Creating Futures at Alice Billing House secures £3.8m in NLHF and other funding
Alice Billing House is being transformed and brought back to life as affordable studios for artists and creatives, who are critical to the ongoing contribution of £63 billion of annual economic output made by the UK’s creative industries.
Additional generous multiyear funding has been provided by the Garfield Weston Foundation and Architectural Heritage Fund as well as London Legacy Development Corporation and London Borough of Newham. The project benefits from ongoing advice and support from specialists at Historic England.
Alice Billing House sits at the heart of Stratford in East London. The news comes one year after Creative Land Trust opened the doors of the South Building under budget and on time, in collaboration with Newham Council, Purcell Architects and Grow Studios. It now provides permanent workspace for 25 artists.
– Aisha Mirza, Studio Holder, Alice Billing House
The £3.8 million of funding will breathe life back into the North Building and further improve the South Building, ensuring that the Grade II listed property is safely restored and taken off the Heritage at Risk register.
Its new resident artists will continue to build upon the inclusive and representative resource for Newham’s residents, offering activities in the new public spaces, including a pavilion and garden.
On completion in early 2027, Alice Billing House will provide additional affordable studios for up to 42 creatives, securing permanent space for local artists to thrive creatively and economically. It will also fund an ongoing outreach programme run by Grow Studios that centres around the arts and local heritage and engages extensively with the local community.
Conservation architecture is often about more than restoring the fabric of a building and can be instrumental in helping to shape the identity and spirit of a community. At Purcell we strongly believe that successful projects evolve out of a collaborative process with our clients and local communities, to understand how buildings can have a new relevance for wider and diverse audiences.
Nowhere is this spirit of physical, social, cultural, and environmental restoration encapsulated more clearly than in the reimagining of Alice Billings House.
It is an inspiring example of Local Authority and the Creative Land Trust coming together to provide much needed investment in local communities, and we are thoroughly enjoying working with the Trust in realising their vision for workspaces and affordable studios for artists and creatives to come together and grow with the building, continuing the story for the next generations.
– Stuart McLeod, Director (England – London and South), The National Lottery Heritage Fund
– Elizabeth Smith, Chairman, Purcell
