Page 32 - Beyond Decommissioning

Introduction 13

above all the production of military equipment and armaments, no-one had any desire
to preserve the memory of the period in the form of industrial monuments.” However,
the preservation of industrial monuments in Austria enjoyed a renewed interest in the
1970s. This was partly due to the international events of 1968, with an opening up of
petrified university environments and more attention being given to hitherto disre-
garded fields of research; new disciplines such as industrial history, industrial sociol-
ogy, social history, economic history, and environmental history emerged.
The United Kingdom is another example of this shift of public sentiment. It should
first be noted that United Kingdom was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and
as such, the country is dotted with literally many hundreds of industrial relics. After
WWII UK had a profound disregard for its deserted industrial sites, with the dumping
of garbage signifying a sentiment of disdain. Industrial monuments were considered
symbols of a disturbing past, reminders of social and economic decline (e.g., the loss
of the British Empire), and relics of hard labor and cruel working conditions. Aban-
doned sites were also associated with “danger, delinquency, ugliness, and disorder.”
Similar to Austria, only in the last 30 years or so of the 1900s has the meaning of indus-
trial heritage been fully recognized in the United Kingdom and its values of cultural
resource popularized and priced (Orange, 2008). One of the first books in this field is
by Buchanan (1972).
To end this chapter on a lighter note, the growing awareness of industrial redevel-
opment among the general public is reflected in the large number of comics and car-
toons on this subject (Fig. 1.10). To this end, the interested reader can consult https://
www.cartoonstock.com/, https://mchumor.com/, etc. and use search words.

Fig. 1.10 Self-explanatory cartoon,
which symbolizes the logistic,
financial, and cultural limitations to
industrial redevelopment.
Credit to Theresa McCracken
https://mchumor.com/.