RULING FROM A RENTED HOUSE

The tenth anniversary of the opening of The Senedd building of the National Assembly for Wales will be marked on St David’s Day, 1 March 2016. The building may be presented as the product of architectural patronage and representative of the collective aspiration of the people at that time. Any such claim is contested in a draft paper available on the Academia.com website. 

https://www.academia.edu/21105408/Ruling_From_a_Rented_House

That is a case study  of the process of housing the newly devolved regional government of Wales from 1997 to 2006. It examines the proposition that the location of the National Assembly and subsequent commissioning of a new debating chamber designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership was the consequential outcome of a series of events rather than the intentional creation of a building which might symbolise a new form of regional democracy. 

The events under examination may be summarised as follows;

·        At the outset there was an attempt to minimise the anticipated costs of housing the Assembly and a dispute arose on the value of the assumed location, Cardiff City Hall.

·        A wider bidding process then ensued between rival locations within and outside the capital which may be seen to have been divisive.

·        The final decision was made between a location at The Pierhead, Cardiff or Bute Square, Cardiff, the final choice favouring the former. In either case the seat of regional government would be part of a commercial property development.

·        A competition was then mounted to select an architect for the debating chamber, The Senedd, which would be built at the The Pierhead.

·        During its procurement and construction concern over mounting costs resulted in the dismissal and alienation of the architect.

·        In the course of events there were several changes of leadership and little continuity or personal commitment to the new building.

·        In the ensuing political and public debate concerning the building some politicians adopted the language of architectural patronage to defend and rationalise decisions.

A conspicuous failure was in the implementation of the project and the failure of provincial civil servants and their advisers to properly understand and appreciate the aspirational elements that were being articulated by the architects. Independent adjudication concluded that advisers to the Welsh Office were substantially at fault in the dispute that arose with the Rogers Partnership.


The paper offers some observations on the true cost of housing the Assembly. 

A report published in March 2008 by the Wales Audit Office stated that the cost of the Senedd increased from £12M in 1997 to £69.6M in 2006. That was an increase of 580% compared with the original budget forecast in April 1997 (phase 1) and was four years and 10 months late. 

The conclusions of the Audit Office may be considered generous in some respects.

It will be noted that in the course of events the figure originally stated in the 1997 White Paper as the indicative cost of ‘setting up’ the Assembly was £12m-£17m

The lower figure of £12m formed the basis for bids to house the Assembly.                                                        

The following figures may more accurately reflect the actual cost

Capitalised rental of Crickhowell House                    

£1.5m pa                                                                               £25m

(Note ‘market value’ of capitalised rent circa £40m to investor – see below)

Concession of 200 car parking spaces                                       £0.688m

Initial costs of alteration to accommodate Assembly              £14.8m (to2000)

Expenditure on Pierhead Building                                 £3m??

Construction of TheSenedd                                                            £69.6m

                                                                                Total Circa           £112m+                                 £112m+

This can then be expressed as;

·         936% over the original budget of £12m or

·         658% over the upper limit set for Cardiff City Hall at £17m

The foregoing may then be seen to more accurately reflect the costs of ‘setting up’ the regional government.

Since that‘setting up’ the Welsh Government has also established new sub-regional offices in Merthyr Tydfil, Llandudno Junction, Carmarthen and Abersystwyth. The total cost was in the region of £91.5m which included Llandudno Junction (6,500 m2) at £22m and Aberystwyth at £21m[i].

Coupled with the capital cost of the ‘decentralisation’ of the Welsh Government administration were financial incentives for staff required to move if their posts were relocated. Relocation packages for staff moving to the Merthyr Tydfil office cost £2.9m alone - £2.1m of which was for excess travel fares. It was reported that "there was so much resistance from staff due to move from their Cardiff offices to Merthyr Tydfil", excess fares were subsidised for five years instead of the standard three[ii].

The overall value for money from the programme was "uncertain", according to a report by the Auditor General for Wales on the Assembly relocation strategy of 25 March 2014[iii]

A conclusion of that report was that:

“The Location Strategy had clear objectives, but the Welsh Government did not establish effective governance arrangements until 2008 and underestimated the cost of the Programme”[iv]

Finally some overall comment is made on ownership. In March 2014 it was announced that Ty Hywel (formerly Crickhowell House)had been acquired by a family of private investors based in Kuwait for £40.5m from the owners, Aprirose[i]

We have then a situation where the Senedd building, which it was claimed would, in its symbolic form, represent the open, modern democracy of Wales, is inextricably joined to a rented building. This then presents an interesting variation on David Harvey’s observations on collective symbolic capital and monopoly rents(Harvey 2012 pps 103-109).

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[i]http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/national-assembly-wales-office-acquired-6770330

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[i]http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/empty-rooms-new-welsh-government-1798510

[ii]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26721637

[iii]http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/llandudno-junction-915m-welsh-government-6875070

[iv]https://www.audit.wales/system/files/publications/WAO_Welsh_Government_Location_Strategy_Report_English_2014.pdf

Harvey, D. 2012. Rebel Cities. London: Verso.

 

THE PRESERVATION OF PENYLAN

In a blog of December 2013 the observation was made that Westville Walk should be protected to the same degree as Waterloo Gardens and Roath Mill Gardens [1]. Since then there has been active local engagement in the proposed works to alleviate possible flooding  and, in the light of recent inundation, every likelihood that such works progress with urgency. It is hoped that such works do not detract from the unique character of what is an exemplary piece of urbanism.

The argument that was put for the protection of Westville Walk was that it was created at the same time as the other parks, forms part of the same conservation area and, to all appearances, remain very much of a piece. Logically the criteria applied in the designation of the conservation area could then be extended to that part of Penylan also created at the same time. The attributes of the housing within the present conservation area are identical to those of the adjoining streets built around the 1910's. These are catalogued in the Conservation Area Appraisal for Roath Mill Gardens [2].

What is emphasised there is the exceptional degree of unity in the residential and other development of that era and the strong sense of both public and private spaces within the area. The frontages of the buildings consist of modest front gardens, divided from the street by low boundary walls comprised of pressed red brick some with iron railings. Many front gardens have hedges behind these walls. The buildings have an inherent quality given by the use of a specific palette of building materials and many architectural details that are characteristic of the area.

There is an overall architectural cohesion through a relatively uniform building height and a roofscape comprising steeply pitched Welsh slate roofs, the substantial chimneys of pressed red brick with red pots and large gables facing the street. There is a variety in the ornamentation of those gables, some having half timbering, stucco or the characteristic  red hanging tiles with a partial or full fish-scale pattern. Combined with overhanging eaves and the polygonal double bay windows beneath the gables these create a heavy and constantly changing shadow and rich texture to the elevations. These are further enhanced by the recessed and open fronted porches facing onto the street which have an abundant display of decoration. Externally they are commonly surrounded with stonework and internally with tiled dadoes, often in an Art Nouveau style. Many of the porch floors and front garden paths of many buildings retain their original patterned encaustic tiles.

Whilst appearing similar the buildings therefore reveal a variety of  rich and interesting detail particular to that period before WWI when Cardiff reached its relative peak of prosperity. The cohesion and quality of such residential development was imposed by the landed estates upon which such houses was built, in this case largely that of the Tredegar Estate. The demand for suburban villas of such quality came from the aspirant bourgeoisie of Edwardian Cardiff. It is very much of a piece with the civic architecture of Cathays Park  in marking the apex of Cardiff's prosperity as a port. In this respect Penylan is as unique as the celebrated developments of the Georgian or Regency  periods elsewhere in being a product of its time.  It is, surprisingly, one of the very few suburbs in Britain which retains such qualities and essential character of the Edwardian suburb.

The case for the conservation of a much wider area of Penylan  is therefore the retention of symbolic and cultural capital of the city. This is, essentially, the same line of reasoning that supports the designation of Bath or Blaenavon as World Heritage Centres. That is that the area has cultural significance and exhibits an important interchange of human values on developments in town-planning and  landscape design. It is an example of a type of building, architectural ensemble and urban landscape which illustrates a significant stage in the human history of the city and nation. Furthermore it can be argued that it represents a cultural tradition and, perhaps, 'a civilization which has largely disappeared'.

What must then be considered are the measures to ensure that the area is not vulnerable and subject to irreversible change. The debate should naturally concern those of us who have chosen to live in the area. If we do not look after it UNESCO will not. In a local context it is as important an area as Cathedral Road, Church Road, Whitchurch or the later Rhiwbina Garden Village . A precedent has perhaps also been set by the inclusion of late Victorian housing within the nearby Roath Park Conservation area.

In such engagement we might consider the position that we are not so much caring for the past but the future. We could, for example, consider the Brundtland definition of 'sustainable development' beloved of our sloganeering politicians as that 'which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'.  

If we permit the gradual erosion of the fine detail and quality of an area of Penylan we deny our children's children beauty.

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[1] http://rhcroydon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/troubled-over-bridge-water.html

[2]  https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ENG/resident/Planning/Documents/Roath%20Mill%20Gardens-A.pdf

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