Madeira Terraces: Unsuccessful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund

Our second bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to support the Madeira Terrace restoration has been unsuccessful. The HLF said there was nothing wrong with our bid, but they simply don’t have enough funding for all the projects that applied.

Cllr Dan Yates, leader of the council said “While this is disappointing, we remain positive about future funding for the Madeira Terrace.

“Last year’s crowd funding campaign expressed the public’s desire to restore the Madeira Terrace to their former glory and we will continue to work hard to achieve this.

“Even without this funding, we are still going to restore the crowdfunded three arches and explore all avenues of funding to secure the future of the historic terraces.”

Over the years, Brighton & Hove has received a substantial share of HLF money for other heritage projects, including:

Progress continues on the crowdfunded arches

We are continuing to work on the first three crowdfunded arches (at the western end of the terrace). We’re working towards an on-site start date of spring 2019.

At the start of January 2019, we will be opening an office and community hub in a shipping container on Madeira Drive. This space will help raise awareness of the restoration project and offer a base to raise funds during events.

Exploring all available fundraising options

We will continue to seek heritage funding and other types of funding. We are also considering submitting another bid for HLF funding in March 2019.

The conservation deficit for restoring 60 arches is estimated at £4.8 million. A conservation deficit occurs when the existing value of a heritage asset plus the cost of bringing it back into use is greater than the value of the asset after development has been completed.

The HLF is the largest funder of heritage assets in the UK and so it is important we focus our efforts on gaining their support to protect and restore the terrace at the earliest opportunity. Their support would provide a strong basis on which to secure the structure and to drive restoration more rapidly.  

Two raffles, organised by local campaigner Jax Atkins, have raised over £26,000. Jax is now collecting prizes for another raffle in 2019. Raffle tickets will be available from spring 2019. If you’d like to donate a prize, please contact Jax on chemicaljax@ntlworld.com

How you can get involved 

There are several ways you can get involved in supporting the restoration campaign: