Ludlow Assembly Rooms bags £350,000 for overhaul

Ludlow Assembly Rooms will get the money from Arts Council England as a bid to fund a complete change around of the ground floor, the lift and staircases has been given the go-ahead. This will create a new entrance – along with a new café, box office and retail spaces.

The building, standing on Mill Street, on the edge of the central square in the heart of Ludlow, is owned by Shropshire Council but part-leased to the Ludlow Assembly Rooms charity.

The work funded by the Arts Council is actually planned as a second phase, with a £1.3 million overhaul of the building's heating, insulation and lighting already scheduled to go ahead with European Regional Development Fund money.

The Arts Council announcement comes as Shropshire Council has put out a call for a quantity surveyor to help get the first phase under way.

Work to install renewable heating technologies, improvements to the building fabric, high efficiency lighting and heat recovery is hoped to start in November, for completion in 2018.

Janet Scholes at Shropshire Council said: "The installation is relatively expensive and complicated because of the age and configuration of the building, requiring innovative solutions, and the return on the investment in way of savings will be spread over a number of years.

"This project will serve as a demonstration of how low carbon technology and its innovative application can be successfully retrofitted and integrated into a landmark heritage building, helping to make such facilities sustainable in its widest sense."

The money for phase two has come form the Arts Council's capital funding programme to invest in buildings and equipment to "provide great artistic and cultural experiences" to local communities.

It is part of a newly announced £7.6 million investment in Shropshire, which covers continued funding to existing organisations as well as increased funding to Disability Arts in Shropshire for a new programme for disabled children and young people, as well as the addition of funding for the Association of Independent Museums, a body based in Shropshire that supports 1,100 member museums nationally.

Peter Knott, area director at Arts Council England, said: "This is fantastic news for the Midlands.

"Arts and culture plays a vital role in making the area a great place to live, work and study and we’re pleased to be investing in projects which will benefit local people and their communities. By ensuring arts and cultural venues have the buildings and equipment they need we are helping to ensure the region’s creative economy will thrive."

He said the Assembly Rooms was one of the lucky few to bag funding.

“There was exceptional demand for this scheme which meant that we had to make difficult decisions and unfortunately we were unable to fund some really great projects,” he said.