Issue 39 Sept 23 - Journal - Page 22
Recognition that heritage development has the ability to
draw people to a location was influential; as was recognition that, as our shopping habits change, retail areas and
high streets need to adapt to thrive. Providing wheelchair
users’ access shielded by the railings also influenced the
decision. Giving Handel House more prominence
between neighbouring retail units on Brook Street
enhances its ability to draw people to Mayfair. These
arguments assisted in getting the permissions needed.
The project reflects the retail sector’s relationship with
the high street changing, allowing for new ways for
attracting people, with heritage interventions helping
retail environments to survive; it is a symbiotic relationship as shoppers too are attracted into Handel’s House.
The changing dynamic between retailers and the high
street contributed to gaining approval to recreate the area,
which helps recreate Handel’s House’s setting, and
perhaps nothing has greater heritage impact than the
reopened area and railings; announcing as they do the
presence of Handel’s House a now complete Georgian
home. Whilst they are not original fabric, these elements
recreate the Georgian spatial relationship between
internal and external spaces. The area, railings and the
Georgian façade are now a landmark on Brook Street,
which none can miss.
Opposite, lightwell at 25 Brook Street
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Conservation & Heritage Journal
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