£280k grant awarded to restore Luton's oldest hat factory

The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) has awarded the money for the restoration of Hat Works on Guildford Street.

The project will be overseen by The Culture Trust.

Marie Kirbyshaw, CEO of The Culture Trust, said: "We are delighted to receive vital funding from the Architectural Heritage Fund to help us repair and reuse the oldest hat factory in Luton in order to develop a new creative industry start-up space to grow skills and micro-businesses."

The Culture Trust is leading the emergence of a creative cluster in Luton by transforming buildings in the town's Hat District into vibrant workspaces for Luton's creative industries who might otherwise move their businesses to London.

Hat Works is the oldest remaining hat factory in Luton and a key structure in the town's industrial heritage. The last hat business closed in 2006 and the building has remained empty since.

The AHF states it is aware that Covid-19 has now compounded the huge challenges facing England's high streets and town centres.

Already in sharp decline due to online shopping and high running costs, the pandemic lockdown has driven down footfall and is likely to continue to do so.

Matthew Mckeague, CEO of the AHF, added: "This new round of Transforming Places grants is both timely and absolutely essential, supporting many recent recommendations, including those in the recently published Grimsey Review: Covid-19 Supplement for Town Centres.

"The AHF grants empower and finance those charities and social enterprises that are stepping up to facilitate change in their high streets and town centres by redesigning and diversifying the use of historic buildings, encouraging a brighter future for the towns of which they form a part."