Publications in print

A Future for Farm Buildings

Illustrated in colour and b/w, this book gives imaginative and sensitive ideas of how to reuse farm buildings no longer required by modern farming. It also gives information on planning issues. Published September 1988.

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Beacons of Learning

A report focusing on the plight of urban schools in England and Wales, containing essays from leading figures in the field and over 100 illustrations. Extensive gazetteers give particular emphasis to those school buildings which are under threat of closure or have been converted to new uses. Published July 1995.

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Bright Future: The Re-use of Industrial Buildings

The sequel to The Country House To Be or Not To Be and Churches: A Question of Conversion, this is a fully illustrated colour guide to practical ways of re-using mills, warehouse, maltings and other industrial buildings. Features a number of architect's schemes. Published April 1990.

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Brighton Churches: The Need for Action Now

Central Brighton is home to a number of 19th-century churches of great size and beauty. This report by the late Thomas Cocke - with stunning new photography by Matthew Andrews - examines the superb but all too little-known interiors of these churches and warns that, with rising costs of repair and maintenance combined with declining congregations, the threat of closure looms for many.

95 pages, full colour, 100 illustrations.

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Chatham Historic Dockyard: Alive or Mothballed?

A report providing detailed proposals for the re-use of the remarkable historic buildings of Chatham Dockyard. Published October 1984.

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Cherish or Perish? Buildings at Risk 2008

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Churches: A Question of Conversion

An extensively illustrated (colour and b/w) book describing new uses for redundant churches and chapels, ranging from offices and housing to theatres and restaurants. The emphasis is on schemes that respect the character and integrity of the churches. Published September 1987.

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City Centre Carve Up

Alarmingly, in a large number of cities the clean sweep approach is making a comeback:; the report looks at Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle. Published May 1982.

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City Churches have a future

Published 1994

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Colchester: Back to the Future

Colchester is one of England’s most overlooked historic county towns. It retains its Roman grid, with a castle, town walls and street after street of handsome buildings. This report aims to highlight the wealth of Colchester’s built heritage, show the good work that has been done in conserving and augmenting these assets, and put forward ideas for the future - from the small scale to the highly ambitious.

Colchester, Back to the Future argues that the town must capitalise on its history and heritage rather than bend to the concrete will of those who mistakenly believe that economic development and physical development are one and the same. Only though conserving, and where possible, carefully adding to the town, can Colchester retain and strengthen its real identity. This will require patient discussion and negotiation, putting aside politics and working to a long-term plan. If Colchester can meet this challenge, it could be the envy of Britain.

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Cutting the heart out of Derby

Despite this report arguing for the historic station as a vital part of the railway conservation area, Derby Station was demolished in 1984.

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Damned Beautiful, Buildings at Risk 2005

Buildings at Risk report 2006

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Dear Mr Heseltine

Comments on proposals for setting up a new commission for historic buildings. (English Heritage was established in 1984). Published February 1982.

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Enough has been bulldozed! SAVE Farnborough, The Cradle of British Aviation

A lightning publication from SAVE, with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of Farnborough to the nation's history. It looks at the remarkable collection of buildings that make up what remains of the former Royal Aircraft Establishment site at Farnborough and suggests new uses for the buildings and the site. Published December 2001/January 2002.

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From holiness to hamburgers

A lightning leaflet criticising efforts by the Diocese of London to sell the church of St Mark, Norty Audley Street to a hamburger restaurant chain. Published August 1986.

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Gambling with History

Second SAVE report on buildings threatened by lack of statutory protection, with case studies of particular areas. Published April 1979.

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Glittering Palaces for Bureaucrats

A report published in Building Design 11th November 1977, arguing that the conversion of old buildings can be more economic than the construction of new offices for central and local government.

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Heaps of Delight, Buildings at Risk 2006

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Institutions - Friends or Friends?

A short report published in July 1982, drawing attention to the large financial institutions to fund conservation projects.

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Left to Rot

A report highlighting the failure of the present legislation to prevent large numbers of listed buildings from falling into decay, and giving recommendations on how the law could be improved. Published in the Architects Journal, 22nd November 1978.

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Live or Let Die; Buildings at Risk 2010 - 2011

Our annual catalogue of buildings at risk will be published in June. Last year's sold out in just 6 weeks. To guarantee your copy, you can place a pre-order now. Click here to download an order form, for further information click here.

* There is a £2.50 charge for p&p within the UK (please contact the office for postage costs for elsewhere)

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Mies is Great: London is Greater

Terry Farrell's conservation sceme for the Mansion House Square site.

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Mortgage Myopia

A report revealing a disturbing picture of discrimination by building societies against older buildings. Published March 1980.

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Opportunity Knocks, Buildings at Risk 2007

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Pathfinder

A new report from SAVE, condemning the mass demolitions under the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Housing Market Renewal Initiative / Pathfinder. At current rates this will see the demolition of 168,000 terraced homes in the Midlands and North of England by 2015. Published 2006.

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Pavilions in Peril

An illustrated report highlighting some 50 garden buildings - grottoes temples, menageries, bath houses, boat houses, tea houses, belvederes and gazebos - that were at risk in July 1987, the date of publication.

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Rediscovered Utopias: Saving London's Suburbs

Edited by Bridget Cherry and Ann Robey.
Published by SAVE with the support of English Heritage.

London’s leafy suburbs form a giant garden city, of pleasant low-rise housing set amidst gardens and tree-lined roads. They fulfil the longstanding English dream of a house and garden in leafy surroundings and offer an impressive model for urban living.

The sheer number of suburbs – north, south, east and west – provide a quite astonishing housing stock. Yet while most Londoners know their own suburb well, and perhaps its neighbours too, not many people know more than a fraction of the whole.

This book is intended, like many other SAVE reports before it, to be a voyage of discovery. It focuses principally on planned suburbs and estates which have a particular harmony and sometimes a distinctive pattern of streets. It looks at suburban housing built in different ways, by landowners and speculative builders, by voluntary associations and the boroughs themselves.

Yet in many places the character of these areas is being constantly eroded, by small but accretive changes to details such as windows and doors, fences, gates and railings, roofing and paving materials.

In many places, conservation area protection is not working as effectively as it could. More ‘Article 4’ directions are needed to control features that give character to suburbs. The lists of listed buildings are also seriously out of date in some London boroughs, with many architect-designed houses of the early 20th century still unlisted. The sum of all the best suburbs is more than the parts. While houses have a sense of individuality it is the harmony of whole streets and neighbourhoods which make the suburbs a delight.

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Reviving Britain's Terraces: Life after Pathfinder

New Labour's Housing Market Renewal (Pathfinder) Initiative has resulted in the destruction of thousands of terraced houses across the north of England. For this report, SAVE, a fierce critic of the scheme, has teamed up with architect Mark Hines to look at how housing earmarked for demolition can be adapted, upgraded and remodelled to a high standard of energy efficiency, creating a range of accommodation and forming exemplar 'eco-communities' of the future.

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SAVE Action Guide

Practical advice on how to set up and win your own campaign to preserve a historic building, as well as the fascinating story of SAVEs many battles. Published May 1991.

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SAVE Mentmore for the Nation

A booklet about the treasures of Mentmore Towers, published in January 1977 as part of SAVE's campaign to preserve the house and its contents for the nation. The collection was subsequently sold but the building remains at risk today.

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SAVE Paddington's Span Four - This engineering marvel must stay

The elegant Edwardian trainshed at Paddington Station, hidden from public view by an unsightly crash deck for the last 13 years, faces demolition and replacement with an office block. SAVE's new report, illustrated with stunning historic images of the structure in its full glory, calls for the retention of Span Four and adaptation of the station to meet capacity requirements. Published 2006.

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SAVE Severalls: An Arts and Crafts Village for living and learning

This new, fully illustrated report looks at the situation faced by Severalls hospital and parkland. The booklet covers the beautiful and unique architecture of the wards and other site buildings, and the mature and spacious parkland. The booklet also outlines an alternative scheme that would maintain most of the buildings and parklands, and keep development to a minimum.

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Silence in Court - The Future of the UK's Historic Law Courts

SAVE's long awaited book on historic law courts is finally in print, with over 170 photographs, many previously unpublished, of the UK's historic courts - a remarkable group of buildings. The report looks at the problems faced by the buildings across the UK (with the PFI route of procurement being at the fore), as well as at those that have been successfully refurbished to meet modern expectations. 
Published February 2004, £20

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St Albans Can Be Saved

Published in February 1986 in conjunction with the Victorian Society, this pamphlet champions the cause of the neglected yet magnificent St Albans church in Teddington, Middlesex.

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Stop the Destruction of Bucklesbury

SAVE's publication on the no. 1 Poultry site, written by Jenny Freeman, reviews the two-thousand year history of the Bucklesbury area, describing in deeper perspective than hitherto, the extent of the destruction now proposed.

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The Concrete Jerusalem: The Failure of the Clean Sweep

Published in New Society Magazine 23/30 December 1976. The report took a critical look at post-war developments - Portsmouth, Liverpool University and London's Victoria Street.

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The Fall of Zion

Nonconformist chapels are closing at an increasing rate. This report is a major survey of noncoformist architecture in the north. Published October 1980.

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The Guildhall Testimonial

A report highlighting the threat to the interiors of Middlesex Guildhall, the best secular gothic revival building in the UK, posed by the plans for the UK Supreme Court. The report contains a series of testimonials about the Guildhall from academics, campaigners and members of the judiciary. Published December 2006. 

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Thirty Years of Campaigning: SAVE Britain's Heritage 1975-2005

The beautifully illustrated book celebrating SAVE's 30th anniversary exhibition at the Victorian and Albert Museum in 2005 / 2006, telling the thrilling tale of SAVE's fights over the years. Published Nov 2005. 

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Triumph, Disaster and Decay - The SAVE Survey of Liverpool's Heritage

Published to accompany our 2009 Liverpool exhibition, this report shines the spotlight on fine buildings suffering from long-term neglect and tackles issues such as new development in the World Heritage Site and mass clearance in the suburbs under Pathfinder. 

The catalogue is filled with fascinating essays offering varying opinions on different aspects of Liverpool's heritage and highlights the importance, as well as the vulnerability, of Liverpool’s architecture. It also includes fantastic photographs - from archives as well as those commissioned for the exhibition. 

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