Major new funding boost will support communities to protect, reuse and revive their local heritage
The Architectural Heritage Fund writes:
In its 50th anniversary year, the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is delighted to announce a significant further investment that will enable expansion of the Heritage Revival Fund through to 2030. This new funding will take the total capital investment in the programme to £46 million over the next four years, and will ensure the AHF can provide grants to hundreds of communities across England, supporting them to breathe new life into neglected historic buildings. The Heritage Revival Fund is delivered in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Historic England. The programme was launched in April 2025 to help communities to rescue and repurpose neglected historic buildings (particularly in town centre locations) and transform them into vibrant spaces and uses – ranging from arts centres to food halls and affordable housing – that meet modern needs.
Having already supported a wide range of brilliant projects through this programme in the past year, the AHF is now excited to be renewing its partnership with DCMS with this new investment, starting from April 2026. Welcoming the new four-year funding package from DCMS, Ros Kerslake, Chair of the Architectural Heritage Fund, commented: ‘We are absolutely delighted to welcome this significant new funding award from DCMS. Communities across the country will be transformed by this unprecedented investment in locally led schemes, and it will provide a host of new futures for much-loved heritage assets.’
To illustrate the transformative potential for heritage reuse projects this funding will support, the AHF is pleased to share the news of 10 new Capital Grants, totalling £2.8 million, awarded through the Heritage Revival Fund in December 2025. These awards were among 17 projects in England offered a total of £3.2 million in grant funding by the AHF in December – the largest amount ever awarded by the AHF in one single grants meeting. Matthew Mckeague, Chief Executive of the Architectural Heritage Fund, said: ‘These new awards will help create high-quality new spaces within historic buildings for a range of community and social enterprise-led projects. They will help repurpose vacant spaces within town centres and on high streets, helping create wider economic and regeneration benefits and which bring communities together. We are very grateful to DCMS for helping make these projects happen.’
Heritage Minister, Baroness Twycross, said: ‘Heritage is about our present and future, not just our past. This fund enables transformation of historic buildings, bringing them back into daily use as vital assets within communities and promoting economic growth. I am proud that this fund has already achieved so much. From transforming Canada House in Sheffield into a music hub for young people to creating housing for the vulnerable at Bristol’s Kingsley Hall, these grants breathe new life into town centres and ensure our heritage serves the needs of communities today.’
The recipients of the Heritage Revival Fund Capital Grants include:
Canada House, Sheffield – Harmony Works Trust
Originally built as offices for the Sheffield United Gas Light Company in 1875, the Grade II*-listed Canada House played a crucial role in the technological revolution that swept across the UK. Various uses have followed since, including?TurnUps?nightclub during the 1980s or the No.1 Oriental Buffet in the early 2000s, but the building now stands vacant. In 2017, a partnership was formed with the aim of finding a permanent home for music education in the city. Upon discovering Canada House in 2017, Sheffield Music Academy and Sheffield Music Service launched a vision to restore and convert the building into ‘Harmony Works’. Located in the heart of Sheffield City Centre, this new music hub will provide a highly visible, accessible, and physical focus for music education, offering an all-in-one practice, rehearsal and performance destination to meet the needs of diverse and talented young musicians across the region.
Harmony Works brings an outstanding Victorian heritage building back into public use for the first time in many years, and provides a home for the founding partners alongside many organisations, including?Concerteenies, The Choir with No Name,?Brass Bands England,?Orchestras for All, and Music in the Round. The AHF grant will contribute towards the first phase of repair and conservation works, specifically to external windows, doors, walls and internal decorative plasterwork.
Kingsley Hall, Bristol – 1625 Independent People
Situated in Bristol’s medieval marketplace, this prominent Grade II*-listed building was originally built in 1706 as a town house. It later served as the Bristol headquarters of the Independent Labour Party, hosting meetings of the Suffragettes, as well as debates about the wars, workers’ pay and conditions, and migration and housing.
The building is now in very poor condition – however, local charity, 1625 Independent People, aims to carefully adapt Kingsley Hall for new uses and transform it into a thriving, safe space for marginalised young people and the local community, with training spaces for education and employment; a new training kitchen and youth-led social enterprise café; nine new affordable homes for young homeless people; and a variety of welcoming spaces where young people can overcome isolation and improve their wellbeing. The AHF grant will contribute towards conservation repairs to reinstate some of the building’s important heritage features.
Northumberland Hall, Alnwick – Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery
Built as Assembly Rooms for the 3rd Duke of Northumberland in 1826, Northumberland Hall is at the historic heart and centre of Alnwick and is important to the local community and visitors alike. However, as a result of long-term underuse and decay, this majestic, Grade I-listed building is presently considered at risk; its sustainable reuse is considered a vital element of the regeneration of the town. For this project, the Hall will undergo a package of repairs and adaptations designed to conserve and protect the historic building, whilst also making it suitable for its new use. The award-winning, volunteer-led Bailiffgate Museum & Gallery will relocate to the building, which will comprise an accessible museum entrance and reception, meeting spaces, and new gallery spaces. The museum will include a reinterpretation of the collection, alongside the provision of spaces for local artists to exhibit and sell their work. There will also be expanded learning and volunteering opportunities. The AHF grant will contribute towards the overall capital costs for this project, enabling early works to start on site.
St John’s Church, Great Yarmouth – Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust (GYPT)
St John’s Church was founded for the beachmen and fishermen of Great Yarmouth. The main building dates from 1857, with later additions. It is an important part of the town’s historic built environment and has added significance in its relationship to the fishing and maritime community. Vacated in 2004, the Grade II-listed church was acquired by GYPT in 2016 in a state of severe dereliction. A comprehensive restoration of the building is now underway and is being used as a vehicle to deliver a wide range of training and engagement activities, especially for unemployed young people. Once fully restored as a multi-use cultural and community hub, a local arts charity will operate, manage and maintain the building, providing a space for workshops, training, exhibitions, screenings, events, music, rehearsals, artist residencies, learning and engagement. The AHF grant will support the final repair and conservation works to complete the first phase of this project.
The other six projects in receipt of Capital Grants are:
- 6-16 Castle Street, Carlisle – Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust
- Jacobs Wells Baths, Bristol – Trinity Community Arts Limited
- Moseley Road Baths, Birmingham – Moseley Road Baths CIO
- Rose Hill Arts Centre, Chesterfield – Rose Hill Arts Centre CIO
- St Michael’s Place, Warwick – West Midlands Historic Building Trust
- The Workshop @ the Carnegie Library, King’s Lynn – The Garage Trust
In addition, there were also seven Project Development Grants awarded through the Heritage Revival Fund in December:
- Baguley Hall, Manchester – Heritage Trust for the North West
- Devizes Assize Court, Wiltshire – Wiltshire Museum (Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society)
- Ellesmere Yard – Canal & River Trust
- Gaumont Cinema Phase 2, Plymouth – Nudge Community Builders
- Life Dronfield – Life Dronfield CIO
- Locomotion No. 1 Public House, County Durham – Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway
- The Law Library, Exeter – Exeter Cathedral
