Urban Studies - Trust Annual Report 1981
As outlined in last year's report the path leading to an Urban Studies Centre is hedged with physical, psychological and financial difficulties. All that is needed is a room in the town as a centre for spreading information to townsfolk, visitors, teachers and children. There would be a link with the tourist offices and the heritage centre but no overlap in the educational approach. City and County officials, advisers and teachers, are all aware of this gap in the resources now available.
Members of the Trust have served on a County working party to help art teachers from secondary schools, and a national project on Art and the Built Environment is now integrated into the curriculum of Hampshire schools. Professional architects and planners were enrolled in this campaign and the cause of environmental education has been considerably advanced by this unusual type of collaboration.
The Trust has further diversified its educational activities by giving lectures at the Elm Road Teachers Centre. The title Using Winchester City produced a good response from pre-secondary school teachers, and this was followed by four walks in the town led by enthusiastic architects.
So there seems to be a nucleus of dedicated teachers asking for help, but more action and fewer pious expressions are needed. It seems ironical in this one-time historic capital that a centre available for the study of past and present architecture has yet to be established.