Madeira Terraces turned down for Heritage Lottery Grant

The application for £5M funding, the maximum allowed,  submitted in March 2018 met the Heritage Lottery Fund's criteria but the Board of Trustees had to take decisions on more projects than the available budget would allow.

The council will now be talking urgently with Heritage Lottery Fund about a resubmission of the bid in August.

Decision makers noted the great heritage value of Madeira Terrace, and recognised the project’s considerable potential to support the wider regeneration of the area and bring economic benefit.  The grant would have allowed for the complete restoration of the first 60 of the 151 Madeira Terrace arches.  While this remains under discussion, the council will be moving ahead with the first three arches which were crowd funded in a successful city-backed campaign in 2017.

Griff Rhys Jones, President of the Victorian Society, who supported the council’s bid, said:  “It feels like a setback but these things take time.   This is a stage on the way and a good one.  We must not think it’s over.  It needs even more support.  We recognise there is more competition than ever out there and funds are dwindling. Lots of very successful and important conservation projects have not got there first time but they happened.  And few are more important than this.”

Community campaigner and raffle organiser Jax Atkins added: “It’s disappointing that HLF haven’t chosen to help with the terraces yet but we’re not giving up. There is such strong feeling in the community and so many people are determined to get the project underway.  We will not be waiting around.

“Our midsummer raffle on Saturday raised £9,000 and I’d like to thank everyone who bought tickets and donated prizes, we had over 800 in the end!  Every penny we raise sends a clear message to the council and to funding bodies that the people of Brighton are serious about saving Madeira Terrace so we can once again be proud of our beautiful heritage and the shop window of our city.”

Next steps for the Madeira Terrace project include appointing a design team and obtaining planning and listed building consent.  Work on the first three arches is expected to start towards the end of the year.

There are numerous ways to get involved:

• By making a donation on line. 
• By joining volunteers at the monthly community clean-ups – contact Jax Atkins. Madeira Terraces & Black Rock.
• Buying a specially brewed Mabiera beer.  Local brewery, Brighton Bier, is donating 25% of its profits from the sale of Mabiera to the restoration fund.

If you have fundraising ideas, please contact us: Madeira.Terrace@brighton-hove.gov.uk