What kind of radiator will you be looking for?

Many of us will be trying to finish our renovations before christmas and move into our houses ready for the festive season. If you’re looking to be warm and cosy this winter you may be looking for an original cast iron radiator or an old fireplace to enhance and finish your house.  One beautiful radiator that anyone would be proud to have in their house is a Beeston decorated radiator.

The Beeston radiator was made by The Beeston Boiler company Ltd, formally known as Foster & Pearson. Foster & Pearson began in 1841 and were the makers and suppliers of horticultural buildings. They had a list of famous clientele amongst whom was Queen Victoria. Over time, as the company evolved, they began producing boilers initially for use in their own buildings. The Beeston Boiler Company Ltd. was established in 1893 and the company soon started supplying a range of radiators cast at their foundry in Nottingham for the domestic market.

‘The Beeston Decorated’ radiator is shown in a 1921 catalogue, but we are unsure as to when this beautiful ornate radiator made its first appearance.  Bet it caused a stir when it did! This ornate cast iron radiator carries the inscription ‘The Beeston’ followed by what appears to be a Patent number or Rd number ’280475′.   ‘The Beeston’ radiator was withdrawn from manufacture in the late 1920′s.

We currently have in stock a number of ornate Beeston radiators which have been sourced from a large house in Kensington.  They are truly beautiful radiators and are available in various sizes. We have both the three column and two column styles available.   The Beeston can be supplied in either the polished or a painted finish.   If you would like view one or need any further help or information please call 01285 760886 or email us at info@mascowalcot.com

Low Carbon South West Gets the Green Light

A new body aimed at promoting the South West as a hotspot for environmental technologies and services has been formed.

Low Carbon South West (LCSW), which has been created from the merger between the Bristol Environmental Technologies & Services Initiative (BETS) and the environmental activities of the University of Bath’s Innovation Centre (BIC), will become the largest trade body of its type in the UK and will promote the thriving green industry in the region.

Membership-based it will provide a number of benefits to environmental sector organisations already based in the region and those looking to locate in the South West, including access to information for business development and collaboration opportunities; networking events; and the opportunity to influence the government’s green policies.

The body, funded by both publc and private sector support and activities,  will be based in Queen Square in Bristol. It will be holding a celebration event to mark its official launch in September. It is also currently planning an environmental trade show at the UWE conference centre in 2011, which will be the largest ever event of its kind in the region.

Chairman of LCSW, Alan Bailey, said: “We have created Low Carbon South West as it was a natural extension of the separate activities of BETS and BIC in the environmental sector. It made sense to bring these two organisations together and to work in association with other environmental sector bodies, companies and organisations to fulfil a regional  remit to put the South West on the map as a UK hub for innovation, collaboration and growth in the green industries sector.

“It also fulfils the regional agenda to promote the South West to national and international businesses and other organisations in order to attract inward investment and thereby support job creation and the future wellbeing of our economy, critical in these challenging times.”

BIC’s Simon Bond, who is Deputy Chair and Head of Innovation at LCSW, added: “The creation of a region-wide body for promoting the green industries, both technology and service providers, will ensure that the South West will be seen as a major force in this burgeoning sector.

“As a region we have significant potential to become a global capital for the environmental sector and LCSW will support this ambition by opening up opportunities for international collaboration and the creation of innovative technological and service developments; significant inward investment in the South West; and business development regionally, nationally and globally. We will also ensure a voice in Westminster for the green industries in the region. In doing so we aim to broaden our membership base, which currently stands at 500 organisations and individuals, to also include national and international organisations.”

Article written by www.lowcarbonsouthwest.co.uk

Turbines ….a Maginot Line ?

Whilst the consensus grows that a change in the way we behave as  a society must be adopted, no evidence of  conviction in bringing about that change is apparent .

The nuclear option is being flaunted as a get out of jail card ,  which only serves to demonstrate a complete ignorance of the reality.

Nuclear Power as an energy source  avoids the issues of how we obtain Uranium and how we decommission the residues, store  and  transport the waste byproducts .

Without even beginning to discuss the issues of security and terrorism. A nuclear  based energy policy will constitute a high security society which further diminishes personal freedom and leaves us vulnerable to accidental and deliberate human fallibility. Chernobyl and Five Mile Island were not isolated incidents and the vast increases proposed will multiple the probability of environmental accidents .  

The real options are reduction of consumption and  the vast expansion of investment and research into renewables .

It is difficult to be absolute in these matters when discussing Wind Turbine Generation , it may be that future design generations will devise more efficient  technology to carry forward the primitive versions that increasingly bedeck our  landscape…… that Jury is generously praying  Wind power  will come through as our salvation.

My own view is that turbines have been encouraged to fail ; to justify the Nuclear Power option at the end of the day.

This conspiracy approach would have no credibility if we invested as much in renewable research as we do in subsidising  the building of nuclear power stations . Few of the first generations of  reactors have maintained a continuity of supply  as they come off stream and are de commissioned .

  Successive Governments  in Britain remain in denial about real costs of decommissioning and the occupational consequences .

ROSS HESKETH

The late Ross Hesketh exposed the real use of Atoms For Peace when he discovered the missing Plutonium from Berkeley and the likes of Hinkley , which mysteriously found its way into the American atomic inventory , while Ross was accused of  suffering from dellusions , dying dishonoured , shameful for a man of such integrity . http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/apr/29/guardianobituaries1

ALTERNATIVES

The fact remains that we must find genuine commercial alternatives or be brow beaten by politicians,  devoid of understanding and desperate to be seen to be ‘doing something’. A fatal combination at a time of economic retrenchment to be dependent on  the unimaginative  in a state of desperation .

The bottom line requires us to understand a nuclear fix is not  a solution and palliative turbines turning ineffectually in a landscape should not be the line that environmentalist opt to defend…. least it be a Maginot Line  that collapses destroying the credibility of environmentalists to the glee of corporate power lobbyists. For they will certainly rally to fill the void, with their  commercial self interests of incineration and nuclear power.

A Real Code of Sustainability

The absence of commonsense and the technical gibberish surrounding Sustainability in design and planning matters confuses many people. The Code for Sustainable Homes and BREEAM  are just two examples where  arcane detail  stops people fundamentally understanding the issues.

Perhaps we should return to some  basics and apply them to our planning design and construction sectors. 

Prior to the Second World War it was clearly understood that architects and tradespeople chose materials for their durability and quality. It was a given of any circumstance that you used and specified materials that were intended to last. Before planned obsolescence and the consumer world of the post war years  household goods  were assumed to be repairable and local tradespeople and shops carried spares. Suppliers were prepared to repair items routinely.

Just try  to service a modern piece of domestic household equipment today and you enter the bizarre  spiral of impossible automated responses and eventual specialist service support systems that often leave the homeowner  with the option of  ‘buying new’ rather than face the torment of the Service department.

The nature of many traditional materials allowed adaption and reuse. The quality of materials also meant that buildings  lasted far longer than the systems of construction deployed since the 1960′s. Many designs for commercial premises are today deliberately amortized over 15 -30 years, particularly ‘superstores’, whilst Georgian, Victorian  and Edwardian building are comfortably modified and adapted  and represent our most dependable and desired housing stock.

Gathering these brief ideas together ……. why do we complicate matters with obscuring technical jargon, rather than return to straightforward commonsense that says houses and commercial premises constructed with reuseable and durable materials will be sustainable by their very nature.

A little common sense goes a long way.

Blogbrief BATH & BRISTOL Two Cities Project

The campaign to develop a TWO CITIES strategic position for the cities of Bath and Bristol using the RIVER CORRIDOR to facilitate movement and economic activity continues apace.

Walcot yard as a focus of  radical sustainability  policy and discussion increases daily.

Imminently The NASH PARTNERSHIP will join the team of others already working on the development of practicable sustainability policy for the Bath and Bristol area.

Watch this space for all that is new in design, planning and sustainability.

Making a difference ….A history of Fools

The reality of bringing about change is often stubborn dogged hard work. Plod away long enough and it becomes a very English trait to belatedly recognise the substance of an argument.
The recession and banking crisis was signalled by siren voices who were ‘shouted over’ and belittled to remove the warnings that might have avoided the economic stagnation we currently endure.
Galbraith argued that analysis and attribution of blame remedied little in the eye of a storm and that the purpose of Government was to stabilise and repair until sufficient economic recovery permitted structural change in the longer term.
I do not intend to discourse further on the appalling state of western economics but to use the failure of the financial world as a metaphor for the issues surrounding sustainability and the lessons that should be learnt.

Firstly warnings will not be heeded. Witness Copenhagen.
Existing vested interests are more powerful and a greater force of influence than the voices of foresight.
Secondly, historically change is best achieved by the absence of choice enforced by cataclysmic events and desperation. Wrens’ London was enabled by the Great Fire and plague , Germany and Japan were able to rebuild and retool post WW2 .

These are facts not advocacy!

Thirdly , we may be able to repair over two decades global financial stability, but the crisis of the environment has passed a fulcrum which cannot be recovered in less than forty years without an as yet unknown range of scientific solutions giving us a get out of jail option.
This trust is an act of faith parallel to skydiving before the invention of parachutes.

Our inability to react rationally and change to avert disaster is not so much endemic in human nature , so much as , the voices of those who would sound the alarm are overwhelmed by those, who’s narrow vested self interests, do not recognise  the imminent consequences of their economic myopia.

Much is made of environmentalism having sentimental and poorly reasoned attitudes .Those who ignore the present situation and  refuse to change existing behaviour may find themselves having indulged in a monumental act of irrationality  themselves; if science and technology fail to provide  an eleventh hour escape route .

And my point ?.

How do we avert  the danger?

The voices of reason and warning need to be focused and raised ever louder by individuals before the environmental  reaction is  an uncontrolled and unmitigable reality.

This is not a simple problem of global warming which confuses the central issues , but of lifestyle change to avert the over consumption of raw materials and protect  environmental quality.

Our environment ceases to be stable as an Eco system when we exceed 350 parts of carbon per million.

The last reliable figures suggest we have reached 390 parts per million. www.350.org

We are unstable and self destructing on this account alone.

Returning From A Summer of Change

After a summer of touring and lecturing on matters of Sustainability it’s time to catch up with developments.

‘The Economy’ in Britain has perfected a condition of morbid hesitation . No clear direction of recovery exists on the High Street and no air of confidence abounds.

Historically periods of indecision provide economic and political vacuum, which in turn create opportunities for the engaged and creative.

Avoiding the obvious  analysis of the ‘Coalition  Government’ as it prepares to ignore all Keynesian perspectives that would encourage nurturing a recession hit economy, we stand at the dawn of greater uncertainty than most commentators can recall.

Taking the route that  uncertainty becomes the very moment to seize the opportunity for addressing   issues of sustainable change , it is sad to witness the opposing argument that protests we should not take risks now but rather pursue the same discredited policies that brought the world to the current crisis.

Change might be threatening , but we cannot hope to progress to more sustainable circumstances without understanding the reasons for  change and to comprehend that the old world is gone for ever.

We exist in a global economy dominated by stronger nations competing for the same resources  and with more ability to purchase and strategically secure those vital materials.

Whilst we spent two decades boasting the prowess of our ability as a service economy  the financial sector in the City of London carried the day, we moved away from our traditional skill base as manufacturers. It is inconceivable to contemplate a return to the dark satanic mills style  of industrialisation , but we need to find away of making goods that add value beyond revolving  paper money in ever-increasing complex casino exercises. Derivatives and reinsurance that few understand and Governments can’t regulate do not have the substance to secure economic stability.

We need to reorganise as the world’s fourth largest economy and rediscover making goods. Remanufacturing of sustainable products should be a central element in this new economy. James Hurley ,my colleague at MascoWalcot speaks of  ReVictorianisation on the basis that we gained pre-eminence as an economic force by designing and building for the  needs  of the world and should do so again.

To find this challenge too daunting or regard such ideas as preposterously unrealistic is tantamount to conceding defeat and inevitable decline to third world status.

Surely it is a vanity to find any problem too difficult to pursue when the majority of the world’s population have to confront the same issues , without our material and educational advantages.

We need to vigorously encourage and invest in  sustainable industries , which must be linked to the promotion of our universities and further research. Our schools and higher education institutions need to generate and train a generation of skilled workers who can deliver these new manufacturing techniques  and products.

Any policy will flounder if the skills are deficient , this is a great opportunity to retrain a generation to fulfill the new employment that will follow.

Change itself will be the subject of several blogs to follow, but I take this occasion to suggest that , had the Georgians decreed and been able to enforce a moratorium of activity upon the Victorians we would not  have enjoyed the considerable benefits of the twentieth century.

Without preparedness to change  in a radical manner now we are in danger of dictating  a conditionality that will not enable our ability to survive the twenty-first century.

Moving forward in uncertain times

Uncertainty can have the negative effect of inhibiting ambition and induce a reluctance to make forward plans.

Conversely all periods of uncertainty provide opportunities for the courageous to stand up and make themselves heard.

It is a very soft and rather indulgent option to ‘blame’ or make excuses when our economy and more importantly our globe needs  purposeful and considered responses to situations now beyond critical. Let it be clear that the time when we could talk about preventative action has now  long past . The fulcrum point over which we have staggered in the last few years means all action from here on is at best a mitigation or damage limitation exercise. 

This cannot be cause for resignation. The human spirit exalts in surviving  and overcoming otherwise indomitable odds. It would be vanity for the pampered and materially advantaged West to surrender itself to despondency. The third world and developing nations have to confront the same resource and global climate problems with far less financial and technological opportunity. The choice from our privileged position is to understand and address the  issues that challenge our planet with creative determination to improve and move forward.

George Monbiot  *   recent  discourse refusing to be fatalistic and despondent or to consider a Luddite perspective is a call to arms that should be embraced. We can change , we must change but with enthusiasm and creativity. Improving and modifying with radical and novel means ,but never with dispair  or preparedness not to succeed to.  Our planet has changed but we are resourceful , mean embittered reaction will defeat only  the gloom mongers and reinforce their own impoverished sense  self-worth.

Moving forward having addressed the negative aspect .

The new Walcot  Yard sustainability Project represents a positive and constructive response to our economic and political imperatives.

Under the guidance of  James Hurley, Kevin Harris and Nash Partnership with our digital Mapping colleagues Geofutures we are building a resource of expertise and thinking that will change the way we plan , design and manage our built environment. Edward Nash has developed ideas of  ‘natural’ sustainable economy that respond to real needs on a local basis which can be replicated nationally. James Hurley is drawing together the very best of commercial practice  and creative European thinking in all matters of material recovery. Expect to hear lots about local remanufacturing from James.

For my part I am  continuing to advocate end of life cycle deconstruction and the use of high quality durable materials so that the buildings of the twenty-first century become the exalted artifacts of the twenty-second century in the way we venerate Victorian and Georgian buildings . Those of my generation need to address their responsibility for the dreadful buildings and architecture of the 1960′s and late twentieth century that  failed before the millenium.

The penance for the generation that enabled and allowed such appalling  design and profligate wastefulness must be rededication to getting it right going forward from here.

Watch the Walcot Project for our forthcoming Manifesto to build our better world.

*     George Monbiot an introduction to his thinking  http://tinyurl.com/ycq22on

Twenty First Century Design: MASCo WALCOT

 

 

 

 

 A warm welcome for MASCo in Bath

Progress gathers pace as the new MASCo Walcot project rises from the former architectural business started thirty years ago by Rick and Jane Knapp. The generosity of spirit  and welcome conveyed by the local people, Walcot Street Traders and civic leaders has been quite overwhelming.

When the work is complete and the display areas and offices properly on stream we can begin to roll out the full extent of our proposals.

Changing the face of architecture, design and material resourcing

Before long we hope MASCo Walcot in Bath will come to represent the very best in Sustainable Architectural Design and Planning Consultancy, all fronted by the new architectural antiques and traditional building materials showrooms at 108 Walcot Street.

The project will bring together in Bath, for the first time, multi disciplinary skills to change the face of architecture, design and material resourcing.

Dynamic Conservation of Bath’s heritage

The very lifeblood of the City of Bath as a World Heritage site must be rooted in conservation and preservation, as a dynamic and progressive movement that enables the Georgian architecture and Roman origins to be maintained as a living environment for the people of Bath in the 21st century.

The essential need is to establish a way to preserve everything that is worthy and be sustainable at a time of global environmental change.

The development of thinking and policies that will enable this magnificent city to prosper within the context of the national framework presents challenges that cannot be ignored.

Integrating sustainability  

We do not exist in a vacuum. However, we have a unique opportunity to address design and planning for the 21st century with new approaches of integrated systems that recognise the need to act and behave sustainably.

Preserving and reusing traditional building elements and materials, diverting them from landfill and finding alternative uses, is the ‘front of house ‘ mission’ for MASCo Walcot together with plans for a comprehensive conservation and sustainable design community to create ‘thinking’ to change our world

Never the ‘Right Time’ …Changing the World

Inflating expectation in a world that overstates most ideas has a horrible tendency to rebound on the proposer.

Contrastingly, we have reached a ‘tipping point’ in the debate on environmental sustainability that means we need to be radical.

It may be that it is too late to avert much of the consequence of neglect and indifference. Perhaps we should be reconciled to mitigation as the most that can be achieved. 

Announcing the MASCo Walcot PLAN

Human resolve and the probability that we can apply technology and science to avert the predicted problems of environment and resource efficiency is always a possibility.

We are going to look very foolish if as yet undiscovered solutions, delivered by research, fail to materialise.

In the meantime to give credence to a personal belief that analysis and negativity are valueless without commitment  to changing  and struggling  against problems that confront society,  MASCo Walcot have a Plan and the resolve to do our part to address the challenge.

Our Grand Experiment gathers momentum

The acquisition of the Walcot Street Yard in Bath enables  a ‘Grand Experiment’.

The Architectural Salvage yard at 108 Walcot  Street will continue to function as a resource for architectural features and period and traditional materials.

Together with conservation skills to support the City of Bath’s status as a World Heritage Site we intend to make the yard a centre of excellence for Architecture, Design and Sustainability .

A Sustainable Plan – but yet to be revealed

The Plan includes a scheme which will change the way Sustainability effects all aspects of our built environment.

It is too soon to expand on the detail of our scheme, there is much to do and lots of work ahead before our exciting proposals can be revealed in-depth. It is never the “right time” to over-hype an intention, but we  believe the need exists to engender both urgency and optimism for change through action.

It is our intention to extend the institution of Walcot created by Rick and Jane Knapp to become a pivotal element in all things of environmental excellence to bring about the change that will alter the way we regard integrated environmental thinking.

Watch this space.

Three new appointments next week…names to be announced !