AMT Public

Summary

Stamford Gateway is a project that has renovated two town centre squares to the highest quality as ‘Gateways’ to the town. The town partnership took the innovative step of running a national design competition to create sympathetic spaces with locally inspired artworks reflecting Stamford’s image as a traditional, historic market town.

Overview

Stamford is often cited as being ‘England’s finest stone town’ with its medieval and Georgian buildings. It has been a conservation area since 1967 and has over 600 listed buildings in its town centre. Two parts of the town, however, were identified as requiring attention – the Sheep Market and Red Lion Square – as over the years they had become unplanned, asymmetric spaces which tended to be taken over for car parking.

The Stamford Gateway project arose after consultations and an exhibition in 2000. Three further exhibitions, numerous meetings with groups and one-to-one consultations with shops and residents led to a consultation report setting out feedback from everyone involved. It was agreed that something needed to be done to transform the spaces and ensure that they were contributing positively to Stamford’s sense of place.

Stamford Vision sought advice from English Heritage and CABE to run a national design competition to create a new vision for the public spaces. Around 40 submissions were received and four were shortlisted, with monetary prizes for the winner and runners up.

The winning scheme is entirely hardscape and changed remarkably little during design development. The initial suggestion for a maypole and a water trough was altered as a result of public consultation. A contemporary response to the Eleanor Cross, which once stood in Stamford, was conceived as a beacon across the water meadows. A solid piece of timber with the place names of the route and the resting places where crosses were raised occupies the other space.

Fundamental to the project has been both the choice of materials for the spaces, in order to fit in with the rest of the town, and the role of art in creating something unique in the town. The project has taken over 5 years of sustained effort to come to fruition with the final works being completed in March 2009.

Need, purpose and community involvement

The public spaces involved in the project had lost their purpose in the town and were largely used for car parking. Gaining the support and input of the local community was key to ensuring that the spaces were brought back to life as integral parts of the town centre.

The project was first flagged on the agenda of a public meeting in 2000. Following further consultation, the Action Plan, Vision 2015, was born and by 2002 it had received overwhelming support.

Public consultation involved four separate manned exhibitions, several displays, meetings with numerous community groups and one-to-one meetings with local businesses and residents. The younger voices of the town were heard through outreach work with local schools and the college of further education. This age-group found the project inspired their interest in their town, and they also provided the project with hundreds of poems from local school children which have been incorporated into the paving. In addition local art students were able to learn stonemasonry skills from experts and to work on the theme for the project – the story of Queen Eleanor and the memorials built to honour her.

In the latter stages a liaison group was established between the town council and the town partnership to steer the project through the final months before the work started.

Innovation, learning points & transferability

Stamford Gateway is an example of a public realm project which shows how communities can effect change by learning to become an informed client and influencing every part of the process.

The partnership was anxious that the work should produce a new heritage worthy of the existing environment on display in the fine stone city of Stamford. In order to get the best design the partnership took the innovative step of running a national competition which received 40 entries. The partnership found that such a competition proved an excellent way of gaining inspiration for the redesign of public spaces.

The project has also striven to deliver best practice during its design and implementation stages. The town partnership worked closely with Lincolnshire County Council’s highways department and has developed new ways of working in a number of areas such as building the project team and running the tendering process. The project has been steered by a Governance Board comprised of the area highways manager, architect, partnership co-ordinator and an elected member from the district authority.

The partnership won ‘Client of the Year’ in the EMBCE Awards and the project received a commendation in the Civic Trust Awards.

Funding, future financial viability & outcomes

The funding of the project was a true partnership with contributions being both financial and in-kind. It was all raised through the efforts of the partnership:

Grants and direct financial contributions

• Lincolnshire County Council £450,000
• South Kesteven District Council £350,000
• The Welland SSP £350,000
• East Midlands Tourism £240,000
• Arts Council East Midlands £65,000
• Stamford Vision £20,000

In-kind donations
Materials: Castle Cement, Burghley Family Trust, Clipsham Quarry amounting to £30,000

Local businesses, educational establishments and local community groups gave time and other significant contributions.

In terms of outcomes, economic data is being collected through the Welland Benchmarking tool including footfall and business and visitor surveys. Informally, it is striking to see the numbers of local businesses surrounding the two public spaces that have upgraded their facades since the work has been completed. In addition the Chamber of Trade and others have used the spaces for speciality markets, art markets, concerts and other activities.

The spaces improve the overall appearance of the centre of the town and the site specific artworks provide something unique which can be used in marketing the town further afield.

Finally, the artwork strand of the project has developed artistic and craft skills within the local community and has been a great way to engage with young people, literally giving them a way of making their mark on the town.

Contact: Philip Sagar