Lottery funding backs heritage projects in Bristol and St Ives
Two South West heritage sites will share £7.5m in National Lottery funding to renovate buildings and give them a new future.
Bristol’s Kingsley Hall will receive £4.76m and the Palais de Danse in St Ives has been awarded £2.84m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Grade II* Listed Kingsley Hall sits in Bristol’s Old Market, where it is surrounded by 60 other listed buildings. It developed from a medieval marketplace into a focal point for the city’s promotion of social change on issues including workers’ pay and conditions, women’s rights and the Suffragette movement.
The building will be renovated giving the youth homelessness charity 1625 Independent People the opportunity to create a place of opportunity for young people developing their skills, building relationships, and strengthening their sense of identity and belonging.
Dom Wood, CEO of 1625 Independent People, said: “We’re thrilled to transform our historic home into a vibrant community space, offering hope and opportunities for some of the region’s most vulnerable young people.
“The social history of Kingsley Hall resonates with the young people we support, and Kingsley Hall will stand as a foundation for young people to create brighter futures for themselves and their communities.”
In St Ives, the historic Palais de Danse – which has been closed to the public for 65 years – will be reopened.
Grade II* Listed, it retains features from its former uses as a cinema and dance hall in the early 1900s and its time as Dame Barbara Hepworth’s second studio between 1961 and 1975. The project will create an immersive recreation of the artist’s workshop spaces alongside spaces for making that inspire creative skills development.
The Palais was given to Tate by members of the artist’s family in 2015, with a covenant protecting three elements, which this project will preserve: the floor for the armature of Hepworth’s Single Form, the 24m long maple sprung dance hall floor, and a set of glassine doors designed by Hepworth.
Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives, said: “This brings us to two thirds of our fundraising goal and marks a significant milestone in our journey to transform this historic building that from 1961–75 was Barbara Hepworth’s studio where she made some of her most ambitious large-scale works.
“We are excited to be working towards re-imagining the Palais de Danse as a vibrant heritage site that builds on Hepworth’s remarkable legacy and actively engages our local communities.”
