CARROT AND STICK
APPROACH FOR THE
BUILT HERITAGE
PHIL EBBRELL
CONSERVATION ARCHITECT
THE STICK
FORMER NORTH WALES HOSPITAL
DENBIGH
BRIEF HISTORY
Phase 1, 1848
•Architects, Fulljames and Waller
Jacobethan.
•Land owned by the Ablett family
•A lunatic asylum for mentally ill or mentally
disabled in North Wales
•Individual cells
Phase 2, 1860s
Phase 3, 1880s
• Wards that could take 60 patients
Phase 4, 1900 -10
• A major expansion
Phase 5, 1930s
Additional Ward and Nurses Home
Phase 6, 1960s
Canteen Block
• Social history
• Major Social Reform by the Victorians
which included the penal system.
• Care and treatment for people previously
treated as entertainment.
• Became a prison for moral miscreants such
as giving birth out of wedlock.
• At its peak 1500 patients and 700
employees.
• Close working relationships with the town
of Denbigh.
• Closure announced in 1987
• Finally closed in 1995
• Care in the community
• Sold for £130k in 1997/8 to Gerald
Hitman, a developer
• Main building listed grade 2*
• Erddig Ward, grade 2
• Nurses Homes, grade 2
• Chapel, grade 2
• Isolation Ward, grade 2
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Gerald Hitman
Failed to work with the Planning Authority.
Had no interest in the listed buildings
Tried to get planning permission for
executive housing.
• Asset stripped the site.
• Facilitated theft from the building including
lead from the roof.
• Building began to deteriorate.
• DCC threatened enforcement action
• Sold to Acebench Investments Ltd for
£360k at auction 2001/2.
• DCC developed a relationship with the
Phoenix trust (set up by Prince Charles
because of Denbigh Hospital)
• Acebench Investment Ltd
• Represented by an agent (a solicitor) from
Preston.
• DCC worked with the agent over many years to
facilitate a financially viable project.
• Commissioned a feasibility study by King Sturge.
• Enabling development was seen as the only way
to release capital to repair the listed buildings.
• Planning permission granted in 2006 for 17 acres
of new build housing subject to a S106
agreement.
• During the planning process the ownership was
transferred to Fremont (Denbigh) Ltd a company
registered in the British Virgin Islands.
• S106 required the owner (amongst other things)
to pay £4.8m into a restoration fund controlled by
DCC at the latest by September 2009.
• We needed a bond with a British bank because
the owner is an off shore company.
• Failure to comply meant the PP lapsed.
• In 2009 the owner had failed to provide full
information on reserved matters and planning
conditions and also failed to pay the balance of the
£4.8m.
• PP Lapsed.
• Building continuing to deteriorate.
• Arson destroyed the main hall.
• Daily trespass.
• DCC had to act.
• DCC commissioned the Prince’s Regeneration
Trust to provide a Route Map.
PRESENT POSITION
• Urgent Works Notice / Bats/ LBC /
Asbetos / Internal Regs.
• Repairs Notice / CPO / SPV.
• Dangerous Structures Notice / Land
Charge.
• Enforced Sale.
THE CARROT
DENBIGH TOWNSCAPE
HERITAGE INITIATIVE (THI)
Carrot or Stick?
You decide