the catalytic effect it can have for good.
The Strategy has been put together following conversations widely across Historic England and with external partners including Arts Council England, Homes England, and key government departments, the British Property Federation, the RIBA and Design Council (CABE). It has also benefited greatly from the substantial input from the Historic England Urban Panel (now re-named the Historic Places Panel).
The setting of historic assets
The significance of a historic place derives not only from its physical presence and historic fabric but also from its setting - the surroundings in which it is experienced.
The careful management of change within the surroundings of heritage assets therefore makes an important contribution to the quality of the places in which we live.
Historic Environment Good Practice Advice Note: The Setting of Heritage Assets (GPA 3) is aimed at local planning authorities and others proposing change. It explains the concept of setting and provides clear advice on how to address and respond to setting issues.
Tall buildings
In the right place, well-designed tall buildings can make a positive contribution to urban life. Ill-considered proposals meanwhile can have a disproportionate impact on the character, appearance and enjoyment of places.
Historic England's advice on tall buildings sets out good practice in deciding whether to grant planning permission for this kind of application.
This document is intended to support all those involved in dealing with proposals for tall buildings.
Conservation areas
Conservation areas are designated by local authorities as places of special architectural or historic interest. Our guidance sets out ways to manage change in a way that preserves and enhances the character of these areas.
See Conservation Area Designation, Appraisal and Management Advice Note 1.
This guidance offers advice to all those involved in managing conservation areas so that the potential of historic areas worthy of protection is fully realised. It examines the need for community and owner consultation. It also explores the benefits of management plans to manage change and achieve regeneration and enhancement.
Understanding place
We use Historic Area Assessments (HAAs) to understand and explain the heritage interest of an area. Our advice explains how to carry out an HAA.
HAAs typically give insights into how and why a place has come to look the way it does. They provide a sound evidence base for the informed management of the historic environment. HAAs are part of a suite of approaches to assessing the character of historic places at different scales.
Heritage and the creative industries
The Heritage Alliance 2019 report Inspiring Creativity, Heritage and the Creative Industries provides a brief overview of the importance of the relationship between heritage and the creative industries and the evidence for why it matters. It includes a set of case studies to illustrate the breadth of ways heritage underpins the success of the creative industries.
Connected growth
The DCMS-published Connected Growth Manual sets out an offer from DCMS to local areas in England planning for future growth and prosperity. DCMS sectors are the foundations of prosperity because they make places where people want to live, work, visit and invest. As this manual shows, DCMS sectors are central to our economic future. The manual includes a specific chapter on heritage.
Heritage: the foundation for success
A small selection of case studies from successful developments with heritage at their core, which demonstrate the social, environmental and particularly economic benefits of historic places.
Good growth
Translating Good Growth for London's Historic Environment demonstrates that heritage-led regeneration and heritage-inspired design bring a host of benefits. They create interesting buildings, spaces and places. They also create jobs, increase footfall to areas, and boost communities' well-being. And they can be more environmentally sustainable. This study illustrates best practice, and the benefits of combining protection and enhancement of historic assets with innovative and creative solutions.
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