The awards have been held annually since 2003, having been set up to 'celebrate exemplary conservation and restoration projects in the UK'.
This year there was what John called a 'remarkably strong field', and the awards on Tuesday 5 October were an opportunity to applaud the extraordinary vision and commitment to restoring some of the most striking Georgian buildings and landscapes in the country.
That commitment is all the more remarkable considering the effects of the pandemic, as John mentioned:
'After all the difficulties of the last 18 months these awards are particularly inspiring. They are also testimony to the perennial importance, interest and quality of our Georgian heritage.'
Here are the winners, with a few comments from the judges; you can see the entire list, including the commended entries, at georgiangroup.org.uk.
Best restoration of a Georgian Country House
Radbourne Hall, Derbyshire
This 1739 building took three years to restore, part of which related to works done — for better and worse — in the 1950s. Damage done by a 1950s structural steel has been remedied, while a John Fowler decorative scheme of the same era has been retained and conserved.
Best new Building in a Georgian Context
Wolverton Hall Folly, Worcestershire (Read our article here).
'The result is a building that can express in classical terms the different moods of time and place with an underlying seriousness and humour,' said the judges of this project.
Best restoration of a church or chapel
All Saints Church, Newcastle
Although one of the finest buildings in the city, it had long been on the Georgian Group's casework radar and on Historic England’s Heritage-at-Risk register — now, thanks to this wonderful project, it is now removed from both.
Best restoration of a Georgian Building in an Urban Setting
Buxton Crescent Hotel and Spa, Derbyshire
'This heroic and transformative project has taken more than two decades to come to realisation and combines conservation and new work,' said the panel.
Best re-use of a Georgian Building
Cobham Dairy, Kent
Abandoned for over a century, now restored as a self-catering cottage — a new role which should secure a long future.
Best restoration of a Georgian structure or interior
The Bath Stone Bridge, Halswell Park, Somerset
Some of the stonework was still in place; some was successfully fished out of the murky depths; but much had to be cut afresh.
Giles Worsley Award for New Work in the Georgian spirit
Nithurst Farm, West Sussex (Read our article on Nithurst here)
Best restoration of a Georgian Garden or Landscape
Gunton Park, Norfolk
Diaphoros Prize
The Con Club, Framlingham, Suffolk
The Con Club, Framlingham, Suffolk, is an on-going private initiative to revitalise a Regency building and several ancillary buildings, with artists’s studios, a cafe, public rooms, an exhibition space, youth club and the town-council office.
Nithurst Farm: A house created by an architect for himself and his family which projects ideas, dreams and an unmistakable sense of theatre
Nithurst Farm in West Sussex is a striking new house designed by architect Adam Richards for himself and his family
The rather wise folly at Wolverton Hall: 'There isn’t a detail that I don’t think is extraordinarily deft and beautiful'
The new garden folly at Wolverton Hall in Worcestershire — owned by Nicholas and Georgia Coleridge — is inspired by
The Summer House at Warnford Park: Inside the walls of 'One of England’s most romantic follies'
The Summer House at Warnford Park is an 18th-century bath house in a quiet corner of Hampshire that has found
