ABSTRACT
This chapter sheds light on the role of contextualised history in heritage conservation, presenting it as a potential mediator of the multiple historical realities of space. It reveals the intellectual and cultural underpinnings of the Liverpool Church of Humanity, which is the last and greatest remnant of Positivism in Britain. Over the past several years conservationists have averted the building’s demolition but, to suit current fancies, sanctioned the removal of aspects that hold great historic value. No longer is it evident that the structure was associated with Positivism, which held a sweeping influence over nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought. This chapter offers a critical contextualised genealogy of British Positivist spaces, connecting them to the emancipatory designs of the French philosopher, Auguste Comte. Ultimately the chapter queries such instances of presentism in historic conservation, instances which undermine the import of a space and future generations’ awareness of its socio-spatial significance.
