Sir Bernard's contribution to the conservation and redevelopment of Chesterfield town centre

...There was some debate about whether to include a fourth name and if so which. Eventually the committee agreed to add Feilden and Mawson, a Norwich-based practice with excellent conservation credentials but little experience of designing shopping centres...Dr Bernard Feilden, then senior partner of the Feilden and Mawson practice, by all accounts took the (selection) meeting by storm. He appealed particularly to elected members by his enthusiasm for Chesterfield and its conservation potential, as well as by a robust and well-argued case for retaining more than just the facades of the market place buildings. A vote produced a decisive majority for his firm…Feilden, with 25 years’ experience of working in the Civic Amenity Movement, which included the Civic Trust Norwich Magdalen Street scheme (1957) and research for Sir Colin Buchanan’s Traffic in Towns (1962), realised that Chesterfield Town Council would most readily appreciate the economic arguments for conservation. He therefore began a systematic survey of all the properties on Low Pavement. By doing so he also hoped to integrate a full understanding of their historic values and historic value into the project design. On completing the survey he advised the Town Council that the properties…could be rehabilitated for two-thirds of the cost of new buildings…

Extract from New Shopping in Historic Towns: The Chesterfield Story by Tony Aldous

Image kindly provided by John Critchley

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