Client Testimonials
We’re proud to work with local councils, heritage trusts, and design teams who share our commitment to quality, collaboration, and community value.
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral has been using Cragg Management for the last six years in order to deliver Lincoln Cathedral Connected, a £16.5m NLHF sponsored project that has delivered significant heritage conservation and landscaping work, improved the physical and intellectual access to the building as well as providing a new educational suite, retails outlet and new refectory space.
Cragg Management has been instrumental in enabling this work to take place within budget - allowing for Corona Virus - on time. The Cathedral has worked with a number of staff from Cragg Management and has found them all efficient, proactive, experienced, professional and always willing to tease out what can appear to be an intractable problem.
The Reverend Canon John Patrick, Subdean of Lincoln
Royal Academy of Dance
The Royal Academy of Dance has embarked on a major project with the construction of a brand new purpose built headquarters in Battersea. The project is a complex one and will provide the Academy with state-of-the-art facilities, which will become a new home for dance in the capital city. It is not an exaggeration to say that without the extraordinary support and help of Cragg Management, I do not believe we would have been able to deliver this project as successfully as will be the case. Nick Cragg and his colleagues have between them an encyclopaedic knowledge, wide experience and technical know-how which ensures their clients' interests are protected and promoted to an extraordinary degree.
The Royal Academy of Dance owes Cragg Management an enormous debt of gratitude and I bless the day we signed them up to guide us through this important project.
Luke Rittner, Chief Executive
The Photographers' Gallery
I am delighted to be able to provide a testimonial for Nick Cragg who was the Project Manager on our £6.5m reconstruction of The Photographers' Gallery on a tight site in London's Soho.
Nick worked with the Executive and Board for over 3 years managing the project. During that time we found that Nick was an extremely effective and reliable Project Manager, supporting the internal team with the benefit of his extensive professional skill and advice at all stages of the planning. His manner was collaborative - always providing us with a number of informed options to enable us to come to the right decisions.
When close to the end of the project (March 2012) our contractors went bankrupt, Nick provided calm and authoritative leadership to ensure we were able to complete the project in time for the public opening in May 2012.
We would have no hesitation in recommending his services. The building which he helped us to create is now enjoyed by over 230,000 visitors per year.
Brett Rogers OBE, Director
Tara Arts Theatre
The success of any building project depends on having a good Project Manager. So, I was both delighted and consider myself fortunate, to have secured the services of Cragg Management when leading on the renovation of Tara Theatre from 2012 to 2016.
Nick Cragg unfailingly provided an empathetic interface between my vision for Tara Theatre and the varying demands others had in bring it to life - from architects and contractors, to local authorities and funders. Any building project is fraught; Cragg Management, by assuming the burden of worry, made renovation for me an enjoyable and exciting experience.
Jatinder Verma MBE, Artistic Director
Crawley Museum
The appointment of Cragg Management Services as Project Managers for the Crawley Museum project was, and continues to be, ideal. The Crawley Museum Society members had no doubt at the interview that they were making the right choice and this has been borne out by Craggs’ management skills ever since.
Nick Cragg and Megan Scofield have worked closely with the disparate members of the team and have managed to bring order into chaos in a way that commands our admiration. Both have a firm grasp of the essentials and a skilful way in persuading the team members to work effectively towards the joint goal of achieving the museum’s move from the present premises to The Tree. Their work on the financial side has been exemplary and their wide range of contacts has been of great value in sorting out problems. They also have great ability in meetings where they can put across the problems and possible solutions with impressive clarity.
It gives me pleasure to put on record the debt that the Crawley Museum Society owes to Cragg Management and I hope very much that our working relationship will continue to a successful conclusion.
Helen Poole, Crawley Museum Society
Arundel Museum
We (Arundel Museum Society) initially approached Cragg Management in July 2009 to review our initial scheme designs for a new Museum in Arundel. They were subsequently appointed as Project Managers and Quantity Surveyors for the preparation and submission of both round 1 and round 2 funding applications to HLF both of which were successfully achieved. They were retained post round 2 award to then deliver the project which was completed successfully and opened to the public in July 2013. The budgets were extremely tight and they value engineered the design during the early stages of the project and maintained strict control over the project costs throughout the project to the point where we had completed the works to a high quality whilst retaining most of the contingencies which we were able to utilise on improving the activity / output elements of the project.
Cragg Management took full responsibility for managing every aspect of the project including the design team, the costs and quality, legal land agreements, appointments, contracts, funding compliance and condition discharge etc. All invoices and payments were made via them to designers, contractors and direct works consultants which enables these to be checked and verified at each stage of the delivery process.
We were very pleased that both Nick and Megan who attended the initial interview remained filly involved on the project throughout the period and indeed we are still in discussions with them over snagging items, further enhancements to the scheme, extension projects etc., They have always been available to deal rapidly and effectively with any query or concern on any aspect of the project (often out of hours) and have always dealt with these in a positive, effective and friendly straightforward manner. They have been instrumental in taking our vision for the museum at Arundel and turning into a reality and most importantly, one that is of a high quality and within budget. They acted as the Contract Administrators for the contract and were able to deal with any contract issues effectively and were able to manage any issues that arose without the need for disputes or ongoing arguments / disagreements.
When we selected Cragg Management to carry out the works we knew that they had a good track record of working in this sector and have extensive experience in arts and heritage projects. Nick and Megan worked together on this project and both demonstrated unquestionable knowledge, skill and expertise in this field. There was little that was raised that they were not familiar with and could deal with effectively. Their knowledge of HLF procedures and processes is exceptional and this is helped by Nick being an HLF monitor and knowing the requirements from the HLF perspective. Megan prepared all HLF drawdowns and submissions and would positively chase for information, invoices etc. to ensure that our cashflow was always well managed. Cragg Management produced and issued the regular online HLF progress reports.
We believe that both Nick and Megan carried out the project as if it was their project and acted in our interests at all times. They made sure that they were fully aware of our requirements and brief and often would propose actions that not only delivered our scheme as we envisaged but enhanced it. They never missed a submission, report deadline and would work whatever hours were required to achieve the end objectives. We had initial issues over the programme of the works on site following archaeological discoveries that were not foreseen on the WSI however they had already factored into the contractors programme a “standstill” period of 5 weeks in anticipation of potential discoveries and this mitigated the delays to the project.
Their management style if firm but flexible and whilst they are more than capable of dealing with disputes and arguments their approach is to avoid these and work as a team to deliver the project. We greatly valued this approach.
Our project was complicated with 2 separate land owners, leases and agreement to lease issues, flood plane concerns, planning issues and a contractor that was less than proactive. However, we managed to negotiate all of these issues and deliver a successful project.
I believe that one of the most beneficial aspects of our relationship with Cragg Management is that we have built up a trust and understanding with both Nick and Megan and the fact that they were actively involved on the project throughout the process (as they promised at the beginning) was an important feature of that. As an organisation we had limited experience of the complex construction, funding, planning process yet they led us though the project, protected our interests, explained in layman's terms the issues and solutions and completed a successful project that is now attracting significantly increased visitor numbers each year.
I, and Arundel Museum Society, would have no hesitation in recommending them for future heritage projects.
Michael Heathcote, Arundel Museum Society
Riverside Studios
Our project benefited hugely from the expertise, efficiency and flexibility of the team at Cragg Management.
Daniel Thurman, Development Officer, Riverside Studios
