Heritage sites to be 'transformed into community hubs'

Grants totalling £12.2m have been awarded to a dozen heritage buildings across the UK to turn them into "vibrant community hubs" as part of efforts to revitalise local economies.

The money, which is being distributed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), will be used to fund significant restorations to help preserve the structures and bring them into use as a range of community and public spaces. 

Beneficiaries include a historic Ice House in Great Yarmouth, which was once used to house freshly caught seafood ahead of transportation to London's Billingsgate fish market, and the Strand Arts Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s last standing picture house.

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The Ice House in Great Yarmouth will receive close to £2m to become an arts and circus training hub with a performance space and a bar. Out There Arts, which is leading the project, said it hopes that the development of the Ice House will help Great Yarmouth become recognised as the UK capital for circus and outdoor arts.

Meanwhile the Strand Arts Centre in Belfast will get £1m to restore of its 1930s architectural features and décor. Cardiff Market restoration project will get £2.2m to secure its future and engage locals, visitors and traders in its heritage.

St John’s Church in Chatham, Kent, will get £2.4m to be transformed into a gateway community hub, and the Grade II listed Lowestoft Town Hall, Suffolk, which has stood vacant since 2015 will get £3.4m for restoration.

Other projects have received developmentfunding in order to formulate detailed proposals. These include St Conan’s Kirk, in Argyll (which receives £93,792), St Collen’s community heritage and visitor experience (£94,886), Alice Billings House, Stratford (£467,172), Rock Hall Revival, Bolton  (£466,662), Woodoaks Farm (£201,392), Ellesmere Yard (£409,993) and Napper Cottage (£58,700).

Last month, NLHF, which is the UK’s largest heritage funder, unveiled details of changes to its funding programme for the first three years of a new 10-year strategy. The strategy, Heritage 2033, aims to invest £3.6bn raised through National Lottery good cause funding over the next decade.

This year sees NLHF wind down grant applications under its current Strategic Funding Framework (SFF), ahead of opening its first grant applications under Heritage 2033, alongside new guidance and application forms, in January 2024.

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Saving heritage is core to what we do, and we look forward to seeing these fantastic projects improving the condition and understanding of the important heritage they guard, reducing the amount of ‘heritage at risk’, and delivering transformational projects for communities across the UK."