Conserving Urban Landscape Heritage: a Geographical Approach

The conservation of cultural heritage in urban physical form has until very recently been almost entirely concerned with individual structures, often notable buildings and monuments, and special areas. Policy-and practice-orientated bodies tend to treat historic features in geographical isolation from the wider landscapes of which they are an integral part. Yet realizing the full potential of the landscape as a cultural, educational, intellectual and economic resource requires appreciation of how individual features are connected historically and geographically: how they fit into the wider historical landscape. Greater recognition of this is belatedly, and sporadically, beginning to become evident. For example, in its World Heritage Cities Programme, UNESCO is broadening its perspective explicitly to consider historic urban landscapes as ensembles, having for long been concerned essentially with individual sites and monuments. And at a national level, English Heritage is undertaking rapid, ‘broad-brush’ characterizations of extensive areas of urban landscape, including those that came into existence as recently as the twentieth century. 1 In welcoming this nascent broadening of perspective into a more integrated approach by policy makers and practitioners, it is important to underline the need for attention to be given to the substantial body of fundamental research that has accumulated over many years on historical urban landscapes. Of especial relevance is research within the field of urban morphology. This is germane not only to understanding the heritage embodied in urban landscapes but also to incorporating this knowledge in future landscape planning and management. An important contribution can be made to the conservation and management of historical urban landscapes by employing the approach to urban morphology that became known in the later twentieth century as ‘Conzenian’, after its principal originator and proponent, the geographer M. R. G. Conzen. This paper illustrates that contribution. After referring to concepts that are central to the approach, a method of historic-geographical mapping of urban landscapes as a basis for conservation planning is discussed.