One of the council’s money-making ideas involves turning the Lloyd Park lodge house into a William Morris House offering “themed stays” By Victoria Munro
William Morris Gallery (credit: ProfDEH/Wikimedia)
An ambitious plan hopes to see council-owned cultural sites start turning a profit by handing them over to “specialist providers”.
Waltham Forest Council owns the Town Hall and Fellowship Square, One Hoe Street, William Morris Gallery, Vestry House and Walthamstow Wetlands, as well as the Assembly Halls in Walthamstow and Chingford, which are “not currently in operation”.
A report prepared for council leaders last week states the council wants to “move away from council-run spaces” to “remove operational costs and generate surplus income”.
This financial year, the council’s Culture and Heritage budget will see a predicted net loss of more than £5million. A report notes that, if nothing changes, the council will have to spend an estimated £64.8m on culture and heritage in the next decade.
Instead the council plans to develop its cultural sites into “fit-for-purpose assets that meet the needs of local creative enterprises” and then charge external operators “base rents or a turnover percentage (whichever is higher)”.
Its “long-term ambition” is to use the revenue generated by this strategy to create a local fund for “culture, enterprise and related activities delivered in the borough”.
Vestry House Museum
To prepare them for being handed over, long-running venues like Vestry House and William Morris Gallery will be “refreshed” and “revitalised” in the coming years.
The revamp of William Morris Gallery, due to complete at the end of next year, aims to “diversify its offer” by expanding “retail and licensing” and using its lawn spaces for events “on a temporary or permanent basis”.
The report states the council is also considering “working with partners to monetise Aveling Field” and turning the Lloyd Park lodge house into a William Morris House offering “themed stays for visitors”.
The Vestry House “revitalisation”, while still only in the early stages of planning, could open in spring 2024 and “bring new life to the building”. The report notes that Vestry House is “currently undergoing a significant engagement process to ensure it meets the needs of the neighbourhood”.
Chestnuts House in Walthamstow
The council also hopes to see currently unused sites like One Hoe Street, Walthamstow Assembly Hall and Chestnuts House – whose guardianship tenants were abruptly evicted this year – come back into operation.
The first expected to transform is One Hoe Street, due to come “back into use” next summer so it can act “as an information point for the cultural offer” borough-wide and an “incubation hub” for creative businesses.
The report states: “Creating spaces for exhibitions, maker-retail and dedicated event space for clubs and bookings, supported by a café, the aim is to create a hive of activity and impact.
“Utilising its prominent location, there is an opportunity to engage local people with our wider destination plans.”
At the start of 2024, “there is an opportunity”, the report states, to see Chestnuts House in Walthamstow “transformed from a disused space into a vibrant community”. Creative studio space company Eat Work Art have been shortlisted as potential operators.
The report states that the council hopes to see it become “a thriving hub of innovation and creativity[…] complemented by on-site offerings from wellness and markets, to curated stores, galleries, rooftop bars, florists and cafés”.
In early 2025, the council hopes to “bring Walthamstow Assembly Hall back into life as a cultural venue”, making “better use of outdoor space”, adding a cafe and bar and “creating additional units for trading”.
A mock-up of plans for Hatherley Mews (credit: Publica)
The report prepared for council leaders mentions only a handful of cultural sites located outside of the Walthamstow area, which it hopes to launch as a “cultural quarter” at the start of 2024.
The “cultural quarter” is intended to pave the way for “further destination neighbourhoods” in Leyton, Leytonstone and Chingford.
The Chingford Assembly Hall could see a “meanwhile activation launch” early next year, in which it would be handed over to an operator for three or more years “before the wider development of the site takes place”.
The council states this would “bring new life into the building, testing use cases and viability for the future development”, provide a “large-scale event and performance space” while the Walthamstow Assembly Hall is unavailable and “support the current food distribution community use of the space”.
The need to move the food distribution hub out of Chingford Assembly Hall so it could be redeveloped was the reason a Walthamstow community centre was threatened with eviction earlier this year, although the council U-turned after widespread opposition.
The council plans to host a “local festival” in neighbouring Coronation Gardens at this time to “inform [the] wider development” and sees the development as “an excellent opportunity to create a cultural site that showcases the best local creative enterprises from Leyton and celebrates its individuality as a neighbourhood”.
A CGI of the planned scheme (credit: Taylor Wimpey)
The report envisions a “market square”, event space and a screen for “art installations, films and sport screening”, while also referencing the commercial space that will be built at the site.
Last year, council leaders agreed behind closed doors to purchase all 1,762 square metres of commercial space being built to help “de-risk” the scheme for developer Taylor Wimpey, while also giving them a £6.9m discount on the price of the land.
Other projects anticipated outside Walthamstow include plans to “activate Leyton Sports Pavilion” to “restore [the] iconic heritage asset” by handing it over to a specialist operator, expected in the first half of 2025.
The report also notes the planned redevelopment of the Regal Cinema in Highams Park and The Standard in Walthamstow, both of which are privately owned but where the developer intends to retain their original cultural uses.
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