Britain: An official handbook > 1959

PROMOTION OF THE SCIENCES AND THE ARTS 2X5
Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Ministry of Health and Local Government,
which are responsible in their respective countries for approving the layout and
design of local authority housing schemes, and which issue reports and circulars
setting standards for local authority housing. The Ministry of Housing and Local
Government also encourages high standards by offering, each year, medals for the
best-designed houses. The Education Departments are responsible for the super¬
vision of building for the public education service. The Ministry of Works is the
Department concerned with the construction and maintenance of Government
buildings and also with the preservation of historic buildings and ancient monu¬
ments in Great Britain. In Northern Ireland, responsibility for the preservation of
ancient buildings is vested in the Ministry of Finance. All these Departments have
architects on their staffs.
A number of professional, advisory and other societies and institutions exist to
further the interests of architecture and the preservation of buildings of aesthetic
value or historic interest.
Several State-sponsored organisations are concerned with special aspects of
architecture. The Royal Fine Art Commission and the Royal Fine Art Commission
for Scotland, both bodies of experts appointed by Royal Warrant, advise Govern¬
ment Departments and other public and quasi-public bodies on questions of public
amenity or artistic importance. The National Buildings Record maintains a library
(open to the public for consultation) of photographs of English and Welsh archi¬
tecture and an index of architectural records in public and private possession. The
Royal Commissions on Ancient and Historical Monuments for England, for Wales
and Monmouthshire, and for Scotland, record in detail all ancient and historical
remains in their countries and publish a series of surveys, designed ultimately to
cover the whole of Great Britain. The Ancient Monuments Boards for England,
Scotland, and Wales, set up under the Ancient Monuments Acts, consider which
monuments should be listed in accordance with those Acts and advise the Minister
of Works on any questions concerning ancient monuments. The Historic Buildings
Councils for England, Scotland, and Wales, which were constituted under the
Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act, 1953, advise the Minister on the
provision of grants towards the repair and maintenance of such buildings and their
contents. An Historic Buildings Bureau finds new uses for unoccupied historic
buildings of outstanding interest.
The leading professional architectural institution in the United Kingdom is the
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), which holds meetings at which papers
are read and discussed, publishes a Journal, holds exhibitions, promotes and
controls the training of architects through its Board of Architectural Education,
and has one of the largest and most important architectural libraries in the world,
housing over 65,000 books, periodicals and drawings. There are also the Incor¬
porated Association of Architects and Surveyors, the Institute of Registered
Architects and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. Other societies
include the Architectural Association, the Architecture Club, and a number of
societies interested in particular aspects of architecture, such as the Modular
Society.
Among the preservation societies are the Georgian Group, which is a society
designed to awaken interest in Georgian architecture and to save Georgian buildings
from destruction; the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings; the National
Trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the National Trust for Scot¬
land, which together own more than a hundred houses of historic or architectural
interest, many of which contain pictures and other works of art which are on view
to the public; and the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, formed in 1952, under
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