This review appeared in the RIBA Journal, 26 February 1969

At long last the first of the four historic town reports - Lord Esher's York: a study in conservation (HMSO, £7) - is out, and proves immensely well worth waiting for.

Here is an examination, street by street, and in places house by house, of what needs to be done to conserve and regenerate the grand medieval-to-eighteenth century city that has grown up within the original city walls; a detailed plan to halt decay; use the large areas of blight that exist behind some beautiful and varied street facades for modern living and service industries; control the traffic, and thus make the walled city once again a place where people want to live, and where tourists stay, instead of paying a half-day's visit to the minster and the castle and moving on. Today only 3,500 people live within the walls of York: 10,000 lived there in the Middle Ages. That is a measure of its decay.

The effectiveness of the report and proposals is greatly reinforced by a down-to-earth examination by Nathaniel Lichfield & Associates of the economics of the Esher conservation proposals, assessing the costs and the cost benefits to be expected, and suggesting ways in which the rehabilitation plan could be paid for. This report wipes away the reaction that any such large scale scheme would 'cost the earth', and shows that it would in fact cost about £2 million - which when one considers that the cost of building a motorway is between £750,000 and £1 million a mile and that 530 miles of such roads are in the present road programme - can be dismissed as chicken feed.

Lord Esher presents five objectives:

1 that the commercial heart of York should remain alive and he able to compete on equal terms with other cities;

2 that the elimination of decay, traffic congestion and noise should so improve the environment that the centre will again become a very attractive place to live, for families, students and retired people;

3 that land uses conflicting with these purposes must gradually be removed from the walled city;

4 that York's historic character should he so enhanced and the best of its buildings maintained that they become 'economically self~onserving'; and

5 that 'erection of new buildings of any but the highest architectural standards should cease' within the walls

'It is conflict between activities that depreciates our environment', he told a press conference at the Minister of Housing on 14 February, and hi report insists that the removal of all through traffic, and of 24 acres (9.7 hectares) of unsuitable industry from the conservation area must be achieved so that people will want to return to live in the 257 acre (104.003 hectares) within the walls while the convenience of shopping - for which York is still an important centre - and the delights of tourism will be so enhanced as to end the growth of obsolescence and blight and make the historic centre prosperous as well as uniquely beautiful and interesting. Even as it is the walled city has 1.5 million square feet (139 355m² of shopping space (and 2.5 million square feet (232 258m² of industry and warehousing - much of it obsolete), and it attracts nearly a million visitors a year.

Lord Esher made clear that he regretted the decision, backed by the city council, to confine the conservation study to the part of the city within the walls, partly because there are some splendid historic streets beyond this area which deserve study, but equally because an official plan to run a ring road directly outside the walls seems lamentably mistaken both from the point of view of successfully conserving the walled city, and that of its separation from the rest of the town.

In any case, the report makes clear, the first task before conservation can begin is to exclude all through traffic from the area. The plan proposes provision of four multi-storey car parks for visitors to the city, two inside and two just outside the walls, providing 5000 off-street parking spaces (at present there are only 190 within the walls).

It proposes the banning of motor cycles and mopeds from the area between Micklegate Bar, Ouse Bridge and the minster, and the closure of the historic shopping streets to all vehicles after 10.00.

It proposes that 'the only vehicles to be catered for within the walls are those that live or have business or bring visitors there'; examines these categories and boldly proposes a local licensing and labelling system for the cars of residents, giving them the privilege of using restricted streets. A further range of restriction - for lorries for example- is also proposed in some listed streets, whereby the common practice of 'cutting' small back streets would be prevented. At the same time the plan proposes a great extension of pedestrianisation throughout the walled city. 'York is exceptionally rich in narrow streets ideal for pedestrianisation' the report points out, 'in secret alleys known only to the native or the inquisitive explorer, and in the elevated circuit of the walls and bars, which though incomplete could easily be made more accessible and more enjoyable'. The major areas proposed for pedestrianisation are round the minster precinct, throughout the central shopping area, in a wide circuit through King's Manor and round Micklegate.

These steps to control traffic having been taken, the problems of conservation itself could be tackled. 'All that has been done to rescue historic York in the past twenty years has been first-aid', the report says frankly. But inevitably 'there will be a gap between what the market will bear and what the environment should be, and this gap can be closed only by public spending on a scale now normal in other European countries but still grossly inadequate here.' The aim however at York was to 'narrow the gap as much as possible by minimising costs (of which the greatest will be the relocation of industry) and by maximising profits (of which the greatest will be the opening up of new sites for commerce and business).'

The exercise began with the division of the city within the walls into eight sectors, each with clearly differentiated individual qualities, its own life and personality:

Micklegate-Bishophill - the old Roman colonia south-west of the river, with the historic entry to the city, Micklegate Bar;

the central/shopping sector, of which the report comments that 'it contains one of the prettiest luxury shopping streets in the world (Stonegate)' and 'has so far baffled the big developers';

the Minster precinct, with the great church rising out of narrow medieval streets and cobbled lanes;

the King's Manor area, 'tacked onto the western edge of the historic city' and containing its art gallery, library, theatre, museum, 'a romantic riverside park' and the sixteenth century King's Manor buildings;

Aldwark, to the east - a total contrast: silent, deserted, its last Georgian houses falling into decay, its half-empty workshops and warehouses awaiting clearance'-within a stone's throw of the minster; Foss Islands -the industrial sector, 'York's back yard. Dominated by a fine cooling tower and by the great warehouse still in use, rising sheer out of the . . . Foss, this sector makes a by no means unworthy contribution to the variety of the York scene.'

Walmgate, defined by the Foss and the curve of the city walls, 'its backbone village street with twin churches and its industrial hinterland -. Low lying, with a long history of congestion and squalor, slum clearance and municipal housing are in progress here and garages and new offices form 'the least attractive of all entries into the walled city'.

Finally there is the Castle sector, across the Foss, 'traffic-ridden and car infested but full of character and potentiality, with the finest Gothic spire and several of the most handsome Georgian buildings in the city, as well as a gloomily romantic Victorian street'.

In these sectors the report goes on to consider four smaller areas in detail:

Aldwark itself, Micklegate and two parts of the central shopping area - Swinegate, a congested commercial area calling for selective redevelopment, and Petergate, which runs between the shopping area and the minster precinct and contains 'a typical group of York houses in need of conversion to ensure their preservation'.

These four 'action areas' have been examined house by house, the results recorded on a form which presents a detailed assessment of the condition, uses, construction, architectural and townscape merit of each building and its potentialities.

One startling revelation that resulted from this survey, particularly in Petergate, was the large number of upper storeys above shops which were either used only for storage or not at all: in some cases even the stairs had been closed off or removed. It is in buildings such as these, among others, that the report proposes the creation of university student lodgings, to the great enrichment of the life of the town.

At the same time the Esher team checked on what had happened to the buildings listed in the area since 1954, and found that despite the fact that 'the City Council has spent more on conservation and restoration of its heritage than any city of comparable resources in the United Kingdom', thirty-two 'graded' buildings have been demolished since that date, despite the work of regrading that has been going on, with enthusiastic backing from MHLG and the vigorous Georgian Society in the city. York, in fact, is one of only eight towns in England and Wales that provide an annual sum in grants to occupiers to help maintain historic buildings.

But despite these efforts 'the disease of urban blight can be seen in all its stages in the walled city. In Aldwark and St Andrew-gate it has reached the advanced stage where only comprehensive redevelopment connect the case; in Walmgate industrial encroachment at the back and traffic in front have for many years been inexorably exerting the same pressures and in Micklegate one can see precisely the same disease at an earlier stage'. Many of the splendid town houses in the area are now hemmed in by industry.

Having evaluated, the study proceeds to propose measures for arresting this decay, treating each of the four study areas in the way considered most practicable to preserve, enhance and enliven it and render it economically viable. In Aldwark, for example, already far gone in decay, assembly of sites for high standard residential development by private enterprise is suggested, and provision of rear access to shops fringing the area.

Finally the report examines the costs of its proposals, which must inevitably he high for the period of renewal and restoration, and will not begin to 'pay off' in terms of rising values, bigger shopping turnover and growing population until much of the plan is completed.

Here the study by Nathaniel Lichfield & Associates is invaluable in bringing what could seem like an unrealisable dream down to earth. 'Renewal by both redevelopment and rehabilitation will take place', it points out, 'under market forces where the entrepreneur, whether occupier, owner or other development agency, can foresee that measure of return on his investment which compensates for the trouble and risk involved.' The right way to consider any investment however is not only to consider the expenditure and return from a project but 'what would arise if some other course of action were followed'.

Some expenditure in the walled city would be necessary without any conservation plan, so 'the true cost of conservation could be taken to be the net expenditure (cost minus return) over and above the inevitably minimum measures that would need to be undertaken for York to compete on level terms with its neighbouring cities, whether as a conserved centre or otherwise'.

Having examined in detail the estimated cost of the conservation proposals and the financial returns to be expected to follow from them, Lichfield estimates the net cost at about £2 million, which would, he points out, be shared by central government and private owners participating in the plan.

'The conservation of York', he points out, 'cannot be only a local responsibility. It must be shared by the nation as a whole. This principle is well recognised, as for example in the arrangements for special grants and subsidy. What is not established is the share of local and national responsibility in meeting the "true costs of conservation".'

However, 'the analysis points the way to a resolution in York. It provides an overall cost of imaginatively renewing and conserving York for future generations . . . It shows the cost is not forbidding. It shows who benefits, locally and nationally. It shows that present financial arrangements would not allocate the costs according to the benefits. It points to a basis for such an allocation which would be acceptable and practicable. It thus provides the financial basis for co-ordinated action.'