England, London & South: committee decisions December 2023
Grant Increases
Sharing Social Housing’s History: Restoring Kensal House Estate’s Community Rooms
Applicant: SPID Theatre Company
Project Description: To repair, refurbish and extend the Community Rooms in the Grade II* Kensal House Estate, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The project would explore the history of social housing in Kensington, Brent and Camden and make this accessible through interpretation and a Living History programme. Activities will aim to engage with young people from local estates and Kensal House residents to help them develop skills.
Decision: Award grant increase of £362,156 to make a total grant of £1,198,156 (30%)
Restoration of Brockwell Hall – Letting the Past Enhance the Future
Applicant: London Borough of Lambeth
Project Description: To restore the Grade II* Brockwell Hall, providing multi-purpose spaces including exhibitions, business and community events, a café, offices for events staff and accommodation for the Brockwell Park Community Partnership. Connected to the main building, an events space would be constructed within the stable yard area. The project aims to deliver opportunities for learning, focusing on the social history, architecture and landscape architecture of the hall and the park. The creation of a ‘Living Memory’ digital archive will enable people to contribute their own stories and artefacts.
Decision: Award grant increase of £599,103 to make a total grant of £3,899,903 (50%)
SFF Delivery Round Applications
Culture House
Applicant: Anti-Tribalism Movement
Project Description: To create a community hub and a dedicated space to display and engage people with Somali heritage and existing collections. Anti-Tribalism Movement has an inventory of around 150 items of Somali heritage including paintings, traditional household items and clothing, musical instruments, written correspondence, photographs, and books. The project aims to conserve, interpret, and display these items to the public for the first time and record and share intangible heritage relating to the Somali community including oral histories, poetry and storytelling performances.
Decision: Award delivery grant of £1,247,687 (89%)
Life on the Edge
Applicant: South Hams District Council
Project Description: A landscape-scale partnership project to restore resilient populations of some of the UK’s most at risk invertebrates, with particular focus on five hotspots of threatened species. The project would combine area-wide habitat improvements and connectivity with specific interventions to support target species recovery, alongside a programme of skill development, education and target audience and wider community engagement throughout the project area and within the adjacent areas of Plymouth and Torbay.
Decision: Award delivery grant of £2,246,965 (51%)
'A Garden Fit for King' – Reawakening Brighton's Royal Estate, Phase 2
Applicant: Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust
Project Description: To re-establish the identity and significance of Brighton’s Royal Pavilion Estate through restoration of the Nash-designed garden, removing it from the Heritage at Risk Register. The project will increase the number of visitors annually and engage four priority audiences through a wide-ranging activity programme and skills and development opportunities. New interpretation, physically and virtually, would focus on the architecture and design of the garden, reflecting its history as a Regency private royal garden.
Decision: Award delivery grant of £4,369,755 (69%) including uplift of £952,755
London Blue Chain
Applicant: Froglife Trust
Project Description: To create a London Blue Chain along the historic London Green Chain walking route and connect a corridor of freshwater habitats and local communities with their natural heritage. The habitat interventions would support vulnerable wildlife, including amphibians, reptiles and freshwater bodies. Activities tailored to reach communities and individuals who are not engaged with nature conservation will involve a range of ethnic diverse communities living in Lewisham, Bexley, Bromley, Lambeth, Southwark and Greenwich.
Decision: Award delivery grant of £573,078 (66%)
SFF Development Round Applications
Restore the Binns: organ restoration at St John's, Deptford
Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St John with Holy Trinity Deptford.
Project Description: To restore a 1901 ecclesiastical organ situated in the Grade II listed St John’s Church in Deptford, London. Organ-focused heritage activities included concerts, organ technology workshops, volunteer training and oral histories will extend the involvement with and impact of the restored organ in the local community and underserved groups. The church aims to develop strategic management capabilities and undertake a series of reviews to improve its business position and governance standing.
Decision: Award development grant of £62,054 (85%) and potential delivery grant of £459,362 (82%)
Heritage Enterprise: The Marchwell Studios Project
Applicant: Chichester Community Development Trust
Project Description: The project will restore and convert the former Marchwell Stables at Graylingwell into a centre for makers' spaces, training facilities and community activities to support local enterprises. Plans for the project also include a skills-based interpretation and activity programme.
Decision: Award development grant of £138,920 (86%) and potential delivery grant of £1,225,978 (46%)
Ramsgate Clock House Project
Applicant: Thanet District Council
Project Description: To conserve, restore and extend Ramsgate Clock House, reopening the maritime museum, as part of a larger regeneration project centred on Ramsgate Harbour and funded through Levelling Up Funding. Alongside repairing and conserving the exterior of the Grade II* listed Clock House, the project would deliver a range of engagement activities in partnership with local organisations, including an oral history project to gather material to be used in the revitalised museum displays.
Decision: Reject
The Roding Rises
Applicant: Thames21 Limited
Project Description: The River Roding connects the rural areas of west Essex with one of the most densely populated parts of London, with around 1.1million people living in the London boroughs that it passes. This project aims to improve the habitat along 3km of the river and engage with communities in the wards that border the river. Activity programmes will create opportunities for people to connect with the river and support social cohesion between rural and urban communities.
Decision: Award development grant of £167,811 (92%) and potential delivery grant of £1,486,508 (83%)
Active for Nature
Applicant: Devon County Council
Project Description: To increase habitats for wildlife (particularly pollinating species and birds) and create high quality spaces for people to be active and connect to nature in 15 green areas across Devon. The project would work with people from lower socio-economic groups, ethnically diverse communities and underserved groups who faced more barriers in being active in nature. It would offer training opportunities for volunteers, capacity-building workshops, better communications, site access improvements, equipment provision, better links with local surgeries and social prescribers.
Decision: Reject
Queer Heritage South: Live Archive Brighton & Hove
Applicant: Marlborough Theatre Productions Ltd
Project Description: To establish a living, digital archive of LGBTQIA+ people for Brighton and Hove over 3 years. The project will partner with local institutions and communities to collect local history in formats from oral history and photographs to printed ephemera and video footage. Building on the existing work of the Queer History South archive, the project will also create a new cultural production to celebrate the city's nationally and internationally significant LGBTQIA+ heritage.
Decision: Award development grant of £214,968 (81%) and potential delivery grant of £1,075,223 (83%)
The Wren Project
Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St James, Westminster
Project Description: To conserve the Anglican Grade I St James' Piccadilly, making it fully physically and intellectually accessible and broadening the wider understanding of its heritage. The project will carry out urgent conservation works to the interior and exterior of the church and convert the Jermyn Street building to provide a new point of access and improved facilities. The project will also run a three-year activity programme with themes including civil society, art, heritage and music, the environment and leadership in business.
Decision: Award development grant of £265,000 (89%) and potential delivery grant of £3,725,000 (14%)
Southbank Sinfonia @ St John’s Smith Square: a dynamic cultural hub for the community with emerging talent at its heart
Applicant: St John’s Square Charitable Trust
Project Description: The project would address urgent repairs and the resilience of a Grade I listed building following the recent merger of the Southbank Sinfonia with the concert hall venue St John’s Smith Square. Building on the merger, and informed by comprehensive project planning, consultation, and established partnerships, the project will seek to engage new and existing audiences and develop skills and resilience.
Decision: Award development grant of £452,035 (58%) and potential delivery grant of £3,625,418 (32%)
The Parrett's Mouth: Empowering Somerset's Coastal communities in a changing landscape
Applicant: The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Project Description: To develop a new education centre on the Steart Marshes, Somerset and provide a demonstration site for landscape-scale wetland creation and restoration. The project would raise awareness of the risk to wetland habitats, and their place in the management of climate change. The new centre would provide a community space for local events, improved interpretation and site facilities for visitors, learning space for schools and proper facilities for staff and volunteers for the first time.
Decision: Reject
Holy Trinity Hastings: Heritage@HTH
Applicant: The Parochial Church Council of the Ecclesiastical Parish of Holy Trinity Hastings
Project Description: The project will fully restore and upgrade the church as the central hub of a heritage activity programme. Interpretation and education activities and a programme of events will embrace the ‘Trinity Triangle’s’ diverse communities and reaching out to new ones. The interior of the building will be adapted to provide for more flexible use and integrate energy efficiency and sustainability measures.
Decision: Award development grant of £479,083 (90%) and potential delivery grant of £4,174,280 (82%)
The Marlowe Kit
Applicant: The Marlowe Trust
Project Description: To repair and repurpose the Grade I Listed Marlowe Kit in Canterbury, creating a free heritage attraction, with a café and facilities for hire to diversify the business model and generate income. A programme of activities would be delivered, with a series of heritage events and activities aimed at young people including a digital toolkit resource for teachers and immersive experience days for schools.
Decision: Award development grant of £548,427 (88%) and potential delivery grant of £2,951,573 (46%)
Unlocking Broomfield Park for the Community
Applicant: London Borough Of Enfield
Project Description: A landscape and nature project to repair and conserve key features of Grade II listed ‘Baroque’ Broomfield Park in Palmers Green, Enfield. The remains of Grade II* listed Broomfield House and the lakes would be conserved, reintroducing the historic garden boundary in the original Baroque style. The project would also offer a programme of heritage and nature-themed health and wellbeing activities, and a hoarding project to involve young people in decisions about the park.
Decision: Award development grant of £532,490 (88%) and potential delivery grant of £3,672,231 (89%)