A RISKY BUSINESS

There are some sorry cases on the At Risk Register, but, with Historic England’s stated aim ‘to focus attention on those places in greatest need’, inclusion doesn’t always mean the end, as the hopeful futures of these sites also shows

Savoy Cinema, HA8 A former 2,000seat Grade Ii-listed cinema, designed by Art Deco master George Coles, it retains all its internal Moderne fittings, but has been closed since 2014. Consent was recently granted to restore the exterior of the building and convert the interior into flats

St Pancras Old Church, NW1 An immensely historic church, one of the capital’s oldest, next to the former St Pancras Workhouse. Sir John Soane and Mary Wollstonecraft are buried in its churchyard. The register describes the church’s state as ‘very bad’ and a Next Millennium Project seeks to raise £500,000 to complete a restoration programme by the end of 2025 Pope’s Grotto, TW1 The last surviving element of Alexander Pope’s Thames-side villa and gardens. Efforts to arrest the declining condition of the decorated imitation of a natural cave have been ongoing for 30 years and a recent pilot restoration project, with money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, was successful. The aim is to complete full renovation in 2022