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Manchester is experiencing an economic boom which is reshaping its skyline, with around 70 towers planned or under construction. It’s an exciting time for the city, but such rapid growth comes with a risk of its remarkable built heritage being swept away – when it could be harnessed and reused as a vital part of a sustainable 21st-century city. At the same time, the boom has not reached the region’s outer boroughs, many of whose historic buildings face decay or demolition.

Written by Eamonn Canniffe and Mike Ashworth, focuses on three areas – central Manchester, Rochdale & Oldham, those former giants of the cotton industry – and leads the reader on a fascinating tour.

58 pages, paperback
Publication date: September 2023

ISBN: 9780905978840

Historically Canterbury is one of the most important cities in England with an outstanding cathedral. Until the Baedeker raids in 1942 it was a fine, largely medieval city, enclosed by walls dating back to the Romans.

This collection of essays by several leading authors explores the architectural history of Canterbury from the Anglo Saxons to post-war redevelopment. With the future of our cities uncertain following the covid-19 pandemic, this SAVE report on Canterbury could not be timelier.

79 pages, paperback
Publication date: July 2021

ISBN: 9780905978819

SAVE Britain’s Heritage’s Buildings at Risk Catalogue, Revive and Survive features over 100 empty and neglected buildings gathered from around the country which need a fresh start to give them renewed life and to ensure their survival.   

These forgotten buildings include courthouses, theatres, shipyard offices, churches, barracks, a shopping arcade, a tiny Welsh toll cottage, a house inhabited by George Eliot, several large country houses, pubs, town halls, factories and allotment huts.   

152 pages, paperback
Publication date: June 2018

ISBN: 9780907978772

Our 25th Buildings at Risk Catalogue, Great Expectations, is a must read for anyone interested in restoring historic properties, with 100 buildings from across Britain in need of a new lease of life. It offers inspiration from some of the most challenging cases and plenty of practical advice.

Spotlight articles include historic cinemas, the state of heritage in Northern Ireland, and a Buildings at Risk success story in Cumbria.

160 pages, paperback
Publication date: June 2016

ISBN: 9780905978758

This large-format book shows how Britain has led the way in breathing new life into great historic buildings of many kinds - naval dockyards, military enclaves, textile mills, market halls, railways arches, air terminals, Victorian grand hotels, power stations, town halls and hospitals.

These heroic transformations have often been the work of enterprising commercial and often voluntary organisations. Once repaired and transformed, sometimes after years of decay, they provide places to work, live and visit. More than this they are powerful regeneration projects in places which need investment. Many of them are the direct or indirect result of campaigns and projects launched and commissioned by SAVE.

This book is a blueprint for action, showing that it can take just one determined person to save an architectural marvel.

182 pages, paperback
Publication date: 2016

ISBN: 9780905978741

A must-read for anyone interested in heritage and an essential tool for prospective restorers, SAVE's new Buildings at Risk Report, Falling In Love, showcases historic properties in urgent need of new owners or imaginative reuses, revealing an array of exciting opportunities. Hopefully you'll fall in love with the 100 buildings at risk featured.

Spotlight articles focus on Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham's libraries, and Tbilisi in Georgia.

152 pages, paperback
Publication date: June 2016

ISBN: 9780905978734
 

Dare to Care, shines a light on historic properties in urgent need of new owners or fresh uses, revealing an array of exciting opportunities for restorers. This is the ultimate "lonely hearts" list for buildings at risk.

A must-read for anyone interested in Britain's heritage and an essential tool for prospective restorers, SAVE's reports play a critical role in the conservation of Britain's historic buildings. Some two-thirds of the country houses included in SAVE's first report, published in 1977, had found new owners or uses within three or four years and good news has continued ever since. Marcus Binney, SAVE's president, says: "This is the 23rd of SAVE's annual reports on buildings at risk, each one illustrating a remarkable selection of endangered properties in varying states of repair, but all candidates for immediate action."

160 pages, paperback
Publication date: June 2012

ISBN: 9780905978703

This publication marks 40 years since the landmark exhibition The Destruction of the Country House. Held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1974, the exhibition had a huge impact and led to the founding of SAVE Britain's Heritage in 1975.

Written by Marcus Binney with contributions from John Harris, two of the curators of the 1974 exhibition, the book recalls some of the losses, the battles and the many great saves which have taken place over the past 40 years, many of which SAVE has been directly involved in. 

A must for anyone interested in Britain's heritage and country houses.

75 pages, paperback
Publication date: 2014

ISBN: 9780905978727
 

In 1985 SAVE published the report London's Churches are Falling Down, revealing the desperate plight of some of the capital's most beautiful places of worship.

A quarter of a century on, SAVE revisits the subject with London's Churches are Fighting Back. As well as covering those churches currently at risk, this new report also recounts the many inspiring rescue stories, looking at how decaying buildings have been re-energised by new congregations or new uses, and kept alive by vital repair grants. This report by Edmund Harris features stunning photography by Matthew Andrews.

114 pages, paperback
Publication date: 2011

ISBN: 9780905978680

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 through conserving and, where possible, carefully adding to the town, can Colchester retain and strengthen its real identity.

24 pages, paperback
Publication date: 2010

ISBN: 9780905978659

London’s leafy suburbs form a giant garden city of pleasant, low-rise housing set among gardens and tree-lined roads. The sheer number of suburbs – north, south, east and west – provide a quite astonishing housing stock. 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 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. 

Published by SAVE with the support of English Heritage (Historic England).

158 pages, paperback
Publication date: 2010

ISBN: 9780905978642

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

224 pages, paperback
Publication date: November 2005

ISBN: 9781857594409

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 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, paperback
Publication date: 2009

ISBN: 9780905978567

June 2024 marked the 10th anniversary of the public inquiry into an application to demolish 440 houses on Liverpool’s Welsh Streets.  

This report from SAVE condemns the mass demolitions under the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Housing Market Renewal Initiative / Pathfinder which threatened the demolition of 168,000 terraced homes in the Midlands and North of England by 2015.

105 pages, paperback
Publication date: 2006

ISBN: 9780090597857

SAVE's book on historic law courts has over 170 black and white 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 at the fore), as well as at those that have been successfully refurbished to meet modern expectations.

170 pages, paperback
Publication date: February 2004

ISBN: 9780905978437

A report providing detailed proposals for the reuse of the remarkable historic buildings of Chatham Dockyard. 

55 pages, paperback
Publication date: October 1984

ISBN: 9780905978192

The sequel to The Country House: To Be or Not To Be and Churches: A Question of Conversion, this is a fully illustrated guide to practical ways of reusing mills, warehouse, maltings and other industrial buildings. Features a number of architects' schemes. 

128 Pages, paperback
Publication Date: 1990

ISBN: 9780905978291

An illustrated report highlighting some 50 garden buildings. Grottoes, temples, menageries, bath houses, boat houses, tea houses, belvederes and gazebos .

40 pages, paperback
Publication date: July 1987

ISBN: 9780905978239

An extensively illustrated 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. 

131 pages, paperback
Publication date: September 1987

ISBN: 9780905978246

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.

204 pages, paperback
Publication date: July 1995

The first comprehensive study of the current plight of Britain's psychiatric hospitals. These attractive and imposing Victorian buildings, carefully designed with extensive landscaped grounds, are now facing an uncertain future. By the year 2000, 98 out of a total of 121 will have closed. The report calls for tighter planning controls to be brought in to prevent the loss of both buildings and grounds to over-development. 

149 pages, spiral bound
Publication date: October 1995