The SPAB Manifesto

Ralph Hodgson
THE MANIFESTO
of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The SPAB still works in accordance to its Manifesto written by William Morris in 1877. SPAB members are
expected to support and follow the Societys principles of conservation and repair.
society coming before the

public with such a name as
that above written must
explain how, and why, it proposes to
protect those ancient buildings which,
to most people doubtless, seem to
have so many and such excellent protectors. This, then, is the explanation
we offer.
chilling to enthusiasm. We think that

those last fifty years of knowledge and
attention have done more for their destruction than all the foregoing centuries
of revolution, violence and contempt.
leave it still historical, living, and even as

it once was.
Ralph Hodgson
In early times this kind of forgery was

impossible, because knowledge failed
the builders, or perhaps because instinct
held them back. If repairs were needed,
For Architecture, long decaying, died
out, as a popular art at least, just as the if ambition or piety pricked on to
change, that change was of necessity
knowledge of mediaeval art was born.
wrought in the unmistakable fashion of
So that the civilised world of the ninethe time; a church of the eleventh century
teenth century has no style of its own
No doubt within the last fifty years a
new interest, almost like another sense, amidst its wide knowledge of the styles might be added to or altered in the
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth,
has arisen in these ancient monuments of other centuries. From this lack and
sixteenth, or even the seventeenth or
of art; and they have become the subject this gain arose in mens minds the
of one of the most interesting of stud- strange idea of the Restoration of ancient eighteenth centuries; but every change,
buildings; and a strange and most fatal
whatever history it destroyed, left history
ies, and of an enthusiasm, religious,
in the gap, and was alive with the spirit
idea, which by its very name implies
historical, artistic, which is one of the
that it is possible to strip from a building of the deeds done midst its fashioning.
undoubted gains of our time; yet we
The result of all this was often a buildthis, that, and the other part of its histhink that if the present treatment of
tory - of its life that is - and then to stay ing in which the many changes, though
them be continued, our descendants
harsh and visible enough, were, by their
the hand at some arbitrary point, and
will find them useless for study and
very contrast, interesting and instructive

and could by no possibility mislead. But
those who make the changes wrought
in our day under the name of Restoration, while professing to bring back a
building to the best time of its history,
have no guide but each his own individual whim to point out to them what
is admirable and what contemptible;
while the very nature of their task
compels them to destroy something
and to supply the gap by imagining what
the earlier builders should or might
have done. Moreover, in the course of
this double process of destruction and
addition, the whole surface of the
building is necessarily tampered with; so
that the appearance of antiquity is taken
away from such old parts of the fabric as
are left, and there is no laying to rest
in the spectator the suspicion of what
may have been lost; and in short, a
feeble and lifeless forgery is the final
result of all the wasted
labour.
It is sad to say, that in this manner
most of the bigger Minsters, and a vast
number of more humble buildings,
both in England and on the Continent,
have been dealt with by men of talent
often, and worthy of better employment, but deaf to the claims of poetry
and history in the highest sense of the
words.
For what is left we plead before our
architects themselves, before the official
guardians of buildings, and before the
public generally, and we pray them to
remember how much is gone of the
religion, thought and manners of time
past, never by almost universal consent,
to be Restored; and to consider
whether it be possible to Restore
those buildings, the living spirit of
which, it cannot be too often repeated,
was an inseparable part of that religion
and thought, and those past manners.
For our part we assure them fearlessly,
that of all the Restorations yet undertaken, the worst have meant the
reckless stripping a building of some of
its most interesting material features;
whilst the best have their exact analogy
in the Restoration of an old picture,

where the partly-perished work of
the ancient craftsmaster has been
made neat and smooth by the tricky
hand of some unoriginal and
thoughtless hack of today. If, for the
rest, it be asked us to specify what
kind of amount of art, style, or other
interest in a
building makes it
stave off
worth protectdecay by
ing, we answer,
daily care anything which
can be looked
on as artistic, picturesque, historical,
antique, or substantial: any work, in
short, over which educated, artistic
people would think it worthwhile to
argue at all.
It is for all these buildings, therefore,
of all times and styles, that we plead,
and call upon those who have to
deal with them, to put Protection in
the place of Restoration, to stave off
decay by daily care, to prop a perilous
wall or mend a leaky roof by such
means as are obviously meant for
support or covering, and show no
pretence of other art, and otherwise
to resist all tampering with either the
fabric or ornament of the building as
it stands; if it has become inconvenient
for its present use, to raise another
building rather than alter or enlarge
the old
one; in
to put
fine to
Protection
treat our
ancient
in the place
of Restoration buildings
as monuments of a
bygone art, created by bygone manners, that modern art cannot meddle
with without destroying.
Thus, and thus only, shall we escape
the reproach of our learning being
turned into a snare to us; thus, and
thus only can we protect our ancient
buildings, and hand them down instructive and venerable to those that
come after us.
THE MANIFESTO
Although the Manifesto was produced in
response to the conservation problems of
the nineteenth century, it extends protection
to buildings of all times and styles. At its
heart are enduring concepts of repair, care
and sustainability. The Manifesto guides the
SPAB's work to this day, and that of many
thousands of members and supporters.
SPAB Founder William Morris
The SPAB office in Spitalfields

The Society for the Protection
of Ancient Buildings
37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY
020 7377 1644
[email protected]
www.spab.org.uk
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings is a registered charity with Charity No. 1113753 and Scottish Charity No. SC039244. The SPAB is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales.

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Ralph Hodgson

society coming before the

chilling to enthusiasm. We think that

leave it still historical, living, and even as

In early times this kind of forgery was

very contrast, interesting and instructive

in the Restoration of an old picture,

SPAB Founder William Morris

The SPAB office in Spitalfields

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