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New Britain, new heritage: The consumption of aheritage cultureBrian Goodey aa Professor of Urban Landscape Design , Oxford Brookes UniversityPublished online: 18 Apr 2007.

To cite this article: Brian Goodey (1998) New Britain, new heritage: The consumption of a heritage culture, InternationalJournal of Heritage Studies, 4:3-4, 197-205, DOI: 10.1080/13527259808722237

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New Britain, New Heritage:the consumption of a heritagecultureBrian Goodey

AbstractEach month in Britain marks a further, official, distancing from the past and itsmemorials, as we move closer to the selected Millennium marker. Heritage has aparticularly low profile at present with policies for destruction of the House of Lordsencouraging increasing ridicule aimed at legacies from the past. In terms of mediacoverage, at least, the heritage bubble has burst, as indeed it had to. As soon asmodest, individual or community, breaths were marshalled into corporate puff, thesheer size of the national preservation and presentation enterprise hinted at its owndemise. Nicholas Howard, he of Castle Howard, provided an appropriate caution in1993, when he noted:

Key WordsHeritageUnited KingdomMillenniumCollecting

'...each generation assumes the mantle of caretakership, never that ofownership. The ethic becomes one of preservation at the expense of creation,of the passive smothering the active.1

There is a brown heritage road-sign on the M40 of great poignancy: it lists'Windsor Safari Park', 'Windsor Castle', and 'Royalty'. The first has gone bust,the second has burnt down, and the third is degraded. Are we to capNapoleon by sinking from being a nation of shopkeepers to a nation ofcaretakers?' We are dangerously near this position, especially as it fits wellwith an established tourist image of fussy, but endearing, stewardship.

But if images of the past are becoming yesterday's banquet, the menu nolonger fit for presentation, the remains of less interest, there is the dilemma asto where to go next. No wonder that in a society where heritage has been therule for the past twenty years, it proves difficult to find enough innovatorsenthusiastically to sponsor the Dome. This was not a problem I remember forthe. 1951 Festival of Britain where human achievements, engineeringtriumphs, contemporary design, and not a little satire on the Victorian pastwere served up as a prospect for the future meal of new Elizabethans. Thoughthis title, itself, carried the quiet heritage authority the product image was ofa present and future informed by, though not reverential, to the past. Butthen, as Robert Hewison has noted/the millennium is not a commodity to bebought and sold, or a lie to be told. It is a rite of passage both too big, and toopersonal, too awe-inspiring and too real, for the degraded simulations we arethreatened with.'2 The same observation might, sensibly, be applied toheritage.

1. N. Howard, 'We are indanger of becoming anation of heritagecaretakers,' DailyTelegraph, 23rdJanuary, 1993.

2. R, Hewison, "TheCulture Industry : Atheme park in everytown,' New Statesman,14th November1997, pp.46-47

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What's Gone Wrong With Heritage?Whether measured in the decline in paying, rather than voluntary, jobopportunities, over-the-top commercialisation of sites, a marginal erosion ofinvestment in collections or remains, or a diversion of political and editorialattention towards the future, 'Heritage' may well be past its best.

At this stage, of course, I had better explain what I mean by 'Heritage', inthe inverted commas in which it appears here. This 'Heritage' is thecommodified abstraction of a local, regional or national past. It is marked bya few key dates, a few key documents, rather more built remains, and aninfinity of artefacts which have survived past generations. But it is not just thechronologies, gazetteers or inventories that make 'Heritage', but rather theircomposition into site-based themes and stories sufficient for an unchallengingdays's encounter.

Such 'Heritage' places bear many similarities to the, itself historic, 10" 78rpm recording - the early 'single' - which demanded of performers a completenumber lasting some three and a half minutes. A statement of the tune ortheme, a couple of choruses, a solo embellishment, and out with a re-statement of the tune. Oh, for the simplicity of such music? Or the simplicityof many heritage sites?

Later, I will return to the matter of 'Heritage' sites, their design and use,because the complexity of design issues, and their recurrence throughout theworld, requires that I do. I cannot be absolved from responsibility indesigning, bringing into life, these neat 10" 78 rpm packages over the pastten years. Recently I had the opportunity to repeat the performance in Brazil,and such a remove allows me to identify some of the key issues surroundingsuch 'Heritage' designation, design and management. Before doing so,however, it is important to try and understand why we are where we aretoday.

The Inevitable ErrorsIn any society such as the British, the pursuit, use and valuation of knowledgeis directed through an unholy alliance of authority and authorities. Theauthority, be it state, local or quango tends to own, grant permission, ordesignate. Authorities, or experts, tend to band together in tight-knit,seemingly impenetrable, groups to identify and authenticate. The primaryconcern of neither is with the interests, enthusiasms or aspirations of themajority of the living population when it comes to matters past.

In case you are waiting for the definition, heritage with a small 'h', is thematerial and non-material aspects of a culture which someone chooses toselect from past experience to be identified, contained and conserved forpresent or future use. It may, therefore, be the jar of picked damsons whichcame from the previous year's good crop, the landmark Norman pile whichbreaks the horizon, the fact that many of my Northamptonshire neighboursgreet any statement of fact with 'Is that so?', or the sense of chill which greetsthe security guard entering a room from which a suicide fell eight years ago.If drawn into conversation, then these are all 'heritage.'

Heritage, then, is all around us, and within us. If we feel that a younger

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generation has lost something of what we value or have learned, or that anolder generation dwells on the past, its events and artefacts, this is becauseheritage as part of culture has always been a flexible and changing process. Itis important to emphasise that it is a process, fuelled by the ageing of eachsuccessive generation which discards some past memories and picks up thenew from the more immediate past. Essentially we need such tangible marksto chart our lives. Matthew Parris has noted buddleia (a plant), hitch-hiking(an activity), turquoise (a colour) as modest elements of a passing world.3

At any one time at least three generations are actively creating, regrettingthe passing, and saving heritage. We turn to events 0ohn Kennedy's orPrincess Diana's deaths), objects (Coronation mugs, concert and festivalprogrammes), personalities (seeing the Beatles or the Spice Girls, being aGoth), time-fixed places (Woodstock, a first visit to Paris, holidays in Devon),images (Monty Python, The World at War, Fawlty Towers, The Fast Show) andwords (song titles, advertising, catch-phrases) in order to construct a notionalshrine to our past, a fragile frame on which to hang personal memorabilia.

This process happens regardless of any official recognition or sale-pricevalue. It is the drive to consume the past as artefact that has added otherlayers to these, often very personal, understandings. High cultural objects andevents have long been with us, the castle, the opera, the gallery visit. Sincethe 1960s, these have been joined by an array which has been designed toinvolve. It draws either presentation support or direct income from visitorsand users who are invited to link their own heritage shows with a publicdisplay—a broader endorsement.

Factors Influencing HeritageWhat, in this process, becomes 'Heritage' is very different from what was

identified as heritage prior to the 1960s. Before that decade the national'Heritage' was a modest compilation of large structures (Ancient Monuments,cathedrals, castles, National Trust mansions etc.) which derived theirauthority from permanence, size and representation of enduring political andsocial structures. Whilst these, and many more, persist, the post 1960sheritage derives from five essentially new factors, these in order of importanceare:i. Education of Authorityii. Geographical Equalityiii. Establishment of Market Valueiv. Capital for Conservationv. Democratisation of Culture

Education of AuthorityWithin a vastly increased forum for communication, from expert journals andinformed TV antiques and collection programmes, to Internet, there is thespace and demand for authoritative voices on everything. Whilst some of theseauthorities have come from a training in understanding the detail of the past,its objects and their value, many more are from the professionalisation ofsmall business and collector interests. There has been a rapid decline in the

3. M. Pants, 'On howhistory, like buddleia.is easily lost to us,'The Spectator, 15thAugust 1998, p.IO.

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hobby, in favour of the interest which pays, or is an investment. The collectorand small entrepreneur have an eye to expansion, with the enthusiasm beinga route to profit or demi-stardom. Artefacts of the 1990s—CDs, telephonecards, pub ephemera, supermarket packaging—are being hoarded at thismoment, and like the 1960s, less of the 1970s, and 1980s, are on sale.

Academic degrees, public positions or auction house posts, costume andaffected style still mark out the small band of established authorities on itemsof traditional heritage, but the margins are continually blurring. The lower-rung buildings expert locked into a hidden hierarchy flits to a TV series, thesolid voice of a provincial auction-house re-dresses as a TV expert. Expertise,the ability to identify and value heritage, is now developed less for title andoffice, than for the ability to convince the public under fire.

The seemingly natural process of heritage identification, where a pastunder threat was retrieved by a later generation, came to an end in the 1950swhen the living Clough Williams-Ellis saw his school chapel at Bishop'sStortford in Hertfordshire listed. Lord Archer's investment collection ofWarhols, a superficially ultra-consumerist gesture, has honourableantecedents in the investment collections of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Geographical EqualityThere has been a quiet revolution in the location of heritage, or rather itsspatial identification. Prior to the 1950s and 1960s it was often difficult toreach. Structures tend to survive better away from development pressure, andtherefore on the geographical margins of the country, as with ecologically richareas. With Scottish or Welsh border piles and traditional cathedral cities thetarget of much tourism all was well. Following British holiday liberation inthe 1960s, and the decline of the national tourist market, the home countryhad to rely increasingly on day visits and short breaks. From the 1970s, newlocal authorities saw the 'industry and products' section of their local guidesthin rapidly and after a hiatus, turned inevitably to designers of a newgeography which relied increasingly on an assemblage of historic associations,events and sites.

Within a decade each district had achieved a public role in history with aheritage offer composed, in part, of existing buildings on site, but also of newattractions fabricated around the growing public enthusiasm for heritage. Thelocal populations were expected to need dog-walking sites, heritage centres,and a small amount of digestible heritage, even though the latter may havebeen developed from the depths of insignificance.

In terms of the current concern for a sense of local and regional identity,not to mention the latent nationalism and localism which will emerge inEngland after Scottish and Welsh Assemblies are established, this latetwentieth-century pattern of local history is very significant. We now expectany area to have brown-signed 'historic market towns', museums, interpretedtrails, and an army of artefacts and sites connected, however loosely, to thepast. Because everyone and everything has a history, this is potentially a goodthing, but it does mean that any professional or authoritative sorting of itemsor events has long been discarded. Like the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the

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imperative that everywhere should have one, rules over any assessment as towhat World, or English, heritage actually means.

From this great explosion which, at times, allocates doubtfully rootedheritage to local areas, we must expect a fallout. The heritage on display hasnot been fully reviewed by its communities, and over the next decade someattractions will clearly fade from consumer view, especially as more recentassets will not receive the same heritage attention. Whilst museums have,inevitably, had to reorganise their collections over time, we have littleexperience of disposing of transitory encounters with a past world.

Should regionalism and localism develop strongly over the next decade, asmay be implied by political developments, the demands on heritage will not,necessarily, be met by the products of geographical equality. Presumably allareas of Wales and Scotland will want to assert their local loyalty to a newpolitical focus. Heroes, events and cultural manifestations will emerge to meetthis need—local heroes, unrevealed designers, locations of conflict will beuncovered and included on itineraries which focus within, rather than,between the constituent parts of the United Kingdom. Opportunities fordevelopment here, in the border regionsl

Establishment of Market ValuesIn our consumer, market economy, everything has its value. In the absence ofopportunities or initiatives to generate new value for so many, personal andshared pasts must be made to work for survival. In the long running EnglishTV series, the Antiques Roadshow, where residents of a town present objects toexperts for identification, there is a telling moment at the close of eachencounter when the expert suggest that the item should be insured for acertain value, usually to the, superficial, surprise of the owner. It would beinappropriate, even dangerous, to say what the item might achieve at auction,but clearly it is this value that is in view. With magazines, auction reports,collectors' newspapers and the rest there can be few who do not glance atwhat they own, from estate to 1940s cartoon, with a figure rising for theircompendium of assets.

The traditions of authoritative judgement which have been largely foundedin workmanship, provenance, rarity, and aesthetic quality, although valuewas never absent, have now been twisted so that value predominates. Thisapplies to all moveable artefacts, thus the consumer approach has eaten wellinto the traditions of fine art, but not, it appears into buildings. A newboundary may exist between buildings and natural environments on the onehand, beyond price and market place, and all other heritage elements whichmight appear in the saleroom

The balance sheet of this commodification of heritage is interesting.Increasingly, works by named designers, or from proven past creators, arejudged by their value alone, a date and previous price being of moreimportance than aesthetic or technical significance. For more modern, andartisan elements, the allocation of a price—whether it be at auction or carboot sale—demands that the potential purchaser examine the item in a newlight. Whilst resale value may be the most important consideration,

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workmanship, aesthetic quality, or past context can enter into theconsideration.

Having entered the market place, only considerable fluctuations in marketvalue (which may be predicted over the next few years) will give cause forreappraisal. It is inevitable that much of the inflated froth of collecting, be ithouses or objects, will evaporate in any substantial market fall. The impact onthe community will be variable. Those never touched by the value chase willbe unaffected, but a significant minority will reconsider their personalcollecting habits, but also their attitude towards heritage. In time, themajority will recognise that it is only heritage assets underwritten by the Stateon behalf of the unseen majority which retain their value, a value not easilytranslated into auction prices.

Capital for ConservationOnly at the point of entry does the vast majority of British residents realisethat their heritage requires financial support. With the exception ofcathedrals, owners and managers are still reticent to explain how theindividual's entrance fee or donation goes towards the upkeep of a monument.In museums, where the entrance fee to special exhibitions may be exorbitantin contrast, there is never a statement as to the costs of providing a specialdisplay of heritage—although such accounting may well be required in thefuture.

There is no question that monuments and artefacts require exceptionalconservation treatment. By their nature, the materials, techniques andconditions for survival reflect a past, and largely lost, world. In part, theheritage remnant reflects a desire to remember the lost techniques offabrication or manufacture. To maintain the object, such techniques must berecaptured or re-invented,the high costs of using pre-industrial techniques in apost-industrial world are inevitable.

There is little disquiet at the charges levied for this purpose, indeedcharging is a most direct reminder that heritage is 'of the past', that tomaintain knowledge and skills requires investment. To see workers involved ina site, or to witness the delicate techniques of conservation, is a usefulreminder of the cost which we must all bear in order to retain memories ofthe past. The process should be more public, the techniques more transparentfor the non-expert. This is a worthy cause, and one which has been obscured.

Democratisation of CultureThe fact that it is the most affluent monuments and artefacts that havesurvived through history is well known. Materials, design, storage andfinancial arrangements have ensured that the majority of key sites and itemshave been retained for subsequent generations, although clearly the lists havebeen subtly modified to allow for the many unfortunate losses. But since theSecond World War there has been a quiet democratisation of heritage culturein the United Kingdom. Places, settings and objects associated with less thanthe very rich have been conserved—the wheelwright's workshop, rationbooks. High Street fashions—have found their way into collections and public

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displays. Visitors, as distinct from donors, have been able to say that 'I hadone of those' in visiting a museum or collection. Heritage has begun to bridgethe gap between those who were supposed to safeguard the culture and thosewho merely lived it.

Whilst it might be claimed that museumisation has stolen popular culturefrom many who do not visit or recognise museums, it is clear that heritageand conservation policies adopted by national and local collections over thepast decade have provided a tentative bridge between the broader communityand the concept of heritage. Because of government policies and the ease ofidentification some emphasis has been placed on ethnic and other minoritycommunities but this is important in the democratisation process as,otherwise, such materials would remain as hidden from public view as theircreators. In the UK we are far from achieving any real democratisation ofculture, either in heritage, or its contemporary manifestations. Neverthelessthere have been quite startling developments in the display and validation ofa broader range of consumer products and collectibles which represents theprivate archives of many in the community.

If the informal and fragmented process of heritage identification is intendedto represent and conserve the breadth of cultural concerns and achievementsof the population, then the past decade has seen a considerable step in thisdirection. The display and valuing of popular cultural artefacts has drawn thepast cultural experience of the many towards the established experience of thefew. Rarity is still the mediator, but the admission of mass-produced materials(such as film posters, recordings and comics) has allowed the gap to benarrowed. All can now take on the mantle of the expert or connoisseur , andthe image of High or Fine art has been extended in the auction room toinclude the products of popular culture.

Dilution to a Point of No ReturnA past decade of radical change with regard to heritage has served to unsettleall but the most professional of heritage conservators and experts. Theavailability of uncontextualised images, artefacts and reconstructions in newcombinations, settings and self-generated screen arrangements has demolishedthe flimsy understanding of chronology and geography which most peopletouched at school. All geography and history is now reduced to images whichcan be orchestrated for immediate effect.

If you don't believe me, then go to the recently opened Trafford Centre inManchester. This is 'new place' —possibly the last of its type, an edge-cityshopping mall, no surprise to North Americans, but an island of place-makingbeyond central Manchester and Salford, and adjacent to the M6. Externallythere's vernacular brickwork (19th-century English), classical andRenaissance detail, MGM Egyptian, 18th-century landscaping, industrial-revolution ironwork street furniture, an Orangery of a cafe, and more. Inside,the periods, stacked one on the other, include 20th-century Titanic, NorthAfrican, Egyptian tomb, New Orleans French Quarter, Victorian CrystalPalace, pre-Hispanic South American, 20th-century Arts and Crafts etc. Hereis a sculpture of cl920 New Orleans musicians, there the beaming faces of the

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developers shining down, the bare-breasted seasons, Victoria and the railways,a cornucopia of all possible images brought to an interior mall in the middleof nowhere. This nowhere can, of course, be the TV screen as the series plusits immediate explanation in terms of design, locales and production has beenshown in the case of Vanity Fair. Ten years ago we would be interested in theauthor's home and possible settings, now we want to see where the series wasshot.

At Trafford few, if any, of these artificial concoctions specifically engage thevisitor who is bound for McDonalds, for fashion outlets and for the anchorstores. All history is backdrop, all images are reduced to their basics andreinterpreted, the essence of each diluted in the wash of visitors, managedsystems and spending.

And, I have to confess, I rather liked the result. It was, as we are allsupposed to recognise, deeply 'ironic', part of the upmarket faddish culture inwhich we are now all located. A 'spend and be damned' approach to theimages of the past which will, perhaps, last five years before it is, in part, re-structured as a revived visitor attraction.

Those concerned with heritage are going to have to visit such places,putting aside their aversion to the artificial, to the ill-conceived, to theconsumption of images. For the majority of British society this re-use, thisdilution of history, is at very least acceptable, and possibly enjoyable. Thechallenge for heritage conservation and interpretation is how to mark andmarket the authentic as a world which is worth enjoying. Having led post-modern designers to the inevitability of consumable reproduction, we mustnow withdraw and reconsider how the authentic can be sustained.

I suspect that it is process, rather than product, that must engage ourattention. How were things and occasions made, how did people think in thepast? By emphasising process we can offer something more than thesuperficial, and reproducible, image. But interpreting process requires far moreeffort than product. We need to get inside the past, using available primarysources to bring a past world alive.

My first efforts at primary research involved the farm accounts of a holdingwhich, by the beginning of this century, had become housing for anexpanding London. There are no immediate signs of that world in the meanand treed streets of the area today. What heritage conservation andinterpretation can offer is a window into the past which, in its complexity,cannot be neatly diluted for an experience or a mall. As experts on heritagewe need to remind ourselves, and our clients, of the complexity of past worldsand of the range of understandings which surround objects or structures.Historians are there to help; it will be a mind-expanding exercise, and we willhave to resist dumbing-down, but I believe that the work is both possible andvaluable.

In the five-year revision of the Trafford Centre, a new place which willsurvive, it might be worth trying to achieve a bridgehead for interpretation ofthe agricultural, then industrial, location on which it is built. Dilution byscenic designers will always be with us, but the heritage authority needs to

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provide something to dilute—or we will be left with the most superficial, aplace whose images are based on the fragments of a consumed world culture.

Editor's NoteProfessor Goodey was invited to address students of Heritage Studies of the University of

Plymouth in December 1998. The publication of the paper here, substantially in its spoken

form, is part of the policy of this journal to publish other kinds of work than the strict

research paper, whenever they have something important to say.

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