Rebuild or repair?

Country Life | 20 September 2023

LUCY DENTON’S article on the vexed question of rebuilding or reinstating historic buildings after fires is full of contentious statements that deserve to be challenged (‘ Cinders, you shall go to the wrecking ball’ September 6).

SPAB and the modernists have returned to the fray over Clandon in Surrey.

SPAB and the modernists have returned to the fray over Clandon in Surrey.

This Grade I-listed house had some of the finest early Georgian interiors in the country. The interiors were fully recorded and, in the case of the spectacular Marble Hall, more than enough remains to make reinstatement fully feasible. As Simon Thurley, former chief executive of English Heritage, has said, we already have quite enough ruins in the country. Yet another at Clandon would be pointless.

Hugh Petter, Ba(hons) Diparch RIBA FRSA, Hampshire, and Roger White MA FSA, Dorset