Award-Winning Redevelopment of Cultural Hub in Skipton
A redevelopment project has created an award-winning and accessible cultural hub in Skipton Town Hall, home to a restored historic concert hall, museum, gallery and education facility.
The ambition
The aim was to create a cultural hub to support:
- the wider success of the town centre by attracting visitors
- the evening economy with a performance venue that offers high quality cultural events for a wide audience
Skipton Town Hall is a large prominent building at the top of the High Street which had been largely redundant since 2012. Following an assessment of Craven Museum, the project aimed to address the critical risks to the collections and the level of physical and intellectual inaccessibility to the museum.
Condition surveys and a feasibility study were undertaken for the Concert Hall, proposing restoration and development into a performance space suitable for a 21st century audience.
The team put accessibility and inclusion at the heart of the project from the start. They engaged with Craven Disability Forum throughout, consulting them on RIBA stage 4 plans at the outset, road-testing the venue prior to reopening, and also consulting on a rebranding exercise.
They also took Dementia Friendly architecture guidance from the University of Stirling, and undertook a large amount of audience consultation and research.
Who made it happen
The Skipton High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) was a partnership scheme led by North Yorkshire Council and supported by Historic England. They worked with the following partners on this project:
- LDN Architects, Edinburgh (heritage specialist architects)
- RLB Project Management
Suppliers and collaborators included:
- Bermar Building – main contractor
- Quadriga – facade restoration
- Ornate Interiors– plaster ceiling restoration for Concert Hall
- University of Stirling – advice on designing Dementia-friendly spaces
Community partners included:
- Craven Disability Forum – accessibility consultants
- Brooklands Special School – accessibility consultants
- Bradford Autism Services – staff training (accessibility)
The case study details on this page were supplied by North Yorkshire Council.
Funding sources
Total budget £5,687,673 of which:
- Craven District Council £3,280,452
- National Lottery Heritage Fund £1,500,704
- Historic England £656,517
- Arts Council England £250,000
The results
The redevelopment project was carried out 2019 -21 and the Town Hall reopened in June 2021.
The cultural hub now offers a diverse programme combining dance, live music and orchestral performance, theatre, comedy and film, along with museum workshops, a formal education programme and clubs such as Arts Award and young archaeologists.
Annual visitor numbers have increased from about 60,000 to 155,000 following the redevelopment.
Restored and redeveloped cultural space
The redevelopment incorporated:
- A complete restructure of the existing 1972 museum extension
- Redesign of Craven Museum and the adjacent Exhibition Gallery
- Re-interpretation of museum collections
- Restoration of the historic Concert Hall
- Creation of a new extension to house the new Education Room, Backstage Rooms, Museum Store, Research Office, Finishing Kitchen and additional toilet facilities
- Restoration to the front facade, including stonework, door/entrance furniture, building name, flags & banners, and portico lighting
- Restoration and redevelopment of the listed K2 telephone kiosks, including artist commissions
- Redevelopment of public realm areas next to the building, with new planters and benches
Accessible and inclusive
Physical spaces have been designed to be as accessible as possible, with level access to most areas, wheelchair friendly stage level access, ramped access through power assisted doors at the side entrance, a platform lift, and Changing Places toilets.
The Concert Hall is a flexible space with demountable stage, so wheelchair spaces change depending on the demands of the event. Induction loops are available in the visitor centre and Concert Hall.
The venue is autism friendly. Staff can organise quiet spaces when required, and there are floor mats, bean bags, fidget spinners, stress balls, noise cancelling headphones and weighted blankets to support visitors. The venue also offers monthly relaxed museum sessions and Concert Hall performances aimed at visitors with additional sensory needs
The team worked with their local special school to user test and help shape the offer. The whole team have undertaken training in autism awareness and neurodiversity, and are constantly learning from user groups and visitor feedback.
Skipton Town Hall is a North Yorkshire Safe Place and also a member of the international Safe Space Alliance.
Award-winning cultural hub
The cultural hub has been acclaimed nationally:
Lessons learnt
- Seek the best expertise to gather up-to-date knowledge from people who know more than we do
- We all have different lived experience, so regular consultation with users and the wider community is the most important part of what the team here does. People are very happy to share thoughts and advice, and to user test what you want to offer.
- Take time to seek out specialists who understand how best to approach different aspects of historic building preservation/renovation
- Undertake as much training as possible and, as a team, think about how to apply your skills
- Build a healthy contingency into the budget for the inevitable unforeseen issues you will uncover. To do so, you may have to scale back your plans or phase the project to enable activities such as in-programme fundraising
Future plans
Accessibility is an ongoing action for us and will never be a task that we tick off our list. We will continue learning and gathering knowledge so we can welcome as many people as possible to our building
We are sharing what we learnt about the restoration and care of historic buildings with colleagues, to ensure that proactive maintenance plans can be developed across our new organisation.
We continue to grow and shape our programme, supporting opportunities for everyone to engage with heritage, culture and the arts. We actively target under-represented audiences and work with services across our council to explore possibilities.
Skipton Town Hall is now a true cultural hub, making a huge contribution to social outcomes for community and to the local economy.
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