1. Home
  2. What Is Heritage?
  3. Areas, buildings and monuments

View as PDF

Areas, buildings and monuments

Areas, buildings and monuments

People walking up steps to a castle with turret
Lincoln Castle. Credit: Colin McLean Photography
Safeguarding our historic buildings, monuments and archaeology for future generations.

Thanks to National Lottery players, since 1994 we have awarded £3.3billion to more than 10,300 area, historic building and monument projects across the UK. See stories from projects we've funded below.

We provide grants for heritage projects from £10,000–£10million to ensure that heritage is valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future.

These projects can help to sustain jobs, support economic growth and protect heritage at risk. They can also bolster local pride, nurture traditional craft skills and help communities enjoy and make use of the places they care about.

What do we support?

Projects we fund include:

  • investment in places of worship
  • conservation and repairs to historic buildings and places
  • finding appropriate new uses for historic buildings
  • community archaeology projects

Places of worship

Places of worship are among the UK’s oldest and most cherished historic buildings. We want to help congregations become truly resilient and their buildings genuinely sustainable.

Places of worship we fund

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • repair and transform a historic building at the heart of their community
  • help volunteers learn building conservation skills
  • rescue a building on a Buildings at Risk register
  • undertake a community archaeology project
  • regenerate a historic town centre or high street
  • look after and learn about a local war memorial

How to get funding

Our National Lottery Heritage Grants programme is open for applications.

Find out more and apply
The historic buildings at the Berwick Barracks site on a sunny day
The project will reconnect the historic landmark with the local community and create a new visitor experience. Photo: The Living Barracks.

Projects

Berwick Barracks: The Living Barracks

This project will transform the Grade I listed historic landmark into a thriving cultural hub and visitor destination.

A visitor to Cladh Hallan on Uist uses augmented reality through the camera of their phone to see what the original structures on the site looked like.
Augmented reality archaeology at Cladh Hallan, Uist. Credit: Uist Virtual Archaeology Project.

Projects

Augmented reality technology to reawaken Hebridean history

Our funding will support the University of the Highlands and Islands to digitally reconstruct archaeological wonders on the islands of Barra and Harris.

A group of four colleagues, holding up a blue Heritage Fund roundel, stand in the middle of the stage of the Leith Theatre, looking out to the empty stalls and grand circle above.
Lynn Morrison, Anna Higham, Douglas Frost and Aisha Fatunmbi-Randall from Leith Theatre Trust. Credit: Leith Theatre Trust.

Projects

Bringing Leith Theatre back to life

Our funding brings plans for the restoration and rejuvenation of one of Edinburgh’s most loved cultural venues a step closer.

Four young musicians stand together in a large room within Canada House, prior to the restoration.
Young musicians in Canada House, Sheffield. Credit: Vox Media.

Projects

Creating a music hub for Sheffield's next generation

We have awarded £4.7million to transform Canada House, a Grade II* listed Sheffield landmark, into an innovative centre for music education and performance.

Three people standing at a gate. Behind them are white farm buildings. They are holding a blues circular The NAtional Lottery Heritage FUnd sign
Heritage Fund support for Saving the Home of Auld Lang Syne. Photo: Ian Findlay/Robert Burns Ellisland Trust.

Projects

Saving the Home of Auld Lang Syne

Around the world people come together singing Auld Lang Syne. National Lottery funding is helping to secure the future of the Scottish farm where Robert Burns wrote it.

A timber-framed building covered in snow
Cranleigh Cottage Hospital.

Projects

Reviving the first cottage hospital in England

Led by Cranleigh Heritage Trust, this project will transform Cranleigh Cottage Hospital into a multi-purpose heritage and wellbeing community hub.

a group of people wearing hard hats and high-vis jackets stand inside the building looking at conservation works
Young people from Dover take part in a hard-hat tour to see wall paintings and stained-glass conservation in progress. Photo: Maison Dieu.

Projects

Reawakening Dover's Maison Dieu

This internationally significant NeoGothic building will be accessible to the public for the first time in its 800-year history.

A room with a high vaulted ceiling, a large glitter ball and trestle style tables. The room is warmly lit. Large glass doors look out onto a courtyard.
The newly restored dining hall and courtyard at The Buttermarket. Credit: Sam Sabatelli, for Redruth Revival CIC.

Projects

Rediscovering the market town of Redruth

A cluster of Grade II listed buildings, collectively known as the Buttermarket, has been transformed into a thriving cultural and community hub.

If you query is regarding our application portal, please contact our support team.