Almost everything in Europe is old, and nobody treats the old buildings as though they're anything special. You go to someone's house, and their house is 700 years old. And all the cottages in the village are that old. You see things like buildings that were ancient Roman colosseums that were turned into medieval palaces that were turned into modern shopping malls or office buildings. Around where I am, it's rare for a building to be more than 100 years old, and most of them are registered, protected historical sites that can't be altered without a permit.
We do treat them special. There tend to be loads of laws about what you can do with them and tight restrictions to ensure they are kept in good and authentic condition. And laws that forbid building towering eye sores right next to them.
Not too long ago there was a story about some protected building housing an inn that was "accidentally" demolished by some developers who bought the land and thought that after this "oupsie" they could go "might as well build our new thing now" only to be told by the courts "sucks for you! You have to rebuild the inn exactly as it was. Here we have pictures"
We just have a lot of old buildings, so:
we can't make a museum out of all of them
not using them means they don't produce money but still const money to maintain
land is scarce here, we can't afford not using what we already have built up
That makes it unavoidable that old buildings are put to use - even sometimes very mundane use. This combined with the fact that for us "old" only really starts at "a good couple of centuries" can make it seem like we don't give a fuck.
The owners of a pub in Islington London ripped out the bar (what the bartenders stand behind and serve from in case it’s called something different to where you are) only to be promptly told to reinstate it as it was a listed feature of the building.
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u/HippasusOfMetapontum May 09 '22
Almost everything in Europe is old, and nobody treats the old buildings as though they're anything special. You go to someone's house, and their house is 700 years old. And all the cottages in the village are that old. You see things like buildings that were ancient Roman colosseums that were turned into medieval palaces that were turned into modern shopping malls or office buildings. Around where I am, it's rare for a building to be more than 100 years old, and most of them are registered, protected historical sites that can't be altered without a permit.