The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (sometimes known as Anti-Scrape) was founded by William Morris, Philip Webb and others, in 1877, to oppose what they saw as destructive 'Restoration' of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian England.
Morris was particularly concerned about the practice, which he described as "forgery", of attempting to return buildings to an idealised state from the distant past, which often involved the removal of elements added in their later development and which Morris saw as contributing to their interest as documents of the past. Instead, he proposed that ancient buildings should be repaired, not restored, so that their entire history would be protected as cultural heritage.
Today, the SPAB still operates according to Morris's original manifesto. It campaigns, advises, runs training programmes and courses, conducts research and publishes information. The Society must be notified of all applications in England and Wales to demolish in whole or part any listed building. It currently has c.8,500 members (2012).
The Society also has a branch in Scotland, and the Mills Section, which is the only British national body concerned with the protection, repair and continued use of traditional windmills and watermills.
The society, which is a registered charity, is based at 37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY, England.
Famous quotes containing the words society for the, society, protection, ancient and/or buildings:
“The shy man does have some slight revenge upon society for the torture it inflicts upon him. He is able, to a certain extent, to communicate his misery. He frightens other people as much as they frighten him. He acts like a damper upon the whole room, and the most jovial spirits become, in his presence, depressed and nervous.”
—Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)
“The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Take away from the courts, if it could be taken away, the power to issue injunctions in labor disputes, and it would create a privileged class among the laborers and save the lawless among their number from a most needful remedy available to all men for the protection of their business interests against unlawful invasion.... The secondary boycott is an instrument of tyranny, and ought not to be made legitimate.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“An ancient prophecy ... pronounced, That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it!”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)