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A new survey from Historic Houses reveals that the COVID-19 lockdown has had a significant impact on independent historic house visitor attractions.<\/h3>\nA new survey from Historic Houses reveals that the COVID-19 lockdown has had a significant impact on independent historic house visitor attractions.<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Historic Houses writes:<\/p>\n
A new survey reveals:<\/p>\n
But owners are working hard to adapt to the post-lockdown landscape:<\/p>\n
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\u2018The pandemic is a huge challenge, but heritage has suffered through worse than this in the past,\u2019 says William Cartwright-Hignett, from Iford Manor, which is a member of Historic Houses, the UK\u2019s largest association of independent heritage sites, encompassing 1,500 historic houses, castles and gardens.<\/p>\n
A survey commissioned by the group this week has revealed that the owners of some of the UK\u2019s oldest and quirkiest homes are doing what they do best \u2013 facing down adversity and planning how they can adapt to a very different and uncertain future. There\u2019s a stoic determination to weather this storm in the same way that these houses\u2019 former owners scraped through the dark days of earlier centuries \u2013 by changing and evolving.<\/p>\n
Exactly seventy years ago, at the height of the last crisis of this magnitude for Britain\u2019s country houses, when hundreds were being demolished as \u2018surplus to requirements\u2019 and too expensive to maintain, a report by civil servant Sir Ernest Gowers laid the foundations for a future for those that survived, as lived-in tourist attractions.<\/p>\n
Until March this year, that strategy had been successful beyond his expectations. Historic houses, castles and gardens over the last few decades have become thriving businesses – welcoming more than 26 million visitors each year, generating more than 30,000 jobs across the country, and generating millions in tourist spend in neighbouring towns and villages. These historic visitor attractions employ more people now than at the height of the \u2018Downton Abbey\u2019 service culture \u2013 only instead of looking after pampered aristocrats these staff members were guiding sightseers, staffing caf\u00e9s and giftshops, running festivals and holiday cottages, or staging weddings, events and film-shoots.<\/p>\n
Now, says Ben Cowell, Director General of Historic Houses, all that economic and cultural progress is in danger of being undone thanks to the devastating impact that coronavirus and the consequent lockdown has had on heritage and tourist businesses. The first misconception he wants to lay to rest is that everything will go back to normal as soon as indoor attractions in England are allowed to open to visitors again \u2013 scheduled to be from this weekend (4 July).<\/p>\n
\u2018Just under half of the places we\u2019ve surveyed are in a position to welcome the public indoors again this year,\u2019 he says. \u2018Most of these attractions struggle to break-even at the best of times, and for some the impracticalities, public health risks and the added cost of measures to ensure social distancing and protect tourists from the virus are just too high to bear this year.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Over eighty of our member gardens are now open or planning to open soon. It\u2019s great that many houses now plan to open too. But we\u2019re hearing from lots of owners who\u2019ve had to take the tough decision not to open at all this summer \u2013 leaving many worries about how they will survive the winter months.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The investment needed to re-open our successful jousting events safely this year,\u2019 says Jason Lindsay, who lives at Hedingham Castle in Essex, \u2018is prohibitive. If we could, we\u2019d apply for a National Lottery Heritage Fund emergency grant, like some other heritage sites round here \u2013 but they\u2019ve excluded all privately owned heritage sites, regardless of the public access and leisure opportunities they provide. Yet we\u2019re the ones who care for most built heritage in Britain, picking up bills that government or the lottery could never cover if it were their responsibility.\u2019<\/p>\n
While eight in ten say that they intend to be back in the visitor business next year, a handful of historic house attractions have already indicated privately that they may never open to the public again \u2013 though far fewer than Historic Houses feared at the start of lockdown.<\/p>\n
For many, the shutdown has also put on hold restoration work to fragile listed buildings \u2013 fifty historic houses say urgent repair projects have had to be put on hold, with an average value of \u00a3217,000 per project. \u2018We have had to defer substantial capital expenditure on our historic buildings and landscape until we\u2019re in a position to afford it\u2019, says Duncan Clark, from Braxted Park in Essex.<\/p>\n
This means it\u2019s very likely that the \u00a31.4bn backlog of repairs that was already facing Historic Houses members before COVID-19 has only got bigger since March, especially with most member places having to furlough maintenance or conservation staff whose salaries were funded with income from visitors, weddings, events, filming or accommodation, all of which has dried up totally.<\/p>\n
The worry for many is that activities like weddings may be unlikely to restart in time to avoid redundancies before the end of the furlough scheme. Around 50% say redundancies are sadly almost unavoidable, with an average of four FTE roles likely to go at individual member houses.<\/p>\n
Over half report that they\u2019re considering major restructuring or fundamental changes to their business model as a result of COVID-19. New sorts of business activity are being actively considered, such as the drive-through cinema experiences popping up at places like Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, run by Martha Lytton-Cobbold, Deputy President of Historic Houses, who has already reopened her garden and shop and is offering a take-away service from the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Others are having to retrench and review their business model carefully. \u2018It no longer makes sense to staff a bed and breakfast and offer dining,\u2019 says Sammie Coryton, at Pentillie in Cornwall, where tourism is so vital for the region\u2019s economy. \u2018We’ll now just let the whole castle as a self-catering holiday home, while we re-consider our other events like outdoor theatre. Despite all the worry, it\u2019s been an opportunity to take a long hard look at our offer, to make some fundamental changes, and to come back better.\u2019<\/p>\n
Back at Iford Manor, William Cartwright-Hignett agrees that the crisis might lead to positive change \u2013 eventually \u2013 as well as damage. \u2018We\u2019re still planning on opening a new restaurant and shop next year,\u2019 says, \u2018but we\u2019ll widen the accessible areas of the garden, so people have more room to be apart.\u2019<\/p>\n
Others ponder whether the trend for working from home will lead to more midweek visitors, and in general there is widespread rethinking of opening hours in a diversity of ways – from extending their dates to make up for lost time, through replacing free-flow visiting with guided tours, to reducing their opening hours where they depend on volunteers who may themselves be older and vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u2018After the Second World War my cousin had to sell all the farmland and turn her house into an old people\u2019s home \u2013 while she was still living in it \u2013 in order to keep the roof on the Norman keep,\u2019 says Jason Lindsay, whose family is descended from the Earls of Oxford, who built Hedingham Castle in the twelfth century. \u2018But that wasn\u2019t working by the 1980s, when we inherited it from her, so in the last twenty or thirty years we\u2019ve grown a tourist business, with 25,000 visitors a year coming for our buildings and our jousting events, and a thriving wedding business that provides 70% of the income we need to pay all our staff and maintain the historic fabric. That\u2019s all been on hold since March and shows no sign of picking up any time soon, so we\u2019ll need to cut costs and find other sources of income. If my predecessor managed to take desperate measures to keep the place standing, I\u2019m determined to adapt, not be the weak link.\u2019<\/p>\n
For further information contact James Probert, Director of Marketing and Development, on james.probert@historichouses.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n