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Dawn Chorus: How the Lottery is protecting our heritage, David Hockney’s biggest exhibition yet, and Lewis Hamilton’s first day at Ferrari

James Fisher James Fisher

Plus a stunning Georgian home in Wiltshire and the daily quiz.

Saving Jumbo

A building in Colchester, Essex, affectionately known as Jumbo — the last intact listed water tower from a Golden Age of industrial water engineering — will benefit from an £8 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The award, which will see the tower of 1.2 million local bricks open as a heritage and events space, is one of seven, totalling £27 million, to be made this year to benefit our perhaps lesser-known treasures.

St Ives’s Palais de Danse, Cornwall, formerly a cinema, dance hall and Dame Barbara Hepworth’s studio, has been closed to the public for 65 years. Given to Tate by the artist’s family in 2015, there are hopes to make it an immersive re-creation of Hepworth’s workshop, alongside other creative spaces, with a £2.85 million award.

‘This brings us to two-thirds of our fundraising goal and marks a significant milestone in our journey to transform this historic building that, from 1961–75, was Barbara Hepworth’s studio, where she made some of her most ambitious large-scale works,’ explains Anne Barlow, director, Tate St Ives. ‘We are excited to be working towards reimagining the Palais de Danse as a vibrant heritage site that builds on Hepworth’s remarkable legacy and actively engages our local communities.’

Kingsley Hall in Bristol, pictured here in 1975, will host the youth charity 1625 Independent People after receiving £4.7 million for renovation works. Credit: Bristol Libraries

The Greek-Revivalist Old Royal High School, a landmark of Edinburgh’s Calton Hill that has been empty for 50 years, could use up to £5 million to become a National Centre for Music in hopes of attracting 290,000 visitors a year, and plans for the 1875 offices of Sheffield United Gas Light Company hit another melodious note with £4.68 million set aside to create Harmony Works, with practice and performance spaces for young musicians. It will be home to the Sheffield Music Academy and Sheffield Hub and a base for other organisations.

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Once a medieval marketplace and later a forum for social change, Bristol Old Market’s Grade II*-listed Kingsley Hall, built in 1706, will use £4.76 million to house youth homelessness charity 1625 Independent People. With £1.28 million, creative spaces will be made available in the former Marchwell Stables of the West Sussex County Asylum, later renamed Grayling-well Hospital, Chichester — the birthplace of art therapy; and work is already under way to reimagine Strand Cinema in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s last Art Deco picture house, with £768,000 from the pot.

‘It is wonderful to start the new year investing in projects that are saving heritage treasures across the UK. These exceptional buildings will be repurposed for the 21st century at the centre of communities and places,’ comments Eilish McGuinness, Heritage Fund chief executive.

Quiz of the Day

1) Dromophobia is a fear of what?

2) What were the artist L. S. Lowry’s first names?

3) In anatomy, nates are more commonly known as what?

4) Latten is an alloy of which two metals?

5) What is the world’s longest-running children’s TV show?

Hockney in Paris

The largest exhibition of David Hockney’s career will begin on April 9, it was announced yesterday, as the legendary artist is set to take over 11 rooms at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. More than 400 works will be on display for the duration of the exhibition, which runs until September 1, covering his career from 1955 to the present day.

‘This exhibition means an enormous amount because it is the largest exhibition I’ve ever had – 11 rooms in the Fondation Louis Vuitton,’ Mr Hockney said. ‘Some of the most recent paintings I’m working on now will be included in it, and I think it’s going to be very good.’

After Munch: Less is Known that People Think (2023) by David Hockney. Credit: Jonathan Wilkinson

Mr Hockney has been personally involved in curating the exhibition, alongside his partner and studio manager Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, and the focus will be on the past 25 years of his work. However, iconic earlier pieces such as a Portrait of My Father, A Bigger Splash and Portrait of An Artist (Pool with Two Figures) will also be included.

The exhibition will also be accompanied by a new illustrated book, published by Fondation Louis Vuitton and Thames & Hudson, with contributions from Suzanne Pagé, Sir Norman Rosenthal, Simon Schama and others.

12,000sq ft of Georgian glory in Wiltshire

When it comes to the biggest and best houses hitting the property market, few in the business are across their brief better than our very own Penny Churchill. Here, she takes a look at Sandridge Park, for sale for £6 million with Knight Frank.

In the footsteps of greatness

Credit: Ferrari/Andre Wagner. Styled by Eric McNeal

Yesterday, one of the world’s most famous people started work at an iconic institution where he will wear red. We love this picture of Lewis Hamilton, wearing a fantastic striped navy Ferragamo suit, taken outside Enzo Ferrari’s house in Maranello. This year he will aim to beat the record he holds with another famous Ferrari driver, Michael Schumacher, and win his 8th drivers championship. Good luck Lewis.

That’s all for today, we’ll be back tomorrow

Quiz answers

1) Crossing the road

2) Laurence Stephen

3) Buttocks

4) Copper and zinc

5) Blue Peter