Sites including Ralph Erskine’s Byker Estate in Newcastle will share funding for conservation and reuse work
Thirty-seven historic sites across England have been awarded grants through a one-year, £15 million Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, intended to support conservation, repair and conversion projects in some of the country’s most deprived communities.
The scheme, administered by Historic England, seeks to help save listed buildings, scheduled monuments and other heritage assets considered at risk, with grants targeted at areas in the lowest three bands of the indices of deprivation. Funding has been awarded to projects that Historic England says will have strong benefits for local communities.
Among the recipients is Henry William Inwood’s grade II-listed Church of St Mary the Virgin in Somers Town, London, which has secured £640,000 for urgent repairs to masonry, brickwork and joinery. The Gothic-style church has faced threats of closure and demolition, and the funding is intended to allow it to continue operating as a place of worship and community space.
In Newcastle upon Tyne, two grade II*-listed hobby rooms on the Byker Wall Estate, designed by Ralph Erskine in the 1960s, will be restored following years of neglect. Two grants totalling £98,735 will enable Karbon Homes to convert the Spires Lane hobby room into a community hub and redevelop St Michael’s Mount as an artist’s studio. The work is intended to return the facilities to their original community-focused use while accommodating present-day needs.
In Plymouth, the Gaumont Palace, a 1931 theatre and music hall by W H Watkins, has been allocated funding to progress plans for its repair and reuse. The building, which has stood vacant since 2004, sits within the Union Street Conservation Area and is owned by Nudge Community Builders and partner investor Eat Work Art. Nudge’s stated ambition is to create a music and cultural venue for the city.
Other projects receiving funding include Penzance’s medieval Newlyn harbour, the Market House in Penzance, the Golden Lion in Birmingham and the Corporation Bridge in Grimsby. Work funded through the scheme must be completed by the end of March 2026.
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Full list of 37 funded projects:
- Woodhorn Colliery Shaft Heads, Ashington, Northumberland
- Byker Estate Hobby Rooms, Newcastle upon Tyne
- Tyre Shop, 177 High Street West, Sunderland
- St Catherine of Siena, Sheffield
- St John’s Church, Goole, East Yorkshire
- Salford Lads Club, Greater Manchester
- Gawthorpe Great Barn, Burnley, Lancashire
- Morecambe Winter Gardens, Lancashire
- Tullie House, Carlisle, Cumbria
- National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port
- Gosforth Public Hall, Seascale, Cumbria
- Lowestoft Town Hall, Suffolk
- St George’s Guildhall and Creative Hub, King’s Lynn, Norfolk
- The Iron Duke Public House, Great Yarmouth
- Laurel Court, Peterborough
- Chapelfield Gardens Bandstand, Norwich
- Greenland Fishery House, King’s Lynn
- Golden Lion, Birmingham
- Worksop Priory Gatehouse, Nottinghamshire
- Burslem Indoor Market, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
- Bethesda Methodist Chapel, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
- St Mary Magdalene, Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire
- Corporation Bridge, Grimsby, Lincolnshire
- Bromwich Manor House, Sandwell, Birmingham
- Spilsby Sessions House, Lincolnshire
- Unseen Arts, Grimsby, Lincolnshire
- Treadgolds, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire
- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Somers Town, London NW1
- The Greenhouse Centre, London NW1
- Market House, Penzance, Cornwall
- Newlyn’s Old Harbour, Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall
- Gaumont Cinema, Plymouth, Devon
- Toll House at Birnbeck Pier, Weston-Super-Mare
- The Folk Pin Factory, Gloucester, Gloucestershire
- MusicAbility Centre, Penzance, Cornwall
- Health Hydro Turkish Baths, Swindon, Wiltshire
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