SFF grant increases

The Urban Nature Project: Communities acting for local wildlife

Applicant: Natural History Museum

Project description: To transform the East and West Gardens outside Natural History Museum’s Grade I listed Waterhouse building in South Kensington and deliver activities focused on urban nature in England, Scotland and Wales. To construct a Nature Activity Centre and new Nature Discovery Garden in the West Gardens and create a new visitor route in the East Gardens, from the South Kensington underground subway to the museum entrance to take visitors through a history of Earth and the evolution of life.

Decision: Award grant increase of £1,500,000 to make a total grant of £4,731,900 (24%)

SFF delivery round applications

The Leach Pottery: The next 100 years

Applicant: Bernard Leach (St Ives) Trust Limited

Project description: To provide a northern gateway building for St. Ives, Cornwall, with the restoration of two Grade II listed buildings, a new learning resource, welcome area, and redesigned shop and online store, to deliver an activity plan embedded in the local community to continue to develop the legacy of Bernard Leach for future generations.

Decision: Award grant of £3,489,501

Allen Gallery and Garden

Applicant: Hampshire Cultural Trust

Project description: To redevelop the Allen Gallery in Alton, Hampshire, through improvement to the Grade II listed building, new galleries and a redisplayed and reinterpreted collection. Community engagement with a training and volunteering programme aimed at attracting under-represented groups to the museum securing its future.

Decision: Award grant of £1,789,571

Vicars' Close: A Medieval Street Singing Through the Centuries

Applicant: The Chapter at Wells Cathedral

Project description: To repair and conserve Vicars’ Close, an internationally significant architectural site which has been integral to the history and fine choral tradition of Wells Cathedral. To create a legacy to safeguard the future of Vicars’ Close and deliver a new visitor experience and a programme of heritage-based events and activities designed to engage with a wide range of audiences.

Decision: Award grant of £4,422,072

Diving Museum: Public Engagement and Organisational Change Project (2024–2028)

Applicant: The Historical Diving Society

Project description: To conserve and restore the Grade II* gun battery building (Diving Museum) in Gosport, Hampshire, to increase customer access and engagement opportunities. The collection would be redisplayed and reinterpreted, sharing the heritage of both diving and the building, along with its context within the historic local landscape.

Decision: Award grant of £802,604

Re-uniting Sydenham Hill Wood & Dulwich Wood

Applicant: The London Wildlife Trust

Project description: To secure the long-term future of the largest remaining tract of the ancient Great North Wood landscape in south London, by uniting Sydenham Hill Wood and Dulwich Wood under the same management. To transform 27.4Ha of ancient woodland for visitors, volunteers and other users.

Decision: Award grant of £1,020,000

Reinventing Borde Hill

Applicant: Borde Hill Garden Limited

Project description: Re-inventing Borde Hill in West Sussex, 44.5Ha of Grade II* listed landscape. To create a more diverse and meaningful level of visitor engagement, to better inform and safeguard natural habitats and to support mental and physical wellbeing of the local community.

Decision: Award grant of £2,250,000

St Mary's Totnes – Recovery, Resilience and Reconnection

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of The Ecclesiastical Parish of St Mary, Totnes with St John The Evangelist, Bridgetown

Project description: To support the repair and reordering of the Grade I St Mary's Church, Totnes, enabling it to become a viable venue for events and equipped as a hub for community engagement, volunteering and social cohesion.

Decision: Award grant of £965,416

CITiZAN – Coasts in Mind: Mapping 100 years of coastal change through community heritage

Applicant: Museum Of London Archaeology

Project description: To collaborate with selected coastal communities to compile locally held images, documents and personal accounts of observed or anecdotal changes to cultural and natural heritage, showing coastal change over the past 100 years. A digital community archive of local heritage will be created to inform local policymaking and complement existing coastal records.

Decision: Award grant of £2,334,235

Heritage 2033 development round applications for discussion and decision

Not Bourne Yesterday: Chalk Stream Communities of the Chilterns

Applicant: Conservation Board for the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Project description: A multi-strand project to protect and raise awareness of the heritage and habitats of the chalk streams of the Chilterns. The focus of the strands would be both natural and cultural and would investigate past impacts, rehabilitate damaged habitats and build resilience against future negative impacts through education and community participation.

Decision: Award development grant of £351,083 (90%) and potential delivery grant of £2,838.259 (79%)

Tor to Shore

Applicant: Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Project description: To establish a Nature Recovery Network for the Par River catchment in Cornwall. Project activity would take place from Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Helman Tor nature reserve to St Austell Bay, taking an integrated approach to land and marine management to enhance habitats, improve water quality and increase flood and climate resilience across the landscape.

Decision: Award development grant of £264,857 (54%) and potential delivery grant of £3,329,363 (69%)

Theatre Royal Margate: Produce, Perform & Participate – 240 years of performance heritage conserved, restored and modernised

Applicant: Thanet District Council

Project description: To restore and repair the Theatre Royal building (last remaining Jethro T. Robinson Victorian auditorium) and neighbouring Grade II listed building 19 Hawley Square, providing a more flexible space to improve financial viability and to give the Theatre a sustainable future.

Decision: Reject

From Dinosaurs to Guinea Pigs: The East Grinstead Museum Masterplan

Applicant: East Grinstead Museum

Project description: To reconfigure and expand the East Grinstead Museum space via a single storey building extension, creating additional areas for activity programmes, immersive and interactive exhibitions to increase visitor numbers, digital engagement, retail income and donations providing long term financial stability for the museum.

Decision: Reject

Porlock InSpired

Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of Porlock with Stoke Pero

Project description: To undertake repairs to the spire and roof of the 13th century Grade I listed St Dubricius church. The project would increase the organisation’s environmental sustainability as well as enhancing inclusion and access through an intergenerational activity programme for the local community and visitors to Porlock.

Decision: Award a development grant of £179,335 (85%) and potential delivery grant of £1,227,187 (79%)

Building the Future

Applicant: The Egypt Exploration Society

Project description: To reorder and renovate the three buildings which make up the Egypt Exploration Society’s home in Doughty Mews, Camden. A converted office would create a new Learning Hub to include display space and space for learning activities along with a new climate-controlled papyri store, protecting and conserving the internationally important collection.

Decision: Award a development grant of £61,321 (66%) and potential delivery grant of £2,031,927 (75%)

Transforming the South Asia Gallery

Applicant: Victoria & Albert Museum

Project description: To transform access to the South Asia collections at V&A South Kensington, creating a new gallery for one of the world’s most important and varied collections of South Asian art and design. To re-present and reinterpret the collection, with a wide-ranging activity programme onsite, offsite and online which is more representative of the diverse histories and cultures of South Asia.

Decision: Award a development grant of £250,000 (37%) and potential delivery grant of £4,072,505 (47%)

Re-imagining Boathouse 6: The new Dockyard home of the Royal Marines Experience Museum, Special Exhibitions Gallery and programming for all ages

Applicant: National Museum of the Royal Navy

Project description: To deliver a world class, immersive, experiential museum using the whole of the Grade II Boathouse 6. Strengthening Portsmouth Historic Docks’s offer, to grow visitor and commercial income, improve organisational sustainability and increase economic impact, the 2026 centenary celebration of city status being a key feature.

Decision: Award a development grant of £480,000 (74%) and potential delivery award of £4,420,000 (33%)