This book comprises the authoritative work from the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage, detailing the latest approaches to and the best practices for the conservation of the global industrial heritage.

The management of industrial heritage sites requires rethinking in the context of urban change, and the issue of how to balance protection, preservation/conservation, and development becomes all the more crucial as industrial heritage sites grow in number. This brings into play new challenges—not only through the known conflicts between monument preservation and contemporary architecture, but also with the increasing demand for economic urban development by reusing the built heritage of former industrial sites. This book explores the conservation and change of industrial heritage sites in transformation, presenting and examining ten European and Asian case studies. The interdisciplinary approach of the book connects a diversity of rationales and discourses, including monument protection, World Heritage conventions, urban regeneration, urban planning and design, architecture, and politics. This is the first book to deepen the understanding of industrial heritage site management as a networked, multi-dimensional task involving diverse social agents and societal discourses.

Did you know that apart from Lancashire, the greatest concentration of Boulton & Watt steam engines was in London, demonstrating the enormous and often overlooked significance of London as an industrial centre? The story behind the many industries found in the capital is described in this unique book. London once had scores of breweries; the world’s first plastic material was synthesised in the East End; there was even a gasworks opposite the Palace of Westminster. Clerkenwell was a centre for watch and clock makers; the River Thames used to be full of colliers bringing coal from Newcastle; Joseph Bramah invented his water closet and hydraulic pump here, and Henry Maudslay made machines to make machines. Many household names began in London: Schweppes, Crosse & Blackwell, and Vauxhall motor cars. The list of fascinating facts goes on. In this, the first book of its kind on the subject, Geoff Marshall provides an enthralling overview of London’s industrial face through history.

Heritage is not what we see in front of us, it is what we make of it in our heads. Heritage sites have been connected to a range of identarian projects, both spatial and non-spatial. One of the most common links with heritage has been national identity. This book stresses that heritage has developed powerful links to regional and local identities. Contributors deal explicitly with regions of heavy industry in different parts of the world, exploring non-spatial forms of identity: including class, religious, ethnic, racial, gender and cultural identities. In many heritage sites, non-spatial forms of identity are interlinked with spatial ones. Civil society action has been important in representations of regional identities and industrial-heritage campaigns. Region-branding seems to determine the ultimate success of industrial heritage, a process that is closely connected to the marketing of regions to provide a viable economic future and attract tourism to the region. Selected case-studies on coal and steel producing regions in this book provide the first global survey of how regions of heavy industry deal with their industrial heritage, and what it means for regional identity and region-branding. This book draws a range of powerful conclusions about the path dependency of particular forms for post-industrial regional identity in former regions of heavy industry. It highlights both commonalities and differences in the strategies employed with regard to the regions’ industrial heritage. This book will appeal to lecturers, students and scholars in the fields of heritage management, industrial studies and cultural geography .