Double National Lottery Heritage Funding Success

Two Fleet Architects projects have received positive news in the latest round of National Lottery Heritage Funding.

Phase 2 of HatWorks, the conversion of a Grade II listed former hat factory in Luton, has received £885,000 (58% of the total project) to proceed with the next phase of the works.  Hatworks is Fleet Architects second project with the Culture Trust following the completed HatHouse scheme, and the third project in the HatDistrict overall.  As with Hathouse and Peterson’s (below) this is is a another collaboration with our friends at YOU&ME.

Fleet Architects with our friends at Bernadette Bone Heritage Studio and YOU&ME along with the Client team, The Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust (GGIFT), in partnership with North East Lincolnshire council and Associated British Ports, has secured £947,400 in funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Architectural Heritage Fund to deliver the Peterson’s Fish Smokehouse project. The Grade II listed smokehouse, with adjacent building “Fred’s Fish” on Wharncliffe Road, will be brought back into use and the rental income will support future projects in the Kasbah to be undertaken by the Trust.

The total monies add up to £1,074,000 – £647,400 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, a £300,000 Transformational Project grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund’s Transforming Places Through Heritage programme and a previously awarded £60,000 from both bodies.

Primary Care Design Post CoViD 19

Before the bank holiday weekend I was asked to prepare a quick presentation on how the design of primary care premises in the UK may be changed by the Corona Virus pandemic. Here are some of the ideas we came up with…

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jaimerbishop_medicalarchitecture-healthcaredesign-healthcarearchitecture-activity-6666027170269282304-2Lt5

(c) Fleet Architects Ltd

Listed Building Permission for Petersons Smoke ‘ouses!

The Fleet Architects led team including our friends at Bernadette Bone Heritage Studio and YOU&ME have successfully achieved planning and listed building permission for the proposed refurbishment of the Peterson’s smokehouse and adjacent 89 Wharncliffe Road, both buildings within the Kazbah Heritage Action Zone of Grimsby’s historic docks.

The Project is funded by NLHF and AHF .More to follow.

Fleet Architects – Digital First Corona Virus Update

Fleet Architects have adopted a ‘digital first’ approach to client external meetings and site visits.

We are currently still able to attend key site visits upon a full risk assessment on buildings that are essentially open air sites, but only with Director level approval. However, all other meetings and site inspections will take place via Skype, Zoom, or other equivalent technologies. If you can advise which best suits your team in order to serve the project we will ensure we are prepared.

We are committed to working with you to ensure the continued delivery of quality services to all our clients, whilst protecting the health and wellbeing of everyone.

The entire Fleet team is now working from home and, as much as this allows, business will continue as normal.

Please do contact us if you have any queries regarding your project. In the meantime, we hope that you, your colleagues and families stay safe and well.

HatHouse – The First Tenants Move in

The first tenants have moved into the HatHouse in Luton.  The project is led by Fleet Architects working with our friends and collaborators at YOU&ME.

The project was part funded by SEMLEP and is part of the wider Hat District Project for the Culture Trust Luton which includes our HatWorks Project (see scaffold image below) and is also funded by NLHF, Heritage England and Architectural Heritage Fund.

More images to follow.

Peterson’s Smokehouse Submitted for Planning

The Fleet designed refurbishment of Peterson’s Grade II listed Smokehouse in Grimsby for the Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust has been submitted for planning.  Some images of what we are proposing posted below to wet any fishy appetites.  The project is a collaboration with our friends  BB Heritage Studio and YOU&ME.

The project is partially funded by the Architecture Heritage Fund and is currently seeking round 2 funding form NLHF.

Healing the High Street

High Streets are in decline, at least that is the prevailing story  across much of the country.  However, It’s not entirely true, and not just confined to an inner London bubble.  The 2019 Kent Property Market Report , prepared by Caxtons  (with KCC and Locate in Kent ) describes how Kentish High Streets (see also high Streets of Kent) are moving away from shopping, particularly larger units, towards smaller convenience shops, specialist boutiques and, most significantly, services.  Gyms, yoga studios, escape rooms, nail bars, cafes, bars, barbers, shared workspaces, alternative medicine, all increasing, all returning footfall and trade to high streets, but what of the large department stores and supermarkets?The former Primark in Margate, a typical example of a large High Street unit which could be suitable house re-imagined civic and municipal functions like Health  (currently enjoying an exciting meanwhile Art use)  (photo credit/copyright Kim Fyson)

Fleet have been working with Haringey Council’s urban design team and Haringey CCG to design the conversion of a former super market, just such a large unit commonly becoming available, to provide space for a new Health Centre.  When realised the centre could accommodate up to 4 GP practices, a Community Health Hub for the Whittington Hospital in addition to other complimentary civic functions including a library, citizens advice and co-working space.

Excellent transport connections and a large span large volume buildings make the High Street a perfect opportunity to re-imagine the next era of healthcare, much of which will be delivered outside of the hospital, as Lord Darzi proposed once upon a time , and could not be accommodated in a converted Victorian terrace, within which a typical urban GP will often be found.The High Street also mutually benefits from the arrangement, with circa 18,000 listed patients, the health centre will generate more than 90,000 visits, irrespective of skype consultancy, and each of which is likely to also visit another shop or service in the area en route.  The plague of empty units can be at least partially abated if health and other municipal functions seize this opportunity for improved locations, and attractive rents.  Landlords should also be attracted by the strong covenant and stability such tenants could offer in increasingly choppy waters.  The whole argument is strengthened further if the host buildings can also accommodate residential uses on upper levels too, further amplifying footfall, but also homes within easy reach of services and amenity, and reducing traffic in the process.

Oliver Wainwright, writing in the Guardian, recently presented the energy use and carbon footprint case against demolition.  As it seems inevitable that 2020 will witness the closure of more large high street units, the case for the nascent GP networks to consider a bolder, accessible high street locations for the mutual benefit of both the tenant and the host, is very convincing.

Sneak Peek Inside our HatHouse

The HatHouse,1 of 2 projects for Culture Trust Luton in the emerging Hat District, Completed in 2019.  Here are some photos as it neared completion.  Watch this space for the official photos over the next month.

The Edwardian Hat Factory was entirely refurbished with new stair cores and lifts given access to a range of work spaces and a food and beverage offer in the basement.

The project was completed for under £1m and was partly funded by a SEMLEP grant.

The Hat House sits opposite the HatWorks, the workplace and studio hub of the Hat District.  A grade II listed former Hat Factory the works are funded by Heritage England and the NLHF.

Both Hat District projects are in partnership with best friends YOU&ME.

Dry January at Hatworks

Our Grade II listed refurbishment (in collaboration with our friends at You&Me) of the oldest standing hat factory in Luton – Hat Works – for Luton Culture (now the Culture Trust Luton)is upping the pace.  A huge Christo-esque scaffold now tents the historic fabric preventing water entering the building for the first time in approximately 15 years.  Having been riddled with toxic mold and many varieties of non-edible fungi it is taking its first steps to drying out.

Funded by Historic England, phase 1 works concentrate on emergency remedial works to the external envelope including a new roof, rainwater goods, masonry repairs and structural works.

More about the sister HatHouse project and the Hat District here.

That View! Fort Road Hotel Update

Fleet are currently designing the extensive refurbishment and extension of the Fort Road Hotel, Margate’s much loved ‘iconic building’ overlooking the Turner Contemporary.

The scaffold hat, currently in place while stabilising the building and 20 years of collapsed roof and detritus, afforded us a first glimpse of the staggering view the top floor sea facing rooms with enjoy.