In a win for arts in Ealing, Cabinet has allocated £250,000 to restore and enhance Pitzhanger Manor-House and Gallery.

 

Ealing Council owns and manages the Grade 1 listed Pitzhanger Manor-House and Gallery which is open to the public as a historic house, a museum of Martinware pottery and a contemporary art gallery.   It is situated in Walpole Park, which is a registered Grade 2 listed historic park and garden.

 

Pitzhanger Manor-House and Gallery has a changing programme of exhibition and events, complemented by an on-site community and outreach education programme.  

 

Councillor Liz Brookes Cabinet member for Regeneration said: "This money will enable us to develop a comprehensive Conservation Plan which will be the foundation for restoring and enhancing this historic site.   It also puts us in a much stronger position for making bids for external funding."

 

Other projects funded will be a quinquennial* survey of the Manor-House and gardens; a condition survey of Perceval Lodge; conservation repairs to the Lodge, ornamental bridge and entrance arch; shell fit-out of the Lodge for new uses; floodlighting and signage of the buildings; and preparing a business case for providing an on-site café facility.

 

Initial repairs to parts of the site have already been carried out.   Vandalism that affected the condition of the bridge has been repaired and Perceval Lodge is now watertight and secure.

Councillor Brookes added: "I am delighted that Cabinet has endorsed a range of projects which will strengthen Pitzhanger Manor-House and Gallery's place as Ealing's flagship cultural venue for the whole community."

* Meaning "lasting for or recurring every five years." Someone at the Council has swallowed a dictionary, unless they always talk like that!

 

 

 

April 18th, 2005