Those of you who turned up for Heritage Open Days on Saturday 10 September and found the majority of buildings open, may be surprised that we’d had to make the difficult decision about participating. You will, of course, know that on Thursday 8, just 16 hours before our deliberations, the death had been announced of Her Majesty the Queen. The dilemma: do I instruct each venue not to open and join those who had decided to enter a period of mourning, or to follow the lead – which was obviously being adopted by the major retailers – and open as planned?

We debated the pro’s and cons of each alternative and a few mixed scenarios in between. I checked the Government website (which incidentally became very clear after I’d made the decision), spoke to colleagues at the major venues, WTW and Mutual House, and before lunchtime decided that as it would have been impossible to inform every member of the general public – who by now were clutching their copy of the booklet (clearly stating opening times for each venue) – so, we decided to open as planned. 

We clearly made the correct decision; it turned out to be our most successful Heritage Open Weekend ever. Each venue reported record figures and the two new additions, the Ancient House (600) and number 4 College Street (1,000 visitors) were incredibly busy.  At College Street the volunteers had a particularly difficult task of managing the crowd, which at times stretched along Bridge Street.

The queue outside 4 College Street.

Willis (or to give then their correct new name: WTW) was unsurprisingly busy, not only with Heritage visitors but also former employees who were taking the opportunity to remind themselves of their place of work. The building was designed to accommodate 1,400 employees and, of these, only 250 will be in the office on any given day (the rest will be working from home, etc.).

This is an issue for the catering team. When the building first opened, a majority of staff used the restaurant at lunchtime and a variety of hot and cold meals were served. This number has declined over the years but fell dramatically during the pandemic. However, the catering manager proved to be a star for the heritage weekend providing a choice of value-for-money meals to all visitors. As one of the many diners, I would like to thank him personally.

WTW staff volunteered to answer the many questions raised by the visitors, and to lead tours of the various features of the building, a chance to see the swimming pool and to understand how the glass walls work. This was a fine example of how an international company can communicate and relate to the local community. This Grade I listed building may be theirs but we love it, and the way they ‘share’ it.

One final note on Heritage Open Days: we learned a lot over the two days: things we did well and the things we occasionally got wrong, but I’m sure there are things we missed. Please email the Secretary and let her know; we’ll strive to improve things for next year, and if you’d like to be involved (from May onwards in the organisation) or just for an hour or two on one of the ‘open days’ please let us know.

John Norman

Next article