Donald Insall, doyen of conservation architects, who has died aged 100, was very clear about the distinction between preserving buildings and conserving them. “Preservation,” he pronounced, “is what you do for marmalade.” Though Insall could see the value of preservation, he was an adroit conservationist rather than a stodgy marmalade maker, always seeing how historic buildings could be revived and put to new uses.
Marshalling teams of architects, craftsmen and builders, he brought Windsor Castle back from the brink following the devastating “annus horribilis” fire of 1992. The exacting rescue scheme encompassed a range of strategies, from complete restoration to renewal in spirit. “As well as keeping things as they were, or putting them back as one thinks they were – which is chancy and not the main aim – we had to find new solutions to parts that had been irreparably destroyed,” Insall told Country Life in 2018.
