This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and as a heritage planning consultant it is sobering to reflect on the scale of the task faced by those whose job it was to rebuild Britain after the Second World War.

The devastation was indiscriminate. Loss of life. Loss of homes. And the loss, too, of buildings that stood for history and shared culture.

Among the buildings of historic interest destroyed by bombing, or so badly damaged they had to be demolished, was the Great Synagogue of London built between 1788 and 1790. It was the centre of Ashkenazi Jewish life in London but was destroyed in May 1941 during the London Blitz, which in total claimed or damaged beyond repair more than 116,000 buildings.

After the war, opinion was divided on what to do with those buildings still standing but only in part. Demolish the remains, retain them or rebuild?

The 1830s neo-classical style Customs House in Liverpool was partly destroyed by bombing in May 1941. The controversial decision was made to demolish the remaining structure after the war and it was totally lost in 1948.

In other instances, damaged buildings were largely left alone to remain as a testament to the impact of the war or as a public memorial. The 15th-century St Catherine’s Almshouses and Chapel in Exeter, a casualty of the Baedeker Raids in May 1942, was nearly completely lost. Today, the four walls remain with no roof and the ruins were Grade II listed in 1953.

The early 17th century Jacobean country mansion, Holland House, in London, suffered from bombing in 1940, but its ruined remains were retained: the east wing and the ground floor of the south wing have survived to the present day; the structure was Grade I listed in 1949.

Bristol’s 14th-century Temple Church, also known as Holy Cross Church, is another example of a historic building damaged by war. Gutted by fire in 1940 following German bombing of the city, the leaning tower and walls are all that remain. The church was listed in 1959 and the graveyard is now a public garden.

Perhaps the most well-known example of reconstruction fusing the old and the new is Coventry Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of St Michael. The cathedral was founded as a Benedictine community by the Earl of Mercia and his wife Godiva in 1043. It and much of the medieval city suffered heavy bombing on the night of 14 November 1940, in what became known as the Coventry Blitz. All except the outer shell of walls and the tower was destroyed.

The following day it was decided to rebuild the cathedral, but what resulted, rather than attempting to replicate the lost building, was a distinctly modern structure which complements the historic remains.

Plans developed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, designer of the iconic red telephone box, and architect of Liverpool Cathedral, were not taken forward and in 1950 a competition was announced, to be won by Basil Spence. It was always stipulated that the tower and spire of the original cathedral should be preserved.

The new cathedral was opened in 1962 and today the mix of retained historic fabric, as a reminder of what was lost and as a memorial to those who lost their lives, sits comfortably alongside Spence’s modernist post-war structure as a notable example of the way in which old and new can combine. The remains of the medieval cathedral were Grade I listed in 1955, with the 20th-century addition Grade I listed as a separate entry, in 1988.

Further information

Read more: Rebuilding Britain: how the end of WW2 marked the beginning of modern town planning

Contact Savills Heritage Planning