SFF grant increases

Our Museum Project: Rediscovering Poole's Maritime Heritage

Applicant: Borough of Poole

Project description: To transform Poole Museum into a regional-scale attraction at the heart of a rejuvenated ‘Quay Quarter’ by restoring and opening up the at-risk Grade I listed medieval Wool Hall for the public. The project aims to transform the visitor journey by improving inclusivity, welcome, and accessibility. Public spaces will be doubled, and the project will provide new and updated visitor facilities.

Decision: Award a grant increase of £749,200 to make a total grant of £2,989,400 (54%)

St Marylebone Changing Lives

Applicant: The Ecclesiastical Parish of St Marylebone with Holy Trinity St Marylebone

Project description: To deliver conservation and urgent repair works, together with a programme of activities and engagement relating to the history of the building and local area, providing a place for the community and visitors to meet, learn and explore.

Decision: Award a grant increase of £651,942 to make a total grant of £3,617,642 (30%)

SFF delivery round applications

Docking Station

Applicant: University of Kent

Project description: To restore and regenerate the Police Section House of the former Royal Dockyard Chatham, once a centre of technical innovation and cutting-edge design, into a new epicentre for creative innovation in a digital era.

Decision: Award grant of £3,567,400 (29%)

Isles of Scilly Cultural Centre and Museum

Applicant: Council of the Isles of Scilly

Project description: The restoration of the Grade II Old Town Hall in St Mary's, creating a new home for the islands’ museum collections and developing a cultural centre for visitors and residents with a programme of activities.

Decision: Award grant of £4,613,471 (31%)

Lighting Up the Lea

Applicant: Gasworks Dock Partnership

Project description: To deliver a three-year programme of capital works, exhibitions, volunteering opportunities and heritage activities at Cody Dock. This includes a permanent installation of a new multi-use learning and interpretation space focusing on the local heritage and ecology.

Decision: Award grant of £1,676,987 (88%)

Nunhead Cemetery East Lodge: From Ruin to Revival

Applicant: London Borough of Southwark

Project description: The restoration of the Grade II listed East Lodge at Nunhead Cemetery, providing visitor facilities, a café, and community space. Interpretation, volunteering, and activities would also be enhanced.

Decision: Award grant of £3,711,244 (72%)

SFF development round applications

Health Hydro: Restoration of Main Pool Hall

Applicant: Swindon Borough Council

Project description: To restore and enhance the main swimming pool in Swindon’s Grade II* listed Health Hydro through repairs and conservation works and an embedded interpretation of the Health Hydro’s history and heritage. The project would deliver an activity plan covering heritage open days, community storytelling, a Youth Partnerships programme, a school outreach programme and employment opportunities.

Decision: Award grant of £408,904 (80%)

Bradbourne Re-bourne – Bringing Back Blue Nature

Applicant: Sevenoaks District Council

Project description: To restore the 300-year-old Bradbourne Lakes as a central hub for the community. The five lakes system would be repaired and restored, with an area of greenspace becoming a natural area with wildflower seeding, log piles and other wildlife enhancements. New signage would demonstrate the interconnectedness between Bradbourne Lakes and the adjacent Kent Wildlife Trust site for visitors. The creation of a new volunteer hub and delivery of natural environment eco-counselling in partnership with MIND would support wellbeing, and a programme of activities would provide outcomes for young people within the criminal justice system.

Decision: Award grant of £227,280 (90%)

ARK – Cliftonville's new cultural space

Applicant: Cliftonville Cultural Space

Project description: To repair and convert the unlisted Cliftonville Synagogue into a heritage, arts and community space. Working with partners, the project aims to turn the building into a vibrant, accessible place for workshops, performances and exhibitions, as well as a hireable space for local groups and celebrations. Interpretation including a film and oral history recordings would tell the story of the Synagogue, the Jewish community in Cliftonville, and the local area as well as working with newer arrivals to collect and share their stories and traditions.

Decision: Reject

The Punjab Heritage Project: Tracing your Family to the First World War

Applicant: The University of Greenwich

Project description: To explore the history, legacy and commemoration of Punjab’s role in the First World War. The project aims to develop a nationwide programme of learning and engagement activities to share and interpret historical resources relating to wartime service of people from the Punjab. This includes a skills training programme for regional partners to support community engagement and the development of plans for hosting digital outputs beyond project close.

Decision: Reject

Stockland Bristol: Sustaining a Community

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of St Mary Magdalene, Stockland

Project description: To undertake urgent structural repairs to a Grade II listed church on the At-Risk Register and create a community space, café, and co-ordinate activities. Wildlife habitat and reinterpretation panels would also be placed externally.

Decision: Award grant of £211,359 (79%)

Sounds of the South West

Applicant: Bristol City Council

Project description: To digitise, catalogue and make accessible 8,000 items identified in archive collections in the seven local authority archive services and 21 other heritage organisations in the South West region. The programme would focus on collections most urgently needing protection against permanent loss and those that would resonate with people, including underrepresented communities. The project would engage new audiences with audio heritage through volunteer opportunities, co-created community engagement activities and creative responses to audio heritage.

Decision: Award grant of £177,079 (57%)

Tudor Wall Painting and Sanctuary Project

Applicant: Discover DeCrypt

Project description: The sanctuary of the church would be restored through conservation work with the aim of securing the future of St Mary de Crypt as a viable heritage destination and community hub. A programme of activity would engage young people and the local community, including work placements and apprenticeships, training and support for volunteers and creative skills development opportunities.

Decision: Award grant of £117,500 (79%)

Roman Britain – Reimagined in Reading

Applicant: Reading Borough Council

Project description: To redevelop the Silchester gallery, addressing collection issues and improving visitor experience. The project aims to deliver gallery re-development and new interpretation and improve physical access within the gallery, particularly for people with visual impairments and wheelchair users. Activities, events and roles include object handling, talks, guided tours and site visits, workshops, museum takeover days, family activities, volunteer placements, internships and digital resources creation.

Decision: Award grant of £36,825 (74%)

Living Legacies: collaboration, community and radicality

Applicant: The Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA)

Project description: To revitalise the INIVA archives through an engagement programme of cataloguing, digitisation, conservation, and heritage outputs, creating a ‘living archive’ from Global Majority, African, Asian and Caribbean diaspora perspectives and the Black Arts Movement of the 1980s.

Decision: Award grant of £149,500 (86%)

What's in Store?

Applicant: Newton Abbot Town Council

Project description: The creation of a purpose-built environmentally controlled and fully accessible new store to accommodate vulnerable objects and enable a wider range of experiences for visitors and additional space for volunteers. A three-year activity programme would deliver an exhibition, volunteer training, programmes and workshops.

Decision: Award grant of £78,952 (83%)

Where Newham's Past Meets Newham's Future: The Newham Heritage Centre

Applicant: London Borough of Newham

Project description: Completion of the internal fit-out of the Grade II Canning Town Old Library, following its repair and repurposing, into the Newham Heritage Centre. The archive and museum collection would be interpreted within the Centre, which would host learning spaces, workspaces, event space, a digital suite and café. A programme of activity would run through the delivery phase with partners, to host work placements, volunteering, school partnerships, exhibitions and events with a strong community creation focus.

Decision: Award grant of £551,743 (76%)