#BTColumn – The Derelict Dozen: Where’s the pride?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Sir Henry Fraser

I wish to congratulate both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Housing for announcing that they are turning their attention to the issue of rehabilitating our abandoned and derelict buildings, especially those of
obvious historic, architectural, tourism and commercial value.

This is most welcome news, after decades in which our Ministry of Housing has acted not as caretaker of government’s out-of-use buildings but as undertaker, silently watching them go derelict, die and committed
ashes to ashes.

It has been a source of great distress, sadness and a waste to see so many beautiful buildings abandoned and derelict, when rehabilitation is so much more economical than demolition and replacement.

I have lectured across the Caribbean on the many examples of restoration in Barbados done almost always at two thirds the cost of replacement, including the fine example of the government building Verona at Bank Hall. But prophets are “without honour” in their own country, and proffered evidence, examples and persuasion ignored.

A column titled “Where’s the pride?” written by “AL” in the Sunday paper some years ago showed six photos of historic buildings in ruin. They were: The Eyrie, residence of Sir Conrad Reeves, our first black chief Justice, the centrepiece of the Community College campus, with a forty-foot tree growing out of the last remaining, unique, historic “fish pond” roof in the island.

Next came the magnificent Belfield Mansion, former residence of National Hero Samuel Jackman Prescod, a gift to the government by Barbadian Dr. Nightengale, and home to hundreds of orphans for fifty years – The Nightengale Children’s Home, abandoned because of a leaking roof and now demolished. Third came the Empire Theatre, a victim of promise after promise.

Fourth was Dalmenie on Pine Hill, next to the Central Bank governor’s residence. Number five was the large Pine Plantation House, abandoned three and a half years ago; and number six was Queen’s Park House, abandoned for ten years because of a leaking roof! (Finally restored for CARIFESTA).

The other members of Bridgetown’s Derelict Dozen are The Old Eye Hospital, Erdiston House, Culloden Farm, St. Mary’s Boys School (now demolished), the Old Supreme Courthouse and The Carnegie Library. They are embarrassingly complemented by a half dozen derelicts at The Garrison, the other part of our UNESCO World Heritage site.

Privately owned derelicts include the remaining half of the Marshall Hall, owned by ICBL, and balconied town houses on Roebuck Street and elsewhere.

And the jewel in the crown is the magnificent Glendairy Prison, abandoned some fifteen years ago, but with the greatest potential of any possible project in Barbados at this time. My 25-page project development document, provided gratis eight years ago, gathers dust at BTII.

The alleged high cost of restoring abandoned buildings is simply a myth, perpetuated as part justification for our naive national preference for all things new, and simply does not agree with the facts. The maxim REDUCE, RECYCLE, REUSE, and ADAPTIVE REUSE of old buildings has huge advantages at many levels.

Of overwhelming importance is the fact that repair and restoration need more labour and less materials and foreign exchange than new buildings … with huge and far-reaching benefits for employment, our economy and balance of foreign exchange!

Nearly forty years ago I had proposed to Prime Minister Tom Adams that government should develop a protocol whereby with appropriate engagement with private owners of buildings abandoned for a certain period, such buildings should be compulsorily acquired and rehabilitated either by government or by appropriate tender process, as developed in Scotland.

For some of government’s derelict buildings, a “peppercorn” long lease could be offered, to be attractive to private developers. The time to start is now. Finally, unless we wake up to the opportunities associated with travellers’ hunger for Heritage Tourism, the fastest growing segment of global tourism today, and unless we are guardians of our own heritage, we are doomed.  Perhaps our national motto should be pride, industry and
common sense!

Sir Henry Fraser is Professor Emertius, Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, Immediate Past Dean, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. He is also an architecural historian, heritage consultant, writer, TV presenter, national orator and motivational speaker.