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Pugin Studios - a ‘Curiously Creative’ space
30 August 2022
England
Designed and built in the Gothic Revival style by Edward Pugin in 1869, Grade II-listed Granville House is situated on Ramsgate seafront. Originally conceived as town houses, the building was swiftly converted into a spa hotel. Following bomb damage during the Second World War, the upper floors of the hotel were renovated into flats, while the large rooms on the ground and lower floors served as a ballroom and bar until the 1980s, when they were boarded up and left vacant.
The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is delighted to announce that it has awarded Heritage Lab a Crowdfunding Challenge Grant towards its Pugin Studios project to repair and convert the ground and lower floors of this landmark building.
Heritage Lab is one of seven Heritage Development Trusts supported through the AHF’s Transforming Places through Heritage programme. It works to bring historic buildings and community assets back into sustainable use, creating high-quality, affordable community space, workspace, jobs and volunteering opportunities. For its Pugin Studios project, Heritage Lab wishes to regenerate the two derelict floors of Granville House into Pugin Studios, a creative hub and events space that will host community events, meetings, performances and exhibitions, supported by a bar, café and commercial kitchen. Affordable creative studios and workspace will also be created.
In May 2022, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communties Minister, Neil O’Brien, visited Pugin Studios to announce the final batch of grants from Round One of the Community Ownership Fund - Heritage Lab secured £300,000 towards the acquisition of Pugin Studios. Following this significant funding, the AHF awarded a Project Development Grant towards essential development work needed to enable purchase and bring the two floors of the building back into use.
This latest AHF Crowdfunding Challenge Grant will help Heritage Lab to set up a Crowdfunder and match funds raised through the campaign, which will focus on mobilising community support for the repair and fit out of Pugin Studios to prepare them for opening and meanwhile use from Summer 2023.