Over the past 30 years, we’ve invested £3.4billion in more than 10,600 historic buildings across the UK, ensuring heritage is valued, cared for and sustained. These latest projects will continue that mission to increase access to history around us, create opportunities for the next generation and put heritage at the heart of local communities.

The funding will support seven projects across the UK to conserve and put beloved buildings and spaces to new uses, bringing social and economic benefits for local people.

Supporting city centres and high streets across Scotland

Sauchiehall Street: Cultural and Heritage District is a place filled with history and memories for generations of Glaswegians. Our £2.3m grant, awarded as part of our Heritage Places strategic initiative, will help transform the area, including preserving the McLellan Galleries, one of the city’s earliest purpose-built arts spaces.

“Understanding how communities feel about their heritage is vital to meaningful regeneration”

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Three cultural partners – Glasgow Film, musicians' group The Scottish Ensemble and youth charity Articulate – will use the Galleries in new and creative ways, adding to the bustle of this area of the city.  

Broader work to celebrate Sauchiehall Street's heritage will see the 19th-century Cameron Memorial Fountain restored and buildings improved as well as artist residencies, an archiving project and a community grants scheme.

Elsewhere in Scotland, three town centre regeneration projects will preserve historic buildings as valued community assets:

• We’re supporting the redevelopment of the well-loved Airdrie Library, Scotland’s first under the Public Libraries Act 1850 and home to the UK’s smallest public observatory.  
• On the west coast, Argyll and Bute Council will bring vacant historic buildings in Tarbert back into use as homes and restore shopfronts and quayside buildings.
• And in Girvan, four historic sites throughout the town will be the focus of a programme of restoration, community events and heritage building skills training.

Creating opportunities to share, explore and learn from local history in London

In Newham, Canning Town’s Grade II listed Old Library will be transformed into a heritage centre for the borough. The project will create the first permanent home for Newham’s archive and museum collections, offering local people the opportunity to engage with previously inaccessible artefacts.  

Mark Gorman, a Newham archive volunteer, said: “I’ve been an archive user for more than 20 years, I’m thrilled by this funding. It gives us a huge opportunity to help more local people learn about and celebrate our shared history.”

And a little further east in Barking and Dagenham, our funding will kick-start the council’s new Culture and Heritage Strategy, co-created with the local community, to celebrate the borough’s rich industrial and social history together.

We’re also preserving at-risk heritage skills by supporting communities to save their built heritage in the north of England. Our £62,000 grant will progress plans to repair Grimsby’s former House of Fraser department store and enable community activities to explore the building's past.

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “This marks an exciting moment, with fantastic investments in places that connect communities with their heritage gems. From Glasgow’s iconic Sauchiehall Street, a place woven into decades of shared memories, to transforming the oldest public library in Scotland to celebrate the stories, people and places that shape us.

“Understanding how communities feel about their heritage is vital to meaningful regeneration, and we’re proud to invest in four exceptional places where historic buildings will be restored and repurposed for everyone to enjoy, now and for generations."

We want to hear from you

How does your organisation work with place? And what does place-based heritage mean in practice? Please spare five minutes to share your thoughts in our latest UK Heritage Pulse survey and help us shape the future of heritage.