The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) has distributed the final grants from its landmark Transforming Places through Heritage programme, officially bringing its current phase to a close.
Made possible with funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the £15million programme helped communities revive their high streets and town centres in England by restoring and reusing historic buildings.
Between September 2019 and March 2023, 338 funding awards, totalling £13,868,006, were made to 239 historic building projects across England.
Some of the results of this investment can be seen in places like Croydon, where the Stanley Halls have been reinvented for the 21st century. This cluster of Grade II-listed buildings were originally designed by inventor and local philanthropist, William Ford Stanley, to provide education, entertainment and cultural improvement to South Norwood under one roof. Throughout the 20th century, the Halls hosted an array of performances, community events, educational classes, exhibitions and political debates, but they later fell out of use. Now, thanks to Stanley Arts, a charity that was formed to save and re-use the Halls, they have been restored and brought back into productive use. Supported by the AHF with three grants through the Transforming Places programme, the Halls have become one of South London’s premiere arts and performance venues, providing the local community with a vital home for cultural expression and discovery.
Click here to watch a short film about Stanley Arts.
Images: Performances at Stanley Arts. Credit - Jan Koblanski and Lukasz Izdebski.
Speaking about the support they received through Transforming Places, Stanley Arts said: "Over the last five years, under the inspired leadership of our CEO/AD Daniel Winder, Stanley Arts has transformed from a well-loved but little-used heritage asset into a cutting-edge arts centre at the heart of a thriving network of cultural partners, local community stakeholders and artists. At the very beginning of that journey, it was the Architectural Heritage Fund that had the vision and foresight to invest in the capacity of the organisation. As one of the earliest supporters, their funding provided vital fundraising and design capacity that unlocked all that followed."
In Great Yarmouth, the town’s oldest surviving timber-framed building at 160 King Street has been rescued following a decade of vacancy and neglect. With the help of a Transformational Project Grant from Transforming Places, Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust was able to undertake sensitive repair and conservation work on the 17th-century jettied building. It now features affordable housing on the first and second floors, generating income to sustain the Trust’s work, and a Portuguese café on the ground floor.
In Thornton, Bradford, the Transforming Places programme was able to step in at a vital early stage to help The Brontë Birthplace Trust develop their plans to acquire and open up the townhouse that was the birthplace of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. Dating back to 1802, the vacant Grade II*-listed building was home to the Brontë family between 1815-20. To keep the legacy of the famous sibling authors alive, The Brontë Birthplace conceived a plan to acquire and transform the building into a social and educational space, with a downstairs café and arts and creativity hub, as well as first floor accommodation. A Transforming Places Project Viability Grant helped get the project to RIBA stage 2, paving the way for later capital works. Following on from this support, The Brontë Birthplace was able to open a community share offer, attracting over 700 individual investors and significant grants from Bradford City of Culture 2025 and the Community Ownership Fund. The building has now been brought into community ownership for the first time in its 200-year history and is currently on the way to being restored and opened in 2025.
Image: The unveiling of a blue plaque at the Brontë Birthplace. Photo courtesy of The Brontë Birthplace.
Commenting on their Transforming Places Project Viability Grant, Steven Stanworth, Vice Chair of The Brontë Birthplace, said: “The grant made a significant difference prior to our opening plans for 2025. With it we were able to support an important piece of work with an expert on structure and finance and also employ a community officer to reach out to local groups. In doing so, we have found the support of fifty volunteers and rising, as well as local arts groups who will offer workshops and provide inspiration in our letting bedrooms where the Brontës slept as children, arranging key joint exhibitions on poetry, the environment, literature and history.
“Our open day before refurbishment attracted up to a thousand people and the money AHF provided has helped to cement relationships and develop a sense of pride and regeneration possibilities in not only a run-down, boarded-up historic literary asset, but the whole area. The excitement is palpable and by enabling us to engage with professionals to spread the word, we have the confidence to now begin developing ambitious plans for 2025. We have even seen other businesses begin to open in the area and as a result there is a real feeling of optimism, not just about the house, but for Thornton as a whole.”
In some cases, the AHF has supported several projects in one place through Transforming Places, kickstarting the regeneration of multiple buildings in a town or city. This can be seen in places like Grimsby, where 17-21 Bethlehem Street, believed to be one of the town’s oldest buildings, is being transformed by Our Big Picture into an accessible and inclusive creative community space for arts and heritage. Meanwhile, on Grimsby Docks, the Peterson’s Project has revitalised two important buildings within the historic Kasbah Conservation Area: Peterson’s Smokehouse, a fish processing and smoking factory, and Building 89, providing newly created offices and retail spaces. Lastly, work has begun on restoring and converting the former West Haven Maltings and Migar House buildings into Horizon Youth Zone, a state-of-the-art youth centre in the heart of Grimsby. Once complete, these three AHF-supported projects will not only benefit their respective buildings and end users but hopefully act as a catalyst to encourage further regeneration in the town.
Images of Peterson's Smokehouse and Building 89 from an event celebrating the completion of the Peterson's Project.
As the AHF now marks the end of the current Transforming Places through Heritage and celebrates the programme’s achievements so far, we know there is still so much work to be done. Many of the grants awarded through Transforming Places were early-stage interventions and restoration work is still in development. It takes vision, resilience, and timely support to help move these building projects through the planning stages to repair and ultimately sustainable operation. Up and down the country, charities and social enterprises continue to step up with fresh ideas for beloved old buildings to breathe new life back into their declining high streets and town centres, and to make them vibrant, diverse and livable places that meet the needs of local people.
Matthew Mckeague, Chief Executive of the AHF, said: “It’s been fantastic to watch the development of so many projects funded through the Transforming Places through Heritage programme over the last few years. These are all social enterprise and charity-led projects that not only revitalise historic buildings, often in deprived places, but also generate new thinking about what our town centres should provide for current and future communities. However, the need has not ended with this current programme. We know there is still huge demand – and potential – from community-led projects, demand we hope to fill with further support from partners and funders in the near future.”
For more detailed information about the programme and a full list of the projects supported, read the Transforming Places through Heritage Final Report.
