Grant Funding for Community-led Heritage Regeneration Projects in Northern Ireland

Turning a Victorian school building into a circus arts venue, a 19th-century woolstore into a childcare facility, and a disused former bank building into a community hub, arts and entertainment space - the Architectural Heritage Fund’s (AHF) grant programmes in Northern Ireland are helping communities breathe new life into neglected heritage assets in towns, cities and rural areas across the country.

The AHF currently has two grant programmes open in Northern Ireland, through which it can provide grants to help with assessing the viability of a project, or to help fund development costs.

Harnessing Heritage

Made possible with support from the Department for Communities’ Historic Environment Division and the Garfield Weston Foundation, Harnessing Heritage in Northern Ireland provides advice and early-stage grant funding to heritage and community-led regeneration projects.

Specifically, Project Viability Grants of up to £10,000 are available to test early-stage plans for re-using a historic building. Project Development Grants of up to £20,000 are also available to further develop a project to the point of capital delivery.

Example of a project that has benefitted from support through the Harnessing Heritage programme:

Image: In Your Space Circus at the Old Cathedral School, Derry. Credit - Lorcan Doherty.

The Old Cathedral School, Derry, Londonderry

The former Cathedral Primary School is located in the Historic City Conservation Area and the Cathedral Quarter of Derry. Until the early 1990s, it provided a space for education, social activities and community life. However, the building later lost its use and fell into disrepair.

In Your Space Circus (IYSC) and St Columb’s Cathedral are working to breathe life back into the former Cathedral School and regenerate it as a circus school and performance venue, offering a space in which young people, adults and artists can learn, play and create. 

A Harnessing Heritage Project Viability Grant, awarded in 2022, funded a conditions survey and enabled IYSC to engage with an architect to generate drawings and obtain overall construction costs.

Village Catalyst

Village Catalyst is an innovative partnership programme between the Department for Communities (DfC), the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the NI Housing Executive, and the AHF itself.

Applications are invited from charities, social enterprises and other not-for-profit groups in rural villages of less than 5,000 people who want to tackle rural poverty and social isolation in their area by developing a sustainable use for a disused historic building.

Through the programme, the AHF can provide Project Viability Grants of up to £10,000 to test early-stage plans for re-using a historic building (listed or in a conservation area).

Example of a project that has benefitted from support through Village Catalyst:

Image: Representatives from funders, the local council, MLAs, and community groups gather outside Chandler's House as the building is officially reopened.

Chandler’s House, Rathfriland, County Down

The Grade B1 listed Chandler’s House was originally a pair of mid-19th-century dwellings, remodelled at the beginning of the 20th century to form a bank and manager’s house.

Thanks to a £750k refurbishment and adaptation by Rathfriland and District Regeneration Company, the building now provides a ground-floor space for community and cultural activities, with a focus on music events, as well as four affordable first-floor apartments and an outdoor space which will be developed for other activities.

This project was identified by the NI Development Manager as the fourth and final candidate for the Village Catalyst pilot programme. An AHF Project Development Grant supported the refinement of the group’s business plan and architectural planning work, enabling it to apply for Village Catalyst funding and attract a diverse range of other investors.