Lloyds Mansion in Shrewsbury: A not-so-positive story for those who think the Crooked House might one day be revived
If you rebuild it, they will come.
But it wouldn't, couldn't, ever be the same.
The loss of the Crooked House pub is sad, shocking, and as it is being treated as arson, criminal.
There has been an impressive outpouring of grief and support for a much-loved piece of local heritage, with talk of rebuilding it in all its quirky wonkiness.
Inevitably there would be architectural, engineering, and practical challenges. The Crooked House wasn't born wonky, it had wonkiness thrust upon it. So rebuilding it as a wonky pub would be artificial, a modern re-creation using modern techniques to mimic the generations of subsidence which had given an originally perpendicular building its famous tilt.
There are plenty of examples of distinctive and prized old buildings being rebuilt, and not just for museums like the Ironbridge Gorge Museum and the Black Country Living Museum.
