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Design watchdog hits out at plans for £20m visitor centre at megalithic jewel in England's cultural crown

Its footpaths are "tortuous", the roof likely to "channel wind and rain" and its myriad columns – meant to evoke a forest – are incongruous with the vast landscape surrounding it.

So says the government's design ­watchdog over plans for a controversial £20m visitor centre at Stonehenge, the megalithic jewel in England's cultural crown. CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, has criticised the design of the proposed centre, claiming the futuristic building by Denton Corker Marshall does little to enhance the 5,000-year-old standing stones which attract more than 800,000 visitors each year.

Its concerns are the latest chapter in the long saga surrounding the English Heritage-backed project, and follow a ­government decision two years ago to scrap on cost grounds a highly ambitious £65m scheme to build a tunnel to reroute traffic to protect the World Heritage site.

The centre, which has been approved by Wiltshire county council planners, has divided opinion.

"We question whether, in this landscape of scale and huge horizons and with a very robust end point that has stood for centuries and centuries, this is the right design approach?" said Diane Haigh, CABE's director of design review.

"You need to feel you are approaching Stonehenge. You want the sense you are walking over Salisbury Plain towards the stones."

But the "twee little winding paths" were "more appropriate for an urban ­garden" than the "big scale open air ­setting the stones have", she added.

The many columns were meant to be "lots of trunks" holding up a "very delicate roof", she said. "Is this the best approach on what is actually a very exposed site. In particular, if it's a windy, rainy day, as it is quite often out there, it's not going to give you shelter. We are concerned it's very stylish nature will make it feel a bit dated in time, unlike the stones which have stood the test of time".

CABE believed the location of the ­centre, at Airman's Corner, is good, and were pleased "something was happening at last", but questioned the "architectural approach". The centre has the full support of local architects on the Wiltshire Design Forum, and has been passed by the local planning committee. Nevertheless English Heritage recognised it was an emotional and divisive subject.

"Innovative architectural designs will always polarise opinion, and often nowhere more so that within the architectural world itself," it said in a statement.

"The Stonehenge project has to overcome a unique set of challenges," it said. "This has required a pragmatic approach and, following widespread consultation, we maintain the current plans offer the best solution".

Stephen Quinlan, partner at Denton Corker Marshall, defended the design. The roof was meant to be a "sun canopy" and not offer weather protection in what was, principally "an outdoor experience".

"It's not an iconic masterpiece. It's a facility to help you appreciate the Stonehenge landscape. It's intellectually ­deferential in a big, big way to Stonehenge as a monument.

"I wouldn't even mind if you couldn't remember what the building looked like when you left. The visitor centre is not the destination," Quinlan said.

However, he added: "We don't take criticism from CABE lightly. And we are ­crawling through their comments to see if there are any improvements we can make."

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Culture, Design, Heritage, News, Stonehenge, England, The Guardian, Travel, UK news

Government joins with English Heritage to put nuclear bunkers at RAF Upper Heyford on list of protected national monuments

Some of the most sinister historic monuments in Britain, a set of hardened concrete bunkers built to shelter American nuclear bombers, are to be protected and preserved, it has been announced.

A planning inquiry into the future development of Upper Heyford, near Bicester, has accepted the English Heritage argument that the site is one of the best preserved Cold War landscapes in Britain. The government has now agreed that the heart of the complex, which is on the Schedule of Monuments with sites such as Stonehenge, should be protected from development.

Andy Brown, regional director of English Heritage, who gave evidence at the enquiry, said: "The decision to safeguard these structures brings England's cold war heritage into the mainstream, alongside the Georgian and Victorian buildings that people more often think of as our architectural heritage.

"I hope this is a conservation milestone, which will mark the cold war being embraced as a legitimate part of our heritage."

Simon Thurley, the chief executive, agreed: "To anyone over 50, the cold war is too recent to feel like history, but to 17-year-olds it is just as historic as Napoleon," he said. "Within one minute [of the alert] planes could have been fired up; in six minutes they could be bombing Moscow."

In the late 1950s and 1960s, at the height of the cold war, the old first world war airstrip at Upper Heyford was expanded. The runway was first strengthened, then extended to 2.5 miles to take B52 Bombers. The hardened aircraft shelters, were added in 1967, after the Six Day War, when Israel destroyed much of the Egyptian airforce on the ground. The hangars were protected by motorised 85-tonne doors, and were designed so that at least one nuclear bomber could be kept running inside, night and day. One technician who forgot to wear his ear protectors as an F111 ignited its engines lost his hearing permanently.

A small American town grew up around the base, marked out by US-style hydrants on every street corner, complete with a supermarket – almost unheard-of in Britain at the time – selling delicacies such as Hersey bars and Oreo biscuits.

Most of the equipment and fittings, and anything regarded as sensitive, was stripped out when the Americans finally handed the base back to the British in 1994. But the command rooms survive, protected by six inch thick steel doors, with the names of the last crews written up in chinagraph pencil, and an American style burger bar complete with the last menu specials. A more grim sight also remains: the outdoor showers designed to wash off nuclear fallout.

Some of the buildings will continue in light industrial use; others will be preserved as a museum; and there will be some housing development away from the most sensitive part of the site. Schoolgroups are already frequent visitors, eager to examine the structures that could have ended the world in a matter of minutes.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Culture, guardian.co.uk, Heritage, News, UK news

An engineering firm reckons that rebuilding the palace could make Her Majesty much greener. But why stop there?

A nefarious plot to destroy Buckingham Palace has been exposed, but it's not the work of terrorists, anarchists or extremist property developers. No, this one comes from an engineering consultancy. Before the capital goes on high alert, Atkins, a design and engineering group, weren't actually intending to carry out this plan. In a none-too-serious assessment of the building's green credentials, rather, they dropped the hint – or was it a gauntlet? – that the Queen might be better off with a new London eco-crib.

Atkins's proposal was part of a fanciful survey by Construction Manager magazine into how much it might cost to rebuild British landmarks. It concluded that you could build a new energy-efficient replica of the palace for a knock-down £320m (Stonehenge would be £815m, but it's hard to see how you could make a collection of stones any greener). Among other improvements, the report suggested replacing the palace's 760 sash windows with double-glazed replicas, and installing photovoltaic panels, ground-source heat pumps and masses of insulation. With such changes, the royal carbon footprint would be 400 tonnes of CO² lighter every year, it estimates, and the palace's £2.2m utilities bill would be slashed by 90%.

According to a bemused Palace spokesperson, there are currently no plans to raze the Queen's London home –it is a Grade I listed building (is the Queen allowed to destroy those?). The spokesperson also pointed out that the Royal family's green credentials were actually pretty decent already, thank you. In a recent (proper) energy audit, Buckingham Palace was rated a "C" (A being the highest and G the lowest) – very good for a hulking 18th-century pile. It's had a CHP (combined heat and power) unit since 1995, it uses water from a bore hole in the garden to cool the wine cellars and for some of the air conditioning, and some of the skylights are actually double-glazed. Although, that's nothing compared to Balmoral, which is powered by its own hydroelectric plant.

But more interesting than assessing the greenness of the Queen is the prospect of a new Buckingham Palace. A replica would be 10 times more expensive than the original, says Atkins, since the craftsmen and artisans required for the job are now highly-paid specialists, rather than jobbing joiners and plasterers. And that's using a concrete and steel frame and off-the-shelf materials, rather than proper stone. But why build a replica? Despite the palace's history, it's not really much of a building, architecturally, is it? Originally the home of the Duke of Buckingham, it was bought by George III in 1761. Since then, a number of architects have tried to improve it, including John Nash, Edward Blore and finally, Aston Webb, who gave it the neoclassical makeover we all know. Nikolaus Pevsner accurately described it as "a large and rather stiff country house" – surely not the right image for a forward-looking monarchy. Why not do something a bit more urban and up-to-date instead?

The obvious problem with building any state-of-the-art eco-palace, though, is the heir apparent. Given Prince Charles's views on architecture, he probably would rather build an exact replica than anything else. On the other hand, we could give it to Richard Rogers as payback for the Chelsea Barracks scheme, which was so roundly scuppered by the Prince's intervention last year. Or put it out to competition. Just think what a decent architect could do with £320m and a prime 40-acre site. But who could or should design such a residence? To the wrecking ball, citizens!

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Comment, Culture, Design, Environment, Green building, guardian.co.uk, Heritage, The Queen

Conservation watchdog says more historic schools should be refurbished, not demolished

Britain's unprecedented rush to build schools is condemned today as a threat to hundreds of sound and thoughtfully designed buildings from an era when materials were high-quality but cheap.

MPs intend to grill the government's Partnership for Schools team about the ratio of rebuilding in the £20bn programme, which is supposed to see half the money go on restoring historic and often locally popular schools.

Instead, a survey by Building Design magazine has found that 70% of completed projects have been new-build, with timescales under the private finance initiative and similar schemes pushing local councils that way. The government's conservation watchdog English Heritage is up in arms and the culture department is expected to list more schools to shore up their protection.

The alarm is based on "quick-fix" bids from town halls to get public money, which overlook the value of pioneering work by councillors' predecessors.

Two new publications by English Heritage describe the progressive thinking and enlightened architecture which went into school building from the late 19th century onwards. The group has taken the unusual step of backing them with an opinion survey, which finds that 83% of people want old school buildings retained for new use. Almost half - 47% - say that historic schools are more inspiring for pupils and teachers than new ones, and 75% value Victorian and early to mid-20th century examples as local landmarks.

The issue is raising the temperature in local government, with Leeds' ruling coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives defending a ward next month where passions are high over the closure and subsequent neglect of Victorian Royal Park school. Nationally, the Conservatives are suggesting links between the new-build bias and overspending and delays in the Building Schools for the Future programme.

Lady Andrews, chair of English Heritage, called the huge school investment programme "unique in scale and vital" but warned: "Local education authorities need to strike the best balance between replacement and refurbishment.

"The latter is often the more environmentally sensitive and effective solution. It uses the assets of the community, minimise requirements for new materials and cut demolition waste. It also helps to reinforce people's sense of belonging and local identity." Tim Byles, the chief executive of Partnership for Schools, the agency responsible for delivering the huge programme, is to be questioned about the new-build imbalance by the Commons' select committee on children, schools and families. He denied that refurbishment was "the poor relation of new-build. We are passionate about making best use of existing buildings and sustainable refurbishment projects." He recommitted the programme to achieving a 50-50 balance on completion. Elain Harwood, English Heritage's architectural historian, said: "We have some wonderful school buildings in this country, many with beautiful architecture and valuable social history. Demolition should be a last resort, and is a loss for us all."

The guidance document highlights successes in the building programme's minority of restoration schemes, such as High Storrs art-deco secondary school in Sheffield. The city council included the original 1930s buildings in the modernised school which has 21st century IT networks and better accessibility for the disabled.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Culture, Education, Heritage, News, Politics, Schools, The Guardian

Guardian architecture critic Jonathan Glancey discovers three exquisite places of worship sitting in the shadows of the Square Mile's financial giants

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, City breaks, Cultural trips, Culture, Editorial, guardian.co.uk, Heritage, London, United Kingdom

Ouseburn's once derelict factories and warehouses are buzzing again with artists' studios, music venues and cinemas. Stephen Emms guides us around

Ouseburn was, until 10 years ago, a monument to an industrial past, its derelict factories, red-brick warehouses and mills lurking in the shadow of Victorian bridges and viaducts less than a mile from Newcastle city centre. Now, this picturesque valley, either side of the river Ouse (once used to carry coal by boat from Spital Tongues down to waiting barges on the Tyne), is the creative heart of Newcastle.

Following years of post-industrial decline, its regeneration, kick-started by community-driven enterprise rather than corporate business (the Ouseburn Trust in partnership with the local authority), has given the area's unique architecture and riverside setting a new lease of life – in the form of artists' studios, live music venues, an independent cinema and galleries. Here's a quick tour to get you started.

1. Cumberland Arms

Not just the best pub in Ouseburn, but arguably the finest in Newcastle itself. Built in 1836 (owner Jo will show you the hatch where women, refused entrance to the main bar, used to be served), it's boozer heaven: wood-panelled, roaring fire, simple furniture, leaded windows, a smattering of salvaged art, and shelves heaving with paperbacks. Session ale is the "Rapper", named after the Northumberland sword dance, and there are six guests, as well as 12 types of cider. An upstairs room plays host to music, theatre and comedy. Its isolated position overlooking the valley means stunning views not only from its terrace, but also the windows of its four spacious, very comfortable bedrooms.

• James Place St, +44 (0)191 265 6151, thecumberlandarms.co.uk.Doubles from £70 a night including breakfast.

2. Star & Shadow Cinema

A converted former prop department for Tyne Tees Television, this tiny cinema is run by volunteers, from film programming and projecting, to gigs and promotion. Every year there is a charmingly named "Building Festival" where volunteers come and help build, improve and restore. One Sunday a month there is a "Make & Mend" arts, crafts and flea market. Meetings every Monday at 6pm, films every Thursday and Sunday, and gigs, films, club nights and art events programmed on Weds, Fri and Sat.
• Stepney Bank, +44 (0)191 261 0066, starandshadow.org.uk. Open daily.

3. Biscuit Factory

Britain's biggest commercial art gallery is a whopping 35,000 square feet over two floors of exhibition spaces and artists' studios. Paintings, drawings prints, ceramics, and jewellery including artists such as Emma Tooth (whose Concilium Plebis are Caravaggio-style portraits of those dismissed as "chavs and hoodies"), and Maria Rivan's stunning 3D collages. My tip is to refresh yourself at the café, which groans with inviting home-made sandwiches and cakes, while contemplating the industrial views over the Byker Wall (see below), rather than at the blandly-furnished, expensive restaurant.

• Stoddart St, +44 (0)191 261 1103, thebiscuitfactory.com. Open daily

4. The Cluny

A former whisky bottling plant a stottie's throw from Byker Bridge, The Cluny is owned by iconic party boozer the Head Of Steam (worth a visit, opposite Newcastle Central Station). As well as a live venue, which showcases both young Geordie bands and international artists, the simple main bar and lounge (runner-up in the Observer Food Monthly's awards 2006 for best quick eat in north-east) offers local ales and informal yet hearty snacks, such as good quality house salads (£6), home-made burgers (£6) and Sunday roasts (£7).

• 36 Lime Street, +44 (0)191 2304474, theheadofsteam.co.uk.

5. Seven Stories

The first museum in the UK dedicated to the art of British children's books protects the heritage of British classics for families and curious adults alike. Temporary exhibitions at the former flour mill (such as the current retrospective for Tiger Who Came To Tea author Judith Kerr, which runs until May 2010) complement the permanent collection, whose earliest acquisition was Puffin Books editor (and Puffin Club founder) Kaye Webb's archive. Philip Pullman is a great supporter and has given work from the His Dark Materials trilogy and the Sally Lockhart quartet. The huge bookshop is free to enter, as is one of the best cafes in Ouseburn, which offers sleepy views over the Ouse – and great mugs of coffee.

• 30 Lime Street, + 44 (0)845 271 0777, sevenstories.org.ukpen Mon-Sat 10-5pm, £5.50 adults £4.50 children

6. Mushroom Works

The scream of gulls and clink and hammer of the docks fill the air outside this hard-to-find gallery, originally a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, in an area once known as the "Mushroom". Opened in 2004 by furniture-maker Nick James, there are 12 studios, including painters, illustrators, jewellery makers, animators, architects, and glass artists. They host eight exhibitions a year, and the shop, with its emphasis on affordability, currently stocks work by 32 artists. The Stairwell Gallery has just opened upstairs, given over to exhibitions by other artists. A 50% off "studio sale" runs from Jan 9-Feb 6.

• St Lawrence Road, +(0)191 224 4011, mushroomworks.com. Open 12pm-5pm Weds-Sat.

7. Northern Print

Northern Print began life in 1994 on Fish Quay, North Shields, and moved in 2006 to a former pottery in Ouseburn. Now a gallery and contemporary print-making studio offering affordable prints as well as classes, it's worth also spending a penny in ceramic artist Paul Scott's impressive tiled toilet. Also, don't miss the large screen-prints decorating the sides of the offices opposite.

• Stepney Bank, +44 (0)191 261 7000,northernprint.org.uk. Open Weds to Sat 12pm to 4pm.

8. Byker Wall

Set between the roar of the flyover and silence of the river, the Grade II-listed Byker Wall, a 1970s primary-coloured brick, wood and plastic-built unbroken block of 620 maisonettes, was placed on UNESCO's list of outstanding 20th-century buildings. Designed by Ralph Erskine in Functionalist Romantic style, the low-rise construction represented a break with the high-rise architectural orthodoxy of the time. Its iconic, triangular Tom Collins House is visible from miles around.

9. Victoria Tunnel

Testament to the achievement of Victorian labour, this two-mile tunnel was built in 1838 for transporting coal from Spital Tongues colliery on the Town Moor to the river Tyne, and in the second world war converted to an air-raid shelter. A short section, with its last remaining accessible entrance on Ouse Street (behind the Hotel Du Vin, see below) re-opened in 2008 to give visitors and locals an experience deep below the city.

• newcastlecommunityheritage.org.

10. Hotel Du Vin

The first hotel in Ouseburn opened in 2008 in the former headquarters of the Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company, which once served as the company's maintenance depot and storeroom. As such, a nautical theme pervades the 42 rooms, many of which have outstanding views over the Tyne Bridge. Its glass and brick bistro is the most glamorous evening eating option in Ouseburn, even if you're not a resident (great value too with two-course menus boasting locally-sourced ingredients from £15.50).

• Allan House, City Road, +44 (0)191 229 2200, hotelduvin.com/newcastle. Standard rooms from £160. On Sunday nights, spend £75 in the bistro and room is only £25 if you book online.

• Newcastle is served by East Coast Trains: for the best deal on advance fares, book online via nationalexpresseastcoast.com, or call 08457 225225.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art, Art and design, Bars and clubs, Cultural trips, Culture, Editorial, Film, Food and drink, guardian.co.uk, Heritage, Music, Newcastle, Travel, United Kingdom

Cambridge University Library, which turned 75 in October last year, is probably the ugliest building in Cambridge, but those of us who regularly use it love it very much. To us, its undeniable ugliness is as irrelevant as the warts on the face of a beloved mother. It may have fewer early-printed books than the British Library, and fewer literary manuscripts than the Bodleian in Oxford, but it is far better run than either. Readers are allowed to search for their books in the stacks, which does not mean that the entire collection is mis-shelved – only that you have a better chance of ending up with the book you're looking for than in either of the other institutions. For those of us who have the right to enjoy it, the library is heaven on earth.

The building was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in the rationalist-fascist style of the mid-1930s. Its most conspicuous feature is a blunt tower, visible for many miles – even from the M11 – making it a far more significant identifier of Cambridge than King's College Chapel (though you won't find the tower on too many tea towels). It stands 12 storeys high; the rest of the original library stands at six. As the tower often has a plume of steam emerging from it, the whole structure has the air of a place where books are burned rather than read. The building is built around two internal courtyards, like prison yards, which cannot be accessed from outside; the entrance facade stands atop an intimidating flight of stairs.

Whatever else you say about the library, you must confess that it is bold. But this boldness is now being vitiated by endless rather ordinary accretions. The least impressive of these was unveiled last September, and consists of 14 bollards that block off the approach to the library steps. Although this seems in part intended as a means of reducing parking space, it is an installation: 1% of the library's budget has to be spent on public art (as outlined in the Per Cent for Art scheme, monitored by Arts Council England).

The bollards are bronze, in the form of columnar piles of books. Imagine the library built like a fortress to safeguard our intellectual inheritance, and outside it piles of apparently rejected books. The idea is not so much shocking as humiliatingly naff. Ten of the columns are fixed, but in four the individual books can be made to rotate. If you line them up right, you get the words "Ex Libris", the name of the sculpture, which according to the artist (a local man, Harry Gray) is "a metaphor for the library itself; you can't just look at the books, you have to use them to gain understanding, to get the bigger picture". Gray appears not to know that Ex Libris is also the name of the best-known purveyors of electronic library resources, now guaranteed free advertising in perpetuity.

The money for the bronze book bollards was provided by the Arcadia Fund, run by the academic and philanthropist Lisbet Rausing and her husband Peter Baldwin. Altogether the fund has provided the library with $980,000 (£612,000), intended "to create new programmes and services, particularly for undergraduates, and also improve the external environment of the ^­ library". But if you are contemplating some bronze bollards of your own, don't approach the fund, which does not consider unsolicited applications. Instead, it invites applications on the suggestion of its advisory board, which includes the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University.

The new librarian, Anne Jarvis, took office in April last year and cannot be blamed for the bollards. Still, she has taken it upon herself to defend them against their critics, saying that it was she who wanted to bring "the library out beyond its walls and create a welcoming space". As anyone who has tried to smoke a cigarette or eat a sandwich in that space could tell you, it is usually in shadow, draughty and cold much of the year. All they had to do to create a welcoming outside space would have been to rip up the tarmac and make a sheltered garden, at a fraction of the price.

Jarvis's next proposal is to sell the library's name to anyone who is vainglorious enough to pay for it. The CUL already includes libraries named for other benefactors; Jarvis now seeks an over-arching donor, who will out-donate all the others. Could the CUL become the Coca Cola Library, or the Barclays Library? Would there be anything members of the university could do to prevent it?

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art, Art and design, Books, Comment, Culture, Education, Heritage, Libraries, The Guardian, University of Cambridge

• Threshold to massive door found off Alexandria
• Queen's mausoleum part of sunken palace complex

They were one of the world's most famous couples, who lived lives of power and glory – but who spent their last hours in despair and confusion. Now, more than 2,000 years since Antony and Cleopatra walked the earth, historians believe they may finally have solved the riddle of their last hours together.

A team of Greek marine archaeologists who have spent years conducting underwater excavations off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt have unearthed a giant granite threshold to a door that they believe was once the entrance to a magnificent mausoleum that Cleopatra VII, queen of the Egyptians, had built for herself shortly before her death.

They believe the 15-tonne antiquity would have held a seven metre-high door so heavy that it would have prevented the queen from consoling her Roman lover before he died, reputedly in 30BC.

"As soon as I saw it, I thought we are in the presence of a very special piece of a very special door," Harry Tzalas, the historian who heads the Greek mission, said. "There was no way that such a heavy piece, with fittings for double hinges and double doors, could have moved with the waves so there was no doubt in my mind that it belonged to the mausoleum. Like Macedonian tomb doors, when it closed, it closed for good."

Tzalas believes the discovery of the threshold sheds new light on an element of the couple's dying hours which has long eluded historians.

In the first century AD the Greek historian Plutarch wrote that Mark Antony, after being wrongly informed that Cleopatra had killed herself, had tried to take his own life. When the dying general expressed his wish to pass away alongside his mistress, who was hiding inside the mausoleum with her ladies-in-waiting, he was "hoisted with chains and ropes" to the building's upper floor so that he could be brought in to the building through a window.

Plutarch wrote, "when closed the [mausoleum's] door mechanism could not open again". The discovery in the Mediterranean Sea of such huge pieces of masonry at the entrance to what is believed to be the mausoleum would explain the historian's line. Tzalas said: "For years, archaeologists have wondered what Plutarch, a very reliable historian, meant by that. And now, finally, I think we have the answer.

"Allowing a dying man to be hoisted on ropes was not a very nice, or comforting thing to do, but Cleopatra couldn't do otherwise. She was there only with females and they simply couldn't open such a heavy door."

The threshold, part of the sunken palace complex in which Cleopatra is believed to have died, was discovered recently at a depth of eight metres but only revealed this week. It has yet to be brought to the surface.

The archaeologists have also recovered a nine-tonne granite block which they believe formed part of a portico belonging to the adjoining temple of Isis Lochias. "We believe it was part of the complex surrounding Cleopatra's palace," said Zahi Hawas, Egypt's top archaeologist. "This is an important part of Alexandria's history and brings us closer to knowing more about the ancient city."

According to Plutarch, who based his accounts largely on eyewitness testimonies, Antony died within seconds of laying eyes on his beloved queen and mother of his children.

Cleopatra, the most powerful woman of her day and Egypt's most fabled ruler, is believed to have taken her own life just days later, legend has it with the aid of an asp.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Culture, Egypt, Heritage, News, The Guardian, World news

National Trust takes charge of best surviving example of English baroque architecture after public donate £3m

An 18th century mansion regarded as the best surviving example of English baroque has been saved, along with its grounds and contents, after a public appeal raised £3m and the government agreed to accept the estate from the Hastings family in lieu of almost £5m in inheritance tax.

The apparent perfection of Seaton Delaval Hall is an illusion: the main block was gutted by fire in 1822 and never entirely restored, creating a half-ruined interior of eerie grandeur, with classical busts and statues in niches of bare stone walls.

The National Trust today announced the success of its appeal, not just to save the Sir John Vanbrugh-designed house but to use it to drive regeneration of a deprived former coal mining district, near Blyth in Northumberland. Donations included pocket money from schoolchildren as well as five-figure anonymous gifts, and equally diverse messages of support, from the Hairy Bikers television cooks to the Prince of Wales.

The government today handed over its share of the house to the trust. The tax acceptance, the first for a stately home in a quarter of a century, covers £1.7m for the hall, and £3.2m for the contents of the east wing and the statues in the spectacular gardens. The trust in turn has pledged to use its own resources and the appeal funds to preserve the house, its grounds and surrounding landscape forever.

The contents include a leather jacket worn by Jacob Astley, who led 10,000 men in support of Charles I to the Battle of Edgehill in 1642. His prayer on the morning of the battle, in which he was seriously wounded and hundreds of his men died, became famous: "O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I forget thee, do not thou forget me … march on, boys!"

The house was famous in Edwardian and early 20th century times for spectacular house parties, with hunting by day and lavish amateur theatricals by night. The trust's plans include using the cavernous space for art installations, music and theatre events.

The estate was put up for sale last year by Lord Hastings and his wife, who lived in the former servants' quarters.

Although the history of the Delavals dates back to the Norman conquest, the present house was built in the 1720s, when Admiral George Delaval, a younger son who made his fortune at sea, bought the estate from a bankrupt relative and commissioned Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, to create instant magnificence. By the time the house was finished both men were dead, and it stood unoccupied for much of the next two centuries.

The grounds contain a mausoleum to one of the many Delaval heirs who met an untimely end – according to family legend from a kick by a dairymaid who rejected his advances with fatal firmness.

The Sheet Architecture News Architecture, Art and design, Culture, guardian.co.uk, Heritage, News, UK news

More than 30,000 items on 1982 list have vanished, in part due to China's aggressive development, survey finds

China's aggressive development has swallowed up tens of thousands of historic sites in the last three decades, experts conducting a national survey have warned.

Officials from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) realised that the locations had disappeared while trying to compile a full list of the country's ancient tombs, temples, homes and other sites. Many have made way for roads and reservoirs, they discovered.

One conservation campaigner told the Guardian the damage caused over the last 20 years was worse than during the Cultural Revolution, which in its early stages saw Red Guards ransack religious sites.

Swaths of Beijing's historic courtyard homes have fallen to the wrecking ball in just the last decade. The old town in Dinghai, Zhejiang, has been almost completely destroyed. The Shanghai family home of the famed architect IM Pei, supposedly protected by the city, has gone.

In some cases – such as Qianmen, a centuries-old shopping street in the capital – historic buildings have been replaced with ersatz versions. In others, sites have vanished entirely. Last month there were reports that illegal mining in Inner Mongolia had destroyed a section of the Great Wall.

Shan Jixiang, director of SACH, said it had examined more than 775,000 sites and hoped to complete its inventory by 2011. Previous attempts, in 1956 and 1982, were never completed and only around 225,000 spots had been registered when work began in 2007. The number has soared thanks to a better-trained team and improved equipment, and to a wider definition of cultural heritage.

Some 30,995 of the items on the 1982 list have vanished, officials said in a statement. SACH said the decline also reflected inaccuracies in the 1982 survey and new counting methods, which meant that in some cases multiple entries were now registered as a single site. Even so, it warned that the large-scale construction of infrastructure over the last three decades had had a major impact on the country's heritage.

"As our country's economy developed, major irrigation and high-speed electricity projects started construction. Urbanisation sped up and new village [building] projects were carried out. Though the cultural heritage departments at all levels [of government] have tried hard to protect sites, they still could not avoid the disappearance of some," the administration said in a statement.

"Major natural disasters like earthquakes and floods have also resulted in the disappearance of many cultural heritage sites, while illegal activities and crimes like tomb-robbing destroyed some as well."

Liu Xiaohe, deputy director of the survey, told the state newspaper China Daily that officials were doing all they could to preserve as much as possible. He pointed out that in one case China spent 300m yuan (£26.5m) to relocate Sichuan's 1,700-year-old Zhangfei temple when the Three Gorges dam was built, rather than see it destroyed.

But he added: "We have about 800,000 historical sites in China, but only 80,000 people are working for relics protection. Places like the Palace Museum [better known to foreigners as The Forbidden City] take up more than 2,000 of them, which means some places have no one to take care of them. What we can do now is try our best to protect the significant sites, like the Summer Palace, while for those less important sites I am afraid they should give way to economic development."

Liu said the survey had cost 1bn yuan already and much more was needed because it cost about 300,000 yuan to survey each town. To date the team has covered almost 36,000 towns and districts. The administration will not release details of the sites included – or those that have vanished – until the register is completed.

Sun Yuexin, founder of the Chinese Cultural Heritage Protection website, suggested that some might not have existed even in 1982. "Some local governments would exaggerate the amount of relics they have, so as to ask for more funds from the central government to protect relics," he told China Daily.

He Shuzhong, of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Centre, said he believed that the problem was greater than the survey suggested.

"The last 20 years have been the worst time for cultural heritage site protection with the rapid development," he said. "It is even worse than in the Cultural Revolution – then, most damage was to movable items, but not to ancient tombs or buildings or old towns. For example, many ancient tombs have been robbed and in the [redevelopment] of old towns many old buildings have been demolished. Beijing used to have 25 protection areas and I believe only half of them are still well protected now."

He added: "The key to improving the situation is to improve local people's attitudes towards protection. The government has made many mistakes in the past and is still making some now, so we need people and the media to play the roles of monitors and critics."

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