Business centre plans move forward with £1.5m Lottery grant

A new business centre in Nottingham city centre has taken a step closer after the National Lottery Heritage Fund announced a grant award of £1.5m to Nottingham City Council, which will help secure the future of The People’s Hall on Heathcoat Street in the city.

The project has been developed to this stage after funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Architectural Heritage Fund.

The funding will help towards building repairs and conversion into a business centre for small and medium-sized creative and digital businesses. It will also provide an opportunity for local people to get involved in the project and learn about heritage skills as well as discovering more about the building’s history through a series of activities.

The People’s Hall, which is located in a Lace Market conservation area and is on the Listed Buildings at Risk Register, is made up of two buildings, an 18th Century townhouse and a 19th Century Public Hall. It sits over three floors, with a basement, cellars and subterranean caves. Many of the building’s original features still remain, but are in poor condition and Nottingham City Council says it hopes that some features can be preserved and restored as part of the works.

Built in 1750, the hall was originally known as Morley House. It is one of the rare examples of an 18th century gentleman’s townhouse which was built by, and for, a woman – Ann Morley. She was a successful businesswoman, and it is thought that the bricks used to build the house may have come from her own brickworks.

In 1843, The Nottingham School of Design, later to become Nottingham Trent University, first opened here to educate workers in the lace and textile industry and, in 1854, lace merchant George Gill established the People’s Hall Institute – a ‘working-man’s hall’. It was at this point when the building was almost doubled in size and re-fronted.

During the 20th century the building was used by a variety of different groups, including: a rehearsal hall for The Cameo Players, a local amateur dramatic group; a meeting place for the Antediluvian Order of the Buffalo; and, since the Second World War, a venue for sporting competitions including snooker and billiards.

It is hoped that more of the building’s interesting past will be uncovered as part of the ongoing project.

Ros Kerslake, chief executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Ann Morley’s role as a female entrepreneur who was ahead of her time has been largely forgotten, but happily her fine townhouse survives, now as part of The People’s Hall. Thanks to National Lottery players, her story can now inspire the next generation of Nottingham’s entrepreneurs and The People’s Hall will once again become a hub for enterprise and community, a priority for The National Lottery Heritage Fund.”

The funding announcement is half of the total amount needed to complete the project and an application for the remaining funds is due to be announced soon.