Portsmouth charity: Priddy's Hard redevelopment vital for Gosport amid "enormous" demand for artist spaces

Hannah Prowse, chief executive of Portsmouth Historic Quarter, said it was “fabulous” that Arts Council England decided to issue a £600,000 grant to renovate Carpenter’s Yard. This is among £2.7m being invested in 10 different projects across the south west of England.

Ms Prowse told The News: “It’s the culmination of several years of work. There is a masterplan for Priddy’s Hard and getting a mixed use development site there for residential, commercial and business use, while giving something back to the community and making the most of the site for Gosport.

“This first phase creates affordable space for artists and creatives. We have key sites on both sides of the water, and we’ll use them to try and support artists and offer them shop frontage in the Historic Dockyard.” Work will commence to create nine affordable art studios, which will house various creative and cultural activities.

Ms Prowse said Gosport is in desperate need of such a scheme. “We identified a need very early on for affordable art space,” the charity official added. “When we tried to gauge demand, we had our hands bitten off, so there is enormous demand for this sort of space and we’re really happy the Arts Council chose to support us.

“We could already fill the space four times over and we haven’t started work yet.” Ms Prowse said a rigorous assessment process took place to secure the funding. The charity are stumping up £500,000 to go alongside the £600,000 government investment for this first phase of the masterplan. The historic workshops are going to be converted into nine art spaces, complete with solar panels, air source heat pumps, shared toilets and a communal kitchen.

“They have a real heritage beauty to them”, the chief executive added, “so we’ll change as little as possible to the historic fabric while fully insulating them and putting in renewable energy sources. This represents organic growth.

“The workshops are fairly run down but we already have four artists working there. We’ve started to build a community before the work is done. There's a huge footfall there, and a real desire for people to come and experience that space.

Phases two and three of the plans have been drawn up, but are subject to flood risk assessments. Ms Prowse thanked the planning team at Gosport Borough Council for making the project possible, and is looking for further investment. She added: “I’m very hopeful there is opportunity for further funding as it develops.”