Heritage Action Zone: Calling artists, creatives and organisations on the Fylde Coast
Heritage Action Zone: Calling artists, creatives and organisations on the Fylde Coast
We’re teaming up with Abingdon Studios to carry out some new research that will inform Blackpool Council’s Heritage Action Zone.
The survey has now closed but we’ll post progress updates here.
About HAZ
The Blackpool Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) is a £1m project funded jointly by Blackpool Council, Historic England and the Department of Culture Media and Sport focused specifically on using built and cultural heritage to revitalise the high street. The first strand of the project is all about improving streetscapes through improving the condition of historic buildings. This part of the HAZ builds on the success of the ongoing Quality Corridors project, which has focused on new pavements and road surfaces as well as a £1.5m shopfront replacement scheme on Deansgate, Topping Street and Edward Street.
As part of this we’ll be restoring some if the Victorian shopfronts to the church street elevation of the Winter Gardens, putting back the Art Deco frontage of 28 Topping Street and restoring part of the Former Black’s building on Edward Street. In partnership with the Quality Corridors project, we’ll also be creating a creative cooperative hub at No. 28 Topping Street to provide local artists and creatives with a place to sell their work and run workshops and events. The work at the former Blacks building on Edward Street will also form the first phase of creating live/work units for creatives.
The second strand of the project is a bid for £120k to create a programme of cultural events to bring new offers to the high street and new reasons to visit it. Blackpool’s bid contains proposals for street markets (crafts/farmers/flea/specialist) using empty shops for film screening and performances well as heritage events and walks.