Many historic buildings are being destroyed or replaced What are the reasons for this What should be done to preserve these buildings

We live in an age of progress and one result of that is that the urban landscape of many cities is changing. An unfortunate consequence of this is that some historic buildings are being lost for future generations. Something needs to be done to preserve these buildings and, to ensure that, we first need to understand why they are being destroyed.

There are a variety of reasons why these buildings are being replaced and this mainly depends on their original purpose. Many of these historic buildings were residential and typically the problem is that they no longer have the appropriate facilities for modern-day living. For example, they might have been built in an era when central heating was not a priority, or even when bathrooms and toilets were outside. Unfortunately, it is often cheaper to pull these buildings down rather than renovate them.

Other historic buildings that are now under threat originally had a civic function and were built in city centres. Examples of these buildings are theatres and cinemas. As often as not, these buildings are being replaced through economic necessity as they are no longer financially viable. They are being replaced by supermarkets or modern cinema complexes that cater for the demands of the twenty-first century.

There is probably no one solution to ensure that these buildings are preserved. One possible step though would be for the civic planning authorities to list certain builidngs that they consider historic and prevent any alterations being made to them. Another possibility would be to ensure that at least the facades of these buildings were preserved for posterity.

Clearly, this is a complex problem and we have seen that there are a number of social and financial factors that have led to the destruction of historic buildings. If we are to preserve them, we will need legislation to prevent or limit the activities of developers.