After a delay arising from Covid Complications, work will finally start on site at the Peterson’s fish smoke house in Grimsby.
Contractor, Rudkins, will commence on the 20th of March with Completion in December 2023.
The project is being undertaken for the Great Grimsby Ice Factory Trust and sponsored by the National Lottery Heritage Fund with assistance from the Architectural Heritage Fund.
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The Guardian recently acclaimed the Fleet designed project, the Fort Road Hotel, as one of 2022’s best new hotels:
“From a contemporary art hotel in Bristol to sleek refurbs in Edinburgh and Margate, plus three London openings:
Originally a boarding house built in 1820, Fort Road threw open its doors in August, with 14 sleek bedrooms. Several rooms have striking views over Margate’s coastline, and all feature sumptuous Naturalmat beds, 400-thread count linens and Haeckels products in the gleaming bathrooms. The light, airy restaurant has a menu that changes daily, with a strong focus on locally caught fish. The hotel is an easy walk from the beach and the old town, as well as Turner Contemporary, the town’s renowned cultural hub.
Doubles from £140 room only; fortroadhotel.com”
Photograph: Ed Reeve
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With the final third floor extension steels being erect at the Fort Road Hotel, the project will shortly be entering the fit out phase.
Due for opening in 2022, find out more about the project here:
https://www.fleetarchitects.co.uk/portfolio/fort-road-hotel/
Fleet are currently fine tuning proposals for a new office space for Haringey Works who provide a vital resource assisting local residents to find pathways back into work. Employment levels in the borough have been particularly badly effected by the pandemic given the high percentage of catering, service industry and entertainment professions amongst local residents. Haringey Work is free of charge and works with local business in and around the area to marry the wide range of needs with opportunities.
In line with our ‘refurb first’ ethos, Haringey Works will continue to operate from the fabulously brutal Wood Green Library, designed by Bertrand Dinnage (Haringey Borough Architects Department, 1978). Stunning stepped concrete terraces give way to interiors still boasting many original features such as tiled walls, timber slatted teak ceilings with feature lighting strips and teak door-sets.
Despite this there are a lot of hurdles to overcome typical of a multi-function / tenanted building of such a vintage, including improving signage and wayfinding, and bringing M&E services and lighting up to current standards.
We are combining permeable materials with a colour palette that compliments the strikingly bold red and black branding of Haringey Works. The proposals allow views through the layering of spaces, affording glimpses to the sky, natural light to penetrate deep into the plan whilst maintaining the discretion its users require.
Richard Henson was overjoyed to attend the HatWorks Completion and Handover Ceremony in Luton, the second of two historic hat factory renovations undertaken by the Fleet Architects team with our friends at YOU&ME.
(more images to come)
Culture Trust Press Release Text Follows:
PRESS RELEASE
23rd April 2021
Celebrating the completion of Hat Works Creative Workspace capital project of a Grade II listed building
The Culture Trust, Luton are delighted to announce that a complex programme of careful heritage restoration and refurbishment of the oldest former Hat Factory in Luton is now complete. After four years and with the investment of £2.4m the keys were handed over to the Trust’s Chair, Nick Gibson, by Simon Last of Neville Special Projects on Friday 16th April.
Hat Works is part of the Hat District heritage regeneration project led by The Culture Trust to reanimate and reuse historic hat factories and transform them into inspiring and much needed creative workspace. Hat Works follows the completion of Hat House and the refurbishment of the Hat Factory Arts Centre led by the Trust in 2019.
Hat Works key handover ceremony, creative workspace on the top floor, and Members’ Lounge
Hat Works is situated in the heart of the Hat District creative cluster in central Luton between the railway station and Mall shopping centre. The Hat District is a growing dynamic creative community housed within (and at times bursting out of) the Hat Factory Arts Centre, Storefront Gallery, Hat Works and creative workspace at Hat House.
Hat Works will be the entry point for creative entrepreneurs eager to turn their idea into a creative business within a supportive and inspirational environment with like-minded others. Hat Works will provide a range of workspaces that will support the development of a creative community. Here members can develop ideas, collaborate and benefit from affordable and professional workspace. Whilst everyone is welcome, there will be a particular focus on young people and a cohort of pioneer members who are already in place to move in when the interior fit out is complete early this summer.
“The ambition is to re-animate the conservation area with cultural activity, care for these important heritage buildings and promote the historic stories of this once vibrant hat trading town. Hat Works is being designed for creative and digital entrepreneurs, innovators and micro-businesses and will provide affordable work and social spaces in an inspiring heritage environment.”
Marie Kirbyshaw, Chief Executive of The Culture Trust, said:
“This well-loved old hat factory has been through a long but careful restoration and looks incredible thanks to the generosity of our funders and the skills of a highly specialist team. We have curated an eclectic mix of decorative and functional design features, restored heritage and added modern functionality so that Hat Works will inspire, and meet the needs of, a new generation of creative and digital start-up businesses.”
Hat Works capital project team in front of the completed Hat Works (April 2021)
Hat Works capital works started in 2017 and the Trust has gratefully received funding to help deliver the much needed care and conservation work. Hat Works has been empty and unused since it closed last as a Hat Factory in 2006. Consequently, it has needed a great deal of careful conservation over the last four years, which included nearly a year of ‘drying out’ after the removal of a Himalayan mould. Local company Neville Special Projects has once more undertaken exemplary work in conserving and developing our Hat Factories under the thoughtful design direction of Fleet Architects, You & Me and with the guidance of Historic England and Luton Borough Council planning department.
The Trust is owner and custodian of this important heritage asset and wishes to thank the many project funders that have contributed to this project. The South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) has provided £3.96m funding to the Hat District creative cluster as part of the Local Growth Fund. Historic England has supported Hat Works with guidance, advice and grant funding throughout and The National Lottery Heritage Fund provided over a million pounds to undertake essential repairs and conservation work, refurbish the building and preserve the original heritage and factory features.
The Trust has also received support from the Architectural Heritage Fund, to help protect the historic qualities of this prominent building set in the heart of the Plaiters Lea Conservation Area, and also from The Linbury Trust and The Pilgrim Trust.
“All funders have been incredibly supportive in enabling us to complete this project during COVID-19, our particular thanks goes to Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund for providing COVID-19 additional funding.”
Anne Jenkins Director, England, Midlands & East for The National Lottery Heritage Fund said:
“Investing in heritage means investing in the local community it belongs to which is why we are proud to have supported The Culture Trust to restore and repurpose the Hat Works with a grant of £1,052,000. Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, this important heritage has been given a fresh lease of life and will now play a key role in regeneration of the local economy and be enjoyed by locals and visitors to Luton alike. ”
Judith Barker, SEMLEP Director of Programmes and Governance, added:
“This restoration and refurbishment provides an exciting opportunity for creative entrepreneurs, offering a dedicated space for collaboration turning innovative ideas into creative businesses. We’re pleased to have supported this project, keeping Luton’s hat production history, while inspiring creativity in the heart of the town. We’re looking forward to Hat Works officially open its doors in the near future.”
Tony Calladine, Regional Director (East of England) for Historic England said:
“We have supported the Hat Works project from the outset, offering guidance and grant funding to enable the restoration of this important historic building. Working in partnership with key agencies, we’ve collaborated to support and fund this innovative project. We’re delighted to see the Hat Works project come to fruition and look forward to seeing it flourish as an inspirational home for creative enterprise.”
Hat Works’ history:
Hat Works is a 3 storey property, with a distinct façade of Luton grey bricks, stucco dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It is located at 47 Guildford Street, in the Plaiters Lea Conservation area of Luton. The factory was built between 1840 and 1850 with alterations and extensions made in the mid twentieth century. Surviving deeds show it was originally a domestic dwelling with an office. The building was occupied by Straw Plait Merchants Messrs Henry Durler (1850-1924) and Otto Suter (1851-1884). Straw hat manufacturing company Herbert Brown Ltd. used the building from 1906 and a Walter E. Brown, Director of Herbert Brown, signed a lease agreement with the Williams family in 1926. From 1931 the property was owned by Martha Swain, who leased the property to various hat manufacturers over the next 25 years including C H Young and Co. and Bridgewater Millinery from 1966, Maurice Davis ran his hat factory here until 2006. The building has been empty since then and is now undergoing restoration as part of The Culture Trust’s Hat District Project.
For enquiries about workspace in the Hat District or Hat Works membership and use, please contact guy.smith@culturetrust.com.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
PRESS ENQUIRIES: For further information about this press release, please email
Emily.Finney@lutonculture.com, Marketing & Communications, or call 01582 878123. Interviews with the Hat District project director and Trust Chief Executive Marie Kirbyshaw can be arranged, as can a COVID-19 secure tour of the Hat District.
Go to www.hatdistrict.co.uk for our latest news and full story. Follow the Hat District on social media:
Facebook: @TheHatDistrict
Twitter: @TheHatDistrict
Instagram: @thehatdistrict
Luton:
Statistics taken from The Luton Investment Framework (2017)
About The Culture Trust Luton:
Established in 2008, the Culture Trust, Luton is a vibrant and progressive independent charity and our mission is ‘to connect communities through culture’. We do this through our accredited museums, theatres, galleries, creative workspaces and Arts Centre in Luton. Pre-Covid we attracted over 285,000 visits per annum. We animate six sites: The Hat Factory Arts Centre, Luton Library Theatre, Hat House creative workspace, Storefront Gallery, Wardown House Museum & Gallery and Stockwood Gardens & Museum. We present multi-cultural and year-round programme of events, exhibitions, workshops and performances. We support creative talent and skills by providing opportunities, platforms and cultural career progression for young people. We care for a collection of over 2 million artefacts, 1.5 million photographs and maps and hold the most extensive and complete hat and headwear collection in the UK. We co-produce activity with our community, Museum Makers volunteers and team of cultural experts.
The Trust is funded through an annual donation from London Luton Airport and as a National Portfolio, the Trust also receives regular funding from Arts Council England. The Trust also has a special partnership with Luton Borough Council which includes caring for and sharing the town’s Museums, collections and heritage venues.
The Hat District regeneration project:
Image – Graphic of the Hat District showing the proximity of the 3 hat factories to each other and the station.
Purpose-designed creative work, show and share spaces in the cultural heart of Luton led by The Culture Trust.
Following successful funding bids, the Hat District project was started in the Summer of 2017. The Culture Trust secured £7 million of investment towards developing a collection of inspiring creative work, study and show spaces called The Hat District across 3 former hat factories in Luton’s conservation area. The collection of imposing buildings will provide new workspace for the creative industries, enable additional jobs, further inject life into a vibrant cultural district and attract thousands of new visitors to the area. Furthermore, this ambitious project will protect and refurbish historic buildings for future generations.
The Hat district is considered to be the best located creative cluster in the UK, given its proximity to the mainline station (2mins) and Luton Airport (10 mins).
The Trust is wellplaced to inject new life and vibrancy into this run-down area and protect the heritage of these old hat factories that are currently falling into disrepair. Two of these sites, Hat Works and Hat House, were vacant historic hat factories that will be brought back into new use. The Hat Factory Arts Centre has been refurbished to increase and widen access to the arts. The buildings are centrally located in Luton between the station and the town centre. Given the conservation area, consideration is being given to the design and care for the existing properties.
The quality of arts, architecture, design, heritage and conservation will aim to exceed public and user expectations and set new standards for urban regeneration in the town.
Thanks to the following funders of Hat Works:
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by the National Lottery, we Inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.ukhttps://www.heritagefund.org.uk/.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use
#NationalLotteryHeritageFund
Hat District Photography:
We have a Hat District documentary photographer, Shaun Armstrong (Mubsta.com), and will happily share any high quality images should they be required for publication.
Neville Special Projects:
We would like to express our thanks to Luton-based Neville Construction Group for their ongoing support in the Hat District project.
Hat Works is the second building in the Hat District Project by The Culture Trust, Luton. It has been conceived and developed by The Culture Trust and was made possible with investment from:
The South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP)| Local Growth Fund | £3.961m
This major funding has enabled us to make significant progress in developing new creative workspace which will provide more jobs and new spaces for business. The Creative and Cultural sector is a focus for SEMLEP and is promoted through their ‘Strategic Economic Plan’ and ‘Heritage, Sports, Visitor Economy, Cultural & Creative Industry Plan’.
By 2021 the government will have invested over £12bn through the Local Growth Fund, allowing the LEPs to use their local knowledge to allocate appropriately.
Additional key facts:
– There are 38 LEPs covering the whole of England.
– The government has awarded £9.1bn in three rounds of Growth Deals to local areas to drive economic growth.
– LEPs are investing in a wider range of projects including transport, skills, business support, broadband, innovation and flood defences.
With thanks for regular funding and support from Luton Borough Council, London Luton Airport Ltd. and Arts Council England:
FINISH
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Our Royal Crescent project, the conversion of 2 listed Townhouses into 9 spacious apartments was featured in a Guardian article “Homes Fit for a MasterChef”.
The article notes:
“There is plenty of room to cook and Zoom in this simple but spacious kitchen in the show apartment in Royal Crescent, a converted Georgian block in Ramsgate. The room is light and airy with solid oak wood block flooring, floor-to-ceiling sash windows, panelled shutters and high ceilings. It is clean (architecturally speaking) with brass taps and marble worktops. The kitchens in the nine apartments have the same layout, fixtures and fittings, but vary in size. From £265,000 to £525,000. The Modern House, 020 3795 5920 “
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Few healthcare architects agree we need 40 new hospitals, that’s not to say that we don’t have 40 or more that need replacing, it’s more that what we do need probably doesn’t look quite like a hospital as we know it.
As GPs at scale, in the form of PCNs, grow into the role and in 2022 as we finally say goodbye to the 40 year experiment with the buyer – suppliers relationship which started under the Thatcher government, and taking advantage of the One Public Estate initiative, it’s the right time to get Health strategists, Clinicians and Architects and Urban Planners in one room (virtually) to discuss how we and what we should do next.
AfH will host a forum in June and would like to hear particularly from Clinicians and Healthcare strategists to discuss taking part.
Event Organiser, Jaime Bishop Fleet Architects and AfH Organisation Secretary.
Please respond to this advert or contact Sarah Birkby (programmedirector@architectsforhealth.com)
Mapping by Place and Purpose CIC
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Despite the continuing disruption of the Covid pandemic, our refurbishment of Luton’s oldest standing hat factory is progressing well and is still on schedule for completion in March this year.
Our contractor partner, Nevilles Construction have been excellent at ensuring safety and social distancing on site, and have had no Covid related staffing issues. In order to maintain this record, we have had to minimise in-person interactions that could potentially shut the site down, and visits have been stripped to a bare minimum. Consequently the close lines of communication we have forged with Nevilles have been vital to the smooth running and reviewing of site works. Given the age and Grade II listing of the property there are many niggly details that have been promptly resolved with plenty of video and photos being shared and discussed.
These remote methods of interaction have also propagated to our exchanges with clients and funders and have been vital to keep them in the loop and confident that we are all clear and happy with how the proposals are developing and being realised.
Of course none of this can truly replace regular visits animating the site progress of sketches and drawings into a completed building, and we all look forward to when we will be able to get back into our PPE for future visits.
Fleet have recently completed the conversion of the grade II listed Regency Hotel within Ramsgate’s Royal Crescent into 9 generous apartments, 7 within the existing building and 2 newbuild flats.
The properties are being marketed by The Modern House, and the broachure is available for download here:
https://www.themodernhouse.com/pdf/royal-crescent.pdf
More text and images to follow.
Jaime Bishop took part in the Healthcare Estates Online event replacing the event with is usually hosted by IHEEM at this time of year.
Jaime chaired the talk discussing the importance of staffing environments to attracting and retaining staff and then presented in the final session of the Architects for Health day; The Holistic Health Hub where he featured Fleets work to bring community health facilities to the “high street of services” in the large span vacant stores.
The presentation can be viewed here without commentary:
The recording form the day will be available via the Healthcare Estates website shortly.
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