Iconic form still seeking a function

Astonishment would probably be the best word to sum up his likely reaction. And incredulity might well follow were he alive to be told that a fortification built to resist Napoleon and finished a year before Waterloo is now a leisure centre where people exercise, sport is played and shows are staged.

It is harder to guess what the General would say about the proposal that the Fort roof should be listed as a structure of special architectural interest, but many present-day Islanders will agree that this is a fitting designation for a building which, incongruously but interestingly, adds a 1970s pleasure dome and its surrounding scalloped roof to a 19th century military design.

However, if the Fort is at once an architectural mongrel, an oddity and an example of two styles long out of fashion, it is also an icon. That word is over-used in relation to bricks and mortar – or, indeed, concrete and steel – but it is entirely appropriate for the fascinating hybrid which for four decades has dominated the St Helier skyline.

Yet as well as being an icon, the Fort is an enduring enigma. When the States agreed that the project should go ahead a majority of Members gave assent with enthusiasm, but it very soon became apparent that no one had a very clear idea of what the combination of ancient and modern was really meant to achieve. A symbol of the puzzlement which afflicted politicians, their advisers and the Fort’s management is the rotunda, which for a number of years was used only as a car park with truly spectacular headroom.

Over the years the what-should-it-be-for question has been struggled with by a succession of politicians and administrators, but although there have been sufficient satisfactory answers to make the facility a valued venue for events demanding space and for sport and exercise, the issue has never been fully settled.

But that need not be the end of the matter. The Fort, with or without protected status, is a valuable public asset. Moreover, it is by no means too late to hope that enterprise, public or private, will finally see it fulfil a destiny that is truly satisfactory – if far removed from the martial role that its original creators envisaged.