Woodend Creative Workspace, Scarborough

Feasibility, Demand and Site Appraisal study carried out by ci:p in 2005 for Scarborough Borough Council, to establish the need for and shape of a new centre to support and develop the creative industries sector in the area. The project was energised in particular by Scarborough’s Renaissance Towns Strategy and its active and committed creative community. Following extensive planning, consultation and research, the resulting development is due to be completed in 2008.

Woodend Creative Workspace is located in the town’s former Natural History Museum, Wood End, previously the summer home of Edith Sitwell and family and a Grade II listed building on the Town’s glorious Crescent. The re-development of the site has completely refurbished the listed buildings and incorporated them into a new and distinctive workspace solution of the highest contemporary architectural quality, designed by Simon Gedye, formerly of Allen Tod Architecture. A main three-story extension lies in the footprint of the former walled garden to the rear of the building and includes a roof of flowering sedum. A further extension of workspaces has been added in the garden between the Sitwell Villa and the reconstructed folly, in the manner of a kitchen garden glasshouse, screened from plantation hill by the original garden wall.

The new centre houses Start on-site took less than 9 months after the initial feasibility study. ci:p and Allen Tod Architecture negotiated delivery of the scheme via Turner & Townsend Project Management. Scarborough Borough Council, ERDF Objective 2 and Yorkshire Forward provided funding for the £5m development.

ci:p continued to work on the project post feasibility assisting the Borough Council and sector partners in the Centres operational planning, the formation of a new Trust based management vehicle and the founding of a Creative Driver Partnership for the Town, a key partnership body set up to maximise the role Culture will play in the overall regeneration of the town and its future economy. ci:p then worked directly for the new Trust body as interim Centre Director, completing the final business plan, formulating the marketing plan, negotiating legal arrangements and managing the recruitment process for the permanent Centre Director post, concluded late 2007 with the appointment of Andrew Clay.