Up In Smoke: The Trouble With Restoring Fire-Damaged Buildings

The 2015 fire at Clandon House. Image credit: Colin Smith / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

On a map portraying a plan to rebuild the city of London after the great fire of 1666, a description runs across the top of the document: ‘A plan for rebuilding the City of London … design'd by that great architect Sr Christopher Wren; and approv'd of by King and Parliament; but unhappily defeated by factions’.

Plans to rebuild places lost to fire continue to be threatened or ‘unhappily defeated by factions’ across the UK, revealing the prevailing difficulties of returning a burnt-out building to its former glory. These obstacles range from the financial, to the question of how to conserve or restore buildings where little more than ashes remain. 

The Great Fire of London. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

One of Scotland’s most celebrated buildings has been at the centre of this debate this year. Glasgow School of Art’s (GSA) Mackintosh Building was designed by Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh at the turn of the 20th century. Scottish Labour MSP for Glasgow Paul Sweeney remembers pictures of the building as a small boy; photos of the metal flowers designed to hold window-cleaner’s ladders captured his childhood imagination. Years later, as a student at Glasgow University, he would feel awe at the light and ‘soaring internal space’ in the library. 

‘For every success, there seems to be a corresponding setback.’

He was devastated to discover the school had burnt down in 2014 and relieved when restoration was pursued. Four years later, as the TV of the pub he was in showed footage of the Mackintosh Building burning yet again, he thought it was archival footage from 2014, only to learn that another blaze had devastated the recently-restored building. When he went up on a high-rise crane in the adjacent building to survey the damage, he realised the devastation had worsened.

In July 2026, the GSA announced that, while it would stabilise the remains of the building and remove scaffolding, it could not afford the estimated £265 million required for a faithful reconstruction. Sweeney has been a fairly isolated political voice pushing for the restoration of the Mackintosh, one which has only grown louder since the GSA announced that it could not afford the building costs.

Glasgow School of Art after the 2014 fire. Image credit: Richard Sutcliffe / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

‘It's a war of attrition in Glasgow, really, in terms of its built environment. For every success, there seems to be a corresponding setback. This is a massive test of faith for our commitment to Glasgow's architectural heritage. I think it's also symptomatic of a country that's lost its gumption to get on with these kinds of projects,’ Sweeney shared, adding that support from both the UK and Scottish governments would be critical.

‘It's a war of attrition in Glasgow, really, in terms of its built environment.’

Since the GSA’s announcement, Sweeney is beginning to set up a trust to raise the necessary funds, a project supported by organisations including the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, the Victorian Society, the Royal Institute of Architects in Scotland and the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Similar frustrations have beset restoration experts and activists alike when it comes to the National Trust’s Clandon Park in Surrey. In 2015, the 18th-century Grade I listed Palladian mansion was set ablaze, most likely by an electrical fault. A decade later and building work is currently underway, albeit in a potentially unexpected way. The Trust intends to restore the building’s exterior so it appears as it was before the fire, and turn the roof into a public terrace, but conserve the interior in its fire-damaged state.

The fire-damaged interior of Clandon House. Image credit: Ian Capper / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

‘This is a massive test of faith for our commitment to Glasgow's architectural heritage.’

In January 2026, heritage charity the Georgian Group launched a legal challenge over the National Trust’s redevelopment proposal. The High Court has granted the charity permission to pursue the judicial review. Campaign group Restore Trust has also spoken out extensively about Clandon Park. Chairman Cornelia Van Der Poll told LOST ART that reinstating the building ‘goes with confidence, pride and imagination and those are the things that are missing from the National Trust’.

In response, the National Trust stated that ‘heritage craftspeople are at the heart of the work at Clandon Park.’ They shared they are working with skilled specialists including brickmakers, stone masons, joiners and lead workers, adding, ‘The fire revealed hidden details about how the house was built, giving new opportunities to learn. By sharing this knowledge, we hope to inspire future generations of craftspeople and keep these important skills alive.’

Sheerness Dockyard Church before restoration

But in contrast to this approach, there are also ambitious examples of restorations after fire. Fifteen years ago, architectural historian and heritage project leader Will Palin first came to Kent’s Isle of Sheppey to work on restoring a Tudor gatehouse. During this project, he and colleagues discovered the remains of the Georgian dockyard on the northeast of the island, alongside the burnt-out shell of a Neoclassical church. The Sheerness Dockyard Church was built in 1828 as part of the redevelopment of the Sheerness Royal Naval Dockyard and survived two fires in 1881 and 2001.

‘I was struck then by what an absolutely beautiful monument this was...’

Despite the extensive damage and neglect the building had suffered since, Palin sought to reinstate the Grade II-listed church to its original Greek Revival grandeur. ‘I was struck then by what an absolutely beautiful monument this was, but also how it kind of represented the fortunes of the Isle of Sheppey,’ he shared. When the Sheerness dockyard closed in 1960, 2,500 people lost their jobs and the area remains one of the most impoverished in the UK.

Trustee Amicia DeMoubray in Sheerness Dockyard Church

Palin understood that this project could have a ‘disproportionately positive’ impact to the area and founded the Sheerness Dockyard Preservation Trust. A £5.3 million grant from the National Lottery Fund and involvement from the community from the outset were catalysts for the project’s success, and the church opened its doors in 2023 as a community and business hub.

‘It would have sent out a positive and encouraging message to all those other smaller trusts attempting the rescue of neglected and fire-damaged buildings.’

Hugh Broughton Architects reinstated the 1828 exterior of the building in partnership with conservation specialists Martin Ashley. They restored the original roof profile, masonry and brickwork, winning the Royal Institute of British Architects’ 2025 Reinvention Award for their efforts.

Some of the post-fire remains of the church on Sheppey are retained, echoing the National Trust’s plan to keep only the ‘surviving shell’ of Clandon Park. Architects Allies and Morrison, the firm chosen to restore Clandon Park, argue that they can leave the building as a ‘real-life research project’, revealing ‘what lies behind the polite finishes of the National Trust’s other eighteenth-century properties’.

But Palin believes that, considering what their ‘little trust’ on Sheppey was able to do with fewer resources, the National Trust would have been able to do more with the rebuilding of Clandon Park. ‘I’m not saying I expected a full faithful recreation of the lost building, but there was a real opportunity to reinstate the marble hall and to celebrate traditional crafts and skills, including specialist skills in plasterwork and architecture. It would have sent out a positive and encouraging message to all those other smaller trusts attempting the rescue of neglected and fire-damaged buildings,’ he added.

Sweeney similarly recognises that the preservation of endangered specialist skills required for the restoration of historic buildings is an enormous benefit to funding these large-scale building projects.

Sheerness Dockyard Church after restoration

‘If a small trust like us could do it, it shows it can be done.’

In Scotland, the government building maintenance backlog was valued at £49 billion in 2025, with over £15 million of that for building fabric alone. Historic Environment Scotland is now developing a risk register to identify the traditional building skills at risk of disappearing: fewer than 300 traditional stonemasons are left in the country. Sweeney believes the rebuilding of the Mackintosh in Glasgow could become a ‘huge pipeline of training for young people to breathe new life into skills that are critically endangered, whether it's cast ironwork, stonemasonry or joinery’.

Despite the financial and bureaucratic obstacles which these large-scale post-fire projects face, both the preservation of these buildings and endangered skills is not an impossibility, Palin adds. ‘With a building like [the Mackintosh], with its international importance and the energy you could bring in, it could be done. You just need a very clear sense of where it’s going to go.

‘If a small trust like us could do it, it shows it can be done.’

Photos courtesy of Will Palin