Before and after: historic buildings restored and transformed English Heritage's latest report, 'Constructive Conservation: Sustainable Growth for Historic Places' focuses on historic buildings across the country which it has helped transform into money-making businesses. Here are some of the best examples. St Francis's friary: before Edward Pugin built this large Neo-Gothic church for Manchester's Francisan community in the 1800s, but when the Franciscans vacated in the 1980s it fell into disuse. In 1997, it was placed on the World Monuments Fund Watch List of the 100 most endangered sites in the world.