Client: Southampton City Council

PSC worked alongside conservation architects Pritchard Architecture at 22 heritage assets managed by Southampton City Council.  The heritage sites ranged from medieval wine vaults through to God House Tower & Gate (Grade II listed), Canute’s Palace (Grade II Listed) and Lankester’s Vault (Grade II Listed).

Southampton City Council needed to understand the condition of its extensive range of heritage assets and at the same time wanted to explore alternative means of bringing the heritage assets back into active use.  This included  reviewing opportunities for space for creative industries, events and hospitality uses, as well as for arts and heritage interest along with small-scale studio uses.  This also included temporary ‘pop-up’ and meanwhile uses. As part of the study, PSC worked towards building the business case for repairs including identifying the means of funding and potential income generation from the assets.  PSC liaised closely with the Pritchard Architecture team on the condition and the repair cost profile for the heritage assets.  We carried out an initial filtering process to determine the priority sites for further evaluation as part of our work.  The key drivers are to minimise harm to the significance of the heritage asset and maximise the end value of the site in a sustainable way.  A further critical element was to consider uses which broadened visitor and community access.

We conducted a market review to provide a detailed understanding of the market place both in terms of the local community and tourism sector.  It was also important to keep abreast of trends in visitor levels post-COVID-19. We used a weighted scoring matrix to assess income generating uses at each site to help identify lead sites and opportunities.    We also reviewed precedent examples and provided a risk profile and approach to funding.

How can we help?
If you have any questions or would like to discuss our experience in heritage and museum business planning sector please don’t hesitate to call Richard Linington on 07866 742628 or email richard@pslplan.co.uk