Industrial Heritage at the Expense of the Green Economy: The Destruction of the Dorman Long Tower

This paper explores the contested demolition of an industrial landmark in the sub-region of Teesside in the Northeast of England. Known locally as the Dorman Long Tower and associated with the area's industrial history as a former steel manufacturing place, an examination of its demolition illustrates the acute tensions between the preservation of heritage and the pursuit of green economic development. Situated on a former steelworks site that had been consumed as part of a rebranding known as Teesworks, the tower's demolition was in part justified by local policymakers on the basis that its preservation would prevent thousands of new green jobs from locating to Teesside. The potential for demolitions of former industrial structures on the site provoked a local campaign to save the site's heritage. Despite an emergency spot listing by Historic England, the tower would be demolished after an appeal to revoke the building's listing. Drawing on 47 oral history interviews and 3 focus groups with policymakers, former industrial workers and community activists, including members of both the Teesworks Heritage Taskforce and the Save Our Steel Heritage campaign, this paper will argue that the demolition was perceived by many as procedurally unjust. Consequently, the tower’s demolition became integrated into a broader regional narrative of mistrust between the community and policymakers. As local place identity remains entwined with the industrial past, many community members rejected the binary framing of industrial heritage and green industrial regeneration as mutually exclusive. The potential for misrecognition, and thus an unjust green energy transition on Teesside, manifests itself through a denigration of working-class industrial heritage. The case illustrates that without adequate recognition, old industrial areas risk being coopted as soulless sites for economic investment in turn alienating those with a deep historical affinity for such heritage.

Keywords: Industrial Heritage, Green Economic Development, Just Transition, Oral History, Dorman Long Tower