On September 25, 2024, Historic England and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) held an event at the Royal Geographical Society in London to celebrate and spread the word about two Arches-related milestones:
1. Release of the Arches for HERs application
2. Launch of public access to the Greater London Historic Environment Record (GLHER) Online
The event was attended by the project partners, Arches community members including implementers and service providers, others from the heritage field in the UK and abroad, as well as members of the press. Further details on each of these milestones follows.
Release of Arches for HERs and Continued Getty-Historic England Collaboration
The September 25 event in London featured the release of a new software application, Arches for HERs, a comprehensive data management platform for UK Historic Environment Records (HERs). Developed through a partnership between the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), Historic England, and the City of Lincoln, this application incorporates UK data standards and geospatial features using the British National Grid coordinate system. Arches for HERs includes a new Casework and Consultations module, and a workflow to track and record the outcomes of heritage impact assessments in response to development applications.
The following video played at the event introduces Arches for HERs, featuring voices from Historic England, the GCI, and the London Historic Parks & Gardens Trust:
Check out additional information resources below about Arches for HERs and other notes from this event. Also, join in community discussions about the Arches for HERs application or pose your own questions on the Arches Forum, using the “arches-hers” tag in your post, or interact with this introductory thread.
In addition, following more than a decade of partnership between the GCI and Historic England, dating back to the founding of the Arches Project in 2012, the two institutions recently signed a new collaborative agreement to continue cooperation regarding Arches. Through this agreement, the partners will provide guidance concerning transitions of Historic Environment Records (HERs) to Arches for HERs, and the GCI will provide support for a limited number of transitions to the new system in order to document the process for future implementers. Historic England will also provide expertise on management of controlled vocabularies as input to the GCI’s ongoing development of the Arches Lingo application.
Launch of Public Access to the Greater London Historic Environment Record (GLHER) Online
Also at the September 25 event in London, Historic England launched public access to the Greater London Historic Environment Record (GLHER) Online after more than a year of its internal use. GLHER Online, an implementation of the Arches for HERs application, is a critical tool for the protection of the capital’s past and a first point of call for professionals in heritage and development. Now, anyone with an interest in London’s history can use the GLHER on a new and improved online platform to search and explore nearly 90,000 entries collected over 40 years, including for archaeological sites and discoveries, historic buildings, parks, landscapes and more.
Sandy Kidd, Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service Team Leader at Historic England, presents GLHER Online at the September 25 launch event. Image credit: Lawrence Shaw
Leadership from Historic England and the GCI shared their excitement about the launch of public access to GLHER Online via a Getty press release:
“When it comes to managing London’s rich historic environment, knowledge is power,” says Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England. “Opening up this invaluable dataset means everyone interested in the heritage all around us can dig deeper into the facts and find out more. Historic England’s collaboration with Getty has reimagined the Greater London Historic Environment Record and set a new precedent, creating a remarkable and fit-for-purpose platform for enthusiasts and professionals alike.”
“We are pleased that, with our partners at Historic England, Arches is being used to manage and share knowledge about the capital’s thousands of years of history and heritage. We are deeply grateful to Historic England for their expertise and our many years of productive collaboration that has led to this powerful and accessible tool for Greater London, as well as a tailored version of Arches for the rest of the UK.” says Tim Whalen, John E. and Louise Bryson director of the Getty Conservation Institute.
Additional Information Resources
- For those interested in evaluating Arches for HERs, a demonstration instance of Arches for HERs is available online (including sample data from the GLHER instance of this Arches application)
- User documentation for Arches for HERs created by Historic England is available here.
- View an Arches Project webinar about the GLHER Online implementation of Arches for HERs, including its functionality and use in heritage management, presented by Stuart Cakebread, GLHER Manager at Historic England, in September 2023.
- “Explore the History of London Online, from Roman Walls to Abbey Road: Historic England and Getty launch public access to the Greater London Historic Environment Record (GLHER)” Getty Press Release
- “Mapping London’s Cultural Heritage” Getty News & Stories, by Lilibeth Garcia
- Becoming Artsy video about the GLHER Online launch featuring Jessie Hendricks, Getty Trust Communications
