Monuments made good

For the most part, these building types have continued to resonate over time in a positive way, refl ecting back to us images not only of a visually impressive physical form but also of a symbolically charged narrative of achievement, moral superiority and pride. They thus become ‘good to think’. Any negative connotations, such as episodes of repression, pain, indignity and loss, are elided in the nostalgic haze through which we prefer to see our history sanitised. For these reasons, many of these types have achieved the status of monuments, preserved and protected as cultural icons for future generations to learn from and enjoy. And even when their original use has been superseded by cultural, economic and social change, as when falling congregations render churches redundant or the decline of manufacturing causes obsolescence for the mills, it is only with reluctance that they are demolished. Instead they are where feasible converted

to new uses which, whilst requiring some internal modifi cations, leave unaltered the external elevations and hence the value of the built form as sign. But there are a few building types where this has been less easy to achieve, and where associations of stigma and repugnance have proved more enduring than those of esteem and celebration. This has made it more diffi cult to bestow on them the same adulation and protection as those types socially constructed in a more favourable light. Consequently, their acceptance and their potential for adaptation should they become superfl uous or unsuitable in terms of their original use has been made more problematic. Such types include the nineteenth-century workhouse and mental hospital, and the mid-twentieth-century residential tower block. It is the rise, fall and transformation of these latter two which form the main subject of this chapter, with specifi c reference to the histories of Exe Vale mental hospital in Devon, notable for its unique radial form, and the tower block of Keeling House in London, the fi rst council tower block to receive listed status.