We continue to report on plans to renovate the Clock House and re-purpose Pier Yard and there are positive signs of movement forward for 2023.
Thanet District Council, who are the Accountable Body for the Ramsgate Levelling UP Fund (LUF) have now appointed Aecom as the external project managers for the various elements of the Ramsgate Levelling Up Grant, for which a total of £19.8million has been allocated by the Government.
The Ramsgate element splits neatly into two parts. The first part is a group of Heritage related projects which includes The Clock House (Ramsgate Maritime Museum), Pier Yard (the creation of a new town square for Ramsgate) and the Smack Boys (a new niche hotel) opposite the Marina.
The second part consists of proposals to upgrade the Port of Ramsgate which we will report on in our next Newsletter.
The Ramsgate Society is working closely with TDC to deliver the Clock House and Pier Yard elements of the overall projects and we are pleased to report that an inaugural meeting with Aecom took place on Friday 13th January to review and discus the way forward bearing in mind that the Levelling Up Grant has to be spent by end march 2025 and there is a great deal to be done.
The Levelling Up monies will be used to renovate and repair the existing Grade 2* Listed Building to bring it into a suitable condition. The first step is to appoint a number of individual professional teams to work with Aecom to deliver the project e.g. architect, engineers, quantity surveyors, M&E consultants etc. before appointing a specialist contractor to carry out these essential works.
In addition to this we are working with TDC to submit a bid to the National Heritage Lottery Fund (NHLF) for a grant of £2.5m to extend the existing building and fit it out as a modern heritage centre which will tell the story of Ramsgate’s maritime history. The initial application to NHLF in 2022 was successful and we are about to proceed to Stage 2 which is due to be submitted in either May or September of this year. The deadline of March 2025 for the LUF does not apply to the NHLF Grant.
The Society has put together a Focus Group to work with TDC as the project progresses and the plan is to have regularly monthly meetings to keep things moving forward as quickly as possible.
Please click on this link to the original concept plan we prepared in 2016 which we are working with TDC to implement.
HKD Ramsgate Clock House Exhibition Concepts 2016
We will report on further progress in our monthly newsletters- so watch this space!
John Walker