Heritage Lab’s plans to revitalise Ramsgate’s historic buildings and boost local pride
Rob Kenyon, CEO of Heritage Lab, discusses the organisation’s work to boost Ramsgate’s economy and pride in place by bringing derelict buildings
Only a few years since it launched, Heritage Lab Ramsgate has become a significant force in the regeneration of Ramsgate. Through its own projects and supporting those of other organisations, it aims to protect the town’s derelict and unused historic buildings and bring them back into use for the local community.
“Essentially, it's all about trying to enhance local pride,” says founder and CEO Rob Kenyon. “And in doing so, create jobs and bring things back into fruition.”
The organisation had a faltering start in 2018, with an initial project at the Granville Hotel halted by the pandemic. However, funding raised did allow the fledgling organisation to carry out research on the local creative economy.
“Our hunch at the time was that there were lots of derelict or underused buildings and a burgeoning creative industry,” explains Rob. “Everyone talks about creatives in Margate, of course. But there also seemed to be a different creative scene in Ramsgate.”
That research showed there was indeed a growing creative industry in Ramsgate but there weren’t the necessary spaces available to support it. So, Heritage Lab Ramsgate launched in 2021 with a core plan to address that need.
Its first building, The Old Wine Warehouse in Charlotte Court, opened in 2025 and now houses the Ramsgate Works co-working space, the Ramsgate Arts Club bar and venue, and a branch of local cafe chain Giant Coffee.
Bringing the building back into use, says Rob, has seen increased use of Charlotte Court, more spending in the surrounding area, and reduced anti-social behaviour. And, he adds, it “hopefully acts as a catalyst for the next thing.”
Thinking of the “next thing” is key to Heritage Lab Ramsgate’s plans, he explains, as the intention from the outset has been to take on “multiple sites rather than just one building.” While the organisation is in “startup mode”, it is attempting to create a sustainable future where its properties can cover their costs and generate a surplus to fund the organisation’s ongoing work.
“We need to be in a situation where we’ve got probably five-ish properties depending on the size to be in that position,” Rob explains.
Rob moved to Ramsgate ten years ago after “falling in love” with the town. Prior to that, he had been living in Leeds where he worked on homelessness and addiction services in the public sector. Getting a job at Thanet District Council allowed him to relocate and started his journey in heritage projects, working on the regeneration of the Dreamland theme park in Margate.
“I came down here with bright eyes and lots of enthusiasm,” he says. “The Dreamland project was amazing and getting that over the line was brilliant.”
He also worked on other projects, including bringing the Turner Prize to Margate and the Conrad Shawcross Beacons project in Ramsgate, and was involved in getting Ramsgate listed as a Heritage Action Zone by Historic England. Gaining that status has contributed more recently to the town receiving multi-million pound Levelling Up and Pride in Place funding.
Despite this, “TDC was the first job that I’ve left not really feeling like I’ve done the job that I needed to do,” says Rob. And so launching Heritage Lab Ramsgate was in part prompted by “a feeling of unfinished business.”
“I like seeing change happen,” he states. “We’ve now paid about 150 different people and organisations in the local area, and that’s great to be able to do that. We’ve raised around £1.5 million so far, and that’s a fair chunk to start putting into the local economy. But we want to do lots more.”
The next project underway is a very different one; renovating the eight Art Deco shelters along Ramsgate’s East Cliff and making them available for a variety of uses. Inspired by a similar project in Hastings, Heritage Lab Ramsgate began to consider how the currently unused shelters might serve the community.
“There's just nothing there,” says Rob. “And yet there's such a footfall of people walking past.”
Heritage Lab Ramsgate put the question of what to use the spaces for to the public, garnering a massive response. “People loved the idea,” recalls Rob.
From that public outreach, people were asked to vote on the ideas put forward. After work to restore the shelters back to their original state and in collaboration with a number of partners, it’s now planned to install a cafe, bar, sauna, watersports shop and convert the remaining shelters into beach huts. It’s hoped the site will be partially up and running by this summer.
The kind of community engagement seen on the East Cliff project is “vital”, says Rob.
“That's definitely one of the things that I've taken from when I was working in the public section in Leeds,” he says. “Whether it's the NHS or local government there or academia, all the changes that I was involved in, we just involved people from the outset.”
A newer project already generating a lot of enthusiasm is a tentative proposal to convert the Marina car park, also on the East Cliff, back into an outdoor swimming pool.
Built in the 1930s, the Olympic-sized Marina Bathing Pool was a popular destination for decades. However, it was closed in 1975 due to structural issues and later filled in to become a car park. Currently owned by the council, Rob says that Heritage Lab Ramsgate has been in talks with a developer who has worked on similar projects about redeveloping the site as a swimming pool, hotel and rooftop bar.
A post on social media about the idea has gained tens of thousands of views since it went up last month with an overwhelmingly positive response from the public. While this is still very much an idea, the main reason for going public was to ensure that if the Council puts the site up for sale, explains Rob, it knows “the strength of feeling from the public” about what the site could become.
“It would be an amazing opportunity,” he goes on. “It would really help the generation of that entire area and it would be such a statement piece as well. People would come to Ramsgate because of that. We think it's really important to try and help drive greater tourism and footfall to that area.”
As well as working on its own projects, Heritage Lab Ramsgate works with other organisations. One such example is assisting Pie Factory Music in getting the building it operates out of, Ramsgate Youth Centre, listed as an Asset of Community Value. This status means that the community must have an opportunity to put forward bids for a building before it is made available on the open market.
When Kent County Council announced that it planned to sell the youth centre, gaining this status was the start of the process of Pie taking on the building itself. Being named an ACV, says Rob, “got them the breathing space to be able to start to put the arguments together for them trying to get the investment to take it site on.”
Andy Malt
While its focus is on Ramsgate, Heritage Lab Ramsgate is also working on a wider project across Thanet, having been chosen as the accountable body for the district’s bid to be named City of Culture in 2029 - the bid putting the district forward as Isle of Culture.
“I think we’ve got a good chance,” says Rob of the bid. “As far as we know, we’re the only bid that’s been put forward that’s been led by the community. So that’s a really strong message.”
For a small team, it’s a lot of work, but Rob’s enthusiasm for it is infectious. And with various other projects at differing stages, it seems to be paying off.
“Within four to five years, I would like to think that the organisation will be sustainable,” he says. “In the long term, hopefully we'll have enough properties to make a real difference to the transformation of the town, to be a critical mass of jobs, which is driving a lot more private investment to those areas.”
Heritage Lab Ramsgate is still very young, but there are other places around the country where this potential future can be seen.
“If I look at some of the organisations that are similar to ours in other parts of the country, the ones that have been going a long time have a large portfolio of properties. A lot of these organisations are employing dozens of people making a real difference directly.
“That's the sort of thing that we'd like to grow here,” he continues. “So that Ramsgate can once again have that real sense of pride in place that it clearly had 20, 30 years ago. I want to reinvigorate that.”
Find out more about Heritage Lab Ramsgate at www.heritagelab.org.uk
