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the times - 1998

Fight to preserve residence is lost

GOVERNMENT House in the British Virgin Islands is to be demolished next month, despite a vigorous local campaign to save it. It will be replaced by a new building that has been dubbed a monstrosity.
The official residence of Her Majesty’s Governor stands in one of the most beautiful   of all the lush Government House gardens in the Caribbean. It looks over the harbour of Road Town in the island of Tortola.
Picture
Half the £650,000 ($1,119,000) cost of rebuilding will be paid by the Foreign Office, as well as all the consultants’ fees which run to an additional 30 per cent.

A vigorous campaign to save the building was launched by Dr. Jill MacKilligan, the wife of the last Governor, who initiated the Friends of Government  House and made a video of the house and gardens to rally support.

Government House was built about 100 years ago and has the attractive two-storey arcades of contemporary buildings in Gibraltar and other British dependencies. The wooden upper storey was rebuilt in 1920 after a hurricane, but the core of building is now thought to contain the walls of an old fort from the early 1700s.

A local resident, Mrs. Leila Tidswell, said: “It’s the only really lovely old building on the island.” Another resident, Mrs Marcia Brocklebank, added: “This is one of the most historic public buildings in the Virgin Islands. Unlike Barbados and the Bahamas, there is no law to protect historic buildings.”

Colin Amery, UK director of the World Monuments Fund, comments: “No significant public building such as this should be demolished without a proper historical and archaeological appraisal first being carried out. The Foreign Office has failed to do this.”

In 1996 when the Foreign Office was considering options for the building, it was told by its local professional advisers that “the existing property provides all the desirable conveniences: central location, generous parking, room for entertainment, staff accommodation, tennis court, swimming pool etc.”

However, laboratory tests carried out for the Foreign Office showed that the concrete was not up to modern specifications. A letter sent in May by the Foreign Office’s West Indian and Atlantic department to the International Conference of National Trusts lists every pestilence and failing known to old buildings, including “carbonation and chloride attack, reinforcement corrosion, and termite attack”.

The building is unsafe, says Foreign Office, the existing design is unsatisfactory and difficult to modernise, the main entertainment area is squeezed uncomfortably against the hillside at the back, while the house cannot be made insect proof. The new Governor, Frank Savage, is living in rented accommodation.

The Queen stayed in the house in 1966 and improvements were made before her visit. Shortly before Princess Margaret visited in 1972, a covered patio was added and the bedrooms were improved.

The dining room is painted with a handsome set of murals commissioned by the wife of a Governor, Margaret Barwick, in the early 1980s from local artists. These depict scenes around Government House in the last century with large sailing ships anchored in the bay.

Mrs. Barwick, who helped to develop the botanic garden in Road Town, also planted the attractive and colourful grounds of the house. 

The Foreign Office says there has been public consultation in the islands to explain why total reconstruction is the preferred option, which it claims has won widespread local support. One local resident who attended the meeting said: “ We were told questions relating to preserving the old building would not be considered.”

While few of the government houses in former British colonies around the world can be considered architectural masterpieces, many are attractive buildings with a great deal of history attached to them, standing in beautiful grounds and the source of much local affection and pride. A proposal to demolish Government House in most former British dependencies would be met with incredulity.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, the Foreign Office Minister responsible for the Caribbean, is due to visit the British Virgin Islands on September 8, just as the bulldozers are due to move in.