“Ordinary” town centre heritage – those familiar high street buildings that house shops, local services, small businesses and projects – often goes unremarked and underappreciated, and can fall into serious decline. Yet these places are a vital part of our built environment and, if well cared for and used, can be assets that contribute to a community’s quality of life and create a strong sense of place in an increasingly homogenised world. The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF), a body bringing…

Before Brixton was absorbed by the urban expansion of London in the mid nineteenth century it was a wheat growing area, which Ashby’s Mill was built to serve in 1816.  By 1862 the windmill was so sheltered by other buildings that it received insufficient wind to turn its sails and although it was later altered to use other sources of power its story became one of alternating periods of use and neglect. When it was placed on the Buildings at…