The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project

Museums and Galleries

Visitor, Welcome and Interpretation Centres

Community and Social Engagement

Heritage and Listed Buildings

Landscaping

NLHF and ACE funded projects

Arts and Heritage

The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.

The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
Reuniting Charleston’s historic farmhouse and listed barns through a conservation-led project that delivers new public, exhibition and learning spaces for an internationally significant cultural site.

The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
The project will deliver a new building housing exhibition space, learning facilities and visitor welcome, and will also convert an Old Deanery building into a cafe and community space.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
The project will deliver a new building housing exhibition space, learning facilities and visitor welcome, and will also convert an Old Deanery building into a cafe and community space.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
The project will deliver a new building housing exhibition space, learning facilities and visitor welcome, and will also convert an Old Deanery building into a cafe and community space.
The Charleston Trust: Centenary Project
The project will deliver a new building housing exhibition space, learning facilities and visitor welcome, and will also convert an Old Deanery building into a cafe and community space.

Project Overview

Charleston Trust

Client

East Sussex Brighton

Location

Our Role

We were appointed to support the Charleston Trust in the delivery of this complex heritage and cultural project. Our role included managing statutory constraints, coordinating conservation-led design development and supporting programme and delivery strategies aligned with funding and operational requirements. We worked closely with the Trust and consultant team to balance conservation priorities with the need to adapt the site for public use and long-term sustainability.

Project Details:

Charleston Trust was founded to restore the Charleston House, which has ever since been run as a highly successful museum.

The Centenary project works included a new access lane to remove vehicles from the centre of the site and increased car park facilities, the restoration of the Grade II listed historic barns to provide a new auditorium and public spaces for the activity programme, and a new exhibition centre and collections store. The final phase of the project saw the reconstruction of an original granary barn which serves as an education studio.

Due to the location and historic importance of the site there were significant conditions placed on the development by the statutory authorities, and we had to apply for a Natural England Ecology Licence for both bats and dormice, and an ordinary watercourse license. The Trust receives no public funding, and we actively supported the Trust's need to fundraise at a late stage of the project, by programming works to suit funder requirements and supporting fundraising applications.

Funding:

The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Key Outcomes

Safeguarding of nationally significant Grade II listed barns through specialist conservation works

Sensitive adaptation of historic structures for public access and cultural use

Successful navigation of complex ecological and statutory constraints

Delivery strategy aligned with fundraising and operational realities

Enhanced facilities supporting Charleston’s cultural, learning and engagement ambitions

Related Project

St Georges Hall

The project will deliver a new building housing exhibition space, learning facilities and visitor welcome, and will also convert an Old Deanery building into a cafe and community space.

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